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December 2001  Brit/Imperialist Left Opportunism,  From the Easter Rebellion to Arab Resistance Struggles. —from Lalkar newspaper of the Indian Workers Association.  Easter Rebellion The "unreserved" condemnation by the left of those who carried out the acts of 11 September reminds us of the condemnation at the time of the Irish rebellion of Easter 1916 as a mere 'putsch', not only by the imperialist bourgeoisie but also by most of the working-class parties of Europe. The sole honour of defending the Easter Uprising belonged to V I Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Lenin derided those who condemned the Easter Uprising as nothing but a 'putsch', calling them the upholders of a "monstrously doctrinaire and pedantic opinion". "The term 'putsch'", said Lenin, "in its scientific sense, may be employed when the attempt at insurrection has revealed nothing but a circle of conspirators or stupid maniacs, and has aroused no sympathy among the masses." This, he said, was not the case insofar as the Irish rebellion was concerned, for the centuries-old Irish national liberation movement, "having passed through various stages and combinations of class interests, expressed itself, among other things, in a mass Irish National Congress in America, which called for Irish independence; it also expressed itself in street fighting conducted by a section of the urban petty bourgeoisie and a section of the workers after a long period of mass agitation, demonstrations, suppression of papers, etc. Whoever calls such a rebellion a 'putsch' is either a hardened reactionary, or a doctrinaire who is hopelessly incapable of envisaging a social revolution as a living phenomenon" (Lenin, Discussion on Self-Determination Summed up, Collected Works, Vol. 22). One can say, without in the least disparaging the strength and vitality of the Irish liberation movement of 1916, that the anti-imperialist national movement in the Arab lands has developed to an incomparably higher level. It does not merely express itself in mass congresses abroad (which, needless to say, it also does) or in demonstrations and street fighting; it expresses itself in a veritable armed struggle against imperialism and its stooges. The armed struggle of the Palestinian people and Lebanese people against Zionism, the armed attacks on US bases in Saudi Arabia (Dahran 1996) and on the US destroyer SS Cole in Aden harbour on 12 October 2000, are just the most significant examples of a much wider movement stretching across the entire Middle East. Those responsible for the events of 11 September were inseparably connected with, and an extension of, this powerful national movement of the Arab peoples, which is shaking the very foundations of imperialism. That is precisely why the actions of 11 September aroused great sympathy among the masses of the Middle East (and not of the Middle East alone), who greeted them with joy — not because they like the loss of life, nor because they do not share the suffering of the bereaved families whose loved ones died. Far from it, as the chief victims of imperialist aggression and brigandage, they know only too well the pain and suffering consequent upon the loss of one's near and dear, which with them is a daily occurrence. No, they greeted with jubilation the 11 September attacks because through these attacks, the weak, the meek and the wretched of the earth had struck back at US imperialism, which has for nearly a century acted in the capacity of a counter-revolutionary gendarme and executioner of freedom all over the world. The spectacle of the burning Pentagon, from where US imperialism daily plans its aggression against other peoples, the sight of the crumbling twin towers of the WTC, from where imperialist financial manipulators and capitalist swindlers pan their robbery of the working class and the oppressed people, which results in the deaths of 13 million children a year through starvation (one child every 2 seconds), must have appeared like a godsend and manna from heaven. Let it be said in passing that "The twin 110-floor towers of New York's World Trade Center loomed over New York's financial district as icons of the power of American capitalism". They housed the offices of some of the biggest monopoly capitalist corporations: "The largest tenant in the complex was Morgan Stanley, the investment bank, which occupied 50 floors, mostly with its brokerage operations. Other tenants included the Thomson Corporation, the publishing group, Cantor Fitzgerald, the brokerage firm, AFX news, the financial news wire, Bank of America, Credit Suisse First Boston and Deutsche Bank" (Financial Times, 12 September 2001). Contrary to the assertions of the 'left', overwhelmingly "the hapless victims of the attack were bankers, stockbrokers and management consultants" (Observer, 30 September 2001). In defending the Easter Uprising in Ireland, Lenin made this penetrating observation: "A blow delivered against the power of the English imperialist bourgeoisie by a rebellion in Ireland is a hundred times more significant politically than a blow of equal force delivered in Asia or in Africa" (ibid). Besides humbling US power, through reducing to rubble the icons of US military and economic power and throwing into complete disarray the entire functioning of the US state machinery for a couple of days, they bring home to the masses in the US the truth that their security is indivisible from the security of the oppressed peoples, constituting three-quarters of humanity; that US imperialism, for all its might, its military expenditure of more than $300 billion a year, with its plans to build a National Missile Defence so as to make itself invulnerable, remains highly vulnerable and cannot defend its population; that its gargantuan military might exists for no other purpose than to defend US finance capital — the geniuses of financial manipulation and suchlike swindlers — through the suppression, if need be, of the working class at home and of the oppressed people abroad. There are signs, if small, that the American people have been jolted into thinking of the linkages between their security and that of peoples oppressed, occupied, exploited and humiliated by their own ruling class. It is a measure of the shameful bankruptcy of the 'left' in all the imperialist countries, of its superstitious reverence for bourgeois prejudices, which in some cases boil down to the mercenary defence of imperialism, that it cannot see these events in this light and feels compelled mindlessly to condemn the actions of 11 September unreservedly. Page updated 17 Aug 2008 Ireland's OWN Logo by Eamann Website Design and Celtic Background by Míchealín Daugherty Copyright © 2008 Ireland's OWN All Rights Reserved.