Kmflett's Blog

Remembering the two 9/11s. Not yet ready for the history books

Not many will need reminding that it is the 25th anniversary of the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York, 11th September 2001.

Rather more might need a reminder of the other 9/11 fifty three years ago in 1973 when a democratically elected socialist Government in Chile was brutally ousted by a US backed fascist coup.

Both the 9/11s are not yet history. The US is still intervening in the South of the Americas and the aftermath of the Iraq War which developed from the dreadful attack in New York is still firmly with us.

For the most part the Twin Towers attack saw ordinary people quite unconnected to the US policies which provided the pretext for the attack left dead and injured.

Many others will be able to remember with more than usual clarity where they were on that September day 24 years ago. I was at the TUC in Brighton. This was well before the days of instant access to the web via a smart phone.

It became clear in the hall that something had happened. That year’s TUC Chair Bill Morris made an announcement that a plane had hit the twin towers. At that stage the extent of devastation was unknown.

The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, was due to address the gathering immediately after lunch. He appeared briefly said a speech would be inappropriate and hurried off to London. Business was suspended.

Delegates were stunned. Indeed so dazed was I that I recall shaking hands with the then General Secretary of my Union, not a normal event by any means.

I then retired to the Evening Star pub. After all when the world falls apart some things stay in place and it was definitely one of those days. Unexpected and unfathomable for the moment.

Blair of course had a very distinct reaction to those events. Afghanistan was in the frame for the start of what became the ‘war on terror’. That eventually led to an illegal war in Iraq and the biggest demonstration ever in British history against it on 15th February 2003. I was of course there.

As for Pinochet and Chile his bloody regime eventually met its end but the US even after Afghanistan is still ‘intervening’ in other countries not least Gaza and Iran.

The end result of all these events is that ordinary people end up paying the price for decisions made by people who rarely if ever pay the price themselves