Blair past his use-by date
Blair’s problems are deeply embedded
in the whole New Labour project
Getting rid of him is an urgent priority
- but the rot goes far deeper than one man
Gordon Brown, the man most likely to replace Blair,
is complicit in Blair’s wars,
neo-liberal policies and the New Labour project
The resistance to imperialism, the global anti-war movement and in particular the British Stop the War Coalition have brought Blair to his present humiliating position.
He is no longer in control of when he leaves, no longer able to control the succession, no longer in control of his ministers and no longer able to make the barest claim to represent a majority in Britain.
The Lebanon war, which saw Blair’s utterly single-minded devotion to Bush and to Israel, was the final straw for many Labour MPs.
Some were politically revolted by the refusal to call for a ceasefire. Others were bitterly aware that this sharp reminder of Blair’s warmongering would prove disastrous at next May’s council, Scottish and Welsh elections - and perhaps at the general election to follow.
Blair will be remembered for the bloody disaster of Iraq above all else. He and Bush are responsible for 150,000 or more Iraqi civilians dead, for the bestial events at Abu Ghraib, for the creation of a global network of torture and imprisonment without trial, for Guantanamo Bay and for the announcement of a future of war without end.
But it is not just the war that marks Blair’s regime. The last few weeks summed it up.
In August Blair abased himself before Rupert Murdoch and his chief executives in California just as the Middle East was burning.
He returned to launch new broadsides against Muslims, blame the poor for their own poverty and to preside over a £22 billion NHS privatisation scheme.
Blair has created a Britain where the gulf between the rich and the rest of us have increased at turbo speed.
The most recent figures suggest that City of London bonuses were expected to rise by £21 billion this year.
Soon after the 1997 election victory, Peter Mandelson, now the EU's Trade Commissioner, said New Labour was “intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich.”
Blair has followed that to the letter. The limit of any policy change has always been what the rich will accept.
The revolt by Labour MPs reflects a much broader revolt. In 1997 13.5 million people voted Labour. Last year that figure had fallen to 9.5 million.
The lost four million are Blair’s “achievement”.
Blair has torn apart his own party, trampled on what people believed it stood for and alienated vast swathes of Labour members and supporters.
Clare Short was right this week when she said that Blair’s rule had caused “long term damage”.
The task now is not just to celebrate Blair’s demise. It is to force him out now. For how many other disasters will he push through in the days left to him?
And, because his likely successors are just as committed to war, neo-liberalism and updating Trident nuclear weapons, we have to redouble our efforts against the war policy, against the favours to the rich and the assault on civil liberties.
The demonstration in Manchester on 23 September is now more vital than ever. It will signal we want Blair out now but that we also want a fundamentally different set of policies and a political alternative to Blair and those who went along with him.
It will be a crucial staging post in rallying those who want to fight for a better world.
How many must die before Blair goes?
The sheer scale of the military deaths - 14 killed in the Nimrod plane crash on Saturday of last week, followed by another soldier killed in the Afghan capital Kabul on Monday - has brought home the price being paid as Blair clings to his post.
Two British soldiers were killed in Iraq this week.
Tens of thousands of ordinary people in both countries have lost their lives due to the US and British invasion and occupations.
British soldiers are caught up in a full-scale war in Afghanistan as resistance intensifies. The Nimrod plane in which the British soldiers died was supporting the Operation Medusa offensive against Afghans.
Some 30 British military personnel have been killed in Afghanistan since June this year, when Blair sent troops into Helmand province in the south of the country to put down an uprising against the Nato occupation.
That figure compares to seven British military deaths in the period from the original US-led invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 up to the end of May this year. Of these seven, only two were killed in combat.
Hundreds of Afghan fighters and civilians have also lost their lives in the carnage over the past few months. Occupation forces rained down bombs on the Panjwayi district near the city of Kandahar last weekend, killing over 200 “suspected Taliban”, according to Nato.
It is now five years since the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the US that led to George Bush declaring his “war on terror” with Blair’s fervent backing.
Today the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq are sinking in blood - and the clamour for Blair to go is getting more intense than ever.
Labour MPs are circulating three letters calling on Blair to spell out his exit plans.
One is signed by MPs elected for the first time last year - it says Blair should step down now. Even previously ultra-loyal New Labour hacks are now turning against the prime minister.
Blair’s reaction has been to dig his heels in and fire out a series of right wing policy measures, including a bizarre and sinister scheme to brand children as potentially “anti-social” before they are even born.
His close aides are fantasising about the prime minister stepping down in glory some time next year, with a planned “triumph of Blairism” tour involving appearances on Blue Peter, Songs of Praise and Chris Evan’s radio show.
These crazed plans show how divorced from reality Blair and his inner circle are.
Blair’s problems are deeply embedded in the whole New Labour project. Getting rid of him is an urgent priority - but the rot goes far deeper than one man.
Gordon Brown, the man most likely to replace Blair, is complicit in Blair’s wars, neo-liberal policies and the New Labour project.
The task is to mobilise a grassroots movement to challenge this.
It has taken a mass movement of ordinary people up and down the country to reveal Blair’s lies over Iraq.
And it will take that mass movement to bring home the scale of fury against Blair.
In two weeks’ time the Labour Party gathers for its annual conference in Manchester.
The Stop the War Coalition’s demonstration on 23 September in Manchester will drive home the reasons why Blair should finally pay the price for his crimes.
Socialist Worker