Tony Blair Defends Britain’s Colonial War with Argentina

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Tony Blair Defends Britain’s Colonial War with Argentina

Day Three of UNISON's National Delegate Conference

FE Lecturers Threaten Further Strike Action

EU Seville Summit Set to Step up Racist Onslaught on Migrants and Refugees
Ten Million Join Spain's General Strike
WFTU Memorandum to Seville European Summit
Additions to Terrorist List Expected
US Purchase of German Arms Manufacturer Raises Worries

Letter to the Editor:
Milton Keynes: Gulf Crisis Group Speak Out Against Sanctions and Bombing of Iraq

The war with Argentina over the Malvinas was one defining event which confirmed Margaret Thatcher as the favoured champion of the ruling circles at the beginning of the eighties, and which aroused the hatred and opposition of working and progressive people. On June 14, Prime Minister Tony Blair broadcast an address to the people of the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) on the 20th anniversary of the end of the war in 1982, in which over 1,000 members of the British and Argentinean armed forces lost their lives.

Tony Blair referred to the military conflict in 1982 as the "liberation of the Falklands" and used his broadcast to praise other more recent examples of intervention by British armed forces in Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and the Balkans. He restated the British government’s position that "the sovereignty, security and right of self-determination of the Falkland Islands and its people are not open to negotiation or compromise". He told those who have settled in the Falklands that "the Islands will be British for as long as you wish them to remain so". This remains the government’s policy for all the UK Overseas Territories.

The Falkland Islands (Malvinas) are an archipelago of 700 islands situated 300 miles off the coast of Argentina in the South Atlantic, designated by the British government a "UK Overseas Territory". Although Tony Blair referred to their system of government as "growing into a mature democracy", in fact the islands are still governed as a British colony, with a governor appointed in London, and with "the advice and assistance of the executive and legislative councils". By no stretch of the imagination could it be said that the inhabitants are empowered to determine their own future.

Nor can Tony Blair claim that the question of the sovereignty of the islands has been resolved. In fact the sovereignty of the islands has always been in question since they were first inhabited in the late 17th century. Even after the attempt by Argentina to reoccupy the Malvinas by military force in 1982, the UN Committee of Twenty-Four, responsible for overseeing the UN Declaration of the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, has continued to adopt resolutions calling for negotiations between Britain and Argentina. The British government’s main claim to sovereignty over the islands is based on the premise that those who have settled on the islands since the 19th century, who are mainly of British origin, should be the determining factor. This is what it refers to as the Falkland Islander’s "right of self-determination" and it is the basis for the government's retaining control of other colonial territories too, such as Gibraltar, as was openly stated in the 1999 White Paper "Britain and the Overseas Territories".

Tony Blair and the Labour government should be condemned for their defence of the colonial war against Argentina and for continuing to justify maintaining colonial territories such as the Malvinas and Gibraltar. The Labour government should also be condemned for its continued neo-colonial interference and intervention throughout the world. What must be demanded is that Britain severs all its colonial and neo-colonial ties. Tony Blair's defence of the colonial war over the Falkland Islands underlines that the government is not interested in sorting out the problems from the past which remain unresolved in the present. In pursuit of Britain's imperialistic "leading role" in world affairs, he is creating ever more problems for the world's peoples, including within Britain. As the true champion of the bourgeoisie, he is not interested in the self-determination of nations and peoples, but at the same time is not above mouthing these words in the service of the financial oligarchy's programme of annexation and domination.

Conference resumed in the morning with an international debate.

