Co-editors: Seán Mac Mathúna • John Heathcote
Consulting editor: Themistocles Hoetis
Field Correspondent: Allen Hougland
Welcome to Blair's WorkCamp Britain Welcome back to Flame -
over a year since our last complete issue. Sometimes life gets in
the way of writing. We also have to admit to an overwhelming amount
of information concerning the current geopolitical situation to
process . . . Richard Thomas, Information Comissioner,
on the plans for the biometric ID card (The Guardian Aug
16th 2004) The Information Commisioner appointed by the
British Government, Richard Thomas, told The Times that he feared
that Britain was 'sleepwalking into a Stasi state', and recalled
the dark days of Spain under Franco. He was commenting on Government plans to extend
the databases collecting information on British citizens, and the
Home Secretary, David Blunkett's 'secretive and uncosted plans'
for the biometric identity card scheme. Information contained on
the id card would extend to five foolscap pages of print; would
be available to most Government departments and security services;
but would be unavailable to the individual concerned. Two other projects being promoted by this Government,
who came to power promising 'open Government' and respect for the
rights of the individual (not just the bourgeosie in their gated
communities and leafy suburbs) are the "Citizens Information
Project", which is a population 'register', and a database
covering every child from the moment they leave the womb to the
age of eighteen. The Commons Home Affairs select committee has
already warned that the ID card scheme would completely alter the
relationship that exists between the individual and the State. Since the 2000 Bush election, all of the 'conspiracy
theories' and leftfield political analyses have proved to be too
repressed, naive , even mundane. The current US Administration, with its poodle client-regime
in Britain, have superceded perhaps the worst fears of any on the
old political Left. Their brazen pursuit of global economic and
military dominance has been effected through the use of a 'strategy
of tension' to control their own populations; restrictions on
speech, thought and movement of populations worldwide; the assassination
of political and social leaders around the world; the support of
governments using state terrorism, torture, kidnapping and indefinite
detention without trial. At the same time, we are told that these measures
are being taken to preserve the cherished freedoms of the "Christian"
- or "secular" West; to open up the world to "free
trade"; to safeguard the populations of the US - Anglo alliance. In reality, we who live in these countries lost any
real freedoms a long time ago. We live in surveillance cultures, where only the super-rich
have any right to privacy, freedom of movement, justice. Workers in the UK now have less rights now than at
any time since the 1940's; the unions only having had any power
in the three decades following the Second World War. Before that, feudalism was replaced by industrial
slavery, for folk already dispossessed of their meagre subsistence
holdings by the 'Agricultural Revolution'. The forge of modern capitalism
was named 'The industrial Revolution'. It says something about a
country that the only Revolutions we have had since 1645 have been
ones that made the rich richer, and the poor poorer - and this in
the land of Robin Hood. Our Prime Minister is seen around the World, glad-handing
for arms dealers; excusing the imperial militarism of his friends
in Washington, and prattling on about liberty, justice and terrorism;
unaware that his blatant hypocrisy and own lack of personal credibility
undermines every word he says, In the previous editorial, written on the eve of war
in Iraq, I forecast that Blair was finished as a Labour leader,
and Prime Minister. I still believe that is true; but as in the US, democracy
is now a tightly restricted club.Our leaders are chosen; and the
choice no longer has to do with popular movement, because there
is no really cohesive 'active' society in these respective countries.
Fragmentation of the different elements of the greater community
have been riven by the cult of individualism and the paranoias which
are pumped out of the media, primarily through television, the new
Universal Sea of the Subconscious. Most newspapers are owned by foreign conglomerates,
and it was the decisive pressure of US shareholders, unhappy with
The Mirror's stance as the only consistently anti-war tabloid, that
ultimately led to the resignation of editor Piers Morgan. Yet these papers are the very same that will decry
the idea of Europe (while offering cheap holidays in Ibiza, or 'the
chance to own a villa in Tuscany' to their readers).They will talk
of the 'hordes' flooding in from the countries of Eastern Europe,
as if we have a better quality of life in the UK than anywhere else;
whereas the truth is that only Albania and Romania are perhaps as
desperate and stressful as the inner cities of Britain. The allegiance
of most newspaper owners, with Murdoch at their head , lies across
the Atlantic, in that billionaires' paradise, the USA. None of the tabloid newspapers saw fit to raise an
outcry about the new Extradition arrangements between the US and
UK, agreed by David Blunkett in Febuary 2004, under which the United
States has the right to extradite UK citizens without presenting
any evidence that they have been guilty of a crime. When a country
gives up the right to protect its own citizens against unfair imprisonment
and trial, it has already surrendered its sovereignty in the most
elemental way. The country is controlled by a handful of supermarket
barons and faceless corporate monopolists, working hand-in-hand
with a hereditary class of 'mandarins' and landowners. Lawyers and
middle-management types run the country for them under the nom
de guerre of 'New Labour' (previously the SDP); and their friends
from the public (eg.exclusive) schools are awarded the money from
the sale of public assets to advertise, promote and spin 'lifestyle',
consumer tat and spurious political cons. Behind them are the dark shadows of unaccountable
'security agencies' and spies; with police vehicles more visible
than the London Bus in many parts of the capital; CCTV cameras on
every corner, swivelling to watch your progress down every road
or footpath. 'State theatre' and 'intelligence-led' rumours are
used to justify every further depletion of your personal liberty
(as in the recent "Manchester-Liverpool Football bomb plot'),
and the police are given carte blanche by an unprincipled Government
of bougeois liberals to extend their powers and activities beyond
anything justified by the tragedy of 911 . But like most heavens dreamt up for the exclusive
few, the United States has a greater disparity between the rich
and poor, even in the capital city, than any other country in the
Western world. It was as much the unquestioning support of papers
like the Sun; as well as the 'intelligence' scare stories repeated
in tabloid, broadsheet and TV as much as the emotive rabble-rousing
and crusading by duplicitous politicians, which drove the British
people into the welcoming arms of Uncle Sam's Imperial Agenda and
our involvement in a war which is not nearly over. This happened despite some of the largest demonstrations
ever taking place in Britain (and elsewhere in Western Europe),
ignored by the British Government, amongst others. Is it any wonder
that people are disillusioned with 'democratic' politics, and have
given up any hope of change being affected by peaceful means?
I
think there is a danger. I don't think people have woken up to what
lies behind this. It allows the Government
. . . to build up quite a comprehensive picture about many of your
activities.
