The response of activists must be action!

The Committee for the Rescue and Development of 
Vieques has announed a moratorium on civil 
disobedience actions on the island which were 
being held in opposition to the U.$. Navy military 
bombings there. This moratorium was called on 
September 12 "in solidarity with victims of attack 
in Washington and NY." MIM disagrees that this is 
an expression of solidarity; real solidarity will 
come in the form of action against imperialism, 
the cause of all this violence, death and 
destruction. The Committee will hold peaceful 
legal protests if the Navy continues bombing.

The Committee also cites their fear for the lives 
of civil disobedients at this time of great 
tension, and this is a legitimate concern. The 
U.$. is stepping up militarism and likely to 
strike against any anti-imperialist activity. If 
they had not sent a letter to President Bush to 
"express our solidarity at this difficult momment 
for the United States of North America, after the 
terrorist acts carried out on Tuesday, 11 
September, 2001" MIM would consider the change 
from civil disobedience to legal actions a 
reasonable strategic move. But the United Snakes 
does not deserve solidarity from anti-imperialist 
activists. They deserve condemnation for 
militarism that destroys so many lives world-wide, 
creating countless enemies waiting for an 
opportunity to strike back.

This calling off of protests reflects the general 
sentiments among the Amerikan people who think 
these attacks on Amerika should be somehow outside 
of politics. In response to MIM posting a link to 
our analysis of the events on one internet 
discussion board someone wrote the following:

"Please! Is there someone else who will come 
forward to use this tragedy for their own 
political opportunism? For the next 12-24 hours, 
can we simply deal with our grief, continue the 
rescue and asess the losses without ambitious 
positioning from the Libertaians, socialists, 
Republicans, Democrats, et al?"

It is this pacifism of "dealing with grief" rather 
than acting against the causes of violence that 
reflects Amerikan individualism at its worst. The 
lives of victims will have been lost in vain if 
the status quo continues. If we know that 
thousands of people die every day as a result of 
the imperialist system that not only kills with 
overt violence but also with starvation and denied 
access to medical care, we should not sit by in 
silence mourning the deaths: we have a 
responsibility to act and fight the violence. 

The humyn species is inherently political. It was 
no political conspiracy that television announcers 
compared the bombing to Pearl Harbor. Nor was it a 
conspiracy when Japanese news websites asked the 
same night if Hiroshima was a war crime. The 
Amerikan tv announcers and politicians were simply 
looking for the last parallel loss of life by 
military acts within U.S. borders. Those believing 
themselves to be not political are in fact 
conservative-individualists, leaving the global 
status quo unchallenged.

The real political opportunism is privileged 
people in Amerika having the luxury to wallow in 
self-pity while thousands of people continue to 
die around the world. We prefer to give meaning to 
all deaths by seeking to improve life."


Notes: Committee for the Rescue and Development of 
Vieques, P.O. Box 1424    Vieques, puerto Rico 
0076, Tel (787) 741-0716  E Mail:  bieke@coqui.net