THE PROPOSALS outlined by Blair and government ministers since 5
August amount to a severe government clampdown on civil liberties. Even
though they have provoked opposition in establishment circles, it is
clear that Blair and a small group of his closest advisers have seized
upon what they claim to be the mood after the bombings to hustle through
these measures.
Ken Smith
These powers are being rushed through undemocratically with no
likelihood of meaningful consultation or opposition to them in
Parliament. Blair admitted at his press conference that these new powers
would have met much stiffer resistance just a few weeks before the
London bombings.
The sweep of these powers is breathtaking. More people will be
wrongly deported, wrongly denied asylum, and the democratic rights we
are all supposed to benefit from will be denied.
People who are not involved with terrorist activities will be
deported to countries where they will be tortured and possibly executed.
Saudi Arabia’s London ambassador said the country "would be happy
to take back any Saudi nationals who are doing wrong in this
country", but added "there could be no exceptions to our legal
system" which permits state execution.
These proposed powers can be used retrospectively meaning that
statements individuals or groups have made in the past could be taken
out of context and used against them. This would allow the government to
clamp down on any individual or group who disagrees with it.
Diktat
Mosques, websites and bookshops will be closed down at the diktat of
government ministers. Groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir and Al Mujahiroun are
to be proscribed.
Although the Socialist Party would disagree with the ideas, policies
and methods of these groups, we would not call for their banning. The
government already has powers to act against those threatening violence
or terrorist acts.
Their ideas need to be taken up – because they preach ideas that
divide working-class people – and confronted by the workers’ movement,
not driven underground.
Blair said people had to realise the "rules of the game are
changing". He implied that people had been too tolerant with
extremist groups after the London bombings. He added that these groups
had to be fought like "revolutionary communism" was fought – a
clear echo of the comparison he has already tried to draw with Militant
and the witch-hunt against the Left.
But, what Blair sees as tolerance is in fact resignation that
Labour’s foreign policy, of "riding pillion" with US
imperialism in the Middle East, meant such attacks were inevitable.
Clearly, most people will want something to be done to remove the
terrorist threat and make their lives more secure. But experience of 30
years in Northern Ireland shows that state repression cannot end the
threat of terrorist attacks.
Anger intensifies
The situation inside Iraq is deteriorating further, lurching towards
a civil war where imperialism will continue to use brutal force, whether
or not they lower troop numbers.
This will intensify the anger and indignation felt by young Muslims
at imperialism’s policies and, as the opportunistic warning by bin
Laden’s right-hand man last week showed, it will be used by terrorist
groups to recruit to their ranks.
In this context it has to be the responsibility of the trade union
and anti-war movements to offer a way forward.
The Socialist Party has called on the unions to push the TUC to
organise a national demo. At the TUC general council on 27 July, Bob
Crow of the railworkers’ union and Janice Godrich of the PCS proposed
that the TUC organises a national demo for workers’ unity and against
the London bombs. This was pushed for by the Left and tacitly agreed.
The right wing did not oppose the idea but instead asked the
executive committee to "draft a paper" to be put to the TUC
congress in September.
We still think a trade union demo would be the most effective way of
initially uniting workers in the face of the attacks and defending civil
liberties. The Left in the trade unions should still demand that the TUC
takes a lead on this to unite all workers against the bombings, war and
attempts to whip up racism.
Northern Ireland
The example of Northern Ireland is a terrible warning to the unions
today. The Irish trade unions’ refusal to take a position against
sectarianism "because it was political" meant that sectarian
politicians went unopposed for 35 years.
Now, the Stop The War Coalition, under pressure from below, has
called a demonstration for Saturday 24 September.
This should be built for, particularly through the trade unions, to
ensure that millions of people in Britain are given confidence that
there is a way to make an effective, united stand against Blair’s
policies.
The demands for workers’ unity against war and terror, to stop a
racist backlash and defend civil liberties, have to be taken into every
workplace, school, college and community, to build a mass movement that
can bring about the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, removing Blair and
ending Britain’s role in the oppression of the peoples of Iraq and the
Middle East.
Responding to the police shooting at Stockwell
A PERUVIAN woman on the memorial on 5 August for Jean Charles de
Menezes told me, "many Latin American people in Britain come from
police states, we do not want this country to go the same way."
Andy Tullis, Lambeth Socialist Party
In the wake of the police shooting of Jean Charles at Stockwell tube
station on 23 July, the local community has been demonstrating its just
anger. A spontaneous demonstration of 500 people on the Monday after his
death marched to the MI5 HQ in Vauxhall. This was followed by a protest
at Parliament on 29 July, coinciding with a memorial gathering outside
Stockwell tube.
Stop The War Coalition (STWC) called a public meeting on 30 July in
Brixton to discuss further action over the tragic events and responses
to the London bombings.
The meeting was attended by around 80-100 activists, many of whom
were from the local Brazilian and Portuguese community.
Representatives from the Brazilian community in Britain, STWC and
Campaign against Political Terrorism spoke out against the ‘shoot to
kill’ policy, the campaign of disinformation around the death of Jean
Charles and the racist (particularly anti-Muslim) subtext of hysterical
media coverage of the London bombings.
Socialist Party members pointed out that all sections of the working
class are under attack and how ‘anti-terrorism’ legislation has always
been used against the workers’ movement to stop them organising and
fighting for their rights at work. The Socialist Party believes that
unity across all sections of the working class is best shown in
practice.
We called on the meeting to endorse a local solidarity demonstration
in Lambeth from Stockwell to Brixton in the next two weeks (the Lambeth
branch of STWC had endorsed such an idea earlier in the week). Although
the 30 July meeting allowed some debate from the floor, the STWC
announced that it had already made a decision to have a central London
demonstration on 24 September. Socialist Party members argued that this
was too far off and that local initiatives needed to be built upon now!
Nevertheless, the STWC leaders pushed ahead with their proposals for
a central demonstration on 24 September without any consultation from
the meeting or even the local STWC branch, much to the dismay of many of
those present.
Lambeth Socialist Party members are still pushing the idea of a local
march and the possibility of a feeder march from Stockwell into the
national demo on 24 September.