Denis Goldberg addressed Conference as an invited speaker. In 1963 Denis Goldberg was sentenced by an apartheid court alongside Nelson Mandela and spent 22 years in jail with him on Robin Island. Released before the election of the ANC, he was exiled to Britain where he served as ANC's representative to the UN and established Community HEART which strives to overcome apartheid's legacy. During his address he spoke about the legacy of apartheid. He spoke of the fact that water has been available in abundance for the rich, their swimming pools and gardens whilst not available at all to the majority of the population. He said there were 20,000 schools, although many of them were ramshackle but worst of all they had no books. He said that his organisation HEART had sent one and quarter million books home but that this was a small amount to what was needed. Denis Goldberg spoke about his Jewish origins and then turned to the question of Palestine. He condemned the criminal acts of Zionism against the Palestinian people and their constant expansion into Palestinian territory. He compared the way their towns and communities were isolated in pockets and the Palestinians denied their statehood to the way the Racist South African apartheid regime operated. He called for their immediate withdrawal from the Palestine territories and full support being given by the international community to the Palestine state. He pointed out that in Israel the word Israeli does not refer to all the citizens such as the Palestinian and Arabs as it should do. In this way the rights of a citizen is denied to all, and the Arab citizens are treated as subhuman. He opposed the justification being carried out by the British media when they describe the Palestinians arrested by the Israelis as "captives".

Denis Golberg then said he was returning to South Africa to become a political advisor. "I have already told the politician that I am not going to spin, he will have to do that himself," he remarked to much laughter. At the conclusion of his address the 2,000 delegates rose to their feet to applaud this veteran fighter.

Conference then passed a motion on Palestine, Composite L. During the debate a young Palestinian delegate gave a moving speech about his country he thanked the union for sending him to Palestine on a delegation where he met Yasser Arafat.

Conference then returned to the Political Funds debate. Before Conference was Composite M Political Fund Review which noted that the decision of National Delegate Conference 2001 to review the union's political fund was rightly seen as an important decision. "Conference reaffirms the concerns expressed last year that our current arrangements do not appear to enable UNISON to use our political funds effectively in the best interests of our members." Opposing the formal approach the motion emphasised: "It is clearly critical that the consultation allows for the fullest debate with all options and opinions allowed to be expressed." The motion called on the National Executive Council to:

a) Organise a debate on the future of the political fund;

b) Draw up a consultation timetable to ensure Conference policy is carried out;

c) Work with regions to ensure the widest consultation and communication as the review of the political funds continues;

d) Take all steps to facilitate the widest membership participation in the review, including through meetings within and between branches and through the use of information technology;

e) Ensure that all information provided to members during the further consultation period allows equal weight to all sides of the argument to be fairly presented.

The motion concluded: "Conference also calls upon all branches, regions, service groups and self-organised groups to treat the review of the political funds as a very high priority in the coming year, so that UNISON can develop an approach to our political funds consistent with the needs and interests of our members."

The debate that followed the moving of the motion was cut short by Conference when the question was put after two speakers for and against the motion, one of which was the representative of the National Executive Committee who spoke against the motion. Voting went to a card vote passing the motion 519,379 to 442,632 a majority of 76,747.

Motion 35 on Equal Pay and Composite D Work-Life Balance were debated and passed by Conference. Simon Woolley from Operation Blackvote then addressed Conference on the issue of opposing racism in Britain. This was followed by Emergency Motion 1 Racism and the BNP moved by the General Secretary Dave Prentis and debated by conference and passed at the end of the morning session.

The afternoon session was taken up with the Union Rules debate. This was followed by the presentation of the Bob Cotton Citizenship Awards, which concluded the business of the third day of conference. Bob Cotton was a UNISON activist, known for his commitment to trade unionism and to the public service ethos, who was killed in the Paddington rail disaster in 1999. He was travelling to a UNISON meeting in London from his Gloucestershire home when the tragedy happened. UNISON is keeping his memory alive with the award for members who have made outstanding contributions to their communities.

The National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE) has threatened further strike action in FE colleges in September, after rejecting a new employers' pay offer of 2.3%. This offer was made after a two-day FE lecturers' strike at the end of May, when college lecturers resolutely rejected a previous offer of 1.5%. Paul Mackney, NATFHE's general secretary declared, "Unless Estelle Morris (secretary of state) comes up with a significant offer, we will strike again."

