LABOUR leader Miliband’s refusal to fight for socialist policies and answer massive austerity with a campaign to replace bankrupt capitalism with socialism has seen him forced to bring back the completely discredited Tony Blair to try and win votes from the right wing, since Blair is far from being the hero of workers, trade unionists, and youth.
In office, at home, Blair gained the 100% support of the union-bashing Murdoch press, and sought to privatise the NHS introducing the health market, the PFI and Foundation Trusts.
Abroad, he became the cheerleader for US imperialism, leading the way for the bombing campaign and the war that smashed up Yugoslavia. He insisted with President Bush that the UK was going to join the US in the invasion of Afghanistan and then Iraq in 2003, and hoodwinked the House of Commons with his dodgy dossier, the lies that Iraq possessed WMDs, as well as the persuit of whistleblowers such as Doctor David Kelly.
He also played the leading role in the disarming of Libya, that did have WMDs, whose removal led to the NATO-led uprising that murdered Gadaffi and reduced Libya to chaos.
Blair was and is a blood-soaked imperialist politician, who since retirement has concentrated on making millions of pounds in deals with dodgy governments.
That he should be allowed back onto the scene to support Labour from a 100% imperialist point of view is an indictment of Miliband, Balls and the present Labour leadership, as well as being an insult to the working class.
Blair has entered the election campaign to hammer home the point the Cameron, in pledging a referendum on the EU, is endangering the interests of British imperialism just out of electoral considerations.
In his speech at the Xcel Centre in Newton Aycliffe yesterday, he stressed: ‘We have just been through the near death experience for the UK of the Scottish referendum. The day was saved, but almost half the Scottish people voted to break up a partnership which has served all the nations of the UK well for over 300 years.’
The imperialist warned: ‘Nationalism is a powerful sentiment. Let that genie out of the bottle and it is a Herculean task to put it back. Reason alone struggles.’
Opportunist Blair says of opportunist Cameron: ‘And the oddest thing of all about having this referendum? The Prime Minister doesn’t really believe we should leave Europe; not even the Europe as it is today. This was a concession to (his) Party, a manoeuvre to access some of the UKIP vote, a sop to the rampant anti-Europe feeling of parts of the media.’
Blair, the consistent imperialist, continued: ‘However, the case for Britain staying in Europe is much more than about business. It is also crucially about Britain’s role as a global player. In the 20th Century, even as Britain declined in relative importance to the USA as a global power, we were able to maintain a position as one of the world’s leading nations. We kept our alliance with America strong. We entered the European Union partly to ensure our position. These are the two well-founded pillars of British foreign policy. And they’re mutually reinforcing.’
Blair continued: ‘Then there is the issue of resurgent Russian nationalism. This will both test Europe and demand it stick together. I do not think we yet fully appreciate the degree of threat which the Eastern European nations feel under. Without the shelter not just of NATO but of the EU, their vulnerability (with consequences for our own security) would be chronic.’
Blair’s concerns are not for the working class but for the future of British imperialism.
He concluded: ‘So think about that vote on May 7th. Think of the consequences of a re-elected Tory government making the central question of the next Parliament whether we get out of Europe or not. Think about the risk such a referendum poses. Think about our past and our future.’
We call on workers to vote Labour to get the Tories out to smash austerity, and to advance from a Miliband government to a workers government through a socialist revolution.
One of its first tasks will be to replace the imperialist EU with a Socialist United States of Europe!
