International

“By everywhere combating inequality, poverty, segregation, discrimination, oppression and military aggression, we make it much more difficult for extremist ideologies to exploit these social abuses in order to recruit young people to do the most appalling things.” So said SP Senator Tiny Kox last weekend in London at the annual conference of dissident Labour MPs and activists.

The conference's theme was the recent terrorist attacks on public transport in England's capital city.
Member of Parliament John McDonnell, Chair of the grouping of Labour MPs critical of the government, said that it was “intellectually absurd” to deny that there was a relationship between the worrying radicalisation of a certain section of British Muslim youth and their country's support for America's extremely contentious policies in the Middle East. He called on Labour leader Tony Blair to open his eyes to this reality, adding that while the attacks on London deserved total condemnation, so did the presence of the British military in Iraq. “Bring the troops back, Mr Blair!” Mr McDowell said, a call which, given the presence of BBC news cameras, was guaranteed a national impact.

For his part, Senator Kox argued that we should be “less naïve and more realistic” in relation to this kind of terrorism. “Our governments appear to think that they can combat this terrorism by introducing compulsory identity cards and various other legalistic measure. But instead of placing such a lot of emphasis on IDs, it would be wiser to look at where the IDEAS come from which led four young British Muslims to commit so horrible an act and one young Dutch Muslim to murder the filmmaker Theo van Gogh.”

These young people are attracted to radical fundamentalist ideologies which exploit social abuses, Senator Kox continued. “By everywhere combating inequality, poverty, segregation, discrimination, oppression and military aggression, we make it much more difficult for extremist ideologies to exploit these social abuses in order to recruit young people to do the most appalling things.”

The conference took as its second theme the question of how the left could strengthen its position in the Labour Party. Tiny Kox told the audience of MPs, trade unionists and local activists something of the history of the SP, where it came from, the growth of its membership and of its electoral support, outlining also the party's recent successes in the campaign for the referendum over the question of the European constitution. .

“Our opponents now recognise that we played an important role in the 'No' campaign,” he said, “They recognise that we were better prepared, had better arguments, were closer to the people, mobilised more and better activists more rapidly than did the 'yes' campaign, and that while it's true that the political majority, money and the media were all behind them, it was we who had the arguments and the people. On this occasion these factors gave us success.”

Explaining that it was left voters who were responsible for this success, for the massive rejection of the European constitution, Kox said that “While a lot of the political establishment seems to have lost any relation to reality, many Dutch people are more inclined to rely on their own common sense than in recent times. They are certainly for effective cooperation, but at the same time against giving ever powers to a European superstate which cannot be trusted, which lacks transparency and which is thoroughly undemocratic. The Dutch vote was an encouragement to everyone who believes that there is room for a new optimism in politics.”

Tiny Kox was followed on the podium by the “grand old man” of Labour, Tony Benn. The ex-minister, approaching 80 years old, remains the standard-bearer of the left in the Labour Party. He congratulated the French and Dutch people for daring to stand up to the dominant current and reject the European constitution. Instead of more neoliberalism, he said, the world needs everywhere more democratisation. You don't chieve this by bringing military might to bear on people elsewhere, concluded Mr Benn, who condemned in the strongest terms Blair's present domestic and foreign policies and called on those present to transform Blair’s “New Labour” back into “Real Labour”, and for a real social and democratic politics.

The conference accepted a proposal to establish committees throughout the country to strengthen the “Real Labour” movement with an eye in particular to the coming annual Labour conference, held as always in the autumn.