YESTERDAY, Prime Minister Blair made a written statement to the House of Commons announcing that the Home Office is to be split in two.
There will be a Ministry of Justice taking over responsibility for criminal law and administration of the prisons while the Home Office will be concentrating on the fight against terrorism and on ‘security’, with MI5 the internal spying agency being brought under the control of the Home Secretary.
The Home Office is to be a modern version of the Tsarist Okhrana, the Tsarist secret police, the only ultra-modern part of what was a very backward Russia, devoted to the struggle against democracy, socialism and revolution.
Britain is now a backward capitalist state that can no longer afford a Welfare State and bourgeois democracy. It is to have its own version of this Tsarist apparatus, with money no object as far as its technical capacity is concerned, and with some of the most vicious, repressive, anti-democratic legislation that exists anywhere at its disposal.
Blair’s written statement explains: ‘The security and counter-terrorism changes will have immediate effect.’
He adds: ‘Our counter-terrorism capabilities are among the best in the world. However, the continuing and growing threat from terrorism means that the Government must develop and improve its counter-terrorism and security capabilities, and its governance.
‘I am therefore strengthening the role of the Home Secretary and the capabilities of his Department in facing the terrorist threat. While critical areas of the counter-terrorism strategy are overseen by other Secretaries of State, notably the Foreign Secretary and the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, the Home Secretary has the lead responsibility for the strategy in relation to security threats in the UK, including their overseas dimension.’
No doubt strikes and mass demonstrations in the UK, and the activities of socialist movements, will be a central part of this internal security threat.
To carry out this struggle ‘A new Ministerial Committee on Security and Terrorism will be established, subsuming the current Defence and Overseas Policy (International Terrorism) Committee and the counter-radicalisation aspects of the Domestic Affairs Committee’s work.
‘The Prime Minister will chair the Committee. . . . It will be supported by a sub-committee focusing on counter-radicalisation, which will be chaired by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.’
For ‘counter-radicalisation’ read infiltration by police spies and the mustering of agents-provocateur.’
The letter continues: ‘In order to support the Home Secretary in his new role, an Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism will be established in the Home Office. This will report to the Home Secretary. The Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism will take on overall responsibility for the CONTEST strategy, reporting through the new Ministerial Committee. The Government will also establish a research, information and communications unit in support of the struggle for ideas and values. This will be based in the Home Office, reporting to the Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary and Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.’
The secret policemen of the Home Office are to be in charge ‘of the struggle for ideas and values’!
The letter adds: ‘The changes set out here are aimed at producing a step change in our approach to managing the terrorist threat to the UK and winning the battle for hearts and minds.’
The government’s policies are so unpopular in the UK that the secret police will only be able to ‘win the battle for hearts and minds’ and the ‘struggle for ideas and values’ by fitting up their opponents and putting them away for life by charging them with ‘encouraging terrorism’ and putting them on trial before reactionary judges in no jury courts.
Blair’s Okhrana and his draconian laws will not be able to save British capitalism. They will create legions of revolutionaries who will dedicate themselves to overthrowing British capitalism with a socialist revolution.