London bombs, the G8 and an end to dictatorship
Mike Brady | 08.07.2005 16:56 | G8 2005 | Analysis | Globalisation | Social Struggles
The London bombs were the act of a small group attempting to change global policies. The images seen across the world are a marked contrast to those of the Make Poverty History campaign and the Live8 concert, which both attempted to influence the small group that is the G8.
[see the version at 
http://mikebradybrazil.blogspot.com/2005/07/london-bombs-g8-and-end-to.html for links].
I am writing this on 7 July 2005, the day of the terrorist attack on London. The latest figure of confirmed deaths is 37, with 1,000 injured, many with horrific injuries, such as lost limbs. Perhaps one of my best friends is amongst them. I am still trying to contact him from Brazil, where I am presently based. Having called round family and other friends to check if they were affected, I can imagine the anguish of those whose worst fears become reality. Many bereaved families and injured people face difficult days ahead and my thoughts are with them.
Mixed in with this are thoughts about who has done this and the timing. There are apparently 4 bombs and a group claiming allegance to Al Queda has claimed responsibility. How big was the cell of fanatical idiots who thought this was justifiable? Maybe as few as eight? Eight people wanting to change the course of history, who have succeeded in gaining global coverage for their cause. Terrorists rejoice in the attention they receive. For a few days they dictate the news agenda, even if they do not succeed in achieving the policy changes they are seeking from our leaders.
And the timing? The G8 was meeting at Gleneagles in Scotland. The leaders of the world’s richest countries stood shoulder to shoulder as Prime Minister Tony Blair condemned the attacks and told the terrorists they would fail to change the British way of life. He is right and he is wrong. People will be back on the underground trains and buses as soon as they are running again. Most likely they will be massing to demonstrate their contempt for the bombers. But there will be fear, particularly if there are further attacks. There will probably be draconian knee-jerk reactions from the government and Muslims will suffer attacks from racists looking for an excuse. And in the days to come there will be heart-rending funerals and stories from survivors.
Nothing can excuse the deliberate targeting of civilians, targeted at rush hour to cause maximum casualties. Some will try to justify it because of the links made by the apparent perpetrators with the invasion of Iraq conducted by Blair and Bush. George Galloway, leader of Respect, the anti-war party, has already blamed Blair for bringing the attack on the country. Iraq is no justification. Yet for a family sitting in Iraq that has lost family members from the apparent indiscriminate bombing of their homes there may well be a grim acknowledgement that perhaps we have glimpsed something of their suffering. In an average month 200 innocent people are killed in Iraq, some by the occupying forces, more by those fighting the occupation and people they label as collaborators. A few kilograms of explosives have done their work in London and the world is watching. Many tonnes of explosives have rained down on Iraqies and the death toll has not even been counted. Are our lives more valuable? Is our pain more deeply felt? Are the deaths of innocents acceptable if the greater cause is just, if the invasion of Iraq is just?
Perhaps we should nurse our pain and feel empathy with all who suffer, before anything else. Those of us not directly affected by tragedy today should remember the fear we felt as we ran through the people we know in London, not knowing if they had been killed or maimed. For many in the world such fear is a daily reality, and all too often those fears are realized.
Those responsible for this act are a small group of perhaps eight people. They alone are responsible. If they had not walked out the door this morning with bags of explosives none of this would have happened. Eight people, who wanted to change the world, timing their attack to coincide with the meeting of eight other people at the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland.
Many people are wanting to change the world. Sometimes similarly small groups can succeed in bringing their cause global attention without resorting to violence. What a contrast there is between the images today and those of a week ago when Bob Geldof’s Live8 concert was watched by an estimated 3.5 billion people. His organizing committee brought together world famous musicians. The Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) that formed the Make Poverty History coalition mobilized millions with their campaign. As with the bomb attack, the eight people of the G8 were the target. The International Simultaneous Policy Organisation (ISPO), as yet a small group, is bringing people together to decide the rules ‘we, the people’ want to live under, breaking the hold on power of the elites who currently set the rules behind closed doors.
The G8 was due to discuss, hopefully will still discuss, debt relief for poor countries and changing of trade rules to make them fairer for countries desperately doing everything they can to work their way out of poverty. 30,000 children die from poverty every day, according to the Make Poverty History campaign, while many more lead miserable lives of suffering those of us in rich countries can barely comprehend.
Make Poverty History has called for the G8 leaders to make historic decisions to help end the obscenity of needless death and suffering. The indications are they will make small concessions, big promises and continue to dictate the rules to ensure they win the competition between nations (Click here).
Brazil, where I am writing this, knows about dictatorship. Twenty years of dictatorship ended in 1985. In the 1990s I lived briefly under the dictatorship of Dr. Hastings Banda in Malawi and saw his fall from power.
