Portuguese Communist Party Press Statement
8th September 2011
This year marks the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks against the World Trade Center towers, which killed thousands of North American citizens and which the PCP unequivocally condemned, from the very beginning.
Ten years after this terrible crime against the people of the USA, the facts clearly show that – as the PCP then warned – the September 11 attacks were used by imperialism, and in particular by North American imperialism, to launch an escalation of war and aggression aiming to impose its global domination, control the world’s energy resources and promote the interests and profits of big capital.
Under the excuse of “fighting terrorism” and “US security”, sovereign countries were invaded and occupied, causing hundreds of thousands of dead, millions of refugees and humanitarian and civilizational disasters of a tragic scale. Sidestepping judicial and legal systems, concentration camps and a worldwide network of secret prisons were created. Torture was condoned and promoted. Racism and intolerance were promoted, favouring the rise of far right-wing and xenophobic forces. Under the cover of “fighting terrorism” racist theories were developed, an example of which is the theory of the “clash of civilizations”, with the consequences that are there for everyone to see.
The security paranoia launched under the excuse of the September 11, 2001 attacks also served to spread the false dichotomy safety/freedom with the adoption of legislation restricting and enabling the suspension of democratic rights. It supported the further militarization of international relations, example of which is the exponential increase of military budgets; the development of new and more powerful weapons, including those of mass destruction; the instrumentalization of the United Nations Security Council, the disregard for International Law and the UN Charter; the strengthening of NATO as a global offensive organisation, the armed hand of the main imperialist powers and also the accelerated and increased militarization of the European Union, increasingly asserting itself as an imperialist, interventionist power with ambitions of global domination.
Portugal also had an active part in imperialism’s offensive launched under the pretext of the September 11 attacks. During the past ten years the trend towards a full submission to the interests and diktats of NATO grew larger, in clear disregard for the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, namely its Article 7. The Azores War Summit, the participation of Portuguese military and police forces in the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, the involvement of the Portuguese government in the crime represented by the so-called “CIA flights”, the holding of the NATO summit in Portugal, which adopted a still more aggressive “new strategic concept”, the support by the Portuguese government for the crime being committed against the Libyan people are, among others, clear examples of a Portuguese foreign policy contrary to national interests and the values of peace, friendship and cooperation among peoples.
As the PCP warned, the change in US Presidency did not alter the situation following September 11, despite the change in language and a closer association with the European imperialist powers. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue under the Obama Administration, with this last country witnessing a further escalation of the occupying forces. Imperialist barbarity has now turned against Libya, and threatens Syria, Iran, Algeria and other countries. The Guantanamo concentration camp remains operational. The Patriot Act and other profoundly anti-democratic exceptional legislation, also. The manoeuvres of aggression, subversion and State terrorism by imperialist powers become more widespread.
It is particularly shocking and revealing of its criminal nature that, on the tenth anniversary of September 11, imperialism is once again promoting, in Libya and other countries, terrorists linked to Islamic fundamentalism, including groups appearing on the list of terrorist organisations issued by USA’s own State Department. Terrorism does not cease to be what it is, just because it is sponsored by imperialist States.
Imperialist aggressiveness and bellicism go hand in hand with the violent offensive against the living and working conditions of the peoples, whose fine example is the offensive by the command centres of the European Union against the EU peoples. The PCP draws attention to the great dangers to world peace resulting from the aggressiveness of an imperialism facing a deep economic crisis – from which it does not know how to extricate itself – and in relative decline in view of the new emerging powers.
The PCP considers that it is urgent to put a stop to the escalation of war and violence that threatens to drag Humanity into new catastrophes. At a time when we mark 10 years of a terrible crime whose full explanation, real outlines and responsibilities are yet to be explained, the PCP calls upon the Portuguese workers and people to redouble their struggle for peace, against imperialism and its wars, aggressions and interferences, against NATO, against all types of terrorism, including State terrorism.