The crisis of low pay in the FE sector has been caused by years of chronic under-funding. This has resulted from the policy of prioritising the claims of the financial magnates on society at the expense of funding social programmes to provide for the health and educational needs of the people.

When on Wednesday the education secretary set out the government strategy for the FE sector, she told the Learning and Skills Development Agency conference of a one-off funding of £43 million to support the strategy this year, including an average of around £50,000 per college for new equipment and improved classrooms. But the money comes from reallocated funds.

Gerald Imison, deputy general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said in response: "Lecturers are already totally demoralised. The secretary of state seems to be implicitly blaming them for poor levels of achievement when she has been responsible for the collapse of morale. Her ideas cannot succeed when the basic core funding has been denied to further education colleges."

He continued, "Criticism of the standards in colleges helps no one. It is a lack of funding to FE colleges that has created the current position. There seems to be a culture of blaming the infantry when the fault lies with the field marshals closeted in Sanctuary Buildings, far away from the front line."

Paul Mackney, general secretary of NATFHE, said: "NATFHE is always prepared to engage in discussion to improve the quality of further education on offer to millions of adults and students, but let's be clear that if there has been any slippage in standards, the decline has to be laid at the door of chronic underfunding of the sector."

He went on, "College staff are already over-burdened, de-moralised and burnt out with new initiatives. Any plan to address standards in colleges must tackle the massive 12 per cent pay gap between schoolteachers and FE lecturers as a matter of urgency. Teaching staff are now leaving FE in droves to teach in schools. The inability to recruit high quality staff will leave the Education Secretary's pursuit of excellence in FE in tatters. FE lecturers welcome further professional development, but demand professional pay. Unless this issue is addressed, there is a real risk that the debate on reform will unfold against a backdrop of an autumn of discontent in FE colleges."

In the lead-up to the upcoming Seville summit of the EU scheduled for June 21-22, a number of leading EU politicians have been going all out to isolate migrants and refugees and create the conditions for launching further racist attacks on this section of the people.

EU Council president Josep Pique declared that "migration is probably the most important item of political and social debate … over the next few decades". Romano Prodi, President of the European Council echoed Pique's words, declaring that "the most burning issue to be dealt with by the European Council is immigration". Spain's State Secretary for European Affairs declared that "the problem is the flood of illegal immigrants, who are marginalised and subjected to unacceptable exploitation".

Clearly linking the fate of refugees and migrant workers, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw declared that there was a need to "manage the flow of illegal immigration and unfounded asylum seekers" and for " tough action against illegal immigration". Home Secretary David Blunkett has also been very vocal in his demands for "tough action" against "illegal immigrants" and "bogus asylum seekers". This orchestrated racist campaign by the political representatives of EU finance capital is attempting to scapegoat the victims of their policies.

Jack Straw talks about the long-term causes such as poverty and instability which lead to migratory pressures into Europe, as though he were a detached observer of distant phenomena.

However, the so-called "bogus asylum seekers" and "illegal immigrants" are none other than people who have had to flee their own countries to save their lives and those of their families from the political, social and economic ruination and chaos that the imposition of the neo-liberal globalisation agenda is causing in many areas of the world. This coupled with the policy of warmongering, military aggression, threats and interference in the internal affairs of countries all over the world are the real causes of the "illegal immigration" and "bogus asylum seeking" which the EU leaders are talking about. However, true to form, the politicians of finance capital are trying to manipulate the situation and direct the growing popular anger and frustration with the status quo against the asylum seekers and migrants, who are themselves victims of the status quo.

WDIE denounces this racist campaign of the politicians of the rich and calls on the working class and people to take a stand in defence of the rights of the asylum seekers and migrant workers.

Spanish trade unions say an estimated 10 million people followed their call for a general strike on Thursday. The action took place in opposition to attacks on benefit payments to unemployed workers.

At the end of the 24-hour stoppage, union leaders told a big rally in Madrid that there would be further action if the government did not back down over the attacks on unemployment benefits.

