by Daphne Liddle
AROUND 100 family friends and supporters of Paul Coker, who died in mysterious circumstances in Plumstead police station on 6th August, held a protest vigil outside the station on Tuesday evening.
The event was supported by the Families for Justice Campaign, the Uhuru Movement and Greenwich Council for Racial Equality. It attracted support from many passers-by who had been unaware of the tragedy.
Paul came from a mixed family – an African father and English mother. They were present with his girlfriend, his sisters and their children as well as uncles and aunts, all deeply shocked by Paul’s sudden, unexplained death.
He had been arrested, allegedly for causing a disturbance, subdued by several police officers and then put in a cell. The next thing the family knew was that the police were informing them that Paul was dead – with no explanation of how it happened.
The tragedy is being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission. While that investigation is proceeding, the police are refusing to tell the family anything. An official post mortem has been inconclusive.
Feelings ran high a few times on Tuesday evening, with some of Paul’s friends expressing their anger to the police very forcefully.
Police officers based at Plumstead Police station over 10 years ago significantly failed to arrest the racist killers of black teenager Stephen Lawrence.
After the McPherson inquiry into Stephen Lawrence’s killing, which exposed the deep-seated institutional racism of the police who dealt with the case, big changes were supposed to have happened at Plumstead police station and it seemed in recent years that relations with the local black community had been improving.
Paul Coker knew Stephen Lawrence; they had attended the same school. Paul was the son of Sam Coker, a former councillor and political activist who had been among many at an anti-racist meeting at nearby Welling library that was attacked by British National Party thugs. Sam, a former Nigerian army PT instructor, had leapt out of an upstairs window in order to grapple with a couple of fascists in the street below. Paul also kept himself very fit.
won case
Paul Coker had won a compensation case against the police six years ago and had initiated a second legal action against the prison service, claiming he had been assaulted by a prison officer while serving a one-year sentence for burglary.
On 6th August police were called to Paul’s girlfriend’s flat because of a disturbance, the two had had a loud argument. By the time the police arrived the argument was over but 10 officers arrested Paul anyway.
Lucy, the girlfriend, said that police had barred her from the flat during the arrest. She said she could hear him screaming: “You are killing me. You are killing me,” in a way she had never heard a man scream before. Then all went quiet and the police carried Paul out. He was not struggling.
He was found dead at 6.45am but Lucy was not told until 11am and Paul’s mother was not told until 3pm.
Markhan Bajwa, who chairs GCRE, said: “Most of these deaths in custody involve young black men. I don’t know what happens when people go into a police station and end up dead. How can a fit young man go into a station and be dead within two hours?”
as long as it takes
During the picket of the police station last Tuesday there was a short ceremony as the family laid flowers by the police station entrance and their vicar said a prayer. Paul’s mother made a brief speech in which she pledged to her son to fight for justice for as long as it takes.
She told the crowd that Paul had been a fit and healthy young man and had written some poetry. One of his poems was entitled “Time is the master”. Patricia Coker declared: “Indeed time is the master and time will see that justice is done for my son.”
Friday, August 26, 2005
Gate Gourmet talks break down
THREE-WAY talks between the Transport and General Workers’ Union, the airline catering company Gate Gourmet and British Airways broke down in acrimony last Tuesday.
Talks may resume again within a few days but TGWU chief negotiator Brendan Gould said: “I am despondent and disgusted at the way things have been concluded and I feel very frustrated at the lack of progress. Everything we were working towards has collapsed.”
The sticking point in the negotiations is the refusal by Gate Gourmet to reinstate all the workers sacked three weeks ago after deliberate and calculated provocation by the company led to a walkout.
They have agreed to reinstate most of those sacked but still want to exclude those they label as troublemakers – meaning union activists and those who will encourage their fellow workers to resist cuts in wages and conditions. The TGWU is adamant that all must be reinstated.
This was part of a strategy by Gate Gourmet to replace its existing workforce entirely with an even lower paid one. The sacking led to an unofficial solidarity walk-out by BA’s baggage handlers that halted all BA flights from Heathrow over three days and cost BA millions.
The Texas-based Gate Gourmet claimed financial difficulties and says the terms of its contract to supply BA with airline food are causing its operation in Britain to make a loss.
During negotiations it set a deadline of Tuesday night for BA to come up with an improved contract – or Gate Gourmet would put itself into administration.
BA claims that just such a contract has been on the table for some weeks. But it said that Gate Gourmet must resolve its dispute with its staff before it can be implemented.
There are reports that, behind the scenes, the Government is putting pressure on Gate Gourmet to agree to a settlement because it is concerned that further strikes could paralyse Heathrow.
The sacked catering workers are mainly from the local Asian community, which supplies most of Heathrow’s staff. There is a high degree of sympathy for the sacked workers because of the way in which they were treated.
The TGWU asserts that Gate Gourmet’s threats to go into administration are simple blackmail.
TGWU general secretary Tony Woodley told a packed meeting of sacked workers and their supporters in a local Sikh temple that the company had planned to go into administration as a tactic to cut the workforce and wage levels.
“They always planned to do it,” he said. “They planned to go in and out of administration to put more pressure on BA so they could fulfil their cynical and well-thought-out plan. There was no consideration whatsoever for the effect on you, your families or the communities you live in.”
He said the dispute had implications for labour relations throughout Britain. “This is an issue for the whole country. Can a company walk into Britain and plan the cynical sacking of innocent men and women to cut costs and be allowed to get away with it? I say no.”
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber told the meeting: “I sense the British public share our outrage about what has happened. For a company in Britain today to say ‘you are sacked and you are sacked and you are sacked …’ – that is not the way we do business. If this dispute is not resolved, that message will just not just go around this country but around the world.”
Local Labour MPs John McDonnell, Anne Keen and Piara Khabra are backing the sacked workers, many of who are facing serious financial hardship.
The root of the problem lies in Britain’s anti-trade union laws, dating back to the Thatcher era, which forbid solidarity strikes and prevent the unions defending the workers effectively.
The Blair government is also blocking the implementation of the European Union’s “Agency Workers Directive” which would provide temporary workers with same pay and conditions as permanent staff.
Trade unions throughout the EU have been lobbying hard to get this law approved.
If enacted, companies like Gate Gourmet would no longer be able to use agency staff as cheap labour at the expense of full time workers.
Talks may resume again within a few days but TGWU chief negotiator Brendan Gould said: “I am despondent and disgusted at the way things have been concluded and I feel very frustrated at the lack of progress. Everything we were working towards has collapsed.”
The sticking point in the negotiations is the refusal by Gate Gourmet to reinstate all the workers sacked three weeks ago after deliberate and calculated provocation by the company led to a walkout.
They have agreed to reinstate most of those sacked but still want to exclude those they label as troublemakers – meaning union activists and those who will encourage their fellow workers to resist cuts in wages and conditions. The TGWU is adamant that all must be reinstated.
This was part of a strategy by Gate Gourmet to replace its existing workforce entirely with an even lower paid one. The sacking led to an unofficial solidarity walk-out by BA’s baggage handlers that halted all BA flights from Heathrow over three days and cost BA millions.
The Texas-based Gate Gourmet claimed financial difficulties and says the terms of its contract to supply BA with airline food are causing its operation in Britain to make a loss.
During negotiations it set a deadline of Tuesday night for BA to come up with an improved contract – or Gate Gourmet would put itself into administration.
BA claims that just such a contract has been on the table for some weeks. But it said that Gate Gourmet must resolve its dispute with its staff before it can be implemented.
There are reports that, behind the scenes, the Government is putting pressure on Gate Gourmet to agree to a settlement because it is concerned that further strikes could paralyse Heathrow.
The sacked catering workers are mainly from the local Asian community, which supplies most of Heathrow’s staff. There is a high degree of sympathy for the sacked workers because of the way in which they were treated.
The TGWU asserts that Gate Gourmet’s threats to go into administration are simple blackmail.
TGWU general secretary Tony Woodley told a packed meeting of sacked workers and their supporters in a local Sikh temple that the company had planned to go into administration as a tactic to cut the workforce and wage levels.
“They always planned to do it,” he said. “They planned to go in and out of administration to put more pressure on BA so they could fulfil their cynical and well-thought-out plan. There was no consideration whatsoever for the effect on you, your families or the communities you live in.”
He said the dispute had implications for labour relations throughout Britain. “This is an issue for the whole country. Can a company walk into Britain and plan the cynical sacking of innocent men and women to cut costs and be allowed to get away with it? I say no.”
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber told the meeting: “I sense the British public share our outrage about what has happened. For a company in Britain today to say ‘you are sacked and you are sacked and you are sacked …’ – that is not the way we do business. If this dispute is not resolved, that message will just not just go around this country but around the world.”
Local Labour MPs John McDonnell, Anne Keen and Piara Khabra are backing the sacked workers, many of who are facing serious financial hardship.
The root of the problem lies in Britain’s anti-trade union laws, dating back to the Thatcher era, which forbid solidarity strikes and prevent the unions defending the workers effectively.
The Blair government is also blocking the implementation of the European Union’s “Agency Workers Directive” which would provide temporary workers with same pay and conditions as permanent staff.
Trade unions throughout the EU have been lobbying hard to get this law approved.
If enacted, companies like Gate Gourmet would no longer be able to use agency staff as cheap labour at the expense of full time workers.
The mystery of the missing footage
LONDON Underground managers and police officers last week clashed over the disappearance of crucial CCTV footage at Stockwell station on the afternoon of 22nd July, when the innocent Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes was shot and killed by undercover police, who mistook him for a terrorist suspect.
Two Brazilian government officials arrived in London last Monday to conduct their own investigation after last week’s revelations that the police allowed a host of misleading and inaccurate versions of the events at Stockwell to prevail.
The leaks came from the investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Authority (IPCC) and show that, far from fleeing the police and vaulting the ticket barrier, Menezes, unaware that police were tracking him, entered the station calmly, took up a free newspaper, used his oyster card to go through the ticket barrier normally and walked on to the train normally.
He was not wearing a padded jacket but a light denim jacket on that hot day and police had overpowered him before he was shot eight times in the head and shoulder.
Yet just hours after the shooting Metropolitan Police chief Sir Ian Blair told the world’s press the misleading stories about a hot pursuit into the Tube station, the ticket barrier being vaulted and the padded jacket that might have concealed a suicide bomb.
Now Sir Ian Blair says he was not even told that his officers had shot the wrong man until 24 hours after the event.
Police are denying a cover up but the disappearance of the CCTV footage is all the more damning.
A police document states that none of the cameras at the scene of the shooting were working on 22nd July. They told the IPCC that the cameras in the station and on the train were not operating on that day. This is totally at odds with what the Tube station manager says and the company that operates the station – Tubelines.
The police written statement says: “Stockwell station and environs has been surveyed and all existing CCTV has been seized.
“During the course of this it has been established that although there was onboard CCTV in the train, due to previous incidents the hard drive has been removed and not replaced.
“It has also been established that there has been a technical problem with the CCTV equipment on the relevant platform and no footage exists.”
Since then Tubelines has told the press: “We are not aware of any faults on CCTV cameras at that station on that day. Nothing of that nature has been reported to us.”
