An Instrument Designed to Strengthen the Hand of Blair’s Warmongering

Workers' Daily Internet Edition: Article Index :

The Butler Report:
An Instrument Designed to Strengthen the Hand of Blair’s Warmongering

Young Workers Treated as Less than Human

The Prime Minister has used the publication of the Butler Committee’s Report of the Review of Intelligence on Weapons of Mass Destruction to provide further justifications for the illegal invasion of Iraq, and to attempt to create a rationale for similar wars against other countries in the future. Indeed it should be recalled that the remit of the Butler Committee was precisely to make recommendations to the Prime Minister on intelligence gathering in regard to WMD.

Tony Blair’s remarks in the parliamentary debate on the Butler Committee’s Report on July 20 were largely a repetition and elaboration of the statement he made in Parliament when the government first published the Report on July 14. On that occasion he admitted: "it seems increasingly clear that at the time of invasion Saddam did not have stockpiles of chemical or biological weapons ready to deploy." But although at the time this was the main justification for the invasion of Iraq, Tony Blair now argues that the absence of such WMD did not in any way mean that war was unjustified. On the contrary, according to the Prime Minister’s logic, Saddam "retained complete strategic intent on WMD and significant capability". Therefore he concludes: "had we backed down in respect of Saddam, we would never have taken the stand we needed to take on WMD, never have got the progress for example on Libya, that we achieved; and we would have left Saddam in charge of Iraq, with every malign intent and capability still in place and every dictator with the same intent everywhere immeasurably emboldened."

What lies at the root of the Prime Minister’s imperialist logic is that Britain, the US and the other big powers have every right to bully any state, and to invade and take "pre-emptive" action against any state that opposes their will. Such action can then be justified on the basis that it might deter others, or on the basis that such a state has been demonised sufficiently by designating it "failed," "failing," "rogue," or part of the "axis of evil".

It is noteworthy that Tony Blair has even found time to praise the Butler Committee’s assessment of intelligence in regard to other countries, including Libya, Iran and the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea. Not surprisingly, the Report attempts to provide the same kind of mischievous misinformation about the latter two countries as has previously been created about Iraq. The Butler Committee’s Report claims that DPRK "could pose a nuclear threat not just to its neighbours but increasingly on a global scale", although it provides no evidence for such an assertion, and it specifically claims that the DPRK is developing "missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons as far away as the continental US and Europe". In short the DPRK is presented as a "major exporter of missiles". As for Iran it is presented in the report not only as buyer of missile technology exported from the DPRK, which it has since further developed itself, but also as a country that is developing a nuclear capability. The Report concludes that "there are clearly outstanding issues about Iran’s activities".

The Butler Committee’s report is not without some criticisms of the way that "intelligence" about WMD is Iraq was used by the government, but it lends itself much more to underpinning the warmongering logic of the Prime Minister, who over two years ago announced in the House of Commons that the DPRK would be the next state to be confronted over its possession of WMD. In this sense the logic of Tony Blair is no different from that of his close ally and senior imperialist partner George W Bush who, only last week, announced that the US would be stepping up its investigation of Iran to see if that country could be implicated in the events of September 11, 2001.

Both US imperialism and the British government are using the issue of terrorism and other states’ possession of WMD as a pretext to impose neo-liberal globalisation throughout the world and strengthen the dangerous and criminal strategic plans of the US for annexation, control and domination, focused increasingly on both Asia and Africa, using military might, bullying and encirclement. In so doing they are creating all the conditions for future global instability and wars. In this situation the peace loving people of the world must step up their own struggles in order to stay the hands of the warmongers.

– By a working student in South England –

A few days ago, I went to an employment agency to find work. I did not intend to apply for manual labour or industrial work, but was talked into it by the agency. They made it seem like a good idea, despite my concerns over health and safety. Just recently, the local media reported the death of another young worker in some such job. The agency’s representative summed up their attitude when she said that accidents "usually turn out to be" the workers’ "own faults".

This was some days ago. Yesterday (according to the time I am writing), I received a call from that representative telling me that they had found a day’s work for me: cleaning up fields after a recent music festival. The major cleaning had been done; we were to scour the ground for remaining objects, particularly sharp objects such as pieces of glass. This work had actually been taking place for a number of days previously.

Now, I had my doubts already over what the conditions might be, but decided I would go anyway. That is in spite of the disrespect shown by the agency in another way. There was a possibility that the work could get cancelled due to bad weather. There was to be no cover for turning up in this situation. I was given a mobile number to phone, myself, in the morning beforehand if it seemed as though this might happen. Of course, this would not have been practical – I would have had to travel in any case and lose the travel expense and time.

So, this morning I set off. In the event, the weather was fine and everything appeared as though it would go ahead. When I arrived, I met the other recruits and the smug-looking foreman from the large well-known company (Biffa Waste Services Ltd) that had been contracted to carry out the cleaning.

He gave a quick explanation of what needed to be done. We were to find any small sharp objects on the ground or half buried. Broken glass, bottle tops and "whatever". He then handed us our equipment.

A black bin liner. That was all. They wanted us to collect small sharp fragments in a field, after a festival, with our bare hands. Can anybody imagine what is lurking in this rubbish, what diseases and what other "sharp objects"? One scratch is all it takes, for a few pounds.

I asked whether we had any equipment, at least gloves and a litter-picking stick. The foreman continued to look smug and tried to embarrass me for speaking. It was clear that the answer was no, so I told them no too. That seemed to surprise him, as he gave some excuse about not being able to use such a stick for this job. In his van, he found one pair of gloves, since I had asked – nothing for the other workers – thinking that would satisfy me.

Not impressed, I left and headed for the agency, which happened to be fairly nearby. He had already called them to tell them and, I suppose, whinge. I made my complaint to the agency’s representative. "Well, he said they had gloves," she said. I obviously had to spell it out more clearly, which was met with, "You’re saying that you've looked and it's not for you."

This just about puts in a nutshell: it is all my own choice. I said that it is not for anybody! I was concerned for the other workers who stayed. "Well, they have health and safety," she replied. Was I talking to a machine? They clearly neither think nor care about what work they find for people.

Now, this may all seem like a small incident. Probably, or hopefully, the other workers will be fine. But the potential danger involved is actually very great. It is actually a very serious incident and an indication of the systematic violation of young workers’ rights (three quarters of us were in this category) that must be occurring.

As well as treating us like animals, Biffa, the multinational company that was running the clean-up operation, had defied our human rights as soon as they presented us with the task. They have no right to even ask this of someone. The pressure is there, firstly financially and then through attempts at intimidation and embarrassment. They are animals for even asking us. It is surely ironic that Biffa’s own website proudly proclaims the company as "a different kind of animal".

The process at work is clear: the council has contracted out work, which it could certainly organise for itself, to a multinational company, which then uses an agency to supply it with labour. They all take a cut out of the social product while mainly young people are put to work in dangerous conditions for a pittance. Why should cleaning workers receive such low pay anyway? In the financial year 2002/03, Biffa reported a turnover of £510.9m and pre-tax profits of £67.9m. It is criminal.