Terrorism and Leftism
Karl Carlile
The prevalent view within left liberal to radical left
circles is that the Mujahadeen and later the Taliban
including Bin Laden are a product of the CIA, Pakistani ISI
and Saudia Arabia. These facts are used to morally discredit
Washington and its so called war against terrorism. They
also suggest that a large scale intensive war involving bombing
will do more harm than good. It will, they argue, lead to
further terrorism and even increase regional and perhaps
even global instability. They claim that the civilian
population will suffer most --thousands to die from
bombs, guns, starvation and disease. They argue that instead
of seeking revenge through mass terror Washington should
seek to identify the conditions that determine
terrorism. Washington, they say, must learn that its
foreign policy is the source of this terrorism. By
eliminating these conditions they eliminate terrorism and
many other problems.
The above leftist/liberal conception constitutes a rather utopian notion of
capitalism. It suggests that imperialism can adopt a
rational procedure that will lead to the elimination of
terrorism within capitalist society. Such is an
anti-communist position. It is clear that if it is possible,
under capitalism, to eliminate the conditions that breed
terrorism then communism is superfluous and not a historical necessity. It also
implies that terrorism is a problem for capitalism
and that it will benefit from terrorism's demise.
This utopian perception also suggests that the issue of
terrorism is a moral question as opposed to a political
question --a class question. It is a perception that tacitly
suggests that US imperialism's war against terrorism is
morally questionable given that it created the very
terrorist leader, Bin Laden, it now wants to
eliminate.
This argument of liberal and left intellectuals
ignores the significant fact that the spurious war against
terrorism is merely a hegemonic figleaf for imperialism's attempt to
enhance itself geopolitically in its relentless struggle to
both defend and advance its class interests. The latter is the essential morality underlying its policies.
In other words it possesses no real
concerns over the morality of terrorism. It merely deploys
moral ideology as a means of disguising its real aims and
the politics that flow from them. It will create an Osama
Bin Laden today and eliminate one tomorrow. Its actions
merely exist in the context of money relations --the
maximisation of profit. It exploits Sebtember 11th within the
same (monetary) context. It cares no more nor less about the conduct of a
Bin Laden than it does about this or that fireman killed in
the collapse of the WTC skyscraper. Each is viewed within
the perspective of exploitation, profit and its geopolitical
conditions.
Capitalism, as a system of exploitation and oppression,
inevitably produces the conditions that lead to
terrorism. Consequently to eliminate the conditions that
breed terrorism is to eliminate capitalism. Capitalism is
the condition that leads to terrorism. Capitalism cannot
eliminate itself.
Since it will not eliminate itself it is left with no alternative
but the use of force in its attempt to eliminate
terrorism. Its use of force is somewhat successful in
containing terrorism. If it were not Washignton would not use it.
Clearly its limited success has a contradictory character. While
it contains terrorism it also
breeds it. The genesis of Taliban constitutes the
concentrated essence of that contradiction. While capitalism
wilfully created the Taliban it now seeks to contain it and
even crush it. Even if it succeeds in this it will need
future Talibans of one sort or another. A similar situation
can repeat itself again. This is in the nature of
capitalism. Capitalism both creates and destroys
terrorism. This is capitalism inherently contradictory
character --its albatross.
The crucial point is that terrorism is not essentially a
problem for capitalism. Capitalism produces terrorism
because it needs it. Its validity is viewed within a
functionalist logic -- this is its morality. Capitalism,
in itself, is not concerned if terrorism is responsible for the deaths
of over 6000 people in the US. Indeed sometimes it exploits such
atrocities. These deceased mean no more to it than the
deaths of a similar number in any third world country. This
is why the argument from the liberal/left intelligentsia
that a US worker has more value than a third world
worker is false. To capitalism one is of no more significance than
the other --their significance is their
insignificance. Capitalism is only concerned about them from
the standpoint of its exploitation of their labour
power. Any stronger response by the US bourgeoisie
concerning US deaths is merely an appearance designed to
deceive in the interests of maintaining and increasing its
exploitation and oppression of the world working class.
Capitalism needs terrorism to obstruct the development of a
communist working class that can effectively challenge and
overthrow capitalist relations. Terrorism is an expression
of the absence of communism within the working class. As
communism grows within the working class terrorism will tend to
correspondingly diminishes. However under conditions of a
growing communist movement the bourgeoisie deliberately
fosters terrorism as a device to disarm and undermine the
growing communist movement. Consequently Bush's declaration
of war on terrorism is a war that he cannot and does not
want to win. If anything what Washington seeks is the
control of terrorism in the interests of capital. His politics has
been the protection of Washington regulatated terrorism by
attacking terrorism antagonistic to his imperialist interests.
To conclude: The only way terrorism can be eliminated is by
replacing capitalist social relations with communist
ones. This means social revolution. I care about the
thousands of workers killed and injured in Afghanistan and
Manhattan. This is why I am a communist.