Will the Workers Be Caught by the Trap that the Issue Is to Isolate and Replace Tony Blair?

Workers' Daily Internet Edition : Article Index :

WDIE Commentary:
Will the Workers Be Caught by the Trap that the Issue Is to Isolate and Replace Tony Blair?

Protests against EU Summit in Barcelona

Postal Workers March in Protest at Competition Threat

Only Zimbabweans Can Decide Their Fate

US Steps Up the Stakes in "War against Terrorism"

China Accuses US of Nuclear Blackmail

Japan Prepared to File Complaint over US Steel Tariffs

Bulgaria, Romania to Campaign Jointly for NATO Membership

A Balance of Terror

Prime Minister Tony Blair is travelling the globe with the air of a world president, forging alliances with the likes of George W. Bush and Silvio Berlusconi. Domestically, his so-called presidential style, or his method of individual rather than collective work, has for long caused rumblings. But commentators are now beginning to suggest that his unchallenged position at home may not be as secure as it seems. The leader of the TUC has had things to say, as have a number of figures within the Labour Party.

Particularly the anger about Tony Blair's warmongering stance alongside the US president on Iraq and a deal with the Italian leader to push for curbs on workers’ rights have sent whispers of revolution swirling around his Labour Party power base.

Reports have suggested that some are even thinking the unthinkable – that it is time Blair was challenged for the leadership of the Labour Party. "Revolution is in the air," declared Labour MP George Galloway in a comment piece in last week's Spectator. "The troopers are no longer obeying orders."

The criticisms about Blair cosying up to businessmen, battering the champions of workers’ rights and ignoring domestic ills in favour of war talk and foreign travel forced the Prime Minister last week to try to grab back the initiative. Eager to rekindle a the support of grass roots, the rank and file Labour members of parliament and once-loyal trade unions, he tried to inspire them with talk of a mission to create a fairer Britain with opportunity for all. But it appears this no longer cuts the mustard.

George Galloway, for example, who has been outspoken against possible US-British military action against Iraq, has said Blair would be crazy to support any such action and insisted: "This is not a Labour policy, it is a policy of a right-wing Republican American administration."

And what has kindled the ire of John Monks was Blair's recent deal with Italy's Prime Minister Berlusconi to push the European Union for an overhaul of so-called inflexible labour laws, a move which critics said would threaten workers’ rights.

"Bloody stupid", was John Monks assessment of Blair's action. He said that unions were fed up with their role as "long suffering stooges", providing the fund base for a leader who rides roughshod over their beliefs.

It is evident that discontent is not confined to the likes of Monks and Galloway. Indeed, it is amongst the working class and people that the struggle is growing, as, for example, social programmes such as health, education and transport services are suffering from the anti-social offensive, in stark contradiction with Tony Blair's promise of world class standards.

Police and teachers have taken to the streets to protest against their raw deals on pay and conditions.

Then there is the row about the work of Labour "spin doctors", which engulfed the DTI and led to two resignations, and the disquiet about Labour’s links with business, as epitomised in the Mittal affair.

Although there is still no sign of another champion of the bourgeoisie to rival Tony Blair, the crisis of credibility and legitimacy that the political system faces is coming to be focused on Blair and political analysts have suggested that once the idea of a leadership challenge is out, it will be hard to banish.

In these circumstances, the trap being laid for the workers is to suggest that their main task is to build a movement to isolate and topple Tony Blair, as part of a strategy of what is called winning back the Labour party. This is to create illusions about the nature of the Labour Party, its coming to power in 1997, and the role of Tony Blair in relation to the ongoing crisis.