Dictatorship. The ruling of the many by the few. These dictatorships ended by people taking a stand, sometimes risking or losing their lives, demanding the right to vote to choose their leaders. The end of dictatorship brought an end to censorship and a free press is essential to hold democratically elected leaders to account.
Democracy and transparency are surely the antidotes to dictatorship, whether it is national government, attempted dictatorship by terrorists or the G8 leaders fixing the rules to keep their countries rich.
Terrorism must be seen in perspective. This was the act of perhaps 8 people, not an entire community and we are wise if Muslims and non-Muslims in our communities unite instead of fearing each other. While increasing vigilance, we should not be paralysed by fear. More people will die this week in accidents on the road than have been killed in London.
Terrorism attempts to justify itself by attaching itself to causes such as the Iraq invasion. Rejecting that justification, does not mean the Iraq invasion is legitimized, though we may see certain politicians attempting this. The arguments over the invasion remain. Terrorism and the invasion can both be condemned without contradiction.
Similarly there is no contradiction in condemning both terrorism and the injustice of the global rules which keep half the planet’s population in poverty. Demanding action on debt relief and trade rules is not giving in to terrorism. Ending the dictatorship of the G8 and rich, powerful nations over global rule setting requires democracy and transparency. It can be argued that the G8 leaders themselves are limited in their scope for action, are themselves prisoners of the global system and that competition between nations can only be transformed by some form of global, coordinated change (see http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/06/315279.html. One way to achieve this is through the Simultaneous Policy (SP) campaign. SP brings people together around the world, across national borders, to discuss the global policies we want to see implemented. Policy development is an open, transparent and democratic process. Anyone can become involved by signing up as an Adopter at http://www.simpol.org.uk/.
Adopters require our leaders to implement the Simultaneous Policy alongside other countries. Not through force. Not through terrorism. But through the democratic process. Adopters undertake to encourage their preferred party to sign a pledge to implement SP. Adopters without a party preference can encourage any and all politicians to sign the pledge and at elections give their preference to any reasonable candidate who has done so. This has brought cross-party support for SP into the UK Parliament following the recent general election, when 10 candidates who had signed the pledge were elected. As the number of candidates and governments who have signed the pledge increases, we move closer to implementation of SP and the transformation of competition between nations to cooperation.
The terrorists won’t win, even though they succeed in hurting us. In this time of suffering we have seen strangers of different races in cosmopolitan London helping each other, a reminder of the fundamental decency of humanity. When the dust has settled, let us remember the suffering of others and redouble our efforts to strengthen our communities, locally, nationally and internationally.
http://mikebradybrazil.blogspot.com/2005/07/london-bombs-g8-and-end-to.html for links]. I am writing this on 7 July 2005, the day of the terrorist attack on London. The latest figure of confirmed deaths is 37, with 1,000 injured, many with horrific injuries, such as lost limbs. Perhaps one of my best friends is amongst them. I am still trying to contact him from Brazil, where I am presently based. Having called round family and other friends to check if they were affected, I can imagine the anguish of those whose worst fears become reality. Many bereaved families and injured people face difficult days ahead and my thoughts are with them.
Mixed in with this are thoughts about who has done this and the timing. There are apparently 4 bombs and a group claiming allegance to Al Queda has claimed responsibility. How big was the cell of fanatical idiots who thought this was justifiable? Maybe as few as eight? Eight people wanting to change the course of history, who have succeeded in gaining global coverage for their cause. Terrorists rejoice in the attention they receive. For a few days they dictate the news agenda, even if they do not succeed in achieving the policy changes they are seeking from our leaders.
And the timing? The G8 was meeting at Gleneagles in Scotland. The leaders of the world’s richest countries stood shoulder to shoulder as Prime Minister Tony Blair condemned the attacks and told the terrorists they would fail to change the British way of life. He is right and he is wrong. People will be back on the underground trains and buses as soon as they are running again. Most likely they will be massing to demonstrate their contempt for the bombers. But there will be fear, particularly if there are further attacks. There will probably be draconian knee-jerk reactions from the government and Muslims will suffer attacks from racists looking for an excuse. And in the days to come there will be heart-rending funerals and stories from survivors.
Nothing can excuse the deliberate targeting of civilians, targeted at rush hour to cause maximum casualties. Some will try to justify it because of the links made by the apparent perpetrators with the invasion of Iraq conducted by Blair and Bush. George Galloway, leader of Respect, the anti-war party, has already blamed Blair for bringing the attack on the country. Iraq is no justification. Yet for a family sitting in Iraq that has lost family members from the apparent indiscriminate bombing of their homes there may well be a grim acknowledgement that perhaps we have glimpsed something of their suffering. In an average month 200 innocent people are killed in Iraq, some by the occupying forces, more by those fighting the occupation and people they label as collaborators. A few kilograms of explosives have done their work in London and the world is watching. Many tonnes of explosives have rained down on Iraqies and the death toll has not even been counted. Are our lives more valuable? Is our pain more deeply felt? Are the deaths of innocents acceptable if the greater cause is just, if the invasion of Iraq is just?
