FRFI 179 June / July 2004
‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government’.
– US Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776
‘When the government violates the rights of the people, insurrection is for the people and for each portion of the people the most sacred of rights and the most indispensable of duties.’
– French Declaration of the Rights of Man, 1789
‘The lives of billions of people who inhabit this planet depend on what a few think, believe and decide. The worst of all is that those who wield such great power do not have psychiatrists to look after them. We cannot just accept this. We have the right to denounce it, to exercise pressure and demand changes and end such an absurd, unheard of situation, which makes hostages of us all. No one should ever have such powers or no one on this earth will be able to talk of civilisation again.’
– Fidel Castro, 3 January 2004
Evidence about US and British soldiers torturing Iraqi civilians has created a dilemma for the world. Aside from the divisions in the ruling class and the appalled gasps of liberals who forgot the human cost of building western ‘civilisation’, the truth of imperialist occupation has raised the burning question: Now that I have witnessed the brutal side of imperialism, now that I understand what they mean by imposing ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’, what will I do to oppose it?
Torture is an integral part of imperialism. Britain was the first imperialist state. British imperialists have contributed, with the zeal of scientific discovery, to the development of systems of torture to humiliate and demoralise a risen people (see pages 2/3). British occupation of one-third of the world’s land surface meant that the British developed expertise in occupation strategies, how to suppress the resistance of a defiant people. These included collective punishment, imprisoning people within their own towns and villages, intimidating the entire population to withdraw support from resistance fighters, and torturing captives. The Zionists learned from the British occupation of Palestine in the 1940s. Today the Zionists instruct the US and Britain in Iraq (see page 8). Palestinian refugees are made homeless and forced to flee once again as Israeli bulldozers flatten their houses. Iraqis celebrating a wedding are bombed by the US in the middle of the night. All that is new is the intensity of the technology and its ability to cause an increasing amount of carnage and destruction. And of course, the digital photography.
The pages of Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! contain plenty more information about what the logic of capitalism means for the majority of the world. From the health damage caused by the artificial sweeteners industry which is worth $2.5 billion a year (see page 12) to the 50-year-old struggle of the Guatemalan people against racist oppression and poverty, the result of the CIA coup to overthrow the President Arbenz in 1954 (see page 10). From the Loyalist attacks on the Republican community in Ireland (see page 7) to the immoral and inhumane exploitation of immigrant labour in Britain (see page 16). We don’t expect you to close these pages with a sigh of resignation, but to recognise the historical responsibility of all of us to uproot this corrupt and inhumane government and the system it represents. The system is anti-democratic and against freedom. It is an enemy of humanity. Use your outrage, add it to ours, so that we can rise up to reclaim our planet before it is too late. Knowledge is power, arm yourself!
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! also brings you information about people who are resisting and demanding an end to the robbery of the world’s wealth, the murderous pursuit for profit that drives the world’s ruling class: in Venezuela, where 80% of the population live in poverty, the Bolivarian circles of the poor are taking steps towards armed defence of the Chavez revolution, which has brought them healthcare, education and political inclusion for the first time ever (see page 11); in Bolivia and Argentina where we have seen the power of the people when they rise to halt the thieving logic of neo-liberalism (see page 11); in Nepal where the People’s Army now controls the whole country outside of the capital city, seat of the reactionary King and his brutal regime (see page 7); and in Cuba, where seven million people took to the streets on May Day, to celebrate their socialist system and send a thunderous message to the US administration that the Cuban Revolution will never surrender and will continue to blossom (see page 6).
In Britain too, we can sow the seeds of resistance, as the Victory to the Intifada Group is doing with the militant boycott pickets of Marks and Spencer, the biggest British sponsor of the Israeli state. Pickets continue despite the attacks by police, Zionists and fascists (see page 14).
There are traps and there are dead ends, like the opportunist tactics of the social-democrats who, obsessed with parliamentary politics, replace angry protest with water-downed pleas to Mr Bush and Mr Blair. But if we hold fast to our anti-racist, anti-imperialist principles we can be sure to stay on the side of the majority of the world in the struggle for real freedom and true democracy. Now is the time to join us. There are no more excuses!
Join us! Send us your contributions, both written and financial, to:
FRFI BCM Box 5909, London WC1N 3XX