When the objective situation was crying out for the working class to go for socialism to unlock the door to the solution of society's problems, the Labour Party, rendered "New" by the labours of Tony Blair, was brought to power as the most suitable vehicle for blocking this solution and pushing ahead with the anti-social offensive and paying the rich. This represented an electoral coup against the workers in 1997, and was followed up by a confidence trick to keep Labour in power in 2001. What is therefore undeniable is that the present time cries out for a Workers’ Opposition to be built to the whole "Third Way" programme of New Labour, with the immediate aim of bringing forward worker politicians who will represent the voice of the workers in parliament. The Labour Party itself has long since ceased to be a mass party of the workers in anything but name, while New Labour is "New" in the sense that it is no longer even a party of social democracy but of the neo-liberal agenda masquerading under the "Third Way".

The working class and people need to unite around an independent programme of the working class, and building the Workers’ Opposition is the practical requirement at this time in order to advance this cause of the people. It would be a block on the rising consciousness of the workers and a diversion of their organisational efforts to focus on replacing Tony Blair and moving the Labour Party to the left, since this is to try and turn back history in a way which is neither expedient nor possible.

Between 500,000-600,000 people demonstrated in the streets of Barcelona on Saturday. This massive march was the culmination of a week of events called by the Campaign against the Europe of Capital designed to challenge the EU summit taking place in the city. Citizens were confronted with widespread police violence, despite the fact that the vast majority of the protesters were totally peaceful. Accounts from the participants highlight the premeditated, brutal and indiscriminate nature of police attacks, in line with previous experiences at Gothenburg and Genoa, that have resulted with the total of 80 people arrested. This denial of basic rights that is now becoming commonplace in Europe is nothing new to many Spanish people. Statewatch had previously reported on the Spanish State's latest criminalisation strategies to quell dissent. In spite of the repression, spirits were high.

The day before, unexpectedly huge numbers of protesters took part in decentralised actions all over the city. Campaigners were amazed at the 20,000 strong turnout at around 25 varied actions, although events were also marred by oppressive policing and 28 arrests.

Spain restored passport controls at its borders and airports in the run-up to the Barcelona summit. The Spanish air force has sent F-18 fighters to fly over Barcelona, backed up by an E-3A AWACS radar plane on loan from NATO and a battery of Hawk anti-aircraft missiles at the city's airport.

The main business of the EU summit was reviving a plan launched in Lisbon two years ago to open markets and scrap regulation in areas ranging from transport and energy to job security with the ambitious goal of outstripping US competitiveness by 2010.

After two days of wrangling, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar was able to announce a reaffirmation of the broad Lisbon strategy, including the touchstone deal on energy that will give industry and business in France and across the EU a free choice of whom they buy gas and electricity from by 2004.

Admitting the arguments must seem arcane to most ordinary Europeans, Prime Minister Tony Blair called the summit’s achievements "limited but solid" and said: "There is no doubt this is a change of gear for Europe and a very welcome change. There is no one really arguing about the direction. There may be some argument about the pace of movement."

In a snub to the US, the Summit agreed to press on with developing an EU rival to the US GPS satellite navigation system. French President Jacques Chirac said the Galileo network would end Europe’s "serfdom" in space, created by the dependence of many EU commercial ventures on a system run by the Pentagon.

Progress was reported to be made on integrating Europe’s transport networks and financial markets by harmonising regulations. But Philip de Buck, general secretary of the European Employers` Federation, said: "It is all still very vague." "On electricity, this for us is the minimum compromise that business could accept," he added.

On March 16, also, the head of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) called upon rich nations to open their markets fully to exports by developing countries, including agricultural products developed through biotechnology.

"We are firmly committed at the OECD to trade and investment liberalisation," Secretary-General David Johnston told delegates at the conference in Alexandria. "Barriers in OECD countries that prevent countries from importing are unacceptable," he said in a keynote speech.

The Paris-based OECD is a club of the world’s 30 leading industrialised nations. Those countries represent some 70 percent of global output.

Thousands of postal workers staged a march through London on Saturday to protest at proposals for increased competition in the industry.

They say the plan could destroy the postal service and lead to more job losses.

An estimated 3,000 postal workers, chanting slogans and blowing whistles, halted traffic in the capital as they marched from Lambeth to Westminster.

