A racist state

What’s the connection between 42 days detention for alleged “terror suspects”, the mass targeting of black people for stop and search, a sharp rise in racist attacks and the planned introduction of identity cards? Answer: each represents an aspect of an institutionalised racist state under the direction of the New Labour government.

When Gordon Brown’s party finished an astonishing fifth behind the openly racist British National Party (BNP) in the recent Henley by-election, observers put it down to general disenchantment with the government. Another way to look at it was that the BNP was reaping what New Labour had sown in a state-inspired racism combined with supreme indifference to poor white working-class voters.

The plan to hold people for six weeks before charge under so-called anti-terror laws, is clearly targeted at British-born minorities. The relentless scapegoating of the Asian community in this and other ways was bound to whip up hostility, especially in areas of high deprivation. And now we have the figures to show this. More than 61,000 complaints of racially motivated crime were made in 2006-07, a rise of 28% in just five years. Inayat Bunglawala, spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "We're getting more British Muslims reporting to us that they feel anti-Muslim prejudice is increasing in society. There are incidents of attacks against mosques and Islamic schools."

But it is not just Asians who are the targets. Thanks to laws passed under this government, police have new powers to stop people in the street and demand they account for themselves. These powers were used a staggering two million times in 2006-07, according to government statistics published yesterday. This statistic, while incredible enough in itself, contains an even more frightening, not to say racist, aspect. For black people were on average two and a half times – in some areas it was five time - more likely to be stopped than white people.

It gets worse, much worse. The data shows that black people are still seven times more likely to be stopped and searched - as opposed to stop and account; three and a half times more likely to be arrested; and five times more likely to be in prison. All this is taking place before the introduction of ID cards linked to a national database. No prizes for guessing which communities are most likely to be asked to produce their ID cards in the street.

Yesterday, the plans for 42 days were savaged in the unelected House of Lords, of all places. Even for the former head of the spy agency MI5, Baroness Eliza Manningham-Buller, condemned the very idea, declaring: "I have weighed up the balance between the right to life – the most important civil liberty – the fact that there is no such thing as complete security, and the importance of our hard-won civil liberties. Therefore, on a matter of principle, I cannot support 42 days' pre-charge detention.”

Their Lordships’ response shows again just how pathetic the overwhelming majority of New Labour MPs in the House of Commons are. They have sat on their hands (except when it comes to claiming vast expenses) and watched while the government has gone about constructing a racist, authoritarian state which the Tories are almost certain to inherit. What an achievement!

Paul Feldman
Communications editor

42 reasons to rid ourselves of New Labour

As another ancient liberty is scrapped by New Labour in forcing through detention without charge for six weeks (relying on the votes of the ultra-reactionaries in Ian Paisley’s party), here are 42 reasons (I’m sure there are many more) why this wretched regime needs ousting:

1. Increasing detention without charge under 'anti-terror laws' from 48 hours (in 1997) to seven days.
2. Increasing detention without charge to 14 days.
3. Increasing detention without charge to 28 days.
4. Increasing detention without charge to 42 days.
5. Turning a blind eye to “rendition”, the illegal transfer and torture of terror suspects.
6. Giving police powers to intercept emails without a warrant.
7. Introducing ID cards linked to a central database.
8. Giving the United States powers to extradite British citizens without proving their case in a British court.
9. Curtailing the right to trial by jury.
10. Allowing the police to build a DNA database of people questioned but not charged.
11. Locking up more teenagers than any other country in Europe.
12. Doubling the prison population to 100,000.
13. Illegally invading and occupying Afghanistan with US forces.
14. Putting out blatant lies put out about Iraq’s fabled “weapons of mass destruction”.
15. Invading and occupying Iraq with US forces, resulting in the death and exile of over a million Iraqis.
16. Commissioning a new generation of Trident nuclear missiles for nearly £80 billion.
17. Allowing UK carbon emissions to increase since 1997.
18. Commissioning a new generation of nuclear power stations.
19. Giving the go-ahead for airport expansion at Heathrow and Stansted.
20. Concreting over the countryside, with over 1,100 hectares of Green Belt lost each year since 1997.
21. Allowing rail fares to soar while subsidising the rail companies, forcing more people to drive to work.
22. Slashing the number of affordable homes built for rent.
23. Presiding over and encouraging record house-price inflation.
24. Presiding over a rapid rise in the numbers of people who can’t pay their mortgages.
25. Allowing the number of homeless households living in temporary accommodation in England to double to almost 90,000.
26. Introducing university top-up fees, forcing students to build up massive debts.
27. Wrecking the education system by the introduction of “Academies” run along business lines and by religious fundamentalists.
28. Reducing corporation tax to 28%, the lowest among advanced economies.
29. Abolishing the 10p rate of tax for the lowest paid.
30. Introducing means-testing for a range of state benefits.
31. Forcing older people to choose between food and paying for their care at home.
32. Refusing to fund residential care for older people.
33. Allowing the gap between rich and poor to increase faster than ever.
34. Providing a haven for Russian billionaires while demonising asylum seekers and refugees.
35. Playing the “race card” by dispersing refugees and failing to fund local authorities to provide extra services.
36. Standing by as the number of young children and older people in poverty increases.
37. Undermining the NHS through the contracting out of services and “partnerships” with the private sector.
38. Signing up to a reactionary European Union constitution without allowing voters a say.
39. Refusing to restore the rights of the trade unions taken away by Tory governments.
40. Turning Labour into New Labour – a party that speaks and acts for big business interests.
41. Destroying people’s hopes of a change and allowing the Tories to pose as champions of the poor and civil liberties.
42. Presiding over a sharp rise in unemployment announced on the very day that detention without charge was passed by the Commons.
    
