Developing Resistance and Planting the Alternative

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Developing Resistance and Planting the Alternative

Militant Protests against Hutton Report

Greg Dyke Accuses Government of Bullying BBC over Iraq

The movement for the alternative is objective and growing. This movement is not the property of anyone, and it is to the advantage of all those concerned to establish the new and break the party-dominated parliamentary system that this movement is encouraged.

In this context, the National Convention to found Respect – The Unity Coalition was held on Sunday, January 25, in London.

Some 1,500 people attended the Convention. It was addressed by Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS civil servants’ union (in a personal capacity), Tommy Sheridan, chairman of the Scottish Socialist Party, and film director Ken Loach, among others.

Mark Serwotka emphasised, "I defy anyone to say we do not need an alternative. We agree on so much. An alternative is possible."

Ken Loach said, "There is no longer any democratic representation for working people. This Labour government has carried out an illegal war and privatisation, disregarded the rights of asylum seekers and become an agent of big business. We are creating a viable alternative to New Labour."

Chair of Birmingham Stop the War Coalition Salma Yaqoob also spoke eloquently.

George Galloway, the expelled Labour Party MP, said that the coalition was aimed at establishing a viable alternative to New Labour.

Many demands were put forward for unity and the ending of small group mentality, for inclusivity and the need for an alternative was emphasised.

Irrespective of any misgivings the forces of the "left" or the workers’ movement may have, WDIE encourages everyone to get involved in the Respect Coalition, make a contribution, build the movement, and release its initiative.

This, in our view, will contribute to removing the blocks which the bourgeoisie has attempted to place on the advance of the movement.

The alternative must be in opposition to all that is old so that the participation and the discussion should be on new basis too – that new arrangements and mechanisms have to be built in order to advance movement and unleash its full potential.

Let a discussion begin on a widespread scale about the alternative, assist with building new mechanisms that can empower the people. Let old prejudices be set aside. Building resistance and planting the alternative is the task of our times!

On Saturday, January 31, protesters burned a copy of the Hutton report outside Downing Street. And the previous Thursday, angry BBC staff walked out across the country after director general Greg Dyke resigned. Thousands of BBC workers paid for a full-page newspaper ad to protest against the Hutton whitewash.

"We are resolute that the BBC should not step back from its determination to investigate the facts in pursuit of the truth," the newspaper ad declared.

In his resignation statement, Andrew Gilligan said, "If Lord Hutton had fairly considered the evidence he heard, he would have concluded that most of my story was right. The government did sex up the dossier, transforming possibilities and probabilities into certainties, removing vital caveats. Some of my story was wrong...But the BBC collectively has been the victim of a grave injustice."

Representative of the journalists’ response was that of former Daily Telegraph editor Max Hastings. He said in a commentary, "Hutton's assault upon the whole culture of the BBC and journalism is out of all proportion to their offences. It ignores the huge, ugly reality, that Tony Blair took Britain to war in Iraq on a fraudulent basis."

Shouting slogans, including "Bliar, Bliar", the 200 or more demonstrators who gathered outside 10 Downing Street demanded a public inquiry into the government's aggression against Iraq and burned a copy of the 740-page report by Lord Hutton.

The protesters braved rain and cold to demonstrate, reflecting the overwhelming sentiment of democratic people. They carried placards saying, "Where are the WMDs?" and "Hutton Washes Whiter".

The government has systematically bullied the BBC over its Iraq war coverage, bombarding it with complaints to try to push its own point of view. This was the accusation of Greg Dyke, who resigned as director general of the BBC after the Hutton Report. He said that Alastair Campbell had written letter after letter throughout the conflict, according to reports.

"What Alastair Campbell was clearly trying to do was intimidate the BBC so that we reported what he wanted us to report as opposed to what we wanted to report," he said in an interview on BBC television.

Greg Dyke said that he had been right to resist the barrage of pressure from the government in the past, and warned if the BBC ever caved in to similar pressure in the future, it would spell its demise. "The moment the BBC starts kow-towing to government, you might as well close it down," he said.

In separate comments to the Sunday Times, he accused the government of "systematic bullying" and revealed Blair had written to him personally to complain about coverage of the Iraq war.

Greg Dyke complained that Hutton had failed to take into account the sheer volume of complaints the BBC received from Campbell. "We were inundated with complaints from Alastair Campbell," he said. "This was a man who wrote to us an awful lot."

The ex-director general published a personal letter he had sent to Tony Blair last year pointing out that Downing Street had often complained about stories which were subsequently found to be accurate. "On many occasions in my time as director general, the Downing Street press office under Mr Campbell denied stories that later turned out to be true," Dyke's letter, dated March 21 and published in the Sunday Times, said.

"There was never a certainty that a denial from the government director of information meant the story wasn't true," the letter said. "It often meant the Downing Street press office simply didn't want it reported."

Greg Dyke’s comments further reveal that bullying and intimidation is at the heart of government. It is unacceptable that the government considers the BBC should be accountable to it, rather than that the government should be accountable to the electorate.