July 8, 2005,
The Labour Party Pakistan condemns outright the horrific bombings in London yesterday and expresses our solidarity with all the victims and their families and friends. There can be no justification on any ground for the incidents like this. This is an attack on the lives of ordinary citizens of London.
Thos who have carried out these attacks have not furthered the struggle against the American and British imperialism. The bombings are in no way a blow against imperialist exploitation and oppression. The majority of those killed and wounded in London will have opposed the imperialist leaders’ wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, and many will have supported the huge protests against world poverty in Scotland this week. Meanwhile the G8 leaders were safe behind fortified walls, protected by thousands of police and armed forces, plotting how to entrench their exploitation of the oppressed peoples of the world.
This incident has given an opportunity to the imperialist leaders to start a fresh campaign against the ordinary Muslims in particulars worldwide. For Tony Blair, George Bush, John Howard and Co, the London bombing, like those in Bali, Madrid and 9/11 itself, is not a tragedy but an opportunity. It is already being used to whip up “anti-terrorist” hysteria and to try to silence the now far-reaching condemnation of the imperialists’ wars and occupations, in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine in particular.
Yesterday’s horrific events reveal yet again that the claims by Blair, Bush and Howard that their “war on terror” has made the world a safer place are entirely false. In fact, the “coalition of the willing” has created more, not less, terrorism. Since the formal declaration of the war there has been an unprecedented increase in the number of major terrorist attacks.
Both the leaders of G8 and those responsible for London attacks must be condemned in very clear terms. We have no sympathy with those who claim that they have taken revenge from the Imperialist forces by these attacks. We also do not believe the words of Tony Blair that the attack proves the correctness of his policies to continue the present policies of war on terror.
Terrorists are not born with terrorist ideas; they are produced by lives of repression, violence, poverty and humiliation. The London tragedy is one more reflection of the universal violation of democratic and human rights by the imperialist system. For so long as global inequality and injustice continue, countless thousands more innocent people will die needlessly.
The Labour Party Pakistan will continue to campaign for the immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, and for an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestine. This is the most effective way to make the world a safer place. We will also continue to expose the ideas of religious fundamentalism that it brings no relief to the lives of ordinary Muslims.
The London attacks will prepare the new grounds for the imperialist attacks on Muslim countries like Iran and even Pakistan. 9/11 furthered the imperialist aggression despite a very successful terrorist attack. So will the 7/7 attack. It will not stop the imperialists offence against the Muslim countries. It will provide them justifications and excuses to go further.
Meanwhile, we will stand shoulder to shoulder with the international anti-imperialist globalisation movement and believe the only way to defeat the US/UK imperialist forces is to stand together, Muslim and non Muslims, black and white against the new liberal political, social and economic agenda.
Farooq Tariq
General Secretary
Labour Party Pakistan
40-Abbot Road Lahore, Pakistan
Tel: 92 42 6315162 Fax: 92 42 6301685