However one union official pointed out that Met officers had emptied the cameras the day before, in order to investigate the failed 21st July attempted bombings.
The Tubelines report says that Jean de Menezes would have passed eight cameras – two in the station entrance pointing at the ticket barrier, another two at different points on the escalator and another at the bottom. More cameras at each end of the platform would also have caught him on film.
Meanwhile, from his holiday resort in Barbados, Prime Minister Tony Blair is giving full support to Sir Ian Blair.
But former Cabinet Minister Clare Short said that it was now clear the public had been misled about the shooting. “We’ve been lied to. This should be bigger than just calling for Sir Ian Blair to go. We need to find out exactly what happened. Who was telling us the lies?”
Two Brazilian government officials arrived in London last Monday to conduct their own investigation after last week’s revelations that the police allowed a host of misleading and inaccurate versions of the events at Stockwell to prevail.
The leaks came from the investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Authority (IPCC) and show that, far from fleeing the police and vaulting the ticket barrier, Menezes, unaware that police were tracking him, entered the station calmly, took up a free newspaper, used his oyster card to go through the ticket barrier normally and walked on to the train normally.
He was not wearing a padded jacket but a light denim jacket on that hot day and police had overpowered him before he was shot eight times in the head and shoulder.
Yet just hours after the shooting Metropolitan Police chief Sir Ian Blair told the world’s press the misleading stories about a hot pursuit into the Tube station, the ticket barrier being vaulted and the padded jacket that might have concealed a suicide bomb.
Now Sir Ian Blair says he was not even told that his officers had shot the wrong man until 24 hours after the event.
Police are denying a cover up but the disappearance of the CCTV footage is all the more damning.
A police document states that none of the cameras at the scene of the shooting were working on 22nd July. They told the IPCC that the cameras in the station and on the train were not operating on that day. This is totally at odds with what the Tube station manager says and the company that operates the station – Tubelines.
The police written statement says: “Stockwell station and environs has been surveyed and all existing CCTV has been seized.
“During the course of this it has been established that although there was onboard CCTV in the train, due to previous incidents the hard drive has been removed and not replaced.
“It has also been established that there has been a technical problem with the CCTV equipment on the relevant platform and no footage exists.”
Since then Tubelines has told the press: “We are not aware of any faults on CCTV cameras at that station on that day. Nothing of that nature has been reported to us.”
However one union official pointed out that Met officers had emptied the cameras the day before, in order to investigate the failed 21st July attempted bombings.
The Tubelines report says that Jean de Menezes would have passed eight cameras – two in the station entrance pointing at the ticket barrier, another two at different points on the escalator and another at the bottom. More cameras at each end of the platform would also have caught him on film.
Meanwhile, from his holiday resort in Barbados, Prime Minister Tony Blair is giving full support to Sir Ian Blair.
But former Cabinet Minister Clare Short said that it was now clear the public had been misled about the shooting. “We’ve been lied to. This should be bigger than just calling for Sir Ian Blair to go. We need to find out exactly what happened. Who was telling us the lies?”
TGWU to sue Stratford food company
AMBALA, a food company based in Stratford, east London, faces legal action over claims that it mistreated workers during a pay dispute earlier this year.
The Transport and General Workers’ Union (TGWU) has instructed lawyers to prepare a case against Ambala Foods in Bridgewater Road.
Staff at the factory, which produces hand-made Indian sweets, started a series of one-day weekly walkouts in April in protest at a two-year pay freeze.
Many workers earn just above the minimum wage for skilled, labour-intensive work. The dispute soured when two part-time workers said they were sacked for taking part in the strikes and the company claimed non-striking staff suffered harassment.
TGWU officer Bill Hodge said lawyers were preparing a case against the company over terms of employment and matters arising from the dispute.
The company claims that it is willing to negotiate with the TGWU. It says that workers are paid on average £7 an hour and that no one is paid less than the Government minimum wage. It also claims that it cannot afford to increase wages.
“If we increased the pay then the company would not make any profit. If the company’s earnings and productivity improved then wages, which currently run at 35 per cent of total revenue would improve,” said one company spokesperson.
Bill Hodge said: “There are a number of areas where we believe that the employer has acted unlawfully in the treatment of members of the TGWU union employed at Ambala.
“We have instructed lawyers to examine matters closely and make an application to the employment tribunal on behalf of those affected.
“This company has some of the worst employment processes I have experienced in the last 20 years. However, previous attempts to secure the interests of our members have been to no avail. Therefore we are obliged to take the final course of action available to us.”
Dinner ladies victory
THE GMB union has won sizable compensation for 17 dinner ladies employed by the London Borough of Brent in an out of court settlement against school meals private contractors Scolarest and Caterhouse Limited.
The women called on their trade union GMB for help when Brent’s schools meals contract was awarded to Scholarest and Caterhouse private contractors and the women’s right to keep their jobs while transferring to their employment contracts to the new employers was questioned by the private contractors.
Mary Turner, GMB National President and former dinner lady, will be presenting the cheque to the women on Thursday, along with GMB Organiser Tony Warr outside Brent town hall.
Anita Vadgama of Thompsons solicitors took the case on for GMB members.
GMB national president Mary Turner said: “GMB has won justice for these women who provide a vital service to the children and parents of Brent and who’s right to continue to do so was questioned by private contractors watching out for their profit margins.”
The Transport and General Workers’ Union (TGWU) has instructed lawyers to prepare a case against Ambala Foods in Bridgewater Road.
Staff at the factory, which produces hand-made Indian sweets, started a series of one-day weekly walkouts in April in protest at a two-year pay freeze.
Many workers earn just above the minimum wage for skilled, labour-intensive work. The dispute soured when two part-time workers said they were sacked for taking part in the strikes and the company claimed non-striking staff suffered harassment.
TGWU officer Bill Hodge said lawyers were preparing a case against the company over terms of employment and matters arising from the dispute.
The company claims that it is willing to negotiate with the TGWU. It says that workers are paid on average £7 an hour and that no one is paid less than the Government minimum wage. It also claims that it cannot afford to increase wages.
“If we increased the pay then the company would not make any profit. If the company’s earnings and productivity improved then wages, which currently run at 35 per cent of total revenue would improve,” said one company spokesperson.
Bill Hodge said: “There are a number of areas where we believe that the employer has acted unlawfully in the treatment of members of the TGWU union employed at Ambala.
“We have instructed lawyers to examine matters closely and make an application to the employment tribunal on behalf of those affected.
“This company has some of the worst employment processes I have experienced in the last 20 years. However, previous attempts to secure the interests of our members have been to no avail. Therefore we are obliged to take the final course of action available to us.”
Dinner ladies victory
THE GMB union has won sizable compensation for 17 dinner ladies employed by the London Borough of Brent in an out of court settlement against school meals private contractors Scolarest and Caterhouse Limited.
The women called on their trade union GMB for help when Brent’s schools meals contract was awarded to Scholarest and Caterhouse private contractors and the women’s right to keep their jobs while transferring to their employment contracts to the new employers was questioned by the private contractors.
Mary Turner, GMB National President and former dinner lady, will be presenting the cheque to the women on Thursday, along with GMB Organiser Tony Warr outside Brent town hall.
Anita Vadgama of Thompsons solicitors took the case on for GMB members.
GMB national president Mary Turner said: “GMB has won justice for these women who provide a vital service to the children and parents of Brent and who’s right to continue to do so was questioned by private contractors watching out for their profit margins.”
Friday, August 19, 2005
What's New on London Communists?
Our Communist Heritage
Four new entries including the pub that Lenin used; streets named after Lenin and Marx;Brixton prison and British communists on stamps.
Ernie Trory Books
Three essays by Ernie added.
More New Worker reports and archive at:
The New Worker Online digest
Four new entries including the pub that Lenin used; streets named after Lenin and Marx;Brixton prison and British communists on stamps.
Ernie Trory Books
Three essays by Ernie added.
More New Worker reports and archive at:
The New Worker Online digest
Irreconcilable differences
BRITISH AIRWAYS services from Heathrow Airport last weekend were brought to a standstill by an unofficial walkout by baggage handlers in solidarity with the sacked catering workers at Gateway Gourmet, the American-owned company that supplies in-flight meals to BA.
The reaction was spontaneous at the appalling and provocative way the Gateway Gourmet workers had been treated. The company had long been in financial trouble and had been locked in negotiations with the Transport and General Workers’ Union over redundancies.
In the middle of these negotiations the company introduced 130 new temporary seasonal workers – on lower wages and reduced conditions. No wonder the Gateway Gourmet workers were shocked. If the company needed extra workers, why was it trying to make redundant the workers it already had?
It was all part of a carefully worked out plan to sack the entire current workforce and take on instead a new workforce at much reduced wages and conditions. The workers, as expected, stopped working. While in the company car park they were told by megaphone that they had 20 minutes to return to their posts or be sacked. The message was garbled and many did not hear or realise what was happening.
The company then sacked its entire staff, including those on holiday or off sick, on the grounds that they were taking part in an “illegal strike”. The sacking notices had been prepared beforehand, as had the new lower-paid workforce.
Then the Daily Mirror published a leaked company memo, revealing that a year ago Gateway Gourmet had planned exactly such a manoeuvre to provoke its workers into a strike in order to sack the lot and replace them with a cheaper workforce. The chances of such a strike spreading within the airport had been recognised but discounted.
As news of the company’s cynical tactics spread, solidarity has poured in for the workers from all around the globe. The irony is that in Britain, the TGWU is barred by law from supporting the strike by the Gateway Gourmet workers and the spontaneous solidarity action by the baggage handlers. All the union can do is to act as a go-between, trying to negotiate a settlement and it must dissociate itself from the strike – or face bankruptcy.
This case like no other illustrates how Britain’s anti-trade union laws allow outrageous employers to walk all over the workforce. The company claims it wants to get rid of “outdated 1970s working practices” – meaning workers having any rights at all. They seek to replace 1970s working practices with the “master and servant” laws of the 18th century.
TGWU general secretary Tony Woodley calls for the repeal of the anti-union laws that breach the conventions of the International Labour Organisation – to which Britain is a signatory. Our working class has fewer freedoms and trade union rights than those in Europe or the United States and bosses take advantage.
Woodley goes on to say that this case highlights the dangers of the contracting out culture where large “respected” companies like BA sub-contract work they used to do themselves to cowboy companies like Gateway Gourmet who will cut wages and conditions to a bare minimum using the most outrageous manoeuvres but allowing BA to pretend the dispute is outside of its control.
But Woodley also says that repealing the anti-union laws will improve workplace relations and this will benefit everyone involved.
He’s wrong. Like many other social democrats he rejects the concept that there is an irreconcilable difference between what is good for the bosses and what is good for the workers. He tries to appeal to the better nature of the capitalists, asking them to recognise that solidarity and collective bargaining is a natural impulse for workers. The employers know it only too well, which is why they ban it if they can.
This is a class war. The contradiction between the interests of the bosses and the interests of the workers is the fundamental driving force that will eventually lead to the overthrow of capitalism.
The bosses know it and our trade union leaders should know it too. It is a no-holds-barred war. Asking nicely is not good enough. The organised working class must be organised strongly enough to be in a position to demand or it will always be weak and outmanoeuvred by greedy bosses.