South African President Thabo Mbeki stressed on Friday that only Zimbabweans can decide their own fate.

"Whatever happens in Zimbabwe in future must be a matter centrally decided by Zimbabweans," Thabo Mbeki told the South African Broadcasting Corporation television news after a ruling African National Congress (ANC) National Executive Council meeting. Although the world has a right and a duty to express itself on matters in Zimbabwe, it "must be concerned and express itself quite openly, quite frankly and quite forcefully, but in the end whatever happens to Zimbabwe cannot be decided by people who are not Zimbabweans".

The South African President will travel to London next week for a meeting of the Commonwealth troika given the responsibility by the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) with deciding Zimbabwe's fate. Thabo Mbeki, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Australian Prime Minister John Howard serve on the committee. They were mandated at the recent CHOGM in Australia to decide on punitive action should the body's observer team declare the elections not free and fair.

The worst the Commonwealth could do would be to suspend Zimbabwe from the association, but its rejection of the election could seriously affect Zimbabwe's access to the foreign aid necessary to lift the country out of deep recession, commentators have said.

Thabo Mbeki told reporters in Cape Town earlier in the week that the CHOGM had also decided that the troika should look at ways the 54-member body could help Zimbabwe resolve the land question and assist that country's economic recovery. He sent Deputy President Jacob Zuma as his emissary to Harare on Thursday with a special message for Mugabe.

Olusegun Obasanjo, meanwhile, is expected in Harare today for talks with Mugabe ahead of tomorrow’s troika meeting in London.

On Friday, the ANC said that the will of the people of Zimbabwe had prevailed. The party said on their official website that Mugabe had won an overwhelming majority and it was important to focus on the fundamental task of reconstructing and developing the country to ensure a better life for the people of Zimbabwe.

South Africa has urged Zimbabwe to form a government of national unity. In what South African sources said was a hint about the preferred way forward, the statement urged Zimbabweans to put aside their differences and work together for the common good of the country.

But Zimbabwe's Information Minister Jonathan Moyo on Thursday night rejected the proposal, saying reconciliation was not a Zimbabwean issue. "Some people have been misguiding our people, talking about the government of national unity, and yet the people have endorsed the ruling party. They did not vote for people who were pandering to interests that did not put Zimbabwe first," he reportedly said.

WDIE endorses the statement of Thabo Mbeki that only the people of Zimbabwe can decide their fate. As the South African President said, to express a view openly and frankly is one thing, but to intervene in the internal affairs of another country and people is entirely another. The British government must be condemned for its colonial-style vendetta against President Robert Mugabe and the country of Zimbabwe.

The Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), leaked to the press last Sunday, has underscored that George W. Bush has lowered the "nuclear threshold", the denials of the National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, notwithstanding, and stepped up the stakes in the "war against terrorism".

The Bush administration has included seven countries in its list of possible nuclear targets: Russia, China, North Korea, Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Libya. Of these, only the first two are "nuclear weapons states". The DPRK is being targeted with no justification. The nature of nuclear research is such that it is not possible for the Iraqi nuclear activities to go undetected, considering its territory is constantly being scanned by American satellites, and probed by nuclear sensors stationed in neighbouring countries. Iran has no known indigenous technical capabilities to develop nuclear weapons. Syria and Libya have no nuclear capabilities.

Of the seven countries on its NPR target list, the United States has justified the inclusion of Russia largely because it, like the United States, possesses a large nuclear arsenal. The inclusion of China, and the specific reference to the Taiwan issue, on the target list gives cause for concern, especially in view of Bush's statement last April that his administration would take whatever actions necessary if China were to attack Taiwan. The NPR lists the fact that China is "developing strategic objectives" as an additional rationale for including it on its target list.

In regard to North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Libya, the US has reversed its previously declared policy of viewing nuclear weapons as weapons of last resort.

