Who are the real terrorists? RONNE

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Be a handful of individuals who are separared by thousands of miles, bur joined rogerher by the common conviction that justice can only be brought about it we ourselves remain steadtastly committed to the ideais and pracnice of nonviolence. We wrire this letter to express our support for vou and the thousands who stand with you in che face of che monstrous oppression, crueiry, and violence of the South African stace. Even when provoked to anger by an unvielding adversary, you have not given in to malice, but have remained always caring and asture.

Y our country is a chearer, and the entire world your audience. The scage is well lir, and now, chrough all che propaganda, we see the players for what they are. Even from our very great distance we can sense the terrible frustration and sadness you must feel when your peoples' acts of courage and digniry are crushed daily. They hold a peacetul meeting, and dogs are set upon them: their schoolchildren sing, and are chased and beaten. For simply speaking I take sure usa can soon with wiene adorn our read season book greates or al During the Vietnam War a comedian once joked about President Johnson: "How do you know when the president is lying?" The answer: "When his lips are moving."

Which brings us to our latest president, "Rambo" Raygun. In his ravings against terrorism Reagan is an exponent of that old shibboleth that when you tell a lie, tell a big one, and when you commit a crime, point your finger at the victim instead of at the criminal.

President Reagan accuses the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), in connection with the hijacking of the Italian liner, Achille Lauro, of being nothing more than common criminals. Secretary of State George Shultz says terrorists are "cowardly animals." Cuba, North Korea, Iran, and Nicaragua are labeled "outlaw" states that "sponsor terrorism." All are an example of resort to the "big lie."

Here is a president who represents a government that has done everything in its power to destroy every spark of freedom and liberty on this planet. Here is a president who provides the instruments of mass murder to every tin-horned dictator on the face of the globe, and then has the gall to call the victims of his government's actions "terrorists."

Where does terrorism come from? The answer is from the oppression and exploitation that are inherent to the capitalist system. The terrorism of oppressed people is always a response to the institutionalized terrorism of the oppressor.

It comes about when an entire people, who are subjected daily to inhuman conditions and treated as caged animals in the interest of private profit, become desperate. From such desperation comes the belief, however mistaken, that there is no other way to strike back except through individual acts of terror.

Such tactics are wrong because they create the illusion that a few courageous OH RONNIE! YOU ARE A REAL MAN. AFTER ALL! ABOUT TERRORISTS FOR A WHILE!

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ANOTHER ADVENTURI want to be slaves any more-and capitalism cannot live without colonial slaves. The working people, the poor peasants and the colonial slaves are in revolt against the continued rule of bankers and landlords.

"On the other hand, American capitalism-the last solvent stronghold of an outlived and doomed world system-is trying to prop up the hated regimes of capitalism and kings and landlords by economic and military force.

«These are the two main elements of the present world crisis.

«The Wall Street money-sharks, and the brass hats of Prussian mentality, are riding high in Washington these days. The masters of America, drunk with power, are threatening and terrifying the people of the world-seeking to dominate and enslave them-striving to Jear Bishop Tutu our, rhey are arrested, derained, and tortured. They cannor even mourn their dead in peace.

faich and courage, we thank you for your continuing affirmation of dignity and of life.

Cory Aquino Formes President. Catholic Women's League, Philippines Maniia, Philippines Vladimir Bukovsky Former Prisoner of Conscience, Sover L'nion Paio Alto. Callornia Cesar Chavez President. Linitea Farmworkers L'nion Neene. California Mairead Corrigan Maguire Co-tounder. Community of the Peace Peopie 19;i Nobel Peace Laureare Belfast, Ireland Adolfo Perez Esquivel Coordinalor, Servicio Paz v Justicia en Amer: 1980 Nobel Peace Laureace Buenos Aires, Argentina Alexandr Ginaburz Former Prisoner of Conscience, Sovier Wastingion, D.C. The Reverend Jesse Jackson Chairman, National Rainbow Coaltion Co-Pastor. Feilowsnip Missionary Bapsist Church Chicago. Illinois Perra K. Keily Member. German Parliament Bonn. West Germany Kim Dae Jung Co-chair. Council to Promore Democraci Former Prisoner oi Conscience seoul, Morea Coretta Scort King President, Marnin Lucher King. Je. Center Arlanta, Georgia The Mothers of the Disappeared "Las Madres de Pla:a de Mayo" Buenos Aures. Argentina Armando Valladares Poet Former Prisoner of Conscience, Cuba Madrid, Spain and we applaud them for it"

("Notebook of an Agitator, Pathfinder Press, 1973).