The general strike took place on the eve of the European Union summit. More than 80% of employees stayed away from work

Outside the Corte Ingles department store, riot police with black helmets and truncheons stood guard at the front door as a mass of whistle-blowing strikers protested and organised a picket. Pickets were organised at many factories and other places of work. At least 63 strikers were arrested nationwide, the interior ministry said.

The combined membership of the General Workers Union (UGT) and the Communist Workers Commission (CCOO) is almost two million people. The two unions are demanding that the government end its plans for a sliding scale of penalties for unemployed workers who turn down a job offer. The government is also proposing a draconian measure that unemployment benefit should be halted after three "refusals". Under the anti-social reforms, any job within a 50 kilometre radius of the jobseeker's home which they were capable of doing would qualify as a "suitable" job offer. This would include part-time work and work in a field the person had no previous experience of.

In this way, Spanish workers are to be made to pay for an unemployment rate which is the highest in the EU – 12.9% in March.

The government's unemployment reform was passed by decree last week. It would also eliminate salary payments made to Spanish workers who have been fired and are appealing in court. Furthermore, it contains measures to curtail payments to temporary farm workers.

"The Aznar government has broken all records on regressive policies," said the UGT.

The Spanish government is trying to boost the competitiveness of business by implementing anti-social measures in the context of the EU and global neo-liberal agenda. The attacks on the workers and unemployed are taking place in the name of providing "an open and flexible labour market".

The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) has sent the following memorandum to the European Summit, which meets in Seville on June 21-22, 2002.

The World Federation of Trade Unions draws the urgent attention of the Seville European Summit to the deteriorating social situation of the working people in the European Union and in Europe as a whole, which brings to the fore the cardinal issue of non-implementation of declared social policies and commitments solemnly undertaken at the World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen (1995) and the basic aims of the European Social Charter itself.

There are increasing trade union protests in all European countries against the attempts to dismantle the social safety net and long-accepted principles of social policy. . Trade unions in the various European countries have organised massive protest actions against these anti-labour and anti-social policies. The protest actions planned by the Spanish trade unions on 20 June 2002 are widely seen as a sequel to the attempts of policymakers to reverse the social gains achieved after decades of trade union struggles.

It was unanimously and universally agreed at the 1995 Copenhagen Summit that all economic policies should have a social dimension, that there should be a social safety net covering all segments of the working people and that all States should work towards a full employment policy. Instead of building a European social model based on the widely-accepted principles of the European Social Charter, laws are being changed by certain governments to deny the social safety net for the unemployed (as the authorities in Spain seek to impose), and to undermine the rights and interests of the working people on questions of job security, collective bargaining and trade union rights as well as working and living conditions. Systems of pensions and social security are threatened with privatisation. Deregulation and liquidation of public services are prominent in the declarations of several governments. There is widespread apprehension that this dilution of policies and principles is turning the organised sector into a fragmented "informal" sector, on the false claim that by reducing social protection, national economies will become more competitive.

The WFTU therefore urges the European Summit in Seville to take into account these concerns of the trade union movement and devote more attention to advance from the positions upheld in the European Social Charter and the Copenhagen commitments. In other words, the Summit meeting should disapprove the retrograde policy changes seeking to liquidate the social gains achieved by the trade unions and democratic forces in Europe as well as to liquidate the well-established social rights which have prevailed so far.

The European Union is apparently bowing to pressure by officially labelling more groups as terrorist organisations, the Middle East Newsline reported on June 18.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Palestine Liberation Front, already on the US State Department list of terrorist groups, will also be labelled as terrorist organisations by the EU.

European diplomats said the US has been urging the EU to label the groups as terrorists in order to co-ordinate actions in the "war on terror". Legitimate political organisations are being outlawed in the interests of US imperialist hegemony.

