Unity in Defence of the Rights of All

Statement of RCPB(ML) on the Woolwich killing, June 1, 2013

The killing of a young off-duty soldier in broad daylight in a crowded street outside Woolwich Barracks in South London on the afternoon of May 21 was undoubtedly a most gruesome incident.

However, the words of David Cameron in response, speaking of “violent extremism and terror” were also horrific. They seem especially so given the subsequent revelations about the contacts of MI5 with the attackers.

The family of the young soldier and the community in the area of the attack have conducted themselves with dignity in the aftermath of the incident. But it ill becomes the Prime Minister to turn this act into a full-scale terrorist alert and label it an attack on “our British way of life”. It smacks of a premeditated incitement to stir up divisions and hatred, and divert the people from uniting in defence of the rights of all.

The ruling elite has created the conditions for this killing to take place in a number of ways.

Not least, Britain’s governments have carried out wars of aggression and crimes against the peace in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and elsewhere. Such wars have given rise to the desire to settle scores with the ruling class for its crimes, but in addition have fostered among some elements the feeling that there is no way that this can be done but through revengeful killings or acts of violence. These acts themselves play into the hands of the warmongers.

It should be noted there is a deep-seated sense of injustice among the military and their families also to be involved in acts of illegal aggression. There exists a definite sense of betrayal that soldiers are sent into battles which are unjust and in which the enemy is defined only by the occupation of the British armed forces. If a soldier gets killed horrifically in such circumstances, who is responsible? Then when one soldier gets killed in Britain, it is labelled as the most heinous terrorism. The reality is that Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya lie devastated, with hundreds of thousands having died, including several hundred members of Britain’s armed forces, yet the drums of war continue to beat with regard to Mali, Syria, Iran and elsewhere.

The Prime Minister is giving himself the right to decide the definition of “terrorism”. Then he brazenly claims that Britain is working “to make the world safe from terrorism”. The people do not agree with Cameron’s definition of terrorism, nor that Britain is working to make the world or even Britain a safer place. If there is one thing that Woolwich demonstrates, it is that the government’s actions are in fact threatening the security of the working class and people of the islands of Britain.

The horrific act in Woolwich had been preceded by the ruling circles making a deafening hue and cry about immigrants, about deporting foreign criminals, about threats to the “British way of life”. Such talk is a cover for violating the rights of individuals and collectives while the anti-social offensive is stepped up at home and the clamour for arming “rebels” and “revolutionaries” in order to overthrow foreign governments and incite insurrection is carried out abroad. Is this not support for “terrorism”? And what of the state terror committed by Anglo-US imperialism? In this context, what is the meaning of Cameron’s labelling the Woolwich killing as “terrorist” and “extremist”? And was it not the case that the day after Woolwich, the High Court, in the face of opposition from the Ministry of Defence, was instructing that inquests should be held into 161 alleged unlawful killings by British troops in Iraq?

RCPB(ML) condemns how the killing of Lee Rigby has been utilised as another front for attacking the rights of all, and condemns how “terrorism” is being made the issue. The meaning of Cameron’s “we will not buckle” is that the government will carry on and step up state terrorism, creating the conditions for more acts of violence and anarchy at home and abroad, not less, creating the conditions for more insecurity not less.

It can be said that the violence which consumed Drummer Lee Rigby has its origins in Westminster. The solution for the people is to unite in defence of the rights of all. It is for the people to persist in developing the movements of the people towards their goals as the only solution to put an end to violence, aggression and war.