The reasons for the use of terrorism by oppressed people are revealed in the real terrorism of the imperialist oppressor. The American capitalist mad-dogs think they can destroy the will to struggle of the people of Palestine, Nicaragua, Cuba, and South Africa with their CIA-financed murder.

They hope, by financing Israel's reign of terror against the people of the Middle East, to stop that revolution. It's as if they learned nothing from the struggle of the Vietnamese people for national sovereignty. A war, by the way, that ended in the total defeat of imperialist power in Vietnam.

Middle East and Nicaragua Let's look at U.S.-sponsored terrorism in the Middle East. Israel, South Africa's and America's best friend, has reduced Lebanon to a reign of murder and desolation. Women, children, and men are bombed at will, their homes destroyed, their lives in ruins. That country has become, thanks to Israel and the United States, a region of smoking rubble.

It is no accident that four Palestinians hijacked the Italian liner shortly after the Israelis arrogantly bombed the headquarters of the PLO in Tunisia, killing innocent people. Reagan revealed his total hypocrisy when he applauded this Israeli atrocity.

U.S.-sponsored atrocities such as this are committed daily all over the world in the interest of "free enterprise." Have the people of the United States been told that there are over 200,000 With great respect tor your persona (Bol joan C. Baes Humanias Internadona Lech Walesa 1983 Nobei Peace Laureare Former Prisoner of Conscience Gdansk, Poland Andrew Young Mavor of Atlanta Former Aide 1o Dr. Martin Aclanca, Georgia displaced people in Nicaragua because of Reagan's terrorist war against that poor country? Or that every day civilians and unarmed peasants are murdered with bombs and guns provided to the contras with U.S. dollars?

Listen to what happened to the Rigoberto Lopez Perez family on May 2, 1985, in the city of Boaco, Nicaragua:

"Because of an alert that contras were near their town, the Perezes spent the night sleeping in the woods rather than risk going home. Thinking that they were safe, they returned home at dawn to prepare breakfast. While they were doing so, the contras struck.

"In less than five minutes, the contras shot and killed six members of the family: Cresencio Perez, 72; his daughters Esperanza, 33; and Irene, 36; his son, Juan Ernesto, 32; and his granddaughters Brenda Patricia, nine; and Claudia, three."

And "Rambo" Reagan raves in mock horror at the "immorality" of terrorism by the oppressed.

Mass action, not individual terror The victims of imperialism, with their meager resources, cannot hope to equal the terror of the capitalist class. The ruling class has far greater power to terrorize than the oppressed—as we witnessed in Hiroshima and Vietnam.

Resorting to individual acts of terror, even when most justified, only allows the hypocritical big-business media to cover up for big-mouths like Reagan, who, in retaliation, unleash their legions to kill and torture imperialism's victims.

A more effective response is to look toward the potential power of millions of working people-mobilized for mass action-against Washington's terror machine in the Middle East, El Salvador, or elsewhere.

Antiwar demonstrations, strikes, protests, and political action that strive to tap that enormous reservoir of working-class power-that is the way to build a movement that can put the working class in power and disarm the U.S.-terrorist war against humanity for good. I tyrants of the apartheid regime if they themselves are armed. They have already shown their resolve to end apartheid and win the inalienable human right of national self-determination, the right to govern their own country by majority rule, the right to vote.

We have no doubt that the Black masses of South Africa will arm themselves in their fight to win their freedom. This has been the case with virtually every oppressed nation that struggles for its emancipation from tyranny, including the American revolutionaries who armed themselves to fight British colonialism.

An underlying assumption of your letter is that if the oppressed of South Africa use violence in their fight to end apartheid, somehow this will diminish the moral standing of their struggle. Your unstated premise is that the violence of the oppressed is morally equivalent to the violence of the oppressor.

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I DON'T THINK WERE GOD BLESS GONNA HAVE TO WORRY AMERICA AT