The "Special Relationship" and Brown’s Labour Government

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The "Special Relationship" and Brown’s Labour Government

It had been suggested that when Gordon Brown made his first trip as Prime Minister to visit George Bush, it would embody a break with American foreign policy, that Britain and the US would not longer be "joined at the hip". However, while having given the appearance that Britain would go its own way, after mounting pressure to withdraw from Iraq, Brown is focusing on the "historic" links between the two countries and predicting the links would become even stronger. At the same time, he is advocating a "cold war" style propaganda battle in the Muslim world and against "international terrorism", describing terrorism as a "crime against humanity". But whose is the crime? Is not the aggression against and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan which is the crime against humanity and against peace? Is it not preparation for a new war against Iran, the blockades of Cuba and the DPRK, the violation of people’s sovereignty around the world in the name "humanitarianism", the rape and plunder of the world’s resources and the wilful irresponsibility of global warming and the devastation of people’s lives, and the massive imperialist-sourced poverty which are the crimes against humanity?

The ground for Gordon Brown’s "moral compass" had been prepared by some few words casting doubts on the "war on terror". But the resurrection of the concept of a new Cold War, targeting the resistance against Anglo-US imperialism, not only shows the flimsiness of the avoidance of the phrase "war on terror", but that Brown and Bush are intent on escalating the dangers facing the world’s people, hanging on to power at all costs and asserting the supremacy of retrogressive and reactionary values.

While the relationship of Blair and Bush was revealed as a more personal one, so Brown has been at pains to promote the image of a more business-like relationship. But there can be no illusions that Brown serves the Anglo-American agenda of the neo-liberal concerns any less than Blair’s government did.

On Iraq, Brown said that Britain would honour its so-called responsibilities but admitted there had been problems with political reconciliation and that the reconstruction effort had taken longer than expected. He said that Britain's decision in the Basra region would be based on the military advice from its commanders on the ground. Later, British officials insisted that the departure timetable was not being accelerated and said it was too soon to speculate on the plans that would be set out in October. Initially, they would mean handing military control to the Iraqis and moving to "overwatch". This stance of Brown reveals that there is no attempt by the government to let the Iraqi people decide their own fate, and the fate of those 5,500 troops stationed in Basra is left off the agenda at least until October.

At the same press conference where Brown gave the illusion that he was changing course on Iraq, Bush stated that American troops could be there for a "long time". The monsters that are the Anglo-American warmongers, serving the interests of the rich, have shown no signs of withdrawing from a foreign policy which has seen over a million Iraqi civilians dead, and in Afghanistan, 4 million people displaced from their homes, whilst more troops are put in danger every day to fight so-called "insurgents".

Gordon Brown en route to meeting George W Bush invoked the words of Winston Churchill by reaffirming his belief in the "joint inheritance" that binds Britain and the United States. Gordon Brown could not have been clearer when he said: "When, at my meeting with President Bush, I talk of a joint inheritance – not just of shared history but shared values founded on a shared destiny – I mean the idea that everyone is created equal, that there should be freedom of expression for all faiths, that arts and culture should celebrate diversity, that government should be open and accountable, that there should be opportunity for all – for all men and all women – and a belief in free trade." The actions of the US and Britain, especially over the past 10 years, have demonstrated just how bankrupt these words are in the present-day world. Capitalism has developed into imperialism, liberalism into neo-liberalism, the people today are at the centre of history, Anglo-US imperialism is morbidly preoccupied with its own demise, it is trampling on the sovereignty of peoples and waging war against faiths, cultures and peoples that dare to differ from its programme of world empire, and trying to settle scores with past defeats. Yet Gordon Brown can shamelessly mouth the values of the English-speaking "joint inheritance" and a manifest destiny as lofty and progressive.

It is chilling to note that the words Gordon Brown quotes made by Churchill in 1946 presaged the opening of the Cold War and rampant anti-communism after the defeat of Nazi fascism in the Second World War. It was a speech that spoke about communist "fifth columns" as a "peril to Christian civilisation", which referred to the power of the British empire, which put on a pedestal the "whole strength of the English-speaking world and all its connections". Most infamously, it spoke of the "iron curtain" through which imperialism hoped to isolate, demonise and wipe out communism. This is the project that Gordon Brown and George Bush were meeting to resurrect, with talk of a "generation-long battle" against terrorism, a "great ideological struggle" and, in the words of Bush, "this war against extremists and radicals".

The gangsterism of the representatives of the Anglo-American imperialist agenda is not going to change. Gordon Brown’s Labour, as Tony Blair’s "New" Labour, is a party dedicated to this agenda, which stands for war, aggression, violation of sovereignty and the values of neo-liberalism. Indeed, Brown emphasised the issue of "shared values" with the US administration and the congruence of their global interests one of the main issues in the "special relationship".

However, the working class and people have time and again demonstrated their resolve to reject this agenda, and to have some political force come to power to declare that "change" is the order of the day is an attempt to divert the anger of the people’s movements. Gordon Brown’s bolstering of the "special relationship" with US imperialism, the mission to consolidate the Anglo-American imperialist entity, is demonstrating that the issue is still to defeat the pro-war agenda of New Labour, fight for an anti-war government, an independent foreign policy and organise for working class power and people’s empowerment.

The working class and people will not be fooled again by the promotion of an Anglo-American joint inheritance in a crusade against the rest of the uncivilised or totalitarian and extremist world. Too many peoples and nations have stood up and declared their national and collective dignity and rights and for Brown and Bush to try and hoist this tattered banner is mere bravado. But it is bravado backed up by political power and military might with which they intend to cause disaster for the world’s people, always under the banner of the highest-sounding morality when it comes to the British Prime Minister.

The resistance of the working class and people must be stepped up, along with the movement to focus on positive progressive change and implementing an alternative agenda from the grass roots up. WDIE calls on the working class and people, in unity with the people’s struggles against imperialism throughout the world, to take up responsibility for bringing about a world of peace, justice and the guaranteeing of rights of all. The programme of New Labour, with its emphasis on the "special relationship" with US imperialism, must be defeated as a crucial step towards this goal. It is the people who must be the decision-makers, in order to implement their own agenda.