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Socialist
Party News
8th July 2005 |
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London Bombings
No
to Terrorism - No to War The horrific bombings in London on 7 July will have shocked and saddened millions in London and elsewhere. Although terrorist attacks have been expected for some time, this in no way lessens the impact of the terrible toll of death and injury. The Socialist Party totally condemns these attacks as we did those of 9/11, the Madrid bombings and all acts of terror which result in the indiscriminate slaughter of ordinary working people. As London Mayor Ken Livingstone pointed out, the main victims of the carnage wreaked in London are not the rich and powerful but working-class people of all ethnic groups going about their daily lives. Instability and fear Tony Blair and George Bush told us that the war in Iraq would make the world a safer place. Many people supported it on that basis. But millions more, including the Socialist Party, opposed the war from day one as a war for oil, profits and prestige. We explained at the time that the brutal invasion and occupation of Iraq, which has resulted in the deaths of as many as 100,000 ordinary Iraqis (as well as hundreds of coalition troops), would massively increase the anger and hatred which already existed against US and British imperialism. Tens of millions around the world channelled that anger into mass protests against the war and for the withdrawal of the troops. But we pointed out that in Iraq and elsewhere, war and occupation would also lead to an escalation of terrorism. The CIA itself recently reported that Iraq had become a "laboratory" for terror. Thousands of ordinary Iraqis, as well as enduring the brutality of imperialist occupation, are daily subjected to horrific terrorist attacks of the kind we have suffered in London. Tony Blair has lied yet again. His actions, far from bringing stability and peace, have made the world a much more dangerous and insecure place. And as long as British troops remain in Iraq innocent working-class people, many of whom opposed the war, will be living in fear of attack and paying the price for Bush and Blair's warmongering. Troops out of Iraq After 9/11 New Labour rushed through a myriad of repressive legislation which they said would prevent terrorism. They have totally failed to do so, as we predicted, and instead have been used to harass and intimidate innocent people. Most of the security measures in place are there to protect the elite in society and not ordinary people. The response to this terrorist outrage should not be yet more repressive laws, such as ID cards, which will cost us a fortune, curtail democratic rights and do nothing to stop terrorist attacks. Spain has ID cards but the Madrid bombings still killed 191 people. Instead, the government should withdraw British troops from Iraq, which would have the backing of the majority of people. Working-class people should come together in solidarity in London and elsewhere to demand that this happens immediately and that the money saved (the occupation is projected to cost at least £7 billion in Britain) be used to fund public services. In Iraq itself, workers and poor people should unite to establish democratically controlled multi-ethnic defence forces which could lead a mass struggle to end the occupation. They should also campaign for the formation of a workers and poor farmers' government which could use the rich resources which exist in that country for the benefit of the majority and not the multinational companies and a privileged few. Change the system A few days before the terrorist bombs struck London, 250,000 marched in Edinburgh to demand an end to poverty in Africa and around the world. It is another outrage that 30,000 children die from poverty every day; that millions starve to death while there is enough food produced to feed the world. War, terror and poverty are the inevitable consequences of a capitalist system based on inequality, exploitation and the ruthless pursuit of profit. That is why the Socialist Party and the Committee for a Workers' International is campaigning in England and Wales and in 40 countries around the world to replace capitalism with a democratic socialist society based on production for need not profit. |
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No
to terrorism - No to war Four bombs, three at tube stations or on trains and one on a bus, shook London during the morning ‘rush hour’ of Thursday 7 July. The Socialist Party and the CWI condemn these bombings and those who carried them out. At the time of writing there are more than 50 fatalities and over 700 injured. However, tragically this figure is likely to rise. 10 were killed on the bus which was bombed. The bus was a number 30 which runs from the working class district of Hackney Wick up to central London and was full of working class people. It appears that three tube trains were bombed and there are reports that the bus bombing was carried out by a suicide bomber. Like the 100,000 killed since the occupation of Iraq by US and British imperialism or those killed in the New York and Madrid attacks, those who died were overwhelmingly ordinary working people. Although these bombings targeted central London, most of those affected were clerical workers, transport workers, students and other public sector employees. The majority of the British population opposed the war in Iraq. Many of the victims probably joined the massive anti-war demonstrations which took place in London and other cities in England and Wales, including the massive 2 million strong anti war protest on 15 February 2003. In the main it is an attack on the working class of London. One of the bombed tube trains exploded between Liverpool Street and Aldgate East station. Aldgate