In early June the US investment group One Equity Partners bought a controlling 75% stake in the German shipbuilders Howaldtswerke Deutsche Werft (HDW). HDW is the world's leading producer of conventional submarines and also builds military vessels and commercial ships. One Equity Partners is a unit of Chicago-based Bank One, which has strong links to General Dynamics, a US military company. There are fears that One Equity is seeking ways to transfer HDW's high-tech submarine technology to the group. One Equity has said outright that it could sell a significant stake in HDW to General Dynamics or Northrop Grumman, which are keen to sell HDW's submarine technology to Taiwan.

This purchase has raised worries in the European arms industry that it could signal an American take-over of European arm production. Walther Stultze, an official of Germany's Defence Ministry said in response to the purchase, "I can see the danger that the basis of Europe's defence technology could be lost." Ernst Otto Kramer, chairman of Rheinmetall DeTec, which is involved in military production, stated that "HDW was a test case for the Americans". Non-US manufacturers are effectively barred from selling into the US defence market, the world's biggest.

Commentators have noted that the purchase of 75% of HDW by the US company is seen as a setback for the European arms industry since the European Commission has been pushing it hard to boost its competitiveness against its US rivals by greater co-ordination and co-operation among themselves. This is a further sign of the growing rivalry for markets between the US and EU monopolist blocs.

Analysts have said that the case of HDW could be symbolic for things to come. "If HDW was the litmus test for the Americans, then Krauss-Maffei Wegmann will be the next," an industry analyst said. Siemens, the engineering company, has pledged to sell its 49 per cent stake in Krauss-Maffei by the year-end. It is thought that a US investor might seek to take a stake in Krauss-Maffei to acquire its technology for the Leopard II, a main battle tank. Last week it emerged that Babcock-Borsig was talking to Northrop Grumman about co-operating in sales and marketing.

I thought your readers would be interested in the speech given on behalf of the Gulf Crisis Group at the Nipponzan Myoho Pagoda Annual Peace Celebration on Sunday June 16 in Milton Keynes. The text of the speech is as follows.

"Thank you for inviting us to speak today at your celebration about the sanctions against Iraq. The Government and media talk about Iraq as if only one person lives there. Everything is justified because of one person – Saddam Hussein. But the reality is that sanctions against Iraq are sanctions against all the ordinary people of Iraq. Look at the facts

• 4 – 5,000 Iraqi children die every month because of sanctions according to the United Nations, UNICEF, and Save The Children
• the Iraqi economy and services such as healthcare are being destroyed because of sanctions
• Iraq has been bombed almost continually and is currently under constant threat of a major military attack.

Dennis Halliday, former UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator in Iraq, said after resigning his post:

"We are in the process of destroying an entire society. It is as simple and as terrifying as that. It is illegal and immoral". This is a policy of state terrorism carried out by Britain and the United States.

Such total disregard for the rights of a people and nation concerned with imposing dictate and control by genocide and in flagrant abuse of international law is truly nazi-like.

For us in Britain the problem is often that people don’t know. For years there was a near media silence on the sanctions. You couldn’t even get a letter in The Independent. So what can we do? Our Group was formed 4 years ago. We have tried to inform people of the facts and encourage them to take action through our monthly vigils and leafleting as part of the growing national movement against the sanctions and bombing.

Why?

-Because the sanctions and bombing of Iraq are totally wrong

-Because it is being done in our name

-Because as someone once said, "A nation that oppresses another nation cannot itself be free"

In other words the issue of a new society, one which focuses on guaranteeing peoples rights at home and abroad instead of trampling on them needs to be addressed.

Just as Iraq has been labelled and condemned the rebound on domestic politics post September 11 has seen the application of the ‘terrorist’ label wielded to introduce laws to criminalise political dissent and strengthen the powers of the state to restrict or ban political opposition to Government policy. The assault on people’s rights abroad is accompanied by a similar trend at home.

Finally, I would like to invite everyone to the weekly vigil against the US and British so-called ‘War on terrorism’ 5.30-6.30pm every Monday out-side Milton Keynes Railway Station. This is organised by Open Discussion, a broad group of local individuals and organisations. Thank you."