The reaction was spontaneous at the appalling and provocative way the Gateway Gourmet workers had been treated. The company had long been in financial trouble and had been locked in negotiations with the Transport and General Workers’ Union over redundancies.
In the middle of these negotiations the company introduced 130 new temporary seasonal workers – on lower wages and reduced conditions. No wonder the Gateway Gourmet workers were shocked. If the company needed extra workers, why was it trying to make redundant the workers it already had?
It was all part of a carefully worked out plan to sack the entire current workforce and take on instead a new workforce at much reduced wages and conditions. The workers, as expected, stopped working. While in the company car park they were told by megaphone that they had 20 minutes to return to their posts or be sacked. The message was garbled and many did not hear or realise what was happening.
The company then sacked its entire staff, including those on holiday or off sick, on the grounds that they were taking part in an “illegal strike”. The sacking notices had been prepared beforehand, as had the new lower-paid workforce.
Then the Daily Mirror published a leaked company memo, revealing that a year ago Gateway Gourmet had planned exactly such a manoeuvre to provoke its workers into a strike in order to sack the lot and replace them with a cheaper workforce. The chances of such a strike spreading within the airport had been recognised but discounted.
As news of the company’s cynical tactics spread, solidarity has poured in for the workers from all around the globe. The irony is that in Britain, the TGWU is barred by law from supporting the strike by the Gateway Gourmet workers and the spontaneous solidarity action by the baggage handlers. All the union can do is to act as a go-between, trying to negotiate a settlement and it must dissociate itself from the strike – or face bankruptcy.
This case like no other illustrates how Britain’s anti-trade union laws allow outrageous employers to walk all over the workforce. The company claims it wants to get rid of “outdated 1970s working practices” – meaning workers having any rights at all. They seek to replace 1970s working practices with the “master and servant” laws of the 18th century.
TGWU general secretary Tony Woodley calls for the repeal of the anti-union laws that breach the conventions of the International Labour Organisation – to which Britain is a signatory. Our working class has fewer freedoms and trade union rights than those in Europe or the United States and bosses take advantage.
Woodley goes on to say that this case highlights the dangers of the contracting out culture where large “respected” companies like BA sub-contract work they used to do themselves to cowboy companies like Gateway Gourmet who will cut wages and conditions to a bare minimum using the most outrageous manoeuvres but allowing BA to pretend the dispute is outside of its control.
But Woodley also says that repealing the anti-union laws will improve workplace relations and this will benefit everyone involved.
He’s wrong. Like many other social democrats he rejects the concept that there is an irreconcilable difference between what is good for the bosses and what is good for the workers. He tries to appeal to the better nature of the capitalists, asking them to recognise that solidarity and collective bargaining is a natural impulse for workers. The employers know it only too well, which is why they ban it if they can.
This is a class war. The contradiction between the interests of the bosses and the interests of the workers is the fundamental driving force that will eventually lead to the overthrow of capitalism.
The bosses know it and our trade union leaders should know it too. It is a no-holds-barred war. Asking nicely is not good enough. The organised working class must be organised strongly enough to be in a position to demand or it will always be weak and outmanoeuvred by greedy bosses.
America’s obligation to Vietnam
by Rob Laurie
A JOINT delegation lead by Len Aldis, Secretary of the British Vietnam Friendship Society, which included Dr Madeline Sharp of Medical and Scientific Aid for Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia Aid (MSAVLA), recently held talks with the United States Embassy in London to appeal for the United States Government to assist Vietnamese in overcoming a particularly tragic legacy of America’s war in Vietnam.
Unexploded ammunition, in particular landmines are a common hazard in many former war zones. But Vietnam suffers from even graver problems. It is 30 years since American forces were forced out in 1975. In the course of the war over three million Vietnamese people lost their lives. As if the injuries of the survivors were not enough, a new generation is paying the penalty for America’s war of aggression.
During the 21 years of the war the US forces sprayed a total of 82,000,000 litres of the defoliant Agent Orange over vast areas of South Vietnam to deny forest cover to the Vietnamese resistance. The barren hills of southern Vietnam are testimony of the effectiveness of this poison.
Agent Orange has left a dreadful legacy. Environmentalists say that it will take 150 years to even begin to restore the forests, but the human legacy is even more devastating.
Shortly after the war there were many children born with horrific deformities. Today this is being repeated as children born to parents who themselves were not even born during the war have defects. Vietnam has the highest number of conjoined twins in the world today while cancer rates are very high. Medical opinion has not yet established if this is a result of a genetic mutation or if it is caused by Agent Orange entering the food chain. It has been clearly established by many scientists including those in the American National Academy of Sciences that Agent Orange is responsible for such widespread illnesses and defects.
Soldiers and their families from America’s allies in Australia, New Zealand and south Korea have also suffered. Many American veterans including Colin Powell have suffered from the effects of Agent Orange. They have been compensated following the 1996 announcement by President Clinton to pay compensation to the American Vietnam veterans “to ease the suffering our nation unintentionally caused its own sons and daughters by exposing them to Agent Orange in Vietnam”.
It was unfortunate that at the time no mention was made of the sons and daughters of Vietnam exposed to Agent Orange.
While the Vietnamese government and Red Cross do what they can the only overseas support comes for charities such as the MSAVLA and an International Friendship Village in Vietnam founded by an American veteran to provide sheltered accommodation and workshops for victims.
At the London meeting the delegation urged George W Bush, who is visiting Vietnam, to see for himself the consequences of Agent Orange and to provide adequate compensation to the victims. A letter to this effect was handed over to the incoming Ambassador. Anyone wishing to support this campaign can sign the online petition at www.petitiononline.com/AOVN/
This now has 690,000 signatures from across the globe. Labour MP Harry Cohen has put down an Early Day Motion (605) calling for the United Nations to make 10th August, the day Agent Orange was first used an International day for Victims of Chemical Weapons.
* Protesters from the Alliance of Patriots for the Re-foundation of the Congo
(APARECO) and the African Liberation Support Campaign (ALISC) last Wednesday mounted a demonstration outside the heavily fortified United States Embassy in London’s Grosvenor Square. They were protesting against the invasion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire, and earlier the Belgian Congo) by Rwanda. This invasion is effectively supported by George W Bush and his sidekick Tony Blair who are arming Rwanda in order to further their neo-colonialist struggle to secure control of Congo’s huge mineral wealth which includes gold and diamonds.
Over four million people have died in the war in the Congo; this is only one of many proxy wars in Africa by which arms companies in the imperialist countries grow rich by selling weapons to their stooges.
A JOINT delegation lead by Len Aldis, Secretary of the British Vietnam Friendship Society, which included Dr Madeline Sharp of Medical and Scientific Aid for Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia Aid (MSAVLA), recently held talks with the United States Embassy in London to appeal for the United States Government to assist Vietnamese in overcoming a particularly tragic legacy of America’s war in Vietnam.
Unexploded ammunition, in particular landmines are a common hazard in many former war zones. But Vietnam suffers from even graver problems. It is 30 years since American forces were forced out in 1975. In the course of the war over three million Vietnamese people lost their lives. As if the injuries of the survivors were not enough, a new generation is paying the penalty for America’s war of aggression.
During the 21 years of the war the US forces sprayed a total of 82,000,000 litres of the defoliant Agent Orange over vast areas of South Vietnam to deny forest cover to the Vietnamese resistance. The barren hills of southern Vietnam are testimony of the effectiveness of this poison.
Agent Orange has left a dreadful legacy. Environmentalists say that it will take 150 years to even begin to restore the forests, but the human legacy is even more devastating.
Shortly after the war there were many children born with horrific deformities. Today this is being repeated as children born to parents who themselves were not even born during the war have defects. Vietnam has the highest number of conjoined twins in the world today while cancer rates are very high. Medical opinion has not yet established if this is a result of a genetic mutation or if it is caused by Agent Orange entering the food chain. It has been clearly established by many scientists including those in the American National Academy of Sciences that Agent Orange is responsible for such widespread illnesses and defects.
Soldiers and their families from America’s allies in Australia, New Zealand and south Korea have also suffered. Many American veterans including Colin Powell have suffered from the effects of Agent Orange. They have been compensated following the 1996 announcement by President Clinton to pay compensation to the American Vietnam veterans “to ease the suffering our nation unintentionally caused its own sons and daughters by exposing them to Agent Orange in Vietnam”.
It was unfortunate that at the time no mention was made of the sons and daughters of Vietnam exposed to Agent Orange.
While the Vietnamese government and Red Cross do what they can the only overseas support comes for charities such as the MSAVLA and an International Friendship Village in Vietnam founded by an American veteran to provide sheltered accommodation and workshops for victims.
At the London meeting the delegation urged George W Bush, who is visiting Vietnam, to see for himself the consequences of Agent Orange and to provide adequate compensation to the victims. A letter to this effect was handed over to the incoming Ambassador. Anyone wishing to support this campaign can sign the online petition at www.petitiononline.com/AOVN/
This now has 690,000 signatures from across the globe. Labour MP Harry Cohen has put down an Early Day Motion (605) calling for the United Nations to make 10th August, the day Agent Orange was first used an International day for Victims of Chemical Weapons.
* Protesters from the Alliance of Patriots for the Re-foundation of the Congo
(APARECO) and the African Liberation Support Campaign (ALISC) last Wednesday mounted a demonstration outside the heavily fortified United States Embassy in London’s Grosvenor Square. They were protesting against the invasion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire, and earlier the Belgian Congo) by Rwanda. This invasion is effectively supported by George W Bush and his sidekick Tony Blair who are arming Rwanda in order to further their neo-colonialist struggle to secure control of Congo’s huge mineral wealth which includes gold and diamonds.
Over four million people have died in the war in the Congo; this is only one of many proxy wars in Africa by which arms companies in the imperialist countries grow rich by selling weapons to their stooges.
Cowboy caterer faces collapse
by Caroline Colebrook
GATEWAY Gourmet (GG), the American owned company at the centre of the strike that paralysed British Airways services from Heathrow Airport last weekend, is likely to lose its contract with BA after the Daily Mirror published evidence that the company had deliberately provoked the strike.
The evidence took the form of a leaked internal company memo from a year ago planning to provoke just such a strike. It detailed six steps:
1) recruit, train and check drivers;
2) announce the company’s intention to the trade union;
3) provoke a strike;
4) sack the current workforce;
5) escort them off the premises;
6) replace them with new staff.
BA is likely to lose £40 million because of last weekend’s strike and, like many other airline businesses, it has been struggling financially in recent years.
This is why a few years ago it sold off its own in-house catering concern to GG, a cowboy company – part of the Texas Pacific Group – that uses American union-busting techniques to drive down wages and conditions of food preparation workers.
The company is already embroiled in industrial disputes in the US, where it is using similar techniques to try to break unions and drive down costs and maximise profits.
The contract with BA was unrealistic and the London wing of GG was losing around £25 million a year. It told the unions it was in deep trouble and there had to be redundancies.
The Transport and General Workers’ Union was negotiating staff cuts with the management. The union argued that the pain of job cuts should be shared by workforce and management.
angered
So the company promptly promoted some workers to management level and then made them redundant. This dodge angered the union but did not in itself cause a strike.