Perhaps we should nurse our pain and feel empathy with all who suffer, before anything else. Those of us not directly affected by tragedy today should remember the fear we felt as we ran through the people we know in London, not knowing if they had been killed or maimed. For many in the world such fear is a daily reality, and all too often those fears are realized.
Those responsible for this act are a small group of perhaps eight people. They alone are responsible. If they had not walked out the door this morning with bags of explosives none of this would have happened. Eight people, who wanted to change the world, timing their attack to coincide with the meeting of eight other people at the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland.
Many people are wanting to change the world. Sometimes similarly small groups can succeed in bringing their cause global attention without resorting to violence. What a contrast there is between the images today and those of a week ago when Bob Geldof’s Live8 concert was watched by an estimated 3.5 billion people. His organizing committee brought together world famous musicians. The Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) that formed the Make Poverty History coalition mobilized millions with their campaign. As with the bomb attack, the eight people of the G8 were the target. The International Simultaneous Policy Organisation (ISPO), as yet a small group, is bringing people together to decide the rules ‘we, the people’ want to live under, breaking the hold on power of the elites who currently set the rules behind closed doors.
The G8 was due to discuss, hopefully will still discuss, debt relief for poor countries and changing of trade rules to make them fairer for countries desperately doing everything they can to work their way out of poverty. 30,000 children die from poverty every day, according to the Make Poverty History campaign, while many more lead miserable lives of suffering those of us in rich countries can barely comprehend.
Make Poverty History has called for the G8 leaders to make historic decisions to help end the obscenity of needless death and suffering. The indications are they will make small concessions, big promises and continue to dictate the rules to ensure they win the competition between nations (Click here).
Brazil, where I am writing this, knows about dictatorship. Twenty years of dictatorship ended in 1985. In the 1990s I lived briefly under the dictatorship of Dr. Hastings Banda in Malawi and saw his fall from power.
Dictatorship. The ruling of the many by the few. These dictatorships ended by people taking a stand, sometimes risking or losing their lives, demanding the right to vote to choose their leaders. The end of dictatorship brought an end to censorship and a free press is essential to hold democratically elected leaders to account.
Democracy and transparency are surely the antidotes to dictatorship, whether it is national government, attempted dictatorship by terrorists or the G8 leaders fixing the rules to keep their countries rich.
Terrorism must be seen in perspective. This was the act of perhaps 8 people, not an entire community and we are wise if Muslims and non-Muslims in our communities unite instead of fearing each other. While increasing vigilance, we should not be paralysed by fear. More people will die this week in accidents on the road than have been killed in London.
Terrorism attempts to justify itself by attaching itself to causes such as the Iraq invasion. Rejecting that justification, does not mean the Iraq invasion is legitimized, though we may see certain politicians attempting this. The arguments over the invasion remain. Terrorism and the invasion can both be condemned without contradiction.
Similarly there is no contradiction in condemning both terrorism and the injustice of the global rules which keep half the planet’s population in poverty. Demanding action on debt relief and trade rules is not giving in to terrorism. Ending the dictatorship of the G8 and rich, powerful nations over global rule setting requires democracy and transparency. It can be argued that the G8 leaders themselves are limited in their scope for action, are themselves prisoners of the global system and that competition between nations can only be transformed by some form of global, coordinated change (see
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/06/315279.html. One way to achieve this is through the Simultaneous Policy (SP) campaign. SP brings people together around the world, across national borders, to discuss the global policies we want to see implemented. Policy development is an open, transparent and democratic process. Anyone can become involved by signing up as an Adopter at http://www.simpol.org.uk/. Adopters require our leaders to implement the Simultaneous Policy alongside other countries. Not through force. Not through terrorism. But through the democratic process. Adopters undertake to encourage their preferred party to sign a pledge to implement SP. Adopters without a party preference can encourage any and all politicians to sign the pledge and at elections give their preference to any reasonable candidate who has done so. This has brought cross-party support for SP into the UK Parliament following the recent general election, when 10 candidates who had signed the pledge were elected. As the number of candidates and governments who have signed the pledge increases, we move closer to implementation of SP and the transformation of competition between nations to cooperation.
The terrorists won’t win, even though they succeed in hurting us. In this time of suffering we have seen strangers of different races in cosmopolitan London helping each other, a reminder of the fundamental decency of humanity. When the dust has settled, let us remember the suffering of others and redouble our efforts to strengthen our communities, locally, nationally and internationally.
Mike Brady
e-mail:
mikebrady@simpol.org.uk
Homepage:
http://www.simpol.org.uk/
