Socialist Alternative Suggests New Imperatives

To the Editors:

I would like to condemn acts of terrorism in the strongest possible way, from the perspective of someone who has been protesting and organizing against imperialism and corporate globalization for years. First of all thousands of innocent workers were killed or hurt or lost loved ones. That is something that no one should tolerate. But that is just the beginning. Any terrorist attack gives the right wing of this country the opportunity to create a new wave of pain and suffering. Racism against Arab Americans and Muslims has skyrocketed. In NY there are mobs of up to 200 people that have pulled Arab cab drivers out of their cabs and beat them up. Mosques around the country have been surrounded by crowds of over 1000 people hurling rocks. In Cleveland someone tried to firebomb a Sikh temple. Racist remarks are even being heard in Oberlin. I think we must rise up as a community to say that these things are unacceptable.
Also Bush has just been unanimously granted 40 billion dollars to bomb the piss out of whatever scapegoat he can find. That will probably mean the death of another several thousand innocent people. Again we must all show our opposition. That is why the campaign against racism and war (caraw) is organizing events this week in conjunction with Student Senate. On Monday there will be a rally in Wilder at noon against racism and war, and on Saturday there will be another in town. Also Tuesday-Friday there will be discussions on all of these issues.
Every student organization, every faculty member and the president’s office should all endorse and build these for events. I understand that many people believe that now is a time for mourning, not a time for politics. I understand the emotions that would lead someone to think that, but I hope that I have demonstrated that we cannot afford to delay politics even for a moment.
I would now like to make an appeal to the anti-corporate globalization movement. The time has come to change gears. Protesting the meetings of the IMF and the WTO are a thing of the past. Those institutions probably won’t even hold any more public meetings in accessible places ever again. Also consciousness in this country has shifted. Away from globalization and towards terrorism, racism and war. Someone misunderstood me the other day and thought that I wanted to hitchhike the IMF protest onto the questions of terrorism, racism and war. I want the opposite. It is time for the form of the anti-corporate globalization movement to be altered by the social issues that are in people’s consciousness today. It must transform itself into a movement against racism and war. And these are really the same issues, because it is only out of the desperation of a world torn by poverty that people could do something like blow up themselves and other people.

–Ted Virdone
College senior
Socialist Alternative