    Paul Feldman
    AWTW communications editor
    
    
    
    
    

A cornered, frightened government

New Labour came to power pledging to end the “boom and bust” policies of the Tories for ever. Now, as the economy slides into recession and prices soar, the Brown government is paralysed, desperate to divert attention away from the mounting crisis by any means. Scaremongering plans to lock up terror suspects for six weeks without charge fit the bill nicely.

That’s one explanation why the beleaguered Brown premiership is pressing on with the vote tomorrow on proposals to give police powers to hold people for 42 days, despite widespread opposition ranging from former attorney-generals to Scotland’s chief law officer. The move would destroy historic, constitutional rights to know what you are accused of and to be charged promptly or set free.

Another reason for soldiering on is that this frightened government is anticipating social unrest and is amassing an array of measures for the state to deploy as and when necessary. Anti-terror laws are already routinely used against climate camps, anti-arms trade protests and women protesting outside the secret Menwith Hill installation in north Yorkshire. "Anti-terror" powers are used to convict individuals merely for alleged membership of "proscribed" political organisations, for possessing DVDs and for downloading web pages.

A social crisis is looming as the credit-fuelled economy continues to unravel day by day. The number of houses changing hands has collapsed to the lowest level in 30 years, a new survey shows. The fall in sales far exceeds the depths of the last housing crash in the 1990s. Neil Hunt, a Derbyshire-based estate agent, said: "Demand has plummeted to a crisis point with sales at their lowest May level in memory. An avalanche of job losses in the housing industry is beginning to materialise which could make current media stories look like the good old days." At the same time, the Bank of England is planning to increase interest rates in a futile response to rising inflation. It has all but given up on attempts to unlock the credit crunch by pumping money into the financial system and is apparently preparing for the worst. Mortgage rates are likely to rise, increasing the pressure on hundreds of people already unable to cope with rising costs.

On that front, the Office of National Statistics yesterday released factory inflation figures, which showed that prices last month increased at the fastest rate since records began 22 years ago, and most probably since 1976. One of Britain's biggest food manufacturers – Northern Foods – has closed a pasta and ready meals factory in Grantham that supplied Marks & Spencer because the supermarket refused to absorb some of the cost increases. Up to 700 people face losing their jobs. A cooked meat plant in Deeside, north Wales, shut down last week with the loss of 70 jobs, because of soaring prices.

With popular support draining away, Brown now depends for survival on a narrow group of senior police officers (most outside London oppose 42 days), the generals doing the government’s bidding in Iraq and Afghanistan, the spy agencies MI5 and MI6 and some sections of the civil service. And, of course, on New Labour’s own MPs who have helped create an authoritarian edifice by approving endless anti-terror laws and surveillance powers. Something along the lines of the Spanish truck drivers’ border blockade over fuel prices could easily destabilise New Labour. Be warned: Desperate, cornered governments can do desperate things to maintain their grip on power.

Paul Feldman
AWTW communications editor

New Labour's tame copper

Sir Ian Blair, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, is New Labour’s favourite copper. Ministers can always rely on him to back the government when others are reluctant to do so. In fact, when it comes to plans to extend pre-trial detention to 42 days, Blair is about the only supporter of substance that they can wheel out.

Blair’s arguments in favour of what amounts to internment are absolutely in line with home secretary Jacqui Smith’s view that it is better to have new powers just in case you might need them one day. Yesterday, Blair told MPs examining the legislation that suspects might "suddenly emerge from left field" and have to be arrested at a very early stage, leaving officers with “huge amounts of investigative work”. Then he claimed: “We have reached a point where at 28 days we feel sooner or later - and maybe sooner - something is going to happen to make that insufficient."

On that basis, the state might as well assume greater and greater general powers over ordinary citizens in all areas on the grounds that, well, the state might just need them one day. Of course, that is exactly what New Labour has been doing over the last decade. Ministers have consistently disregarded basic human rights laws and the rule of law to introduce draconian powers, starting well before the 9/11 attacks and the so-called “war on terror”. As a result, we now live under a fully-fledged surveillance state, where the citizen is secretly monitored in a variety of ways.

Blair’s approach to 42 days is the same “pre-emptive” mentality that lies behind actions ranging from the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the Met chief’s namesake to the execution by his officers of Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005. Iraq could have had “weapons of mass destruction” – so let’s invade and wreck the country to make sure. Pity we couldn’t find any, says the government, but it is better to be safe than sorry. The same goes for the Brazilian electrician. He could have been a terrorist. The fact that he wasn’t makes him an unfortunate victim of the “war on terror”. Thanks to New Labour’s control of the Metropolitan Police Authority, no one – least of all Sir Ian Blair – is held accountable for their actions on that day. He is truly the government's man at Scotland Yard.

There are serious voices within the state opposed to extending the detention period from 28 days to 42 days (it was only 48 hours in 1997). These include Sir Ken Macdonald, the director of public prosecutions. The DPP told MPs yesterday: "For our part as prosecutors, we don't perceive any need for the period of 28 days to be increased. Our experience has been that we have managed comfortably within 28 days. We have therefore not asked for an increase in 28 days. It is possible to set up all sort of hypotheses ... Anything is possible - the question is whether it's remotely likely." And Britain’s most senior Asian policeman, assistant Metropolitan Police commissioner Tarique Ghaffur says increasing the limit will be “counter-productive”.

Whether such opposition will inspire enough New Labour MPs to vote against the proposal and defeat the government remains to be seen. Whether Blair remains in his post is also a matter for debate. That entirely depends on the outcome of the May 1 elections for mayor of London. Tory challenger Boris Johnson and Liberal Democrat (and former policeman) Brian Paddick wants him removed. Mayor Ken Livingstone running on the New Labour ticket, wants Blair to stay on. Who would have thought it?

Paul Feldman
AWTW communications editor