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 add 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 say
that it is the civilian population that will suffer  most --thousands will 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. They say that Washington must learn that its foreign policy is the source
of those conditions. By eliminating these conditions they eliminate terrorism and
many other problems.

The above presentation is is 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. This is an anti-communist position. It is clear
that if it is possible, under capitalism, to eliminate the conditions that breed
terrorism then there is no need for communism. It also falsely suggests 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, that 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 figleaf for
imperialism's attempt to enhance itself geopolitically in its relentless struggle to
both defend and advand its class interests. This is its undisguised morality. 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 Black Tuesday within the same (monetary) context. It cares no
more nor less about 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. Consequently it isleft with no
alternative but the use of force in its attempt to eliminate terrorism. Its use of
force has been largely successful in containing terrorism. Capitalism would hardly
continue to use force if was not successful. Clearly its success is a contradictory
succes. 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 at work.

The crucial point is that essentially terrorism is not a problem for capitalism.
Capitalism produces terrorism because it needs it. Its validity is viewed within a
functionalist logic --only this is its morality. Capitalism, in itself, is not
concerned if terrorism leads to the deaths of over 6000 people in  the US at the
hands of terrorism. Indeed sometimes it can even exploit 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 and left intelligentsia that a US
worker has more value than  a third world worker. 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 or increasing its
exploitation and oppression of the 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 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.

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.

Regards
Karl Carlile (Communist Global Group)
Be free to join our communism mailing list
at http://homepage.eircom.net/~kampf/

PS Please excuse the draft character of this piece.