In the rubble and debris that was once the World Trade Center, rescue and recovery efforts continue. A handful of firefighters and police who were on the scene and were buried alive when the buildings collapsed have been rescued. There is little hope for the thousands of others (estimates range from 5,000 - 50,000) who were in the buildings when they collapsed. Of course, all those aboard the airplanes were killed on impact. Yesterday, I saw many office workers, covered in dust and smoke, walk northwards -- stunned and shaken -- out of lower Manhattan. Throughout the City -- and in many other places of the world, I suspect -- small groups of strangers meet and exchange views (mostly shock and disbelief). Despite this, there was no real panic. Indeed, there is an eerie kind of calm here. It is possible now to get out of Manhattan but it is close to impossible to get into the borough -- especially by car. Police and army troops are at just about every corner here directing traffic. All businesses below 14 St are closed today and unless you are a resident or an emergency worker, admittance is denied. The clouds of (toxic) smoke that filled the sky over lower Manhattan (and were blown into Brooklyn by the prevailing winds) have diminished. Public schools are closed. Wall Street and the financial markets are closed and it is not known now when they will re-open. (NB to listmembers from NYC: it is still hard for people to call over the phone into NYC. If you haven't called loved ones to let them know you are OK, please do so.) What are the likely consequences? Here's my list: 1) increased repression, especially against Arabs and Palestinians, in the US. For the time being, the "Bill of Rights" will go out the window in the nationalist hysteria that has swept across the US. This means increased repression against the US Left and anti-imperialist movements here. 2) Bush will get funding approved for his multi- trillion (?) dollar "Star War" plan. 3) People will rally around the flag and there will be a growth of nationalism here -- which can only mean bad things for workers here and internationally. 4) The US and world capitalist economies will slip further and longer into an economic slump. 5) The US will bomb one or more countries in the world (irrespective of the facts). [NB:A little while ago, a former US Secretary of State who was interviewed on "ABC News", mentioned the possibility of using NUCLEAR WEAPONS in retaliation!!!] All of these are very significant negative consequences. Putting aside the issue of the attack on the Pentagon (which I see as a legitimate war target), what did the attack on the WTC accomplish? Some anarchist friends of mine *cheered* when they heard about (and in some cases, saw) the attack! What is there, though, to cheer about? The terrorists when all is said and done destroyed a *symbol* of US capitalism. Yet, that's all it really was -- a symbol. Indeed, there were other 'lower-profile' targets nearby, such as the Federal Reserve Bank of NY, which were more important in real terms for the financial and economic system in the US. Indeed, no one believes that the loss of the WTC will profoundly disrupt over the long-term the logistics of financial markets in the US. And what of the thousands of people killed? Most of them were office workers. No doubt, a lot of other workers perished as well who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time (subway and PATH lines were running directly below the WTC). While we might be able to understand the frustration of people around the world who are victims of US imperialism, terrorism is not the answer! Underlying all terrorists movements is an *elitism*: the belief that a small group of individuals can 'scare' the powers that be into changing policy. What is really needed, though, are *mass movements of the working class*. It is arrogance in the extreme for a small group to decide to blow up a building with an indifference to the suffering that this will mean for potentially millions of workers internationally. It is, of course, easier to be a terrorist than to engage in the serious and hard work of building revolutionary movements and parties. Yet, the latter (while often less dramatic and more 'hum-drum') is what is required. Only the working class can liberate the world! In solidarity, Jerry
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