East is a run down poor area with a large Muslim population. It was not an attack on the rich or capitalism. The London Mayor, Ken Livingstone rightly declared: "This is a terrorist attack against working class Londoners, black and white, Muslim and Christian, Hindu and Jew, young and old…This was not a terrorist attack against the mighty and the powerful. It was not aimed at presidents or prime ministers". Unfortunately, Ken Livingstone has not drawn the right conclusions from his own remarks. He rejoined the party which supported the war on Iraq and has implemented vicious anti-working class neo-liberal in Britain and internationally rather then begin to build a new party that would represent working class Londoners. Like in other attacks many workers and ordinary people intervened to try and help the injured. Bus drivers took the injured to hospital. Clothing store workers took clothes from the shops to put on those whose clothing was torn from them by the blast. Fire crews, tube workers, ambulance workers and rank and file policemen lent assistance to passengers and passers. This was in contrast to the big London hotels whose owners in some cases tripled prices for rooms for the night to try and make a quick financial profit from those who could not get home. Following the attacks the entire London, tube net-work was shut down and all bus services in central London were cancelled. Train and bus travel to the rest of the country was seriously disrupted and services suspended from many main line stations. After the initial reports of the first explosion London Transport management issued a statement which blamed it on a ‘power surge’. It was the Rail Maritime and Transport workers union (RMT) which announced that it was a terrorist attack. The reactionary nature of al-Qa’eda Although most Londoners have been shaken by these bombings some form of terrorist attack has been long expected. It seems that this outrage was carried out by an al-Qa’eda linked organisation which justified it because of the imperialist wars and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. A previously unknown organisation, the ‘Secret Organisation of al-Qa’eda of Jihad in Europe’ has claimed responsibility and threatened that further attacks will be organised in Italy and Denmark. This claim still needs to be verified. Al-Qa’eda is not an organisation of national liberation which struggles for the interests of the oppressed peoples in Muslim countries. As the CWI commented at the time of the attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York it is a reactionary organisation backed by rich Saudi Arabians. The policies and methods it defends do not champion the rights of the oppressed or the mass of the Muslim peoples. It attacks the rights and interests of the working class and poor Muslims and fosters ethnic conflict and sectarianism amongst them. In countries like Britain these actions make the lives of Muslims and others from ethnic minorities even harder and increases discrimination against them. Socialists cannot lend any support or sympathy to such an organisation. The indiscriminate nature of the attacks carried out by al-Qe’ada organisations – targeting innocent working people of all races and religions shows the contempt they have for the mass of people. They do not direct their attacks at the ruling class in the imperialist countries or their political representatives. They attack "soft targets" without warning meaning most of their victims are working class people. As one analyst put it: "Their philosophy is: why attack a tiger when there are so many sheep?..." indicating their contempt for working class people. Socialists have always opposed the methods of individual terrorism which subjugates the mass mobilisation of working people for the actions of a small group. These methods only serve to strengthen the ruling class and capitalism. However, in the past, 19th century terrorist groups in Russia and other countries at least targeted individual rulers or leaders rather than innocent victims. The effect of such indiscriminate killings, such as those carried out by al-Qa’eda, is reactionary and must be condemned by socialists. The attack was clearly well coordinated and prepared in advance. It appears to have been aimed to coincide with the G8 Summit in Scotland and then the celebrations following London winning the nomination for the 2012 Olympic Games. Blair and Bush's hypocrisy Blair and Bush had tried to use both these events as a means of ‘rehabilitating’ themselves. However, these terrible attacks are a consequence of the policies and actions of these and other capitalist rulers and their system in Iraq, the brutal oppression of the Palestinian people by the imperialist backed Israeli state and the massive exploitation of the peoples of the neo-colonial countries. Blair was attempting to use the ‘Make Poverty History’ campaign, the winning of the Olympic Games 2012 bid and the anniversary of the ending of World War II to ‘restore’ his position. The consequences of these events can eventually shipwreck his plans. However, in the short term the Blair government will undoubtedly try to use these attacks to launch a campaign to win support, playing on the fears of people and try to introduce even more repressive legislation. This may have some effect temporarily in ‘rallying support’. However, this will eventually give way to even greater opposition to him and his policies. With most of the security chiefs and security measures currently focused on the G8 summit in Gleneagles, those who carried out this attack ‘took the opportunity’ to cause maximum damage in London. Thousands of police officers from London were deployed to Edinburgh to protect the G8 leaders. The leaders of the G8 were safely ensconced in the luxury hotel at Gleneagles when these attacks took