The terror of terrorism

 

Ignorant of social forces, many people have no answers for today’s social problems. They see or feel the effects of something they have no understanding of, and they take refuge in conspiracy theories involving the “Deep State ”, the “ Illuminati”,  “The Protocols of Zion” and other mystifications. The sheer mass of genuine problems is too complex when approached from the “pragmatic”  philosophy of capitalism. A solution to the multiple ills of a social system is to be found in a social act. That act can be performed only by a social class. And the sole class capable today of revolution to a better society is the working class. This is no idle assertion. It follows from the fact that industrialised, urbanised globalism is totally integrated—no part independent and all parts interdependent upon one another. Interdependence follows from the present productive organisation of society. The cooperation needed on the assembly line, between all points of production, distribution and consumption, compels society to act harmoniously if it is to act successfully.

 

Today capitalism is a worn-out, regressive social system. It operates for the benefit of a tiny, owning class at the expense of a large labouring class. The social situation is one that demands revolution because all alterations and reforms for the better operation of capitalism continuously fail to benefit the majority of society. The cooperation that production demands are the material condition that prods the working class to take, hold and operate industry on its own behalf. In this way alone can society become a cooperative commonwealth free from the conditions now giving rise to all social evils that capitalism breeds and which fester in the modern world. Do not neglect nor ignore the fact that capitalism is a politically, as well as an economically, repressive system. Effective action for the construction of the cooperative commonwealth of socialism must be taken in both the political and economic fields. 

 

 Socialist Party members deplore the wanton massacre of innocent men, women and children. We denounce any individual or group who perpetrated those despicable terrorist deeds and condemn whatever perverted motive prompted them to commit them. There is and can be no justification for such barbarous crimes. We grieve for the working men and women who are robbed of their lives. 

We grieve for the children, for those who died, for those who lost parents, and for those who must live forever scarred. Those who perpetrated such unspeakable deeds and inflicted so much suffering have damned their cause in the hearts and minds of every compassionate human being.

 

At the same time, the Socialist Party abhors the war-mongering and opportunistic politicians bent on mindless demands to shed the blood of even more innocent men, women and children in far-off lands. We are repulsed by the hypocrisy of those political leaders who wave the flag and invoke the cause of “freedom” for a “war against terror” even as they move to undermine or abrogate the constitutionally guaranteed rights of the world’s people. Terrorism itself isn’t a country or even a cause. It is a method, a means to an end, a tactic employed in pursuit of some goal. Terrorism is not something that can be tracked down, flushed out of its lair and eradicated. To end terrorism it is essential that the motivation that prompted men and women to commit the heinous acts. The roots of terrorism in the world will be found embedded in a social system that bears terrorism as one of its fruits. Rooting out terrorism, whether perpetrated by a political state armed with sophisticated weapons or by some sect of self-appointed avengers, will take much more.