Nor did the $10 million birthday party staged by David Bonderman, the American boss of GG – while telling the workers they must face cuts.
Then the company produced 130 new seasonal workers – while it was arguing that redundancies were necessary.
The workforce was outraged and spontaneously downed tools. Management declared the unofficial walk-out an illegal strike and sacked the entire workforce of nearly 800 workers – by megaphone message while most were assembled in the car park.
They then expelled the workforce from the premises and barred them from returning.
Those who could not hear clearly did not realise they were being sacked. The sacking applied also to those on holiday of off sick – though the company has since retreated a little on this.
The workers – many of them women – were mainly from the Asian community of west London, which supplies much of the workforce for the entire airport.
sympathy
Baggage handlers employed by BA were so outraged they walked out in sympathy with the catering workers, bringing BA services to a halt.
One of the women workers said: “I work for Gate Gourmet but some of my relatives are baggage handlers. I am very proud of the fight we are showing. They treated us terribly. We were held in the canteen for hours then they just pushed us out of the building. I worked there for six years. I think they have made a big mistake.”
The union held a solidarity meeting on Saturday in Southall Community Centre. It was packed by around 1,000 supporters of the sacked workers. TGWU national officer Brendan Gold said: “The meeting was a real demonstration of community solidarity, with scores of women dressed in traditional colourful saris, many of them bouncing their children on their knees, but wondering quietly what future they would have if they did not fight back against this injustice.”
hopeful
Shop steward Mrs Attwal said: “The sacked workers and their families have been very encouraged by the meeting. They want to go back to work and feel hopeful.
“They have been devastated by this week’s events. One husband and wife who both work for Gate Gourmet described how they are now so very worried about paying their mortgage. People are very upset but determined that we will go back to work.”
Since then the TGWU has negotiated a return to work by the baggage handlers and has been engaged in talks with GG at the arbitration service Acas over the fate of the GG workers.
The latest report indicates that GG is now ready to reinstate most of the sacked workers but is refusing to take back union activists. But the union is insisting that all sacked workers are taken back and the talks have broken down.
BA has intervened with a public claim that it offered GG a more generous contract in mid-July that would have dealt with the company’s financial problems and given it long-term stability until 2010.
Meanwhile messages of support and solidarity have been arriving from the international trade union movement, including from the Teamsters in America who are also fighting GG.
GATEWAY Gourmet (GG), the American owned company at the centre of the strike that paralysed British Airways services from Heathrow Airport last weekend, is likely to lose its contract with BA after the Daily Mirror published evidence that the company had deliberately provoked the strike.
The evidence took the form of a leaked internal company memo from a year ago planning to provoke just such a strike. It detailed six steps:
1) recruit, train and check drivers;
2) announce the company’s intention to the trade union;
3) provoke a strike;
4) sack the current workforce;
5) escort them off the premises;
6) replace them with new staff.
BA is likely to lose £40 million because of last weekend’s strike and, like many other airline businesses, it has been struggling financially in recent years.
This is why a few years ago it sold off its own in-house catering concern to GG, a cowboy company – part of the Texas Pacific Group – that uses American union-busting techniques to drive down wages and conditions of food preparation workers.
The company is already embroiled in industrial disputes in the US, where it is using similar techniques to try to break unions and drive down costs and maximise profits.
The contract with BA was unrealistic and the London wing of GG was losing around £25 million a year. It told the unions it was in deep trouble and there had to be redundancies.
The Transport and General Workers’ Union was negotiating staff cuts with the management. The union argued that the pain of job cuts should be shared by workforce and management.
angered
So the company promptly promoted some workers to management level and then made them redundant. This dodge angered the union but did not in itself cause a strike.
Nor did the $10 million birthday party staged by David Bonderman, the American boss of GG – while telling the workers they must face cuts.
Then the company produced 130 new seasonal workers – while it was arguing that redundancies were necessary.
The workforce was outraged and spontaneously downed tools. Management declared the unofficial walk-out an illegal strike and sacked the entire workforce of nearly 800 workers – by megaphone message while most were assembled in the car park.
They then expelled the workforce from the premises and barred them from returning.
Those who could not hear clearly did not realise they were being sacked. The sacking applied also to those on holiday of off sick – though the company has since retreated a little on this.
The workers – many of them women – were mainly from the Asian community of west London, which supplies much of the workforce for the entire airport.
sympathy
Baggage handlers employed by BA were so outraged they walked out in sympathy with the catering workers, bringing BA services to a halt.
One of the women workers said: “I work for Gate Gourmet but some of my relatives are baggage handlers. I am very proud of the fight we are showing. They treated us terribly. We were held in the canteen for hours then they just pushed us out of the building. I worked there for six years. I think they have made a big mistake.”
The union held a solidarity meeting on Saturday in Southall Community Centre. It was packed by around 1,000 supporters of the sacked workers. TGWU national officer Brendan Gold said: “The meeting was a real demonstration of community solidarity, with scores of women dressed in traditional colourful saris, many of them bouncing their children on their knees, but wondering quietly what future they would have if they did not fight back against this injustice.”
hopeful
Shop steward Mrs Attwal said: “The sacked workers and their families have been very encouraged by the meeting. They want to go back to work and feel hopeful.
“They have been devastated by this week’s events. One husband and wife who both work for Gate Gourmet described how they are now so very worried about paying their mortgage. People are very upset but determined that we will go back to work.”
Since then the TGWU has negotiated a return to work by the baggage handlers and has been engaged in talks with GG at the arbitration service Acas over the fate of the GG workers.
The latest report indicates that GG is now ready to reinstate most of the sacked workers but is refusing to take back union activists. But the union is insisting that all sacked workers are taken back and the talks have broken down.
BA has intervened with a public claim that it offered GG a more generous contract in mid-July that would have dealt with the company’s financial problems and given it long-term stability until 2010.
Meanwhile messages of support and solidarity have been arriving from the international trade union movement, including from the Teamsters in America who are also fighting GG.
Police shoot to kill fiasco
by Daphne Liddle
THE REPUTATION of London’s anti-terrorist police is in shreds after leaked documents from an inquiry by the Independent Police Complaints Commission show that the innocent young Brazilian shot at Stockwell Tube station on 22nd July had been overpowered and held by police before being shot eight times.
The documents leaked to ITN last Tuesday also exploded many myths that have grown around the shooting.
The tragedy began when officers from the CO19 firearms squad were watching a block of flats in Scotia Road, Tulse Hill in south London. They were looking for Osman Hussein, a man suspected of involvement in the failed Tube bombings of the previous day.
Under the exceptional circumstances they had been given permission to shoot to kill if necessary – that is to say if they thought their suspect was likely to detonate a suicide bomb at any moment, endangering public safety.
But they were told that it would be preferable to apprehend him before he had a chance to get on to any public transport.
mistook
When Jean Charles de Menezes appeared from the flats they mistook him for their target. One of the officers designated to confirm identity was away relieving himself at the time but it is not known if this made any significant difference to the events that followed.
Menezes took a bus to Stockwell Tube station and entered the station, totally unaware that he was being followed by police.
He walked at a normal speed, picking up a free paper on the way. At the bottom of the escalator he began to run – to catch a train waiting at the platform.
He boarded the train and sat down. Armed plain clothes police then burst into the carriage. One witness said they heard shouting, including the word police as the police turned towards Menezes.
One police officer told the inquiry: “He immediately stood up and advanced towards me and the CO19 officers … I grabbed the male in the denim jacket by wrapping both my arms around his torso, pinning his arms to his side. I then pushed him back into the seat where he had previously been sitting … I then heard a gunshot very close to my left ear and was dragged away on to the floor of the carriage [by his colleagues].”
Menezes fell on the floor where another 10 shots were fired, seven of them into his head and three missed.
It soon turned out they had got the wrong man. And that’s when a whole string of myths were fostered by police that might make their mistake seem less culpable.
Sir Ian Blair, chief of the Metropolitan Police, told the media that he had been told Menezes had been wearing a suspicious padded jacket with wires attached, that he had fled his pursuers onto the Tube, vaulting a ticket barrier on the way.
suspicions
“His clothing and behaviour added to our suspicions,” he told the press.
It could be this myth arose from a witness report who saw a plain clothes police officer vaulting the ticket barrier and mistook him for the target.
But Sir Ian Blair was happy to let this myth flourish and later add to it that Menezes may have run because his visa to stay in this country had run out – which was totally untrue. Blair also delayed the IPCC inquiry while the attempted bombings on 21st July were investigated.
It later emerged that while the police were shooting Menezes, the real Osman Hussein left the country on the Eurostar from Waterloo – unchallenged. He is now being held in Rome pending extradition proceedings.
The family of Menezes are calling for murder charges to be brought against the police involved. His cousin Alex Alvez Pereira said: “the officers who have done this have to be sent to jail for life because it’s murder and the people who gave them the order to shoot must be punished. We won’t rest until we have justice, even if it takes years.”
THE REPUTATION of London’s anti-terrorist police is in shreds after leaked documents from an inquiry by the Independent Police Complaints Commission show that the innocent young Brazilian shot at Stockwell Tube station on 22nd July had been overpowered and held by police before being shot eight times.
The documents leaked to ITN last Tuesday also exploded many myths that have grown around the shooting.
The tragedy began when officers from the CO19 firearms squad were watching a block of flats in Scotia Road, Tulse Hill in south London. They were looking for Osman Hussein, a man suspected of involvement in the failed Tube bombings of the previous day.
Under the exceptional circumstances they had been given permission to shoot to kill if necessary – that is to say if they thought their suspect was likely to detonate a suicide bomb at any moment, endangering public safety.
But they were told that it would be preferable to apprehend him before he had a chance to get on to any public transport.
mistook
When Jean Charles de Menezes appeared from the flats they mistook him for their target. One of the officers designated to confirm identity was away relieving himself at the time but it is not known if this made any significant difference to the events that followed.
Menezes took a bus to Stockwell Tube station and entered the station, totally unaware that he was being followed by police.
He walked at a normal speed, picking up a free paper on the way. At the bottom of the escalator he began to run – to catch a train waiting at the platform.
He boarded the train and sat down. Armed plain clothes police then burst into the carriage. One witness said they heard shouting, including the word police as the police turned towards Menezes.
One police officer told the inquiry: “He immediately stood up and advanced towards me and the CO19 officers … I grabbed the male in the denim jacket by wrapping both my arms around his torso, pinning his arms to his side. I then pushed him back into the seat where he had previously been sitting … I then heard a gunshot very close to my left ear and was dragged away on to the floor of the carriage [by his colleagues].”
Menezes fell on the floor where another 10 shots were fired, seven of them into his head and three missed.
It soon turned out they had got the wrong man. And that’s when a whole string of myths were fostered by police that might make their mistake seem less culpable.
Sir Ian Blair, chief of the Metropolitan Police, told the media that he had been told Menezes had been wearing a suspicious padded jacket with wires attached, that he had fled his pursuers onto the Tube, vaulting a ticket barrier on the way.
suspicions
“His clothing and behaviour added to our suspicions,” he told the press.