At the same time, the US is co-ordinating two simultaneous missions to the Middle East, those of Anthony Zinni and Dick Cheney. Cheney's tour has the aim of mustering Arab support for an attack on Iraq. He is armed with the UN resolution on Israel and Palestine, which puts the aggressor on a par with the victim, contains no reference to the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. The original resolution from Syria specifically mentioned Israel as an "occupying power". However, in the final draft, there is no mention of illegal Jewish settlements on Palestinian land. There is no mention of East Jerusalem as Palestine's capital. There is no mention of the right of return for Palestinian refugees. Syria abstained from the final vote, while Israel called the resolution "balanced".

While Baghdad is accused of possessing or trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction; the US is not referring to the fact that Israel itself is loaded with chemical, biological and atomic weapons, or that it has been violating UN resolutions for more than three decades now.

If Europe continues to insist on a more "civilised" approach toward Iraq, it represents no more than an attempt to provide more delicate nuances for rallying the world’s people, and especially the Arab world, behind the so-called "war against terrorism".

Javier Solana, the European foreign-policy chief, made a point of going to Vienna specifically to offer a co-operation agreement between the European Union and Iran, as long as Iran confirms its "constructive engagement" in the Middle East and in Afghanistan.

The message of US imperialism is that of a nuclear and military bully. It is asserting that the seven states, augmenting the three of the so-called "axis of evil", are guilty because the US asserts it, and because they are declared guilty, then the US will prepare its next stage of world domination by indulging in nuclear blackmail and the threat of invasion. This is how US imperialism’s foreign policy stands at the beginning of the 21st century.

The People’s Republic of China, using its strongest language against the United States in months, accused Washington on Saturday of "nuclear blackmail".

State television said Vice Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing called in US Ambassador Clark T. Randt Jr to deliver "solemn representations" on the Pentagon nuclear policy review and a visit to the United States by Taiwan Defence Minister Tang Yiau-ming. It said that Li protested strongly at a US policy review reported to describe contingency plans to aim nuclear weapons at China, among several other countries.

"China wants to make it very clear that China will never yield to foreign threats, including nuclear blackmail," the television report quoted Li as telling Randt. "The days when China could be bullied are gone forever," he was quoted as saying. Threats would "simply increase the determination of the Chinese people to safeguard their sovereignty," he added.

Li accused Washington of breaching three joint communiqués, which paved the way for a normalisation of ties, by offering Taiwan advanced weapons. "The United States must abandon the idea of Taiwan as an unsinkable aircraft carrier," he was quoted as saying. "Taiwan has been a burden on the US shoulders for more than half a century. We don't see any good in the US continuing to shoulder that burden," he said. "It will simply drop a rock on its own feet."

In the three communiqués, Washington recognised Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan, promised to reduce arms sales to the island gradually and to maintain unofficial links to Taipei.

Li also accused Washington of encouraging independence activists in Taiwan by allowing Tang in and letting him meet senior US officials. Beijing was particularly incensed by Tang's talks with US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, the highest-level documented US-Taiwan defence talks in at least 22 years.

China's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that Tang's visit, and his meeting with Wolfowitz at a private conference in Florida, jeopardised a recent warming in Sino-US ties. The talks focused on US arms sales to Taiwan and were seen by some analysts as a US bid to counter China's growing military power.

On Wednesday, an official Chinese newspaper accused Washington of using the policy review as a pretext to resume nuclear tests and develop new nuclear arms to extend its military dominance in the world.

President Bush had reaffirmed recognition of Chinese sovereignty during a visit to Beijing last month, but he also said Washington would honour its commitment to protect Taiwan in the face of attack or provocation. Last year, Bush said he would do "whatever it took" to help Taiwan repel any Chinese invasion.

Japan is ready to file a complaint with the World Trade Organisation over US steel import restrictions and invoke retaliatory measures if Washington fails to rescind them, a Japanese official said on Friday.

Japanese officials indicated to their US counterparts at talks held on Thursday in Washington that Japan was ready to take the steps, said the Trade Ministry official on condition of anonymity.

