>Date: 15 May 2000 15:20:08 -0000 > >STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.COM > >Date sent: 14 May 2000 23:28:26 -0000 >To: RCPB(ML) WDIE Mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >From: "RCPB(ML)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: WORKERS' DAILY INTERNET EDITION Year 2000 No. 83, May >15 > >WORKERS' DAILY INTERNET EDITION Year 2000 No. 83, May 15 (Text) >Daily On Line Newspaper of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain >(Marxist-Leninist) >170, Wandsworth Road, London, SW8 2LA. Phone 020 7627 0599 >Web Site: http://www.rcpbml.org.uk >e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Workers' Daily Internet Edition Year 2000 N0.83 (HTML) can be viewed at: >http://www.rcpbml.org.uk/ww2000/d00-83.htm > >Article Index : > >1) Britain’Äôs "Commitment" to Sierra Leone Is One of Sordid Self-Interest > >2) Pensioners' Parliament in Blackpool > > >----------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > >1) Britain’Äôs "Commitment" to Sierra Leone Is One of Sordid Self-Interest > >Britain’Äôs continued armed intervention in Sierra Leone has no >justification and must be condemned. > >The British armed forces have had their mandate "extended" for a month >after they were deployed under the signboard of protecting the lives of >British citizens in Sierra Leone. There are currently some 700 British >military personnel on the ground in Sierra Leone. The immediate pretext >is that of assisting the build-up of the UN armed forces, the UNAMSIL >force (United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone). In the latest move, the >Chief of Defence Staff, Sir Charles Guthrie, arrived in the capital >Freetown yesterday, still protesting that British forces would leave as >soon as possible, and insisting that there are no plans to land the >Marines’Äô "Four Two Commando", at present on HMS Ocean and at least five >other British warships at anchor off Freetown, nor deploy the 13 Harrier >fighter jets. Foreign Secretary Robin Cook is continually insisting on >the form of words that British troops are not there as "combat troops", >nor as part of the UN forces. But once more it is evident that Britain >is pursuing an armed intervention in a sovereign country under the >pretext of humanitarian motives and moral duty, with no international >authorisation and with ulterior motives. It cannot be ruled out that the >US and Britain have deliberately engineered this situation, since it was >they who insisted that the leader of the RUF whom they had been >instrumental in overthrowing became chairman of the Peace Commission >while freeing the "rebel leader" Fodoy Sankoh from sentence of death to >be brought into the government to be put in charge of the diamond mines. > >Britain’Äôs role of interfering in the internal affairs of Sierra Leone >has been extremely sordid in the recent past. Robin Cook is hoping that >democratic people in Britain will have short memories and forget the >Foreign Office’Äôs involvement in the Sandline International affair, the >flouting of the UN embargo on fuel and arms to bring Sierra Leone’Äôs >President Kabbah to power, the plunder of diamonds, gold and mining >concessions by financiers as an integral part of the counter-coup >against the army junta in March 1998, the Legg Report and the House of >Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee Report which accused the >Foreign Office of operating to its own agenda and the Foreign Secretary >of arrogance, all of which the government attempted to brush aside as >irrelevant. > >It should also not be forgotten that Britain was the colonial power in >Sierra Leone from the 18th century until 1961. Its colonial legacy to >the African country was of impoverishment, division, attempted >destruction of its culture, and a continuing plunder of its mineral and >other natural resources. Of course, the British government now claims >that it is following an enlightened course, while it fosters the most >horrific stories against the "rebel" RUF forces, born of the most >repugnant racist and chauvinist outlook ’Äì a contemporary equivalent of >the imperialist philosophy of the "white man’Äôs burden". > >The intervention has also to be seen in the context of the new "scramble >for Africa" which the big powers are engaged in, as well as, in >particular, Britain’Äôs attempts to bring about arrangements in its old >colonial possessions in Africa which bring them into line with Britain’Äôs >dreams of empire and as part of those countries who toe the line and >follow Anglo-American and Eurocentric values. This is the case in >Zimbabwe, where it has not fulfilled obligations to fund land reform >agreed at the time of independence and is now engaging in a vituperative >campaign against the Zimbabwean government and attempting to impose >conditions and interfere in that country’Äôs democratic process. It has of >late been lauding its relations with Zambia as "a partnership of equals, >not one reflecting old colonial relationships" as it pushes for further >privatisation according to the IMF’Äôs neo-liberal agenda for that country >while stepping up British investment in Zambia. > >Not only has Britain’Äôs colonial legacy in Africa not been overcome, but >the government is pursuing a policy of stepping up its penetration of >Africa in the manner of 19th century colonialism. This is precisely what >is causing disaster, conflict, war and further plunder and enslavement >on the African continent, and is being utilised by Britain and other big >powers as pretexts to intervene. At the same time, the big power >chauvinism promoted by the government around these questions