It could be this myth arose from a witness report who saw a plain clothes police officer vaulting the ticket barrier and mistook him for the target.
But Sir Ian Blair was happy to let this myth flourish and later add to it that Menezes may have run because his visa to stay in this country had run out – which was totally untrue. Blair also delayed the IPCC inquiry while the attempted bombings on 21st July were investigated.
It later emerged that while the police were shooting Menezes, the real Osman Hussein left the country on the Eurostar from Waterloo – unchallenged. He is now being held in Rome pending extradition proceedings.
The family of Menezes are calling for murder charges to be brought against the police involved. His cousin Alex Alvez Pereira said: “the officers who have done this have to be sent to jail for life because it’s murder and the people who gave them the order to shoot must be punished. We won’t rest until we have justice, even if it takes years.”
Friday, August 12, 2005
ROBIN COOK
Robin Cook
1946–2005
THE UNTIMELY DEATH of the Scottish MP Robin Cook last weekend has been a bitter blow to the parliamentary opposition to the invasion and occupation of Iraq and a personal tragedy to his friends and relations.
Cook originally entered the House of Commons in 1974 with left social-democratic credentials and he soon won a reputation for himself as a skilful parliamentary debater. A member of the Tribune group, he was a supporter of unilateral nuclear disarmament and an outspoken critic of the right-wing policies of the 1970s Labour governments led by Harold Wilson and James Callaghan.
These pacifist and “left” views were soon forgotten as Cook gravitated more and more towards the dominant right-wing bloc during the long period when Labour was out of office, aligning himself first with Neil Kinnock, then John Smith and finally ending up as a supporter of Tony Blair and his “New Labour” project. His reward was the Foreign Ministry when Labour won the 1997 general election.
He was a mediocre Foreign Secretary who tried to pass off the stale old aggressive policies of British imperialism as “ethical” and “independent” while his initiatives over Palestine and Kashmir failed because they simply did not have the blessing of US imperialism.
Cook was a keen supporter of integration within the European Union and had no problems in endorsing the attack on Yugoslavia or the criminal blockade of Iraq when these policies were also those of France and Germany. But Blair turned increasingly towards the most aggressive, venal and reactionary sections of the British ruling class: the war party who see their best interests served in exclusive alliance with US imperialism. Cook’s pro-European stance became an embarrassment and his demotion to Leader of the House was inevitable after Blair won another landslide victory for Labour in 2001.
Cook’s pro-European sentiments, essentially in support of those elements within the ruling class that aligned themselves with Franco-German imperialism, led to his isolation within the Blair Cabinet, though he remained publicly loyal up to the eve of the invasion, resigning on 17th March when it became clear that Blair was going to war without the fig-leaf United Nations mandate that France and Germany had denied him.
Cook put to shame those “left” posers who jumped on Blair’s band-wagon seeking fame and favour and betrayed the movement that had put them in Parliament in the first place by supporting and justifying the criminal onslaught against the Iraqi people. Cook ridiculed the claim that Saddam Hussein held weapons of mass destruction and he rallied a considerable number of Labour rebels against the war and stiffened the anti-war position of the Liberal Democrats and those pro-EU Tories like Kenneth Clarke who also spoke out against it.
Though never a part of the anti-war movement, Robin Cook will always be remembered for taking the principled stand in resigning from the Blair Cabinet in protest at the Government’s decision to join forces with the United States in the invasion of Iraq and for his later attempts to bring down the Blair government. In doing so he marched in step with the demands of millions of working people who want an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all British troops from Iraq. It is not surprising that at the last general election in May 2005 Cook was one of the few Labour MPs to actually increase his majority.
Like Kenneth Clarke, Robin Cook represented the alternative leadership the pro-European camp hoped would eventually triumph over Blair and the Tory Euro-sceptics. It may be some time before they can find some one else to step in Cook’s shoes.
On 6th August Robin Cook collapsed on rocky terrain while hill-walking on Ben Stack in Sutherland, Scotland. He was taken to Raigmore hospital in Inverness by helicopter where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The post-mortem revealed that he had died of hypertensive heart disease.
1946–2005
THE UNTIMELY DEATH of the Scottish MP Robin Cook last weekend has been a bitter blow to the parliamentary opposition to the invasion and occupation of Iraq and a personal tragedy to his friends and relations.
Cook originally entered the House of Commons in 1974 with left social-democratic credentials and he soon won a reputation for himself as a skilful parliamentary debater. A member of the Tribune group, he was a supporter of unilateral nuclear disarmament and an outspoken critic of the right-wing policies of the 1970s Labour governments led by Harold Wilson and James Callaghan.
These pacifist and “left” views were soon forgotten as Cook gravitated more and more towards the dominant right-wing bloc during the long period when Labour was out of office, aligning himself first with Neil Kinnock, then John Smith and finally ending up as a supporter of Tony Blair and his “New Labour” project. His reward was the Foreign Ministry when Labour won the 1997 general election.
He was a mediocre Foreign Secretary who tried to pass off the stale old aggressive policies of British imperialism as “ethical” and “independent” while his initiatives over Palestine and Kashmir failed because they simply did not have the blessing of US imperialism.
Cook was a keen supporter of integration within the European Union and had no problems in endorsing the attack on Yugoslavia or the criminal blockade of Iraq when these policies were also those of France and Germany. But Blair turned increasingly towards the most aggressive, venal and reactionary sections of the British ruling class: the war party who see their best interests served in exclusive alliance with US imperialism. Cook’s pro-European stance became an embarrassment and his demotion to Leader of the House was inevitable after Blair won another landslide victory for Labour in 2001.
Cook’s pro-European sentiments, essentially in support of those elements within the ruling class that aligned themselves with Franco-German imperialism, led to his isolation within the Blair Cabinet, though he remained publicly loyal up to the eve of the invasion, resigning on 17th March when it became clear that Blair was going to war without the fig-leaf United Nations mandate that France and Germany had denied him.
Cook put to shame those “left” posers who jumped on Blair’s band-wagon seeking fame and favour and betrayed the movement that had put them in Parliament in the first place by supporting and justifying the criminal onslaught against the Iraqi people. Cook ridiculed the claim that Saddam Hussein held weapons of mass destruction and he rallied a considerable number of Labour rebels against the war and stiffened the anti-war position of the Liberal Democrats and those pro-EU Tories like Kenneth Clarke who also spoke out against it.
Though never a part of the anti-war movement, Robin Cook will always be remembered for taking the principled stand in resigning from the Blair Cabinet in protest at the Government’s decision to join forces with the United States in the invasion of Iraq and for his later attempts to bring down the Blair government. In doing so he marched in step with the demands of millions of working people who want an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all British troops from Iraq. It is not surprising that at the last general election in May 2005 Cook was one of the few Labour MPs to actually increase his majority.
Like Kenneth Clarke, Robin Cook represented the alternative leadership the pro-European camp hoped would eventually triumph over Blair and the Tory Euro-sceptics. It may be some time before they can find some one else to step in Cook’s shoes.
On 6th August Robin Cook collapsed on rocky terrain while hill-walking on Ben Stack in Sutherland, Scotland. He was taken to Raigmore hospital in Inverness by helicopter where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The post-mortem revealed that he had died of hypertensive heart disease.
Dramatic rise in racist attacks
POLICE forces throughout Britain have recorded a steep rise in racist attacks since last month’s London bombings. Most are directed at Muslims though Sikhs, Hindus and Buddhists have also come under attack.
The Metropolitan Police reported a 600 per cent rise in faith-hate crimes compared to the same period last year. West Yorkshire and the West Midlands have seen similar rises. The level of attacks in south Yorkshire has just about doubled, from 48 in July 2004 to 137 this year. Nationally there has been a 24 per cent rise.
The Islamic Human Rights Commission says there is a growing feeling of fear among Muslims. Right-wing Tory MP Gerald Howarth added fuel to the flames by saying that extremist Muslims, even those born in Britain, should leave the country.
Speaking for the Muslim Association of Britain, Anas Altikriti replied: “Mr Howarth must realise that his own statement will have a real and serious bearing on the street. “There are people who will take his words and understand them in a particular way and this will induce further harm rather than good.”
Many blame the gutter press for stoking racial hatred in the wake of the bombings as they point out that a couple of the alleged bombing suspects had claimed benefits – as though that were also a crime comparable to bombing – and printing misleading opinion polls about the views of Muslims living in Britain.
For example, a Daily Telegraph piece claimed that “thirty-two per cent of British Muslims think western society is decadent and immoral and should be brought to an end” – failing to point out the final phrase “but only by non-violent means”, with which 31 per cent of respondents agreed. Only one per cent agreed with the final phrase “is necessary by violence”. Statisticians regard a figure of one per cent as meaningless.
Furthermore the paper failed to point out that a large proportion of the general non-Muslim population also agreed with the first statement.
violently
The neo-Nazi and racist organisations have reacted violently and aggressively; their websites urging members and supporters on to the streets to attack and assail Muslims. There have been several fascist marches and demonstrations directed against the Muslim community in Britain.
On Sunday 24th July, in the pouring rain, there were two separate fascist marches in West London, both targeted at the Regent’s Park Mosque. Around 200 members and supporters of the newly-formed United British Association assembled in the Hobgoblin pub in Balcombe Street, near Baker Street Tube, and set off at around 2pm, shepherded by hundreds of police. The group included football hooligans, former squaddies and Nazis. They carried just one flag and with no banners or placards, few passers-by had any clue who or what they were.
Police drew them to a halt several hundred yards away from the mosque and directed them to a specially prepared pen for them to conduct a small rally. They refused to enter the pen. Sharp words and gestures were exchanged with the police as they expressed their disappointment at not getting even within visual distance of the mosque. The stalemate lasted a long time as the rain continued to pour. Eventually the march turned around and headed back in the direction of Baker Street Tube.
As they did so, in the distance they could see the second march, organised by the National Front and about 20-strong.
The UBA march had one final humiliation. It had begun in a pub and after what seemed like ages hanging around in the rain, by the time they reached Baker Street Tube, many of them were desperate for access to a toilet.
There was no way the police were going to allow that many to abuse some back alley so they penned them in again and tried to negotiate with local pubs to allow them to use their facilities. The pubs, unsurprisingly, categorically refused. So the “hard men” of the hard right had to wait in discomfort.
Last Sunday ten members of the National Front tried to demonstrate in Crawley against a peaceful procession of local Muslims to their mosque. Police had them firmly hemmed in some distance from the procession.
The Metropolitan Police reported a 600 per cent rise in faith-hate crimes compared to the same period last year. West Yorkshire and the West Midlands have seen similar rises. The level of attacks in south Yorkshire has just about doubled, from 48 in July 2004 to 137 this year. Nationally there has been a 24 per cent rise.
The Islamic Human Rights Commission says there is a growing feeling of fear among Muslims. Right-wing Tory MP Gerald Howarth added fuel to the flames by saying that extremist Muslims, even those born in Britain, should leave the country.
Speaking for the Muslim Association of Britain, Anas Altikriti replied: “Mr Howarth must realise that his own statement will have a real and serious bearing on the street. “There are people who will take his words and understand them in a particular way and this will induce further harm rather than good.”
