SIR Peter Fahy, Greater Manchester Chief Constable and vice-chair of the National Counter-Terrorism Committee, has warned that the fight against ‘extremism’ is leading to a ‘drift towards a police state’ in Britain.
In a press interview, Fahy expressed his fears that the police were being turned into ‘thought police’, being put in the position of having to decide on the ground what constituted free speech and what amounted to inflammatory, extremist speeches.
As an example of the problem, Fahy cites a recent case where police were called to deal with two rival sets of demonstrators during the murderous Israeli attack on Gaza.
A group of pro-Palestinians calling for a boycott of Israeli goods were confronted by a group of Zionists – Who were the ‘extremists’? Fahy laments.
Not so long ago, it was so clear – the pro-Palestinian demonstrators could have been safely beaten with the full support of the government. Today, with the vast majority of people recognising that Israel is the real terrorist state, life has become more complicated for the police.
Fahy has no objection to a police state. What he is calling for is for it to be properly organised by the government. He made it clear he fully supports the draconian ‘counter-terrorism’ measures introduced by the Tory-led coalition.
These measures include stripping British passports from anyone suspected of being an extremist; introducing a regime of internal banishment, forcing internet and other providers to divulge any information on individuals they may hold, and placing a legal duty on universities to ban ‘radical speakers’ and in effect become the thought police of their own students.
These concerns for the rights of protesters and of free speech were not present when the police stormed into Warwick University’s Senate House last Wednesday and viciously attacked a group of 25 students peacefully occupying the reception area as part of the campaign for an end to tuition fees.
These students were punched, kicked, sprayed with CS gas and threatened with potentially lethal Taser guns.
The police had no problem identifying the extremists in Warwick – it was any student prepared to stand up for the right to a free education!
This is what is causing Fahy’s concerns – the definition of ‘terrorism’ is so deliberately broad that it covers anyone fighting the austerity policies demanded by a bankrupt capitalist system.
What he is demanding is that the government spell out exactly who the police can attack – presumably Fahy is preparing in advance the police’s own Nuremburg defence of ‘we were only obeying orders’.
This has become a matter of great urgency for the forces of the capitalist state, especially after Osborne’s Autumn statement last week which spelt out that all the cuts inflicted so far on workers and youth will pale into insignificance as British capitalism is driven by its huge national debt of nearly £1.5 trillion to smash up the Welfare State completely.
The ruling class and its repressive state organs like the police want clear instructions on implementing a police state to ruthlessly deal with the revolutionary upsurge amongst workers and young people that is already building up and is set to erupt in the face of this onslaught.
The capitalist state is not drifting into a police state, it is being actively prepared for, the criticism of the Tories is that they are so weak and divided that they are not doing the job efficiently enough.
While the ruling class is preparing for an all-out class war against the working class, the leadership of the TUC are sitting back and doing absolutely nothing – all they are preparing for is defeat.
It is crucial today that these counter-revolutionary plans are smashed. This means replacing this treacherous leadership with a revolutionary leadership that will organise a general strike to kick out the government and go forward to a workers’ government that will abolish the capitalist state and replace it with a socialist state.
Only the WRP and Young Socialists are building the leadership required – join today.
