DNA (Washington) August 7
Who’s Side are You on?
The US Public Cannot Afford to Remain Indifferent
by Daniel Andrews
The government, the military, business, and the media
would
all have us think that the people of Mexico have had
their will
perverted by maniacal terrorists whose ultimate intent
is to invade
this country and destroy us all. Our leaders
hold that these
terrorists intend to wipe out freedom and democracy
wherever
they find it. They argue that these communist
terrorists must be
sought out and destroyed before they can attack us.
Yet these
powerful leaders make one basic error in supposition,
projecting--
as they do--their personal interests onto all of humanity.
The
US is not necessarily synonymous with us.
10% of the population controls 80% of the wealth in
this country.
The interests of that ruling 10% cannot be the same
as the interests
of the other 90%. Back in the 1980’s and early
1990’s, capitalism
won its war against authoritarian communism.
To the victor went
the spoils, and from that day on the world has become
a place of
increasing pollution, squalor, and destitution, as
capitalism has
sought to exploit labor and resources so as to extract
maximum
profit. By the turn of the century, agriculture
collapsed and the
working poor began to starve in massive numbers.
In the US, companies went on moving their shops and
trimming their
work forces while those who remained worked longer
hours for little
money. The average worker found her- or himself
unable to put food
on the table. Between inadequate pay and over-taxation,
there was
nothing left to live upon. People became desperate
and desperation
led to bold action. The past fifteen years have
seen some major
strikes in the renewed war between employers and workers.
The
business unions have had their hands tied in all of
this. Wildcat strikes
pit the workers’ solidarity against the employers’
might. The
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) has risen up
from its ashes
to play a prominent role in many of these workers’
actions. The
working people of this country are waking up, and
they are angry
enough to demand a complete change. There have
been some
workplace seizures, though none of them have resulted
in
permanent worker’s collectives. Yet a surprising
number of
the small businesses which have managed to survive
did so
because they evolved into worker’s collectives.
It is becoming quite plain to everyone that the interests
of the
working class are not the same as the interests of
the ruling 10%.
Knowing this, are we to back up our leaders and give
them our
sons and daughters to ship off to Mexico? For
what reason?
Do the Mexican people threaten the US working class?
While
some would like us to think so, the answer is no.
They are
trying to free themselves of the very same oppression
which we
suffer here. And it is even in our interest
here to see that the
Mexican people achieve their goals. Under global
capitalism,
so long as there is an oppressible work force somewhere
in the world, none of us are secure in our jobs.
It is for this reason that the Mexican people are attempting
to appeal
directly to the US public. This is why, instead
of responding directly
to the president’s threat of war; Mexico has released
a statement
addressed to the US public. It is a very short
statement, buried in
news reports which ridicule Mexico’s failure to answer
the president
directly. Yet these words are important and
should be heard by all
citizens of the US.
“People of the United States, please do not allow your
government
to murder innocent people. The people of Mexico
have no intention
of invading the United States. We act only to
free ourselves of
oppression in our own country and to salvage our democracy.
Conditions in Mexico have become intolerable, necessitating
that
we, the people, rise up and take control of our lives.
We are not
terrorists, militants, or communist guerrillas; we
are the people of
Mexico, who can no longer bear to watch our children
starving while
our land is raped of its riches. We have acted
to overthrow our
oppressors; the only ones who suffered from our actions
were those
deserving of their fate. But toward the people
of the United Stated,
we offer neighborly friendship. Please do not
allow your government
to murder us.”
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*********Dissemination News Agency*********
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This report is entirely fictional. It is
part of a short story written as a series
of news reports, and is presented purely
for entertainment purposes.
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*********Oh, for a pair of wireclippers********
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