Editorial: Militarism, security panic & racism
The official response to the bombings that killed civilians in London on July 7 was swift and nauseatingly hypocritical.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, joined by George Bush, Paul Martin and other leaders gathered in Scotland for the G-8 summit, prattled on about ‘good’ versus ‘evil’ and the need to defend ‘civilization’ against the terrorist threat.
The “war on terror” has been sputtering as the US-led occupation of Iraq produces an ongoing spiral of violence. It has manifestly not made the world a safer and more secure place. This is clear even to analysts who are far from left-wingers: a recent report by the British think-tank Chatham House pointed out that the invasion and occupation of Iraq “gave a boost to the al-Qaeda network’s propaganda, recruitment and fundraising” and that “the UK is at particular risk because it is the closest ally of the United States.” In spite of all of Blair’s efforts to deny it, many people in Britain see that there is a link between their government’s involvement in Iraq and the bombings in London.
The London bombings were actually a political gift for Bush, Blair and co. They were immediately used to justify a new offensive by many Western governments, including Canada’s. The message is warlike. Leaders promise no retreat from the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Canada will do its bit, with the first wave of some 2000 troops dispatched to Kandahar in Afghanistan, where they will likely see combat. General Hillier, Chief of Defence Staff, echoed the Bush line about an enemy that hates “our freedoms” and crowed “We are the Canadian Forces and our job is to be able to kill people.” Jack Layton’s response showed how deep the NDP leadership’s opposition to militarism runs: “We have a very committed, level-headed head of our armed forces who isn’t afraid to express the passion that underlies the mission that front-line personnel are going to be taking on.”
Along with the renewed commitment of Western states to the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan has been another wave of “national security” hype and intensified nationalist racism against Muslims and people of colour.
In Canada, Federal Minister of Transportation Lapierre is talking about a “no-fly” list that will ban people from air transport and expanding video surveillance on public transit. The media has been full of talk about what Muslims must do. Implicitly or explicitly, all Muslims are being held responsible for the actions of handfuls of terrorists – a clear example of racist scapegoating. While opinion poll questions are often loaded to manipulate the results, it is worrying that a large minority favours reducing Muslim immigration.
The activist group No One Is Illegal – Vancouver sums up the situation we’re in: “Upgraded security measures in the post 9/11 climate have led to an increase of racial profiling and invasion of privacy rights. Within weeks of 9/11, Canada implemented a wide array of laws and practices in the areas of criminal law, immigration law, tax law, employment, intelligence services and airport security. Further Orwellian measures, such as the increased use of cameras in subways and trains proposed by LaPierre, will have a devastating effect on the right to privacy in public spaces and, despite government assurances, will have a disproportionate impact on people of colour.
A number of efforts to boost the military’s image are also underway. The August 13 military funeral service for the last Canadian holder of the Victoria Cross was the biggest in half a century.
Militarism, security panic and racism all help Bush, Blair and Martin to deflect attention from the glaring truth: imperial occupations and Western-backed Israeli actions against the Palestinians have led to great suffering in the Middle East and a sense of humiliation across the Muslim world.
War and state terrorism in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine are generating predictable consequences, including terrorist attacks by small groups who target civilians, including people in the imperialist countries.
“Terrorism” is a greatly abused word which today is often used to demonize national liberation struggles, demonstrations and other forms of protest. But the London bombings were terrorist in the real sense.
New Socialist opposes terrorism. Killing innocent civilians – in London, a multiracial and largely working-class group of commuters – is simply unjustifiable.
New Socialist opposes terrorist attacks regardless of the ideology of the terrorists. In the case of the London bombings, those behind them were not misguided left-wingers but reactionary religious fundamentalists. As the British paper Socialist Resistance said in its statement after the bombings, they “have nothing to offer the working class of the Arab world or working-class Muslims in Britain…They are incapable of distinguishing between the British government and the tens of millions of people in this country who are against the war.”
Terrorism doesn’t help the struggle against war and occupation. The London bombings hurt efforts to build movements, just as the 9/11 attacks were a major blow to the global justice movement, especially in the US and Canada. Sowing mass fear by attacks on civilians has predictable consequences. It leads to state repression and the rise of racism.
In response, it is vital to strengthen organizing against war, occupation and racism in Canada as part of the global movements that declare “Another World is Possible.” It is these that offer an alternative to the forces of Bush and Bin-Laden. We urge readers to respond to the Canadian Peace Alliance’s call for demonstrations on Sept. 24.
