This is being circulated for informational purposes and I do not claim that this is an official version. Any translation errors are my own.
Translations from other anarcho-syndicalist's may follow shortly.
In solidarity, Mitch, personal capacity) (Workers Solidarity
Alliance, US, wsany@hotmail.com)
The United States and Great Britain are preparing a long-lasting war of 5 to 10 years against terrorism, as stated in The Times of September, 20. The plan is called "Noble Eagle" and contains all elements of the NATO's new strategic concept (which consists of) having mobile military units defending "Western" interests all around the globe and of having a "total defense" which closely vindicates and integrates political, economic and military interests.
Today, United States dominates the military, economic, technological and cultural world power, so we think it is important to analyze the economic interests behind the military action. The Secretariat of the IWA wrote the following on occasion of the 1 of May celebrations:
"One of the USA principal objectives is to manipulate as well as to accommodate the countries that reach from the Baltic States, Poland, passing through Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkan region, Turkey, the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus, the former Soviet Republics, Central Asia to Xinjian and Tibet. This they do in order to reduce and undermine the European, Russian and Southeast Asian ambitions and to gain control of the vast natural and energy resources."
Just as the United States took advantage of Iraq's invasion in Kuwait to reach the secondary goal of placing US troops in Saudi Arabia, we must now look for the real motives when the US are going to seek revenge for the attacks of September 11. In this context we must look at the UNOCAL company, based in California. This company has had contacts with the Taliban regime until recently, but it was not able to reach an agreement on a pipeline that should run from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to India. This pipeline was to supply oil and gas to the growing energy market in Asia and would have put UNOCAL in a dominant position. One member of the board of directors of UNOCAL is the former Secretary of State Alexander Haig. Alexander Haig is also a member of Military Professional Resources Inc. (MPRI), a company created by American generals which were employed by Croatia in the Krajina attack against the Serbian troops in Western Bosnia and as advisors in Colombia. It is very likely that the US military actions will back the US economic interests being the objective that of having Afghanistan dominated by the US and creating a stable and pro-US Pakistan.
The development in Pakistan is vital: the traditionally pro-US military forces in Pakistan don't have any other option but to cooperate with the United Sates. They have also asked for the waiver of a substantial part of Pakistan's debt and for the end of all sanctions. An open US presence in Pakistan may cause a "fundamentalist" revolt in Pakistan and other countries in this region, especially in Tajikistan and could help the pro-Taliban forces to get access to nuclear weapons.
Russia, as the US, has an interest in fighting the "fundamentalists". In Chechenia, they took advantage of this fight, violating and assassinating people, only to obtain a strong position for Russian interests. Despite the promise of cooperation with the US, Russia is highly critical of the US¥ growing presence in Central Asia. US soldiers have held exercises with troops from Kazakstan and Uzbekistan through the so-called "Peace Association". The Northern Alliance that fights the Talibans in Northern Afghanistan has been supported by Russia and Iran, but may now receive support from the US. A "new" Afghanistan may give the US a strong position in Central Asia and turn into a new challenge to Russia.
The world is now waiting for the next steps the US and the NATO will take as revenge for the terrorist attack of Tuesday, September 11. These attacks are, as Noam Chomsky has pointed out during an interview with Radio B92 in Belgrade, quite new in the world affairs, not for their dimension or nature, but for their objective. For the US, it is the first time since the War of 1812 that their territory has been attacked. Terror has now been globalized and extended to the US and may reach Europe.
The leading countries in the European Union, with their centuries old tradition of violence, have joined forced with the US. On Thursday, September 20, the European Union decided in Brussels to take hard measures against terrorism. These laws, which will by applied in the different member countries, will be broadly formulated as to permit their usage against demonstrators, political strikes and, in general, against anyone who wants to change the political and economic order.
The Secretariat of the IWA therefore asks all IWA sections and all Friends of the IWA to exchange information and to conduct actions. Capitalism is a self-propelled machine that produces human and ecological misery, child exploitation, unemployment, fascism and wars. The IWA, as the follow-up organization of the First International, takes up its antimilitarist tradition, calls for a boycott of weapon production and proposes a general strike against the war.
Our response is not terror, but a coordinated and strengthened work for the self-emancipation of the workers!
IWA Secretariat Oslo, Norway