place. Following the bombings both Bush and Blair issued hypocritical statements condemning the attacks. Bush, in his usual display of arrogance in a radio interview contrasted "what is happening in London to those who are meeting in Gleneagles to resolve the problems of poverty and Aids". Blair, who was visibly shaken by the bombings and the possible consequences it will have, in a statement declared that: "It is particularly barbaric that this happened on a day when people are meeting to try to help the problems of poverty in Africa and the long term problem of climate change and the environment". Yet all of the statements made by these leaders condemning the bombers can equally be applied to what they themselves have done in Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries. The policies these leaders have imposed on the peoples of the world have been responsible for increasing poverty wars and terrorism. They are responsible, together with the pharmaceutical companies for denying those suffering from HIV/AIDS drugs that will lengthen life expectancy. The war in Iraq which they have waged has resulted in over 100,000 Iraqi civilian deaths. It is capitalism and the drive for profits that is responsible for the destruction of the environment. However, as in New York, Bali and Madrid it is the ordinary working people who have paid the price for the imperialist wars they have waged in Iraq and Afghanistan and the back-breaking exploitation of the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Blair and other capitalist leaders will use these bombings to try and justify the introduction of further repressive legislation and attacks on democratic rights. Blair will use these bombings to try and force through the introduction of national identity cards (ID cards) and a national register which currently do not exist in Britain. This proposal was facing serious opposition and the prospect of defeat prior to the London bombings. Following these events it is now more likely to be agreed to in parliament. Whether it will be accepted by a majority of people, especially young people, is another question. These bombings again illustrate that repression cannot remove the threat of terrorism. All of the repression by the British state against the IRA in Ireland could not defeat that organisation. In Madrid the existence of ID cards did not prevent the bombings there. The current threat of terrorist attacks by al-Qa'eda organisations arises from the consequences of the policies of the main imperialist powers in Iraq and other countries and the social catastrophe that imperialism and capitalism has caused in the neo-colonial world. Iraq and the bombings Blair is attempting to imply that these bombings have nothing to do with Iraq. This is not the view of the capitalist intelligence agencies. The CIA has concluded that since Iraq has been occupied it has been attracting terrorist cells like "fly paper". In 2003 the British Parliamentary ‘Intelligence and Security Committee disclosed that five weeks before the war Blair was warned by the Joint Intelligence Committee that: "al-Qe’ada and associated groups continue to represent by far the greatest terrorist threat to Western interests, and that the threat would be heightened by military action [in Iraq]" Just before the US Presidential elections Bin Laden asked "Why do we not attack Sweden?" The London bombings, like those in Madrid, Bali and New York are, in military parlance, ‘blow back’ for the imperialist interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. The initial sentiment of people in Britain at the moment is one of shock. Many feel stunned by what has taken place. The first reaction of many people will be a tendency to ‘rally together’. This may temporarily strengthen Blair’s position. However, this can later turn to anger and even greater opposition to Blair who will eventually be held responsible for putting the London population ‘in the line of fire’. In Spain the government’s initial attempt to blame the Basque nationalist group ETA enraged people. Blair has not repeated this mistake of Aznar. However, he will be held responsible by many people because of his support for the war in Iraq. There is a danger of a racist backlash in Britain aimed against the Muslim population and other ethnic minorities. The day following the bombings the Muslim Council of Britain reported that 30,000 threatening e/mails have been received by Muslim organisations. This threat must be fought against It is essential to fight for the unity of all working people to oppose any attempt to scapegoat the Muslim population or other ethnic minorities. At the same time other incidents have been reported of acts of solidarity to try and prevent racist attacks. On the day of the bombings in London’s Leather Lane street market white market stall traders visited Asia snack bars to check they had suffered no abuse and offered their assistance in the event of any racist recriminations. Socialist alternative The Socialist Party is campaigning for the unity of all working people in London. Demonstrations need to be organised demanding unity of all working people. Such protests should be called to oppose terrorism, imperialist wars and those who perpetrate them and the introduction of repressive legislation. These bombings show the need to struggle to build a socialist alternative of all working people to Blair and Bush and the system they defend. They and their system are ultimately responsible for such horrific attacks. It is urgent to fight to build a mass socialist alternative of all working people that will oppose terrorism, imperialist wars and fight Blair, Bush and their capitalist system and struggle for a socialist world. The only way to make war, terrorism and poverty history is to build a socialist world. * No to terrorism and imperialist wars |