FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM!
STOP LABOUR'S IMPERIALIST WAR

As US and British forces bomb Afghanistan night and day, the British Labour government continues to let the world know that this is not merely a revenge attack by George Bush's government. This is Britain's war too and Labour is setting about it with jingoistic determination.

Blair led the 'diplomatic initiative' which preceded the start of military aggression, building up the 'alliance against terrorism' through bullying and bribing any state which might otherwise have dared to dissent. Home Secretary David Blunkett announced a series of repressive measures to 'combat terrorism'. Most of these measures, in reality, will be used to further attack and criminalise asylum-seekers.

If 'democracy' and 'civilisation' are measured by the presence of a McDonalds on every street and are to be paid for by the oppression of half the world, we are not 'with them', but against them. We are against the imperialist war on Afghanistan; we are against George Bush and the Republican Party's 'crusade' and we are against the imperialist war-mongering British Labour Party.

Labour's barbarity is not new. Every single previous Labour government has been willing to use military means to defend the interests of British imperialism:

Between 1945 and 1951 Labour:

*Brutally put down the liberation struggle in Malaya
*Assisted the restoration of French colonial rule in Vietnam and Dutch rule in Indonesia
*Blockaded Iran, following the nationalisation of the Anglo-Persian oil company
*Ruthlessly exploited the British empire in Africa to aid post-war reconstruction in Britain

Between 1964 and 1970 it:

*Unconditionally supported the US onslaught on Vietnam
*Defended apartheid South Africa and on every occasion used its veto to block sanctions
*Sent troops into the north of Ireland

Between 1974 and 1979 it:

*Continued to defend apartheid South Africa at the UN
*Supported the Shah of Iran as he faced a popular uprising against his tyrannical regime
*Began the sale of Hawk aircraft to Indonesia at the height of the genocidal war in East Timor

Back in opposition, it supported the war in the Falklands/Malvinas, and egged on the Tory government against Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War. Between 1997 and 1999, British forces dropped more bombs than they did in 18 years of Tory rule. The attack on Afghanistan is the fifth overseas military intervention Labour has organised. Anyone who remains a member of this racist, imperialist party demonstrates nothing but contempt for the working class and oppressed. This includes the ridiculous 'left wing' - Jeremy Corbyn, Tony Benn and so on who have no intention of challenging British imperialist power.

Building an effective anti-war movement means we have to challenge the Labour government and the Labour Party. As in the Gulf War, and during the onslaught on Yugoslavia, the SWP and the rest of the social democratic left are trying to prevent any criticism of Labour. Their strategy is to tailor any anti-war movement to what is acceptable to the narrow, self-interested sectarianism of the Labour left. It will police its so called 'broad based' movement to drive out any anti-imperialist tendency. It will prove once again that there is no crime that Labour can commit which will drive the social democratic left into open campaigning opposition. But it is clear that there can be no anti-war movement unless it is anti-imperialist and therefore anti-Labour. We have to break with the imperialist Labour Party now. This is the movement that Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! is building. We call on all socialists and democrats to join us.

Fight Labour racism and imperialism!

FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM!
Revolutionary Communist Group
www.rcgfrfi.easynet.co.uk