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The Campaign for Socialism Executive joins the many millions offering
their condolences to those who suffered loss and bereavement on 11 September
as a result of the terrorist assaults on the United States. There is no
justification for such heinous, criminal attacks on innocent civilians.
Everyone who supports justice throughout the globe, will welcome the apprehension
and punishment of the perpetrators, after due process.
It should be recognised that what took place was a criminal act and not
a declaration of war by one state on another. It should be on the foundation
of the same principles, the sanctity of human life and the need for international
justice, which give rise to our condemnation of this attack, that we build
our response. Therefore, we ask all members of the Labour Party to join
with us in calling on Tony Blair to distance himself and the British government
from violent and unjust over reaction at home and abroad. We are concerned
that much of the current rhetoric about a war against terrorism to save
our civilisation is out of place and is being used to rush through restrictions
to civil rights.
We accept that action is necessary to stop terrorist groups and individuals
wrecking havoc on innocent people. However, justice must be even handed.
In this regard the record of the US and the West is hardly exemplary.
Military force with loss of life and the undermining of legitimate government
has been a common global experience and the US has been the principal
actor.
Since 1945 the US and its allies have intervened militarily in many sovereign
states including Greece, Korea, Lebanon, Laos, Cuba, Dominican Republic,
Vietnam, El Salvador, Chile, Ghana, Zaire, Mali, the former Yugoslavia
and Granada, either directly or through destabilisation. Iraq is still
the object of bombing raids and economic sanctions which have led to widespread
starvation and disease.
Israel, a client state of the US, ignores UN resolutions with impunity
and continues to occupy large tracts of Palestine while denying Palestinians
human rights in Israel and the occupied territories.
Poverty and starvation continue to stalk the world, a condition imposed
by the US and Western global economic system. The core economies, defined
as Western Europe the US and Japan, consume 70% of the world’s energy,
75% of its metals, 85% of its wood and 60% of its food. The 600 million
people of the least developed nations, in stark contrast, confront starvation
and disease on a daily basis. Already the threat of military action is
contributing to hundreds of thousands of more refugees vulnerable to starvation
and a pitiless winter on the Pakistan and Afghanistan border.
The assumption that such injustice and inequality can be dealt with through
military action is comparable to using petrol to douse a burning building.
And yet through economic bribery and bullying and if necessary military
violence, the US seeks to maintain its dominant global position.
We call on the leadership of the Labour Party and on Labour MEPS, MPs
and MSPs to oppose a war likely to lead to the deaths of innocent civilians.
We further call on them to help initiate an international effort to combat
global inequality and injustice.'
ENDS
The Campaign for Socialism is a publications and pressure group in the
Labour Party committed to socialist solutions. Its Convenor is John McAllion
MSP.
Contact: Vince Mills, Secretary on 07890 525934 or vincent.mills@iomartdsl.com
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