THE decision by the UK state-owned NatWest Bank to cancel RT’s (Russia Today) UK bank accounts is a crude attempt by the May government to drive it off the air, and to censor the news so that an attempt can be made to brainwash British workers by exposing them only to Anglo-US lying propaganda.
The big crime of RT is to show that the Al Nusra Front and other Islamist movements in East Aleppo are completely opposed to any ceasefire in Syria, and are regularly shelling West Aleppo killing many innocent men, women, and children.
Likewise, when the US airforce attacked the Syrian army at Zayr thereby allowing the ISIS movement to advance to control the area, Russia Today was able to show that, far from an accidental attack, the strike was deliberate and that the ISIS troops were assembled and ready to take advantage of the US surprise attack on the Syrian troops.
Likewise in the Yemen. The fact that the UK is supplying the Saudis with bombs, missiles, planes and tanks, as well as advisers, to help direct the mass killing operations by Saudi land and air forces that are killing thousands of Yemeni men, women and children, is exposed by RT on a daily basis. The UK’s propaganda line that it is not involved in the slaughter of Yemeni men, women and children is nailed as a big lie, every day.
The imperialist powers never like their attempts at mass murder being made public, or their attempts to demonise Russia exposed. However after their Brexit defeat, with millions of workers delivering a huge blow against the UK ruling class, being exposed as mass murderers on a daily basis is just too much to take, especially when they are trying to whip up a war fever against Russia. Their response is to try to put RT out of business.
There must now be a massive campaign, by the trade unions in particular, to defend democratic rights in the UK, otherwise, this attack on RT will be extended to British newspapers and websites that are also in the habit of telling the truth about the misdeeds of British imperialism at home and abroad.
In fact, at home the Tory government is currently backing the campaign to smash the trade unions – like the RMT which is defending the interests of their members and demanding the renationalisation of the railways.
Further, a period of huge economic and political crisis has begun in the UK, with the Bank of England predicting runaway inflation and major increases in the cost of living. In this situation of a rising class war, the Tories will be keen to ban unions, newspapers and organisations that they see as threats to capitalism. This is why they cannot be allowed to run RT out of the UK.
If they succeed, domestic ‘subversive organisations’, from trade unions to political groups, will be next to be demonised and subjected to bans and proscriptions. It is therefore vital that the trade unions and the masses of workers reject the Tory attempt, launched from the White House, to demonise Russia and run RT out of the UK in order, all the better, for Boris Johnson to whip up a war fever against Russia and Syria once Clinton is secured in the White House.
Workers and the trade unions must spell it out to the Tories that the Russian, Syrian, Yemeni and UK workers are allies, and that our enemy is the British ruling class which is plotting a war against Russia and Syria, and a renewed war against the working class and the trade unions at home!
The trade unions and the TUC must demand that the witchhunt against RT is ended, and that it be allowed to fully function in the UK and to continue telling the truth about the crimes of imperialism in Syria and the Yemen.
Further, if the Tories persist with this attack, the trade unions must launch a series of mass demonstrations and political strikes to defend RT and secure its right to operate in the UK.
If we neglect to take this action, then a precedent will have been set for draconian actions against the trade unions and democratic organisations in the UK itself, in the period immediately ahead, as the class struggle sharpens. Defend RT! Defend Democratic Rights! Forward to a general strike to bring down the Tories and bring in a Workers Government!