Many blame the gutter press for stoking racial hatred in the wake of the bombings as they point out that a couple of the alleged bombing suspects had claimed benefits – as though that were also a crime comparable to bombing – and printing misleading opinion polls about the views of Muslims living in Britain.
For example, a Daily Telegraph piece claimed that “thirty-two per cent of British Muslims think western society is decadent and immoral and should be brought to an end” – failing to point out the final phrase “but only by non-violent means”, with which 31 per cent of respondents agreed. Only one per cent agreed with the final phrase “is necessary by violence”. Statisticians regard a figure of one per cent as meaningless.
Furthermore the paper failed to point out that a large proportion of the general non-Muslim population also agreed with the first statement.
violently
The neo-Nazi and racist organisations have reacted violently and aggressively; their websites urging members and supporters on to the streets to attack and assail Muslims. There have been several fascist marches and demonstrations directed against the Muslim community in Britain.
On Sunday 24th July, in the pouring rain, there were two separate fascist marches in West London, both targeted at the Regent’s Park Mosque. Around 200 members and supporters of the newly-formed United British Association assembled in the Hobgoblin pub in Balcombe Street, near Baker Street Tube, and set off at around 2pm, shepherded by hundreds of police. The group included football hooligans, former squaddies and Nazis. They carried just one flag and with no banners or placards, few passers-by had any clue who or what they were.
Police drew them to a halt several hundred yards away from the mosque and directed them to a specially prepared pen for them to conduct a small rally. They refused to enter the pen. Sharp words and gestures were exchanged with the police as they expressed their disappointment at not getting even within visual distance of the mosque. The stalemate lasted a long time as the rain continued to pour. Eventually the march turned around and headed back in the direction of Baker Street Tube.
As they did so, in the distance they could see the second march, organised by the National Front and about 20-strong.
The UBA march had one final humiliation. It had begun in a pub and after what seemed like ages hanging around in the rain, by the time they reached Baker Street Tube, many of them were desperate for access to a toilet.
There was no way the police were going to allow that many to abuse some back alley so they penned them in again and tried to negotiate with local pubs to allow them to use their facilities. The pubs, unsurprisingly, categorically refused. So the “hard men” of the hard right had to wait in discomfort.
Last Sunday ten members of the National Front tried to demonstrate in Crawley against a peaceful procession of local Muslims to their mosque. Police had them firmly hemmed in some distance from the procession.
Hiroshima remembered and anti-nuclear pledges renewed
by Rob Laurie
LAST SATURDAY lunchtime saw well over 200 people assemble in London’s Tavistock Square to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Americans dropping the atomic bomb of Hiroshima. The event was overlooked by the still boarded up windows of the British Medical Association Headquarters which were damaged in the 7th July bombing.
The Workers’ Music Association Choir conducted by Aubrey Bowman opened proceedings, which included speeches from the Mayor of Camden, representatives from the Battersea Peace Pagoda, Stop the War Coalition, and CND before flowers were laid at the commemorative cherry tree planted in 1967.
A number of speakers including former CND leader Bruce Kent made the important point that when the bomb was dropped the Americans knew that the Japanese were on the point of surrendering and that many senior American military leaders, including future Republican President Eisenhower were opposed to such devastating action.
The gathering did not merely seek to commemorate the 140,000 killed in the attack on Hiroshima and the 80,000 killed three days later at Nagasaki but stressed the importance of the continuing the struggle against the new generation of nuclear weapons which are being built or planned.
These horrific new weapons are not intended as a so called “ultimate deterrent” but being smaller are intended as routine battlefield weapons.
Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn concluded the meeting by calling upon those present to redouble their efforts to build “a world of peace, a world of justice”.
This was better than more weapons of mass destruction and anti terror laws which destroy civil liberties.
While many veteran activists were present, including former Labour leader Michael Foot and veteran Communist Jack Gaster, it was very encouraging to see a large number of young people present.
• In an NCP solidarity message to the 43rd International Anti-war Assembly in Japan, NCP General Secretary Andy Brooks referred to the “tragic and needless atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States when Japanese imperialism was on its knees and already begging for an armistice” adding that “the fight for peace is inexorably linked to the struggle for justice. The campaign for peace must inevitably challenge world imperialism which is the greatest threat to peace. The challenge to imperialism must present an alternative to the capitalist system of oppression and exploitation that is the root cause of all conflicts in the world today”.
New banner for Camden Trades Council
CAMDEN Trades Council, the body representing trade unions in the north London borough of Camden unveiled their new colourful banner at a recent public meeting.
The banner illustrates the statue outside the Trades Union Congress building which is in Camden and incorporates the names of the former boroughs making up the present borough.The banner was expertly made by Ed Hall of south east London who has created a number of banners for the labour movement. His work is of extremely high quality and is done for modest cost. Organisations wanting a new banner can contact him by telephone at edmundhal44@aol.com
LAST SATURDAY lunchtime saw well over 200 people assemble in London’s Tavistock Square to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Americans dropping the atomic bomb of Hiroshima. The event was overlooked by the still boarded up windows of the British Medical Association Headquarters which were damaged in the 7th July bombing.
The Workers’ Music Association Choir conducted by Aubrey Bowman opened proceedings, which included speeches from the Mayor of Camden, representatives from the Battersea Peace Pagoda, Stop the War Coalition, and CND before flowers were laid at the commemorative cherry tree planted in 1967.
A number of speakers including former CND leader Bruce Kent made the important point that when the bomb was dropped the Americans knew that the Japanese were on the point of surrendering and that many senior American military leaders, including future Republican President Eisenhower were opposed to such devastating action.
The gathering did not merely seek to commemorate the 140,000 killed in the attack on Hiroshima and the 80,000 killed three days later at Nagasaki but stressed the importance of the continuing the struggle against the new generation of nuclear weapons which are being built or planned.
These horrific new weapons are not intended as a so called “ultimate deterrent” but being smaller are intended as routine battlefield weapons.
Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn concluded the meeting by calling upon those present to redouble their efforts to build “a world of peace, a world of justice”.
This was better than more weapons of mass destruction and anti terror laws which destroy civil liberties.
While many veteran activists were present, including former Labour leader Michael Foot and veteran Communist Jack Gaster, it was very encouraging to see a large number of young people present.
• In an NCP solidarity message to the 43rd International Anti-war Assembly in Japan, NCP General Secretary Andy Brooks referred to the “tragic and needless atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States when Japanese imperialism was on its knees and already begging for an armistice” adding that “the fight for peace is inexorably linked to the struggle for justice. The campaign for peace must inevitably challenge world imperialism which is the greatest threat to peace. The challenge to imperialism must present an alternative to the capitalist system of oppression and exploitation that is the root cause of all conflicts in the world today”.
New banner for Camden Trades Council
CAMDEN Trades Council, the body representing trade unions in the north London borough of Camden unveiled their new colourful banner at a recent public meeting.
The banner illustrates the statue outside the Trades Union Congress building which is in Camden and incorporates the names of the former boroughs making up the present borough.The banner was expertly made by Ed Hall of south east London who has created a number of banners for the labour movement. His work is of extremely high quality and is done for modest cost. Organisations wanting a new banner can contact him by telephone at edmundhal44@aol.com
Thursday, August 04, 2005
The New Worker on sale in London
The New Worker is available in London at:
* Housemans Peace Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road N1
* West London Trade Union Club, 33-35 High Street Acton W3
* Battersea Food & Wine, 109 - 111 Falcon Road, SW11
UK subscription rates
6 weeks....... £6.00
3 months..... £20.00
6 months..... £30.00
Annual.........£50.00
Send your cheque or postal order with your order to:
NW Subs
PO Box 73
London SW11 2PQ
Or order online
* Housemans Peace Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road N1
* West London Trade Union Club, 33-35 High Street Acton W3
* Battersea Food & Wine, 109 - 111 Falcon Road, SW11
UK subscription rates
6 weeks....... £6.00
3 months..... £20.00
6 months..... £30.00
Annual.........£50.00
Send your cheque or postal order with your order to:
NW Subs
PO Box 73
London SW11 2PQ
Or order online
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
BNP crashes in Barking and Leicester
by Daphne Liddle
THE NEO-Nazi British Nationalist Party last week were well beaten in local council by-elections in the Becontree ward of Barking and Dagenham in east London and in the Beaumont Leys ward of Leicester.
The BNP in Becontree tried to benefit from stirring up Islamophobia in the wake of the London bombings, using an official election leaflet showing the bombed bus and an illegal hate sticker that used the council’s logo.
But the voters were not taken in and voted overwhelmingly against the BNP.
few willing
The BNP were very short-handed with very few activists willing to turn out. They ran a campaign that seemed intent on confrontation and a gang of them threatened Councillor Jeff Porter and his wife with violence.
Jeff works as a train driver on the London Underground and was driving one of the trains involved in the bombings on the 7th of July. Despite his cab being damaged he managed to lead his passengers to safety and this was covered in the national and international press.
So the BNP threats to him rebounded in the local campaign, making the fascists more unpopular than ever.
Local anti-fascists in the community group Barking and Dagenham Together had leafleted every home in the ward twice over.
On election day the BNP acted aggressively and broke the law by distributing leaflets within the precincts of polling stations.
Labour candidate Alok Agrawal polled 1,171 votes – 59.8 per cent of the total while the BNP candidate won only 378. The Conservative won 283 and UKIP 125.
Angered by their defeat, the BNP became vicious and a female member punched Councillor Val Rush, the Labour election agent and a grandmother.
Several witnesses saw the assault and it was caught on CCTV and charges are expected to follow.
In the Beaumont Leys ward of Leicester Labour candidate Violet Dempster polled 962 votes, the Conservatives 342, the Liberal Democrats 295 and the BNP just 161.
Meanwhile there has been a serious rise in hate attacks on Muslims throughout Britain since the London bombings.
In the worst case, a week ago a Muslim man was beaten to death by racists in Nottingham.
Dev Barrah of the Greenwich Council for racial Equality told the New Worker of a steep rise in attacks, perpetrated by a very small number of racists.
petrol bomb
In one instance a petrol bomb was thrown through the window of a Sikh temple in Belvedere in the London Borough of Bexley, though it failed to ignite. And a Buddhist centre in Deptford has been covered in anti-Islamic graffiti.
The National Front was allowed to conduct an anti-Islamic march in Westminster last Saturday. Anti-fascists are not so surprised at the National Front wanting to perform this thinly veiled incitement to race violence. But we are surprised at the police and the Mayor of London allowing this outrage.
THE NEO-Nazi British Nationalist Party last week were well beaten in local council by-elections in the Becontree ward of Barking and Dagenham in east London and in the Beaumont Leys ward of Leicester.
The BNP in Becontree tried to benefit from stirring up Islamophobia in the wake of the London bombings, using an official election leaflet showing the bombed bus and an illegal hate sticker that used the council’s logo.
But the voters were not taken in and voted overwhelmingly against the BNP.
few willing
The BNP were very short-handed with very few activists willing to turn out. They ran a campaign that seemed intent on confrontation and a gang of them threatened Councillor Jeff Porter and his wife with violence.
