On 22 May, two young black British men barbarically attacked and killed a young British soldier outside Woolwich military barracks in London. For the victim and perpetrators, their families and friends, this outrage is profoundly tragic. For the world, it has contributed to a wider tragedy.
The killing has provided Britain’s cowardly politicians and their media hacks with yet another opportunity for hypocrisy. Successive British governments, Labour, Conservative and the current Coalition, have unleashed war and terror across vast regions of the world. Alongside their international allies they are using drone missiles and air attacks to slaughter innocent people. They run secret prisons to detain and torture in order to terrorise anyone who opposes their rule. The suffering of ordinary people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Palestine at the hands of the US, British and Israeli armies has been ignored or excused. This has been going on for decades, yet they pretend to be shocked when reprisals occur against their own soldiers or on their own territory. The experience of young Muslims is that the British and US governments do not care about the suffering in these regions; that the imperialists care most about dominating the world.
Following the bombings in London in July 2005 we wrote:
‘It can be no surprise that Muslim youth are misled by zealots into believing they are fighting imperialism. The bombs in London did not fight the US and British imperialists; they added to the imperialist slaughter. The bombers did nothing to defeat imperialist terror: they added to the suffering it inflicts.’
Nothing has changed. Furthermore, the lack of any challenge to imperialism, the constant unmitigated collusion of the Labour Party and trade union movement in the warmongering of the British state, is the reason why the Woolwich killing took place and the reason why further attacks will follow.
Once again, as they did in 2005, the politicians and media are calling for further repression. Immediately they want round-the-clock surveillance on all of us in order to prevent any attempt to expose their barbarity or question their rule. On the ground Muslims and black people in Britain will be subject to intensified state repression as well as extreme right-wing threats to their communities. We want an end to the racist barbarity and cruelty of the British state that consigns millions to death, poverty and misery. We are building a movement that really challenges imperialism and will unmercifully expose the hypocrites who stand in the way. You can join us.
