Middle East
• Labour has repeatedly unleashed British military force to preserve Middle East oil reserves for imperialism and has been a consistent defender of Zionism.’ One of the greatest factors in helping us to overcome our initial difficulties was the fact that from the first, since 1917, we constantly received encouragement from the British Labour movement,’ – Golda Meir, former Prime Minister of Israel.
• In 1948, the Labour government withdrew British troops from Palestine, making way for the Zionist terror that drove 900,000 Arabs out of Palestine. From then until today, the Zionist ‘Friends of Israel’ group has regularly claimed over 100 Labour MPs as members.
• Before the 1991 Gulf War, Labour tried to outdo the Conservatives in bellicosity, with Shadow Foreign Secretary Kaufman denouncing the government as ‘slack, lax and negligent’ in response to the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait. At the end of the war, Kinnock defended the slaughter of retreating Iraqi troops. He was supported by the General Council of the TUC.
Malvinas
• In 1982, Labour supported the war against Argentina for the Malvinas/Falklands Islands. They supported the sending of the task force, the exclusion zone, the sinking of the Belgrano and the needless slaughter of some 1,000 soldiers.
Africa
• Not one African colony achieved independence under the 1945-51 Labour government.
• The 1964-70 Labour government colluded with the illegal racist Smith regime in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe to break sanctions and threatened to veto any mandatory resolutions in the UN Security Council to isolate the regime.
• The 1974-79 Labour government backed a South African request for an IMF loan, allowed Marconi to sell battlefield communication systems to the South African Defence Force and vetoed a UN resolution embargoing arms sales to South Africa. By 1977 it had used its UN Security Council veto four times: each time in support of apartheid South Africa.
Southeast Asia
• The 1945-51 Labour government used British troops, concentration camps and death squads to keep the tin and rubber revenues flowing from Malaya. It also restored French colonial rule in Vietnam, pushing that country into 30 years of war for liberation.
• The SAS were dispatched to Vietnam by the 1964-70 Labour government, and to Indonesia by Labour Defence Minister Denis Healey in 1965 where they helped destroy the biggest communist movement in Asia outside China. Over 700,000 people were killed and 200,000 gaoled.
Ireland
As in the rest of the world, Labour has taken care not to be outdone by the Tories in their willingness to resort to the most brutal methods in defence of British imperialism’s interests in Ireland.
• In 1969, Labour sent the British Army into the Six Counties to suppress the nationalist working class.
• In 1974, Labour passed the Prevention of Terrorism Act and then presided over the Guildford 4 and Birmingham 6 trials.
• In 1976-79, Labour ran a regime of terror with the use of torture in Six Counties police stations. Special Category status was withdrawn from Irish political prisoners and the H-Blocks were set up.
• In 1981, Labour sent Shadow Minister Don Concannon to tell Bobby Sands, as he lay dying on hunger-strike, that Labour would not support the demand for political status.
• In 1988, Labour joined in the House of Commons celebrations at the murder of the Gibraltar 3. George Robertson, then Labour Foreign Affairs Spokesman, opined: ‘I don’t think anybody can afford to be squeamish …’
• Last year New Labour refused to vote against the renewal of the PTA and threatened to expel Jeremy Corbyn MP for inviting Gerry Adams to the House of Commons. New Labour is, in its own words, ‘four-square’ with the Conservatives over their north of Ireland policy; together they seek to isolate and subdue the nationalist working class.
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 136 ELECTION SPECIAL APRIL/MAY 1997