Jeff works as a train driver on the London Underground and was driving one of the trains involved in the bombings on the 7th of July. Despite his cab being damaged he managed to lead his passengers to safety and this was covered in the national and international press.
So the BNP threats to him rebounded in the local campaign, making the fascists more unpopular than ever.
Local anti-fascists in the community group Barking and Dagenham Together had leafleted every home in the ward twice over.
On election day the BNP acted aggressively and broke the law by distributing leaflets within the precincts of polling stations.
Labour candidate Alok Agrawal polled 1,171 votes – 59.8 per cent of the total while the BNP candidate won only 378. The Conservative won 283 and UKIP 125.
Angered by their defeat, the BNP became vicious and a female member punched Councillor Val Rush, the Labour election agent and a grandmother.
Several witnesses saw the assault and it was caught on CCTV and charges are expected to follow.
In the Beaumont Leys ward of Leicester Labour candidate Violet Dempster polled 962 votes, the Conservatives 342, the Liberal Democrats 295 and the BNP just 161.
Meanwhile there has been a serious rise in hate attacks on Muslims throughout Britain since the London bombings.
In the worst case, a week ago a Muslim man was beaten to death by racists in Nottingham.
Dev Barrah of the Greenwich Council for racial Equality told the New Worker of a steep rise in attacks, perpetrated by a very small number of racists.
petrol bomb
In one instance a petrol bomb was thrown through the window of a Sikh temple in Belvedere in the London Borough of Bexley, though it failed to ignite. And a Buddhist centre in Deptford has been covered in anti-Islamic graffiti.
The National Front was allowed to conduct an anti-Islamic march in Westminster last Saturday. Anti-fascists are not so surprised at the National Front wanting to perform this thinly veiled incitement to race violence. But we are surprised at the police and the Mayor of London allowing this outrage.
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Labour Representation Conference
by Caroline Colebrook
“DON’T try to tell us that the United States war in Iraq played no part in the London bombings,” said Labour MP John McDonnell, chair of the Labour Representation Committee (LRC) in his opening comments at its annual general meeting and conference in London last Saturday.
The conference, of left Labour Party members, MPs and trade unionists who want to restore the Labour Party to its original socialist roots, began with a minute’s silence in memory of those killed by bombs in London, Baghdad and Fallujah.
The New Communist Party is affiliated to the LRC as an associate organisation and four NCP delegates – Mike Fletcher, Ken Ruddock, Daphne Liddle and Andy Brooks – attended.
The morning session, chaired by LRC vice chair Maria Exall, of the conference dealt with domestic policy as laid out in a policy document with additional motions on defending the Royal Mail from privatisation, fighting civil service job cuts, rail safety and an emergency resolution on the London bombings.
Debate was launched by platform speakers Michael Meacher, National Union of Journalists general secretary Jeremy Dear and Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack.
Michael Meacher spoke on the need for socialist ideology and stressed that a labour government should not be the servant of big business.
Matt Wrack spoke of the need to find a way for those who have left or disaffiliated from the Labour Party to be able to work together with comrades inside the party for common goals.
There were many contributions from the floor and a great sense of general agreement on all the issues being debated. The domestic part of the main policy statement and other motions were all passed unanimously.
One delegate from the RMT warned that the Government is trying to cut down on the number of safety reps on the Tube and reverse the regulations introduced after the Kings Cross fire. Risk assessment will be left to the discretion of station managers “leading to cost-driven corner cutting”.
This session ended with speeches from Katy Clark MP, Paul Mackney of the lecturers’ union Natfhe and PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka.
Paul Mackney attacked tuition fees, introduced by a government that includes many former radicals from the National Union of Students. He said this will lead to the exclusion of the working class from higher education “to the benefit of dimmer and dimmer members of the upper classes”.
The afternoon session covered foreign policy and the structural organisation of the LRC. The session was kicked off by Bob Wareing MP and veteran left Labour politician Tony Benn.
It covered nuclear weapons and Nato, support for Venezuela and the occupation of Iraq and then the LRC organisational statement.
Again, the main policy document, all resolutions and the LRC constitution were endorsed.
New Communist Party delegates made two interventions – on the need for solidarity and respect for the sovereignty of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in face of US aggression and on the need to work in trades councils.
Jeremy Corbyn MP made the final speech and the conference ended with the singing of The Red Flag. Throughout the conference all those attending were addressed as “comrade” and a genuinely comradely atmosphere prevailed.
There was little internal controversy as this new pressure group set itself in motion. Useful contacts were made, views and political papers were exchanged and delegates left having achieved important steps.
“DON’T try to tell us that the United States war in Iraq played no part in the London bombings,” said Labour MP John McDonnell, chair of the Labour Representation Committee (LRC) in his opening comments at its annual general meeting and conference in London last Saturday.
The conference, of left Labour Party members, MPs and trade unionists who want to restore the Labour Party to its original socialist roots, began with a minute’s silence in memory of those killed by bombs in London, Baghdad and Fallujah.
The New Communist Party is affiliated to the LRC as an associate organisation and four NCP delegates – Mike Fletcher, Ken Ruddock, Daphne Liddle and Andy Brooks – attended.
The morning session, chaired by LRC vice chair Maria Exall, of the conference dealt with domestic policy as laid out in a policy document with additional motions on defending the Royal Mail from privatisation, fighting civil service job cuts, rail safety and an emergency resolution on the London bombings.
Debate was launched by platform speakers Michael Meacher, National Union of Journalists general secretary Jeremy Dear and Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack.
Michael Meacher spoke on the need for socialist ideology and stressed that a labour government should not be the servant of big business.
Matt Wrack spoke of the need to find a way for those who have left or disaffiliated from the Labour Party to be able to work together with comrades inside the party for common goals.
There were many contributions from the floor and a great sense of general agreement on all the issues being debated. The domestic part of the main policy statement and other motions were all passed unanimously.
One delegate from the RMT warned that the Government is trying to cut down on the number of safety reps on the Tube and reverse the regulations introduced after the Kings Cross fire. Risk assessment will be left to the discretion of station managers “leading to cost-driven corner cutting”.
This session ended with speeches from Katy Clark MP, Paul Mackney of the lecturers’ union Natfhe and PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka.
Paul Mackney attacked tuition fees, introduced by a government that includes many former radicals from the National Union of Students. He said this will lead to the exclusion of the working class from higher education “to the benefit of dimmer and dimmer members of the upper classes”.
The afternoon session covered foreign policy and the structural organisation of the LRC. The session was kicked off by Bob Wareing MP and veteran left Labour politician Tony Benn.
It covered nuclear weapons and Nato, support for Venezuela and the occupation of Iraq and then the LRC organisational statement.
Again, the main policy document, all resolutions and the LRC constitution were endorsed.
New Communist Party delegates made two interventions – on the need for solidarity and respect for the sovereignty of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in face of US aggression and on the need to work in trades councils.
Jeremy Corbyn MP made the final speech and the conference ended with the singing of The Red Flag. Throughout the conference all those attending were addressed as “comrade” and a genuinely comradely atmosphere prevailed.
There was little internal controversy as this new pressure group set itself in motion. Useful contacts were made, views and political papers were exchanged and delegates left having achieved important steps.
Honouring the International Brigaders
by Robert Laurie
LAST SATURDAY saw many members and supporters of the International Brigade Memorial Trust gather at the memorial in London’s Jubilee Gardens to the British anti-fascist volunteers who fought in the Spanish Civil War.
Only a handful of veterans survive but the numbers attending grow yearly, thanks to the hard work of the trust in keeping the memory of the Brigaders alive.
The ceremony was presided over by Jack Jones, the former general secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union, who remains president of the trust. A roll of honour of recently deceased Brigaders was read before Jack Edwards laid a wreath at the memorial.
Another veteran, Sam Russell spoke movingly of a recent ceremony at the site of the Battle of the Ebro where the Brigaders fought their last major battle. A new memorial, paid for by Unison, to the fallen of the International Brigade has just been erected.
Sam recalled that the ground was so hard that the dead could not be buried. Instead the bodies had to be covered with stones. It is only in recent years that the Spanish government and local authorities have permitted the establishment of memorials to Franco’s opponents.
One welcome feature of the Ebro ceremony was that the British Government sent Madrid and Barcelona-based diplomats thus giving the Brigaders long overdue recognition.
Campaigning journalist John Pilger then gave an excellent speech, which he began by paying tribute to Martha Gellhorn, whose reports from Spain inspired him to follow his chosen career.
Pilger stated that both then and now the most dangerous people were not the strutting uniformed fascists but the “respectable” power-hungry and greedy people behind them.
A rousing rendition of the Internationale concluded the ceremony before veterans and supporters headed off for refreshments and further reminiscences.
LAST SATURDAY saw many members and supporters of the International Brigade Memorial Trust gather at the memorial in London’s Jubilee Gardens to the British anti-fascist volunteers who fought in the Spanish Civil War.
Only a handful of veterans survive but the numbers attending grow yearly, thanks to the hard work of the trust in keeping the memory of the Brigaders alive.
The ceremony was presided over by Jack Jones, the former general secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union, who remains president of the trust. A roll of honour of recently deceased Brigaders was read before Jack Edwards laid a wreath at the memorial.
Another veteran, Sam Russell spoke movingly of a recent ceremony at the site of the Battle of the Ebro where the Brigaders fought their last major battle. A new memorial, paid for by Unison, to the fallen of the International Brigade has just been erected.
Sam recalled that the ground was so hard that the dead could not be buried. Instead the bodies had to be covered with stones. It is only in recent years that the Spanish government and local authorities have permitted the establishment of memorials to Franco’s opponents.
One welcome feature of the Ebro ceremony was that the British Government sent Madrid and Barcelona-based diplomats thus giving the Brigaders long overdue recognition.
Campaigning journalist John Pilger then gave an excellent speech, which he began by paying tribute to Martha Gellhorn, whose reports from Spain inspired him to follow his chosen career.
Pilger stated that both then and now the most dangerous people were not the strutting uniformed fascists but the “respectable” power-hungry and greedy people behind them.
A rousing rendition of the Internationale concluded the ceremony before veterans and supporters headed off for refreshments and further reminiscences.
Their war, our dead!
by Renée Sams
NEARLY 1,000 people gathered in Russell Square last Sunday not far from where the suicide bombers killed over 50 people on 7th July. The gathering was held in the street beside the gardens as Camden Council had refused to permission to hold the speeches in the gardens.
The event was called by the Stop the War Coalition to support the Muslim community and to express condolences to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives. One minute’s silence was held and many people left flowers.
There was wide support for the meeting from trade unionists in London Amicus, the General Municipal and Boilermakers’ union, Transport and General Workers’ Union, Labour Against the War, Respect and the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), Military Families Against the War, and many ordinary Londoners who were shocked by the horror of the bombs.
not stop
Andrew Murray said that the Stop The War Coalition was proud to work with MAB and he affirmed that: “We will not stop campaigning; we are still going to fight for the withdrawal of the troops.”
Peter Brearly, the father of a soldier killed in Iraq, said that initially he had been proud of his son going to war, but since his death he had thought a lot about it and he is now convinced that we must withdraw the armed forces from Iraq.
“Blair is not going to do anything about the war Iraq” he said, “or tell us the truth about what caused it. We have been told lie after lie and now we have got to have the truth.”