among the >workers’Äô and people’Äôs movements in Britain is a component part of the >block to the workers taking up their own independent programme and >boldly affirming their rights. > >The British working class and people must demand an end to these sordid >relations of exploitation pursued by the government on behalf of the >monopolies, and call for an end to the government’Äôs intervention and >interference in Africa and throughout the world. Furthermore, the >British government has itself the moral duty to render reparations for >the plunder and destruction of lives, cultures and economies that it has >been and continues to be responsible for. > >End Item > > > > > >2) Pensioners' Parliament in Blackpool > >The following report has been sent in to WDIE from a pensioner who >attended this year’Äôs Pensioners’Äô Parliament in Blackpool, which was >held >on May 9, 10 and 11. The Parliament was preceded by a National >Pensioners March. > >On a bright, sunny day in May, something like 1,000 angry pensioners, >from all over Britain, assembled on the promenade at Blackpool. >Representing 10 million or more older people, and led by Jack Jones, >former general secretary of the Transport and General Workers’Äô Union, >now president of the National Pensioners’Äô Convention (NPC), and >accompanied by other officers of the NPC, they marched with banners and >placards flying to the famous Winter Gardens Conference Centre where >they joined with 2,000 others ’Äì filling the vast hall to capacity. > >They were to have been addressed by Jeff Rooker MP, Minister of State >for Pensions. However, Mr Rooker was unable to attend because of a >3-line whip in the House of Commons. On the other hand, most if not all >of the assembled pensioners had not really come to hear him tell them >the same old sorry story, but for him to listen to them. > >Consequently, after the Mayor of Blackpool had officially welcomed the >pensioners and opened the conference, Rodney Bickerstaffe, general >secretary of public sector union UNISON, addressed the Parliament. > >Rodney Bickerstaffe, who has been widely tipped to take over as leader >of the NPC after he stands down at the end of the year, in his own >renowned and inimitable witty way, emphasised, to a huge round of >applause, that he was willing to take up the cudgels on behalf of older >people. > >The first debate of the three-day parliament ’Äì on Community Care ’Äì was >presented by Evelyn McKewan who said: "Community Care is the Cinderella >of the welfare state. Considerable public concern has been shown about >conditions in hospital and access to medical care and the NHS gets more >money and rightly so; the plight of people struggling to care at home >has received very little publicity. There are tens of thousands of >vulnerable older people who are unable to receive the services they need >to live with dignity independently in their own homes, and their spouses >and children who worry desperately about how they can cope and what the >future will bring." > >She said that Tony Blair has spoken that some elderly people "are not >shown the respect or given the comfort they deserve" when in hospital. >But she said, "We must show the public and the government, that social >services often deny this respect to elderly people at home. They deny it >frequently because the resources available are too limited to provide >the help that is needed. Too often people are turned away without help" > >On the second day of the Parliament, Jeff Rooker did address the >assembly. But he received a slow handclap from delegates because he >claimed that the government was improving pensions. Instead the >Parliament backed the action of the London and South-East Pensioners’Äô >day of action on May 17 for the demand for a substantial rise in the >basic pension and the restoration of the link of pensions to earnings. >The Parliament also called for a national march to highlight the >worsening conditions of Britain’Äôs pensioners. > >On Tuesday evening, a well-attended fringe meeting was organised which >was addressed by a number of activists in the pensioners’Äô movement. Joe >Simmons, President of the British Pensioners and Trade Union Action >Association, gave an address. He said New Labour was intent on >destroying the welfare state. It was not a question of where they are >going but where they are coming from, he said, and it sums up as the >ruling classes coming to power and managing to survive on the backs of >the working class. He asked, "Isn’Äôt it about time we started really >going about getting what should be, rather than saying what should be?" >He called on the National Pensioners’Äô Convention to lead and said that >"the organised pensioners’Äô movement has a unique opportunity to >stimulate the rest of the labour movement and to influence the move to a >socialist society which would considerably help ourselves as well as >workers everywhere". > >(The NPC day of Action starts at 1pm on Thursday May 17 with a lobby >outside the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, which is off >Parliament Square in London, followed by a demonstration between 1.45 >and 2.30pm outside the Department of Social Security, Whitehall.) > > >End item > > > >-- >To contact RCPB(ML) by e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >RCPB(ML) Home Page: http://www.rcpbml.org.uk > > >______________________________________________________________________ >To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] >______________________________________________________________________ __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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