The New Worker
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 15th July 2005

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Lead
NO TO
EURO-POLICE STATE
by Daphne Liddle
HOME SECRETARY Charles
Clarke last Thursday, a few hours after the bombs that rocked London,
admitted that identity cards could not have prevented the tragedy. In
the shock of the moment, he was being honest.
But by this Wednesday he was urging the emergency European
counter-terrorism summit adopt a plan to compulsorily fingerprint all
European Union citizens who have identity cards – bringing their ID
card systems up to the biometric detail level of those proposed for
Britain.
Tony Blair’s ID card proposals were in deep trouble before the
terrorist attacks and losing popularity every day through soaring costs
and a growing realisation of the loss of civil liberties involved.
Now, it will be a very brave backbench MP who will stand up to
Blair when he insists that, in the light of the attacks, ID cards and
other “anti-terrorist” measures are essential.
And recent history has shown we do not have enough very brave
backbench MPs.
More to the point, Tory leader Michael Howard has been praising Blair
as “calm, resolute and statesmanlike” in the wake of the bombings.
There is a possibility that the Tories could drop their opposition to
ID cards and the Bill could sail through.
illogical
It hardly matters that Blair’s position is totally illogical if his
real aim is to prevent terrorism. A raft of anti-terrorist measures
passed in the aftermath of 11th September 2001 led to the imprisonment
of innocent men in Belmarsh without charge or trial for over two years.
Many of them, though now released are still effectively under house
arrest.
In the United States the “war on terror” led to similar breaches
of human rights culminating in the setting up of the concentration camp
at Guantanamo Bay, the invasion of Afghanistan and eventually to the
illegal invasion of Iraq.
None of these “anti-terrorist” measures did anything to end
terrorism. They did the opposite. They created fear, anger and
desperation in many places that helped the terrorist organisations
recruit thousands. They increased the likelihood of terrorism.
The young men who blew themselves up – along with dozens of
ordinary Londoners – last Thursday were carrying plenty of things to
identify them. They were not trying to hide their identity. If ID cards
had been compulsory, they would have had them and it would not have
made the slightest difference to what happened.
Blair knows this and so does Clarke. Anti-terrorism is not their
real goal – tighter control of the working class is – but they will use
the issue of the London bombings as an excuse to force in ID cards and
many other breaches of our civil liberties.
package
Last Wednesday Clarke and Blair presented their European Union
counterparts with a 10-point anti-terrorism package that includes the
retention of email and telephone records for up to three years.
It also includes all ID cards in Europe carrying an electronic
fingerprint. A Home Office official explained: “Identity cards are
valid travel documents. We cannot afford to have them be a weak link in
international travel.
“A really significant amount of travel within Europe is done not
on a passport but on an identity card which is just a piece of
cardboard with a photograph attached. It is a weak link. We need to
have a standard.”
Tony Bunyan of the civil liberties group Statewatch said: “This
proposal, with the others, means that everyone living in the EU and
their details are held on an EU-wide database.
“At a time of great tragedy it is all the more important that we
act with care and do not bequeath to future generations a society where
every movement and every communication is under surveillance.”
Just in case other European countries had any doubts about the
proposals, Gordon Brown warned a meeting of EU finance ministers that
any country that fails to crack down on “terrorist money laundering”
will face the threat of sanctions.
Meanwhile Blair is promising a new draft Counter Terrorism Bill
for this autumn.
On the other side of the Atlantic, Bush is also preparing to
ratchet up “anti-terrorist” measures, further reducing civil liberties
in the US.
Some political analysts believe that last Thursday’s bombings
have helped Bush and Blair to lift their failing popularity and remove
the focus or world attention from the catastrophe of the occupation of
Iraq.
It seems likely now that the bombings were carried out by a group
linked to Al Qaeda. That organisation was created and fostered by US
imperialism to undermine the socialist government of Najibullah in
Afghanistan.
It seems that it is still – indirectly and perhaps inadvertently
– helping to strengthen US imperialism.
Britain has, in the last week, celebrated the end of the war to
defeat Nazi fascism. Britain suffered heavy bombing in that war, far in
excess of anything Al Qaeda could manage. But the British people were
not asked or expected to surrender their civil liberties for ever in
order to defeat Nazism. There is no logical reason to surrender them
now.
*************
Editorial
Terror in London
LONDON’S TRANSPORT system was
brought to a standstill last Thursday by a wave of terror bombings that
killed scores of innocent working people and wounded hundreds more. The
New Communist Party of Britain condemns outright the terror bombings of
7th July and expresses its deepest sympathy for all the victims, their
families and friends.
No-one knows who was responsible for the terror attack but the
Government, from Tony Blair downwards, is assuming it was the work of
supporters of Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda movement. If so, the maelstrom
of terror that has encompassed the Middle East for decades has now
swept Londoners into its path.
Blair and Bush justify Anglo-American imperialism’s offensive against
the peoples of the Middle East as a “war against terror”. They claim to
be fighting to “root out” the causes of global “terrorism”. But the
causes are of their own doing and their names are Palestine, Iraq,
Afghanistan and Oil.
Last Thursday innocent London workers experienced the terror that has
been part of everyday life for millions of Iraqis, Afghans and
Palestinians. Blair denies any link between the invasion of Iraq and
the London bombings but even he conceded that “old injustices, poverty
and the democratic vacuum” in the Middle East had to be addressed if
terror was to be countered effectively. He also praised Muslim leaders
at home and abroad who have joined in the public condemnation of London
bombings and the shadowy movements that incite and plan these acts of
terror. But their remarks went much further than those of the Prime
Minister.
In a sermon last Friday, Ayatollah Mohamed Emami-Kashani, dismissed Al
Qaeda as a “fake version of Islam” but then added: “Has the British
Prime Minister forgotten who Al Qaeda’s parents are? I remind him then
that the United States is Al Qaeda’s father and Israel is the mother of
that illegitimate child…it was you yourselves who created this group in
the name of Islam and therefore the conduct of a child whose father is
global arrogance and whose mother is the Israeli butchers should not
surprise anyone”.
Fifty years ago the Arabs were breaking the chains of colonialism and
dreaming of creating modern democratic states built on the vast oil
wealth their lands possessed. Imperialism destroyed that vision by
working with feudal elements to smash the communist parties and the
national democratic movements led by Nasser and the Baath that stood in
their way.
Imperialism allied itself with the feudal kings and princes and the
reactionary movements in the region, rewarding them with a tiny
fraction of the vast profits made from the oil industry. Imperialism
nursed and succoured reactionary groups like Al Qaeda to destroy the
people’s democracy in Afghanistan. Now the carnage has blown back with
a vengeance.
Imperialism is not concerned one iota about the “human rights” they
claim to defend. Working people are just expendable pawns to be used
whether they live in Baghdad or London.
The overwhelming majority of the world’s known oil reserves are in the
Middle East and imperialist control and plunder of this vast source of
energy has been the root cause of conflict in the region since 1948.
This is what it’s all about.
The Government will, no doubt, be using the bombings to justify the
introduction of ID cards and other repressive measures in the next few
months. Fascists and Zionist elements will be striving to fan the
flames of anti-Arab and anti-Islamic sentiment in its wake.
Only when the real root causes of terrorism are dealt with will the
cycle of violence end. There must be a just solution to the Palestinian
problem; an end to the occupation of Iraq and the recognition of the
right of all countries in the Middle East to control their own natural
resources.
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