A speaker from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament said, “We stand in solidarity with the Muslim community. Every heart goes out to them.” And she continued: “The Government is now trying to pass the buck to the intelligence community but they are not the root cause behind these terrible incidents.”
The Government will not acknowledge the link between the bombing incidents and their foreign policy of supporting the US and the war in Iraq.
“The only way we can deal with these atrocities,” she said, “is to deal with the causes and demand genuine peace and democracy that is the only way it will be resolved.”
A young Muslim woman from MAB said that she was nervous of getting on buses because she felt the hostility of people who thought that the Muslim community was to blame for the bombing.
She also stressed: “We must be told the truth about Afghanistan and Palestine as well as Iraq.”
A speaker from the TGWU expressed the thanks of many for the wonderful work of the emergency services who have struggled tirelessly to help the injured – and the railway workers who are still endeavouring to restore the underground services in terrible conditions. He made a strong call for the “immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq”.
connection
George Galloway, Respect MP for Bethnal Green condemned the bombing as mass murder and said that he did not believe that these acts of terror have no connection with government foreign policy and their support for Bush and the war in Iraq.
Tony Blair maintains that this is “to preserve our way of life”. George said that, “if this is his way of life, it is not our way of life”. And he added “what they do in our name we will not accept without protest”.
To young Muslim men misled into thinking that their deaths could help the situation, he hoped that they would find that “there are better ways to protest than blowing yourself up”.
increase
He said: “We have argued, as did the security services in this country, that the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq would increase the threat of terrorist attacks in Britain. Tragically, Londoners have now paid the price of the Government ignoring such warnings.”
He called on the peace movement to redouble its efforts, and in conclusion he called for people to “stand shoulder to shoulder telling the truth because truth is the only way we can get out of this mess”.
NEARLY 1,000 people gathered in Russell Square last Sunday not far from where the suicide bombers killed over 50 people on 7th July. The gathering was held in the street beside the gardens as Camden Council had refused to permission to hold the speeches in the gardens.
The event was called by the Stop the War Coalition to support the Muslim community and to express condolences to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives. One minute’s silence was held and many people left flowers.
There was wide support for the meeting from trade unionists in London Amicus, the General Municipal and Boilermakers’ union, Transport and General Workers’ Union, Labour Against the War, Respect and the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), Military Families Against the War, and many ordinary Londoners who were shocked by the horror of the bombs.
not stop
Andrew Murray said that the Stop The War Coalition was proud to work with MAB and he affirmed that: “We will not stop campaigning; we are still going to fight for the withdrawal of the troops.”
Peter Brearly, the father of a soldier killed in Iraq, said that initially he had been proud of his son going to war, but since his death he had thought a lot about it and he is now convinced that we must withdraw the armed forces from Iraq.
“Blair is not going to do anything about the war Iraq” he said, “or tell us the truth about what caused it. We have been told lie after lie and now we have got to have the truth.”
A speaker from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament said, “We stand in solidarity with the Muslim community. Every heart goes out to them.” And she continued: “The Government is now trying to pass the buck to the intelligence community but they are not the root cause behind these terrible incidents.”
The Government will not acknowledge the link between the bombing incidents and their foreign policy of supporting the US and the war in Iraq.
“The only way we can deal with these atrocities,” she said, “is to deal with the causes and demand genuine peace and democracy that is the only way it will be resolved.”
A young Muslim woman from MAB said that she was nervous of getting on buses because she felt the hostility of people who thought that the Muslim community was to blame for the bombing.
She also stressed: “We must be told the truth about Afghanistan and Palestine as well as Iraq.”
A speaker from the TGWU expressed the thanks of many for the wonderful work of the emergency services who have struggled tirelessly to help the injured – and the railway workers who are still endeavouring to restore the underground services in terrible conditions. He made a strong call for the “immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq”.
connection
George Galloway, Respect MP for Bethnal Green condemned the bombing as mass murder and said that he did not believe that these acts of terror have no connection with government foreign policy and their support for Bush and the war in Iraq.
Tony Blair maintains that this is “to preserve our way of life”. George said that, “if this is his way of life, it is not our way of life”. And he added “what they do in our name we will not accept without protest”.
To young Muslim men misled into thinking that their deaths could help the situation, he hoped that they would find that “there are better ways to protest than blowing yourself up”.
increase
He said: “We have argued, as did the security services in this country, that the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq would increase the threat of terrorist attacks in Britain. Tragically, Londoners have now paid the price of the Government ignoring such warnings.”
He called on the peace movement to redouble its efforts, and in conclusion he called for people to “stand shoulder to shoulder telling the truth because truth is the only way we can get out of this mess”.
Thursday, July 14, 2005
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.
Call for tolerance after London bombings
by Caroline Colebrook
LONDON Mayor Ken Livingstone last week responded to last Thursday’s bombings, saying: “I want to say one thing to the world specifically today. This was not a terrorist attack against the mighty and the powerful. It was not aimed at presidents or prime ministers.
“It was aimed at ordinary working class Londoners, black and white, Muslim and Christian, Hindu and Jew, young and old.
“It was an indiscriminate attempt to slaughter, irrespective of any considerations for age, for class, for religion or whatever.
“That isn’t an ideology, it isn’t even a perverted faith, it is an indiscriminate attempt at mass murder and we know what the objective is. They seek to turn Londoners against each other.”
He went on to say that Londoners will not be divided by this cowardly attack.
Respect leader George Galloway repeated his call to end the occupation of Iraq in his condemnation of the bombings. The east London MP warned: “The loss of innocent lives, whether in this country or Iraq, is precisely the result of a world that has become a less safe and peaceful place in recent years.
“We have worked without rest to remove the causes of such violence from our world. We argued, as did the security services in this country, that the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq would increase the threat of terrorist attack in Britain. Tragically Londoners have now paid the price of the Government ignoring such warnings.”
Union leaders also condemned the attacks; TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “These attacks have brought out the best in London’s workforce. Emergency service and transport workers have earned the gratitude and admiration of everyone affected by these outrages.
“We offer our sympathy and condolences to everyone who has suffered in today’s atrocities. They were an indiscriminate attack on the population of one of the world’s most diverse cities.
“We have received messages of support from trade unions around the world including those who have suffered from similar terrorist attacks.
“When the immediate emergency is over, we will look for an opportunity to bring London’s workforce together in all its diversity to show our unity in opposition to terrorism.”
Unison general secretary David Prentis reacted to the explosions in London by saying: “Our sympathy goes out to all those who have lost loved ones in the London transport blasts.
“And our thoughts are with those who have been injured or suffered trauma as a result.
“On behalf of Unison and local communities, our thanks go to all the emergency workers for all they have had to do in London today.
“We pay particular tribute to our health service workers – nurses, paramedics, ambulance workers – who have had to deal with the aftermath of today’s tragic events.”
RMT, London Underground’s biggest union expressed sympathy for the families of the dead and to those injured in today’s explosion and called for a security review of the Tube network.
“These terrible attacks show just how vulnerable commuters and Tube workers are,” RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.
“Tube workers and the emergency services have responded magnificently and there is now a clear need to review security after such an attack,” Bob Crow said.
Tony Woodley, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers’ Union, spoke today following the tragic explosions in central London. The TGWU represents thousands of bus workers and support staff in the emergency services.
“Our sympathy and solidarity is with the families of those who have been killed today, and our thoughts with those who have been injured. It is a terrible and shocking day.
“Bus workers in London should be commended for their work on this difficult day, working with Transport for London and bus operators to take buses off the road safely and professionally after the shocking explosion at Tavistock Square. In the coming days and weeks, the TGWU will play its part in assisting security operations, in particular on public transport.
“These awful events will undoubtedly have a wider social and political impact. We will do all we can, together with the rest of the trade union movement, to respond with strength and solidarity.
“Our response as a nation must be consistent with our culture of tolerance, and we will stand together with all communities to resist any expression of division and intolerance.”
LONDON Mayor Ken Livingstone last week responded to last Thursday’s bombings, saying: “I want to say one thing to the world specifically today. This was not a terrorist attack against the mighty and the powerful. It was not aimed at presidents or prime ministers.
“It was aimed at ordinary working class Londoners, black and white, Muslim and Christian, Hindu and Jew, young and old.
“It was an indiscriminate attempt to slaughter, irrespective of any considerations for age, for class, for religion or whatever.
“That isn’t an ideology, it isn’t even a perverted faith, it is an indiscriminate attempt at mass murder and we know what the objective is. They seek to turn Londoners against each other.”
He went on to say that Londoners will not be divided by this cowardly attack.
Respect leader George Galloway repeated his call to end the occupation of Iraq in his condemnation of the bombings. The east London MP warned: “The loss of innocent lives, whether in this country or Iraq, is precisely the result of a world that has become a less safe and peaceful place in recent years.
“We have worked without rest to remove the causes of such violence from our world. We argued, as did the security services in this country, that the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq would increase the threat of terrorist attack in Britain. Tragically Londoners have now paid the price of the Government ignoring such warnings.”
Union leaders also condemned the attacks; TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “These attacks have brought out the best in London’s workforce. Emergency service and transport workers have earned the gratitude and admiration of everyone affected by these outrages.
“We offer our sympathy and condolences to everyone who has suffered in today’s atrocities. They were an indiscriminate attack on the population of one of the world’s most diverse cities.
“We have received messages of support from trade unions around the world including those who have suffered from similar terrorist attacks.
“When the immediate emergency is over, we will look for an opportunity to bring London’s workforce together in all its diversity to show our unity in opposition to terrorism.”
Unison general secretary David Prentis reacted to the explosions in London by saying: “Our sympathy goes out to all those who have lost loved ones in the London transport blasts.
“And our thoughts are with those who have been injured or suffered trauma as a result.
“On behalf of Unison and local communities, our thanks go to all the emergency workers for all they have had to do in London today.
“We pay particular tribute to our health service workers – nurses, paramedics, ambulance workers – who have had to deal with the aftermath of today’s tragic events.”
RMT, London Underground’s biggest union expressed sympathy for the families of the dead and to those injured in today’s explosion and called for a security review of the Tube network.
“These terrible attacks show just how vulnerable commuters and Tube workers are,” RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.
“Tube workers and the emergency services have responded magnificently and there is now a clear need to review security after such an attack,” Bob Crow said.
Tony Woodley, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers’ Union, spoke today following the tragic explosions in central London. The TGWU represents thousands of bus workers and support staff in the emergency services.
“Our sympathy and solidarity is with the families of those who have been killed today, and our thoughts with those who have been injured. It is a terrible and shocking day.
“Bus workers in London should be commended for their work on this difficult day, working with Transport for London and bus operators to take buses off the road safely and professionally after the shocking explosion at Tavistock Square. In the coming days and weeks, the TGWU will play its part in assisting security operations, in particular on public transport.
“These awful events will undoubtedly have a wider social and political impact. We will do all we can, together with the rest of the trade union movement, to respond with strength and solidarity.
“Our response as a nation must be consistent with our culture of tolerance, and we will stand together with all communities to resist any expression of division and intolerance.”
Monday, July 11, 2005
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
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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