Kate Randell: The US treatment of the 158 prisoners being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba has generated shock and revulsion around the world. Photographs showing the captives on their arrival, kneeling on rocky ground, with blacked-out goggles and their hands shackled behind their backs, conjure up images of the treatment meted out by Latin American dictatorships against their opponents.
Karl Carlile: The position of communists is that it is not their concern to develop a specific political supportive position concerning the incarceration and treatment of the prisoners being held in Guantanamo Bay. In the war between imperialism and the Taliban together with the Bin Laden gang the position of communists is that they opposed the offensive mounted by US imperialism against Afghanistan. But this opposition was not tantamount to support for the Taliban regime. The communist position is that the Taliban constituted a reactionary religious regime antagonistic to the interests of the working class. Consequently, while opposing imperialist aggression, we also opposed the Taliban regime. The Taliban and the Bin Laden gang promoted the conditions that facilitated US aggression against Afghanistan. Consequently they served as agents for imperialism. They have proved to be Washington's best ally.
Given this it is not the task of communism to fight for the rights of prisoners who form part of the forces of the religious reactionaries that promoted the continued backwardness of Afghanistan. Liberals and many radical leftists may make the Guantanomo Bay an issue in their vein attempts to civilise capitalism. In contrast the job of communism is much more profound --communist revolution.
Regards
Karl Carlile (Global Communist Group)
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