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New Communist Party of Britain |
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New Communist Party of Britain |
Anglo-American imperialism stands totally isolated in the world even amongst the international institutions it once relied on to do its bidding and give it some international authority for its actions.
The United Nations has been marginalised. US imperialism only pays lip service to UN institutions when it suits its purposes. When the Americans can use it to rubber-stamp their plans, the world organisation is supported. When it is no longer of any further use to them, like now, it is ignored and discarded.
In the past British and American imperialism upheld the principle of the veto on the UN Security Council - a right the United States has exercised 82 times, mainly to protect Israel. But it was ignored when it appeared that France, Russia or People’s China were prepared to use it to block the Iraq invasion. Though the Obama administration pays lip-service to international co-operation, it still ignores the world forum when it conflicts with the interests of American imperialism. The blockade of Cuba and Democratic Korea continues and efforts to achieve a just and comprehensive settlement of the Palestinian problem are blocked.
We call for democratic reform of the UN Security Council to ensure that it is representative of the vast majority of member states of the world forum.
Though the Democrat Obama administration has dropped the old rhetoric of “globalisation” and the “New World Order” of the Bush era it continues to seek US world domination.
Ireland, Korea, Cyprus and Kashmir remain partitioned. Though most of the imperialist forces have left Iraq the country remains a quasi-US protectorate. US imperialism in alliance with the feudal Arab states has replaced the Libyan government with a puppet regime and now US-led imperialism is arming and funding reactionary Syrian movements in a bid to replace the Syrian government with one of imperialism’s choosing.
Afghanistan was invaded and occupied by American-led forces in 2001. British troops are still stationed in Afghanistan to prop up a puppet regime installed at the behest of US imperialism. During the invasion hundreds of Afghans and Muslim fighters from other countries were taken prisoner and transported to a concentration camp on the US Guantánamo Bay naval base in Cuba. International pressure has led to the release of a handful but the majority remain held in inhuman, brutal isolation in these camps, in breach of international law and the Geneva Convention. They are denied prisoner-of-war status; nor are they treated as common criminals with the right to trial and defence.
We call for the closure of the Guantánamo Bay camp and the unconditional and immediate withdrawal of all British troops from Afghanistan.
The Palestinian Arabs remain under Zionist occupation and imperialist forces straddle the world with their arsenals and fleets. Democratic Korea is targeted with sanctions because it has developed its own nuclear deterrent,. The Islamic Republic of Iran is threatened because it seeks to develop its own independent nuclear industry. Separatist movements in Tibet and Xinjiang are supported by imperialism to destabilise and undermine the People’s Republic of China.
In the past the imperialists justified their colonial wars by using the racist and imperialist theories of the “white man’s burden”, “the master race” or “manifest destiny”. The horrors of the two world wars of the last century killed most of that reactionary nonsense. So now they fly the false flag of “democracy”, “human rights” and “liberation” to justify their crimes.
We saw their “liberation” in practice in Iraq: worthless puppets and crooks imported into the country to act as stooges; civilians bullied and gunned down by trigger-happy US Marines while their cities burn. Basic civil rights were denied while the country was flooded with drugs and criminal gangs roamed under the eyes of the occupation forces.
We saw what happened in Libya when Nato forces stepped in to provide air-cover to enable the rebels, which the imperialists had created in the first place, to oust the Gaddafi government and replace it with a client regime that serves the interest of the big oil corporations.
We see what is happening in Syria with Nato’s support for the reactionary forces of the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda that are attempting to overthrow the anti-imperialist government of Bashir al Assad.
Those in favour of imperialist aggression are the most aggressive and greedy sections of the capitalist and landowning class. They are the sort of people who robbed and looted Africa and Asia in the 19th century to build an Empire on which “the sun never set”, killing and enslaving millions on their way. They are the kind who lived the life of Roman Emperors in their grand houses while British workers slaved in their factories for pennies and died broken and destitute in the slums of our great cities. They are the people who sent millions to their deaths in the First World War to preserve and increase their fortunes.
They pull the strings. Now they show what a farce our so-called parliamentary democracy really is. Now they reveal the contempt they have for the people beneath them. The British army in Afghanistan serves as the hired hands of American imperialism, like the sepoys of the old East India Company, while the RAF is now little more than the air force of the transnational oil corporations in the Arab world.
But wherever there is oppression there is always resistance. The dreams of Anglo-American imperialism turned to dust in the streets of Iraq. Imperialist plans to dominate the Caucasus were thwarted when the Russian government stepped in to protect the south Ossetian and Abkhazian communities from Georgian aggression. The Venezuelan peoples have mobilised to defend their freedom. The Nepalese people have ended the autocracy of a hated monarch and throughout Latin America democratic forces have come to power with mass support.
The bastions of socialism: People’s China, Democratic Korea, Cuba, Vietnam and Laos stand firm politically and economically while the capitalist world sinks into decadence and economic stagnation. And in the developed capitalist world - the imperialist heartlands of North America and Western Europe - millions of working people are now demanding change.
Peace remains the central issue. The labour and peace movement must maintain the fight to bring about the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all British troops from Ireland and Afghanistan and ensure that they are never used to attack Syria. At the same time it must mobilise to stop the Government from spending more billions on the needless and useless replacement of the Trident nuclear weapons system.