Steel producers hardest hit by the tariffs imposed on several types of imported steel this month by President Bush include China, Japan, South Korea, Ukraine and Russia.

At Thursday's talks, US officials explained their stance while Japan demanded that Washington quit the emergency safeguard tariffs, the official said. Tokyo is prepared to file the complaint on Wednesday, the day the measures take effect, he said, adding that Tokyo is also considering similar tariffs to counter Washington.

Last week the European Union filed a WTO complaint and has decided to impose quotas or tariffs of its own. If the two sides fail to settle the issue amicably in 60 days, the EU can then ask the WTO to appoint a panel of trade law experts to make a legally binding ruling.

NATO applicants Bulgaria and Romania plan to strengthen co-operation in the months leading up to the NATO’s November summit in Prague. With the goal of ensuring an invitation to join NATO, the countries have decided to campaign jointly.

After talks in Romania on March 10, Bulgarian Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg said there would be regular consultations between the capitals until the summit. "The strategy will be to make efforts in one and the same direction," he said. The Prime Minister was on his first visit to Romania, at the invitation of Romanian counterpart Adrian Nastase.

Neighbouring countries, which also share aspirations for EU membership, do not regard NATO accession as a competition but as a common goal, according to Nastase and Romanian President Ion Iliescu. Nastase said each country has advantages of its own, but emphasised that those would be eclipsed by the geo-strategic significance of the simultaneous accession of the two.

The Vilnius Group, made up of the ten countries seeking NATO membership – Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia – called on NATO to "be open for major enlargement". Macedonian Foreign Minister Slobodan Casule said the countries of south-eastern Europe should be part of this year's enlargement to avoid "new divisions within Europe", and thus more risks.

Bulgarian and Romanian claims that their membership would provide a stronger south-eastern flank for the alliance have the support of NATO members Greece and Turkey. The two reportedly will seek official backing later this month from two other members – Italy and Spain.

Beyond the mutual goal of admission to NATO, Saxe-Coburg and Nastase agreed to strengthen political and economic relations. The leaders planned to organise a bilateral economic forum to launch the initiative.

Observers examining their prospects say Romania and Bulgaria have much work to do. But at the same time, they note an improved chance in the wake of the 11 September attacks and in the context of the new efforts to strengthen global security.

NATO Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs Guenther Altenburg has suggested that Bulgaria’s army should be led by generals educated in countries that are members of NATO, rather than by the current Russian-trained staff. Meeting last week with Bulgarian Defence Minister Nikolay Svinarov, Altenburg added that it is crucial that Sofia’s MIG-29s be modernised to the point of compatibility with NATO aircraft. He also welcomed Bulgaria’s decision to decommission the SS-23 missile complex this year.

Meanwhile, wrapping up a visit to Washington, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Pasi proposed broader participation of the Plovdiv-based Multinational Peace Force South Eastern Europe in NATO "peacekeeping" missions.

An advert by Gush Shalom published in Ha'aretz, March 16, 2002

This week the Sharon government reached a new peak of state terrorism: it re-conquered most of the Palestinian towns, killed more than 200 Palestinians, bombarded Palestinian institutions, shot Palestinian ambulances and doctors, destroyed houses, cut water and electricity supplies and humiliated thousands of handcuffed Palestinian on camera.

This week the Palestinians undertook guerrilla and terror actions, killed more than 20 Israelis, soldiers and civilians, sowing fear in the towns and on the roads, even reaching remote areas of the Galilee.

The occupation army and the occupied people have reached a balance of terror. Everybody's security has deteriorated even further.

At the same time, President Bush has attacked Sharon's actions for the first time. The Security Council resolution, formulated by the US, calls for peace between the State of Israel and the State of Palestine in recognised and secure borders. The declaration by the UN General Secretary, which reflects world consensus, calls on Israel to put an end to the campaign of humiliating the Palestinians. And the international media describe Israel as a crazy state, drunk with power.

The apparent draw signifies the abject failure of Sharon and Ben-Eliezer.