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WORLD CITIZEN LETTER: 567
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WCL 567 Sep 2007
Good intentions?
Once upon a time a party was founded in Britain (something over a hundred years ago) which was a coalition of democratic socialists, trade unionists and co-operators. It was generally pacific, opposed to war and militarism and anti-imperialist. Some of its members were prepared to go to prison as conscientious objectors to conscription during the first world war. It maintained its traditions, even though it supported the war against Nazi Germany and abandoned most of the support for conscientious objection. But it did retain some of its original principles and sympathies.
But time erodes beliefs.
One of the biggest arms fairs has recently been held, with the backing of the Labour government. The items advertised for sale included leg-irons for prisoners (modified from those formerly used on slaves, nowadays out of fashion if they are in the news). They also included cluster-bombs, which were almost banned until the Labour government changed their description so that although they have the same danger for civilians they could escape the bans.
Under the present Labour government Britain has continued to boost arms exports, to become the fourth largest world exporters. That is real success, considering what a small country we have: obviously not only punching above our weight, but also capable of destruction above average capacity. Clearly our government has a real talent for organizing war and destruction. Not quite what the pioneers of 1901 envisaged.
One of the government's most recent coups was a huge sale of fighter jets to Saudi Arabia. That country, perhaps the last in the world where slavery is not actually prohibited by law, is seen as a close and important ally of this country. That fact, and the depths to which the alliance has dragged us, can be seen in the halting of a case brought by our legal prosecutors over bribery of the arms exporter, B.A.E., for which Tony Blair, the last Labour prime minister, personally took responsibility.
The illegal attack on Iraq in which the Labour government led the country into a disastrous war at the behest of the United States has led to several years' illegal occupation. It has also unleashed terrorism and chaos on the people of Iraq, with up to a million civilians killed and far more than that fleeing their country. Secrecy, lies, evasions and spin have characterised the government's record since that war began, of which two examples are memorable.
Extraordinary rendition is the term used for the kidnapping of opponents and others by United States agents and their paid accomplices. Worse, many of them were incarcerated without trial for years in Cuba. Because many of these victims were taken on aircraft that landed for refuelling in this country and then took off again without the government preventing or even taking steps to ascertain what was happening, our Labour government is complicit in this complicity.
When the Israeli army attacked Lebanon in an attempt to destroy Hizbollah, the Labour government permitted the transport of heavy bombs through Britain. While the fighting went on, Tony Blair refused to take any action that might have halted it and the Labour government thus did nothing to remedy the illegality of the aggression. Nor has it made any reparation for the death and destruction rained down upon the Lebanese.
Although the government has driven these belligerent policies for the past dozen years, it has been supported and maintained by its Parliamentary majority despite those original pacific traditions of the working-class movement that founded the Labour party a century ago. Will the worm ever turn?
John Roberts
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