Written by the IWL-FI, June 14, 2016
The news of the biggest killing at gunpoint in the history of the U.S shocked the world. Omar Siddique Mateen, a man with violence records and, apparently, sympathizer of the Islamic State (IS), entered the LGBT Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, during the night of last Sunday, and he killed 50 people and injured other 53.
From IWL-FI, we condemn this brutal killing and we demand punishment of the ones responsible. We offer our solidarity to the families of all the victims and we share their pain and outrage. Independently of who was the executor, the motive of this massacre is clear: we are in front of a homophobic, xenophobic hate crime. The target was clear: LGBTs, most of them latinos.
It was not confirmed yet of Mateen acted following some terrorist organization. The Islamic State took responsibility for the action, something that seems very possible given their theocratic program, extremely reactionary, and the fascist methods they use in the “Caliphate” to kill and commit any kind of atrocity against homosexuals and religious minorities. In any circumstance, we repudiate the Islamic State for supporting the massacre.
This attack will undeniably strengthen the xenophobia andislamophobia, which can be channeled in the U.S by extreme right sectors like Trump, who took advantage of the crime to reaffirm his position of forbidding the entrance of “Muslims” to the country.
Obama, on his side, affirmed “there are no proofs” to conclude the Islamic State is behind this attack. He said the horror would be product of the U.S “autonomous terrorism”. In any case, this attack aims to plant terror among the LGBT and Hispanic community in a society where more than 20% of the hate crimes are motivated by the sexual orientation of the victim. In the U.S, this barbarianism exists on a daily basis. In Brazil, for example, a homosexual is murdered every 27 hours.
In front of the attempt of imposing terror to the LGBT struggle, it is necessary to give a resounding response on the street, to end homophobia, xenophobia and all kind of oppression, understanding it as a mechanism for the domain of the bourgeoisie to divide our class. The working movement must embrace the demands of all oppressed sectors, as part of their struggle against exploitation and all capitalist governments. The struggle against male-chauvinism, racism, LGBTphobia and xenophobia is a struggle of the working class as a whole and all exploited sectors. We cannot be indifferent in front of an attack like this. It is time we debate inside our organizations the importance of the struggle against oppressions in the frame of the anti-capitalist program for the world. In Middle East specifically, it is an imposition of reality to intensify the struggle to defeat imperialism, the bloody dictatorships and the Islamic State, which together can only impose exploitation, oppression and massacres to the people.
It is time to act and respond for the attacks suffered daily by all the oppressed sectors. It is time to turn the hate into struggle.