PRIME Minister Tony Blair announced yesterday at his monthly press conference that he would not ‘give an inch to terrorism’, and vowed to combat it and its sources at home and abroad.
He however, adjusted his previous line that the war in Iraq was nothing at all to do with the terrorist attacks on London.
He said: ‘Let us expose the obscenity of these people saying it is concern for Iraq that drives them to terrorism. . . We are not going to deal with this problem, with the roots as deep as they are, until we confront these people at every single level – and not just their methods but their ideas,’ he added.
He then unveiled some of the methods that will be introduced in new legislation to deal with the ‘terrorists’ and the working class at home.
There is to be a widespread use of telephone tapping, with taps being used in court as legitimate evidence. There are also to be new offences, including acts preparatory to terrorism, attending ‘terrorist’ training schools, and indirect incitement to terrorism. A police and MI5 demand that the police be allowed to hold people for 90 days without charge is under consideration.
Under these measures, bookshops, newspapers and book publishers will be closed down, while agent provocateurs will have a field day, putting forward ideas and proposals inside organisations to create the conditions for the arrest of their members by the state.
The Blair government’s struggle to loot Iraq and Afghanistan has led to the same government seeking to put the British people in chains through the abolition of their basic rights and liberties, and put their lives in danger from terrorist and British police attacks.
As is his way, Blair could not remember whether he had approved the change to ‘shoot-to-kill’, made after the September 11 2001 attack on Manhattan, and did not answer a reporter’s question as to whether such a draconian change should have gone before the House of Commons.
He however fully supported the measure, and its implementation, saying that the police had to have the power to shoot to kill terrorist suspects and that they had to use that power as was necessary.
Blair also ruled that Britain’s imperialist wars will continue, rejecting the suggestion by Robin Cook that there be a timetable set for withdrawal from Iraq, in order to show the world that Britain didn’t have any imperialist designs on that country.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are to be stepped up, and as a consequence so will the attacks on the countries from where the onslaught comes, as well as the attacks on basic rights in Britain.
Blair stressed that there was no way out except to confront and defeat the ‘terrorists’, and stressed that it was absolutely impossible for any government to negotiate on their demands, contrasting this with the situation where the IRA’s political demands were shared by many Irish people north and south.
It was however pointed out to him that UK governments had negotiated with the IRA on its demand that Britain leave Ireland, and that the principal demand of the ‘terrorists’ was that the US and the UK leave the Arab world and Islam alone, and that these demands were entirely negotiable.
After a few moments of shock at this intervention, Blair restated his position that negotiations were impossible and that it was war to the end.
Obviously, the strategic importance of securing the oil and gas resources of Iraq and Central Asia is vital for the imperialists and well worth the mountains of corpses that Blair and Bush have created in Iraq, along with the London bombings, and the prospect of more bombings to come.
The trade unions in Britain must now take action to bring this desperate imperialist enterprise to an end. They must defend the interests of the Iraqi and British people by bringing down the Blair government to end the imperialist assault on Iraq and the state attacks on workers in Britain.
The trade unions must take general strike action and bring in a workers government. This will withdraw all British troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and smash the capitalist state, including its gangs of armed police in Britain, to advance to socialism.
Getting rid of imperialism and capitalism, and establishing fraternal relations with the people of Iraq and central Asia is the way to end terrorism and advance to world socialism.
