US trembled
by Sajib Sinha
Calcutta, India
In my view Osama bin Laden was the only man who made US imperialism tremble in the 21st century. Whose war against western imperialism has been more powerful? That of Muslim religious organisations or that of the communists and left?
One thing is clear: without the support of the democratic, peace-loving common people - the workers of this world - the great anti-imperialist revolution won't succeed. While the Soviet Union was fighting against western imperialism, that helped the nations struggling for liberation from western colonialism, and from military and economic oppression. The USSR had a good and unbreakable relation with these nations. It guided the liberation wars with communist education, and provided a blueprint for taking them forward towards communist revolution.
The Soviet anti-imperialist struggle was not defeated by the western imperialists. It was defeated by the betrayal of some comrades occupying important party posts, who had discarded the Marxist-Leninist philosophy for narrow revisionism and greed. If the Soviets had had leaders like bin Laden who refused to compromise their philosophy, their fight would still be continuing alongside the world's working class.
Of course, opposition to western imperialism is still being conducted, thanks to Cuba, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, China, Vietnam and leftwing Latin America and Africa. As the oppression of western imperialism has increased, as their war techniques have been modernised, so the people's anti-imperialist movement led by the communist and left parties is being strengthened. It will take time to win the struggle, since most of the world's political and legal institutions, together with modern science and technology, are still controlled by the imperialists. So the enemy can easily dismiss the anti-imperialist movements. Nonetheless, the future of this movement is bright, and the victory of the world anti-imperialist revolution is inevitable. It is the only way to save this world.
But what about the narrow anti-imperialist fight of Muslim religious organisations? Intelligent leaders like bin Laden, who refuse to compromise their philosophy, are being destroyed. Their fight has no relation to the world's democratic, peace-loving, common people. There is no point trying to link them up. Huge numbers of people are killed by their anti-imperialist attacks. These groups do not set out to unite the common people of this world in order to counter imperialism.
We should also remember that the seeds of imperialism are hidden in religion too. If bin Laden's al Qa'eda and other Muslim organisations defeated western imperialism, there is no guarantee that they wouldn't give birth to a new religious imperialism or fascism.
Nonetheless, at present the world's common working class people should give sleeping support to their anti-imperialism, since our two fights - against western imperialism - are the same. But if in the future the anti-imperialist revolution succeeded and the Muslim organisations wanted to follow a religious imperialist path, the world's working class common people would have to resist them too.
Sanjib Sinha
Kolkata
