Stop the War At Home and Abroad

Today, we face new challenges to our search for peace. The interim government of Afghanistan is falling into civil war. The \"War on Terrorism\" has become a slick marketing tool to try and sell us the expansion of the American military machine. Troops are being stationed in the Philippines to take up �advisory positions.� U.S soldiers are being deployed to Colombia to combat the people�s growing resistance movement. There is chilling talk about resuming air strikes of Iraq.

Today, we face new challenges to our search for peace. The interim government of Afghanistan is falling into civil war. The \"War on Terrorism\" has become a slick marketing tool to try and sell us the expansion of the American military machine. Troops are being stationed in the Philippines to take up �advisory positions.� U.S soldiers are being deployed to Colombia to combat the people�s growing resistance movement. There is chilling talk about resuming air strikes of Iraq.

And the war at home is going forward. Hundreds of immigrants are being detained under no charges, and many of their names have yet to be released to the public. The USA PATRIOT Act has crippled the ability to question the actions of our government. Freedom of the press is being curtailed as never before.

The horrors of September 11 have, in the worst way, advanced a cycle of violence that has robbed humanity for the greater part of what is called our \"civilized\" history. I have seen the footage so many times, each time with a greater pain, and a greater dedication to peace. I realize my responsibility as a resident of this city, and as a resident of the world�s greatest superpower to end the cycle of violence.

The World Trade Center towers were great symbols, representing everything from economic opportunity to unparalleled exploitation. I used to think of them as nice buildings in the wrong hands. Whatever the case, it has been weeks since the day they were reduced to rubble. The war in Afghanistan is coming to a tragic end, further advancing the cycle of violence.

It is not difficult to understand how the suicide attacks effected the working people. They were not aimed at the creators of the foreign policy, but against the victims of it�s profit driven internal policy. 24 maintenance workers from Local 32BJ, 400 communication workers, 350 firefighters, 25 flight attendants, 47 hotel and restaurant workers, 2 EMS workers, 4 plumbers, 63 police officers, 60 SEIU public employees, all lost. John Sweeney, the president of the AFL-CIO estimated a total of 1,000 trade unionists were lost in the tragedy.

In the days following the loss, the most basic look at the communities in New York City would have shown among our people, the existence of a true compassion and an understanding of the necessity of unity. We have underestimated and neglected these feelings for too long. This new found camaraderie is not the work of ruling class propaganda, but of people who have a profound understanding of surviving in crisis.

The question of unity also brings up the issue of the American flag. Is it the flag being pushed in the street by the vendors, or the one being waved by the stockholder in the arms industry, or the one clamped on in fear by the immigrant community?

We should not perceive the symbol of our flag to be an enemy to our cause. Yes, it must be a constant goal of our movement to project the common interests of our struggles with those of other people of the world. Any unity of our people will be built on the quest for the solution of our immediate problem. Peace is not a foreign cause that we volunteer for from time to time. Peace is the battle for schools, not bombs, of jobs, not soldiers, for life, not death.

I remember standing in Union Square, after September 11, holding a candle with watery eyes, seeing our city held together by our love for human life. This is the face of our people, and this is our call to justice. This is the base of our peace movement.

On September 25, only two weeks after the attacks, our House of Representatives approved $343 billion for the Pentagon budget, including $7.9 billion for a \"National Missile Defense\" fund. Then, Bush�s new budget proposal set aside fifty billion more dollars in the name of �national defense.� Martin Luther King said \"The bombs that are dropping on Vietnam explode here in joblessness, education, health care.\" I can here those explosions from Harlem and Washington Heights.

Acts of terrorism have always been carried out by groups or individuals that have no roots in any mass movement, and no program that is capable of a greater good. We know that real change can not be rooted in hate and vengeance, but rather in the great feeings of love alluded to by Che Guevera They are visions of better days based on the solutions to problems of our day, and this vision has a home in all our communities.

There are huge steps toward this end being made all over the country. These truly patriotic actions are being led by networks and coalitions of labor organizations, students, peace activists, and great numbers of people who have never been active before. This is the type of unity that crushed fascism in the last century, and it will be the movement to crush exploitation today.

We must mourn those who lost their lives at the World Trade Center, but we also must oppose anti-Arab and anti-Islamic sentiment. Military intervention and war is not the answer. We must seek global justice as a means to peace.

This is not the time to disregard the achievements that movements of the oppressed have made in our country, or the world. Today, we are not only enjoying and defending those victories of the people, but we are building upon them and demanding more. This struggle can not be distorted or belittled.

Still, in the early months of our millennium, our sights are set on just peace. As we give our passionate dedication towards making true freedom shine, we are carrying the torch once held by Angela Davis, Assata Shakur and many others. It is we, the youth of America, who have always held the most profound vision of peace and justice.


Estevan Nembhard is a member of the National Council of the YCL, and is chair of the Uptown New York YCL Club.

This speech was delivered to New York City�s Uptown YCL Club on October 18th, 2001. It is an early analysis of the connection between the war at home and the war abroad.