The row about secret prisons in Europe has reminded me of the subject for a book that I will never write, but would like to. The liberal press has been complaining about The West losing its moral superiority since Bush and Blair began their imperial adventures after September 11th. I have long wanted to write about how the British government, notably in the first decade of the twentieth century the Liberals starring Lloyd-George and Churchill, pioneered the weapons of dirty warfare that subsequently became normal. They were much more successful at the time in keeping the news out of the media (which says something about our own degenerate times) and managed to maintain the global image of rectitude that some talented Victorians invented and passed off on a gullible world.
The West Indian writer and revolutionary, CLR James, used to talk of a taxi ride he took in London soon after arriving from Trinidad in 1932. He was with two activists, an Irishman and an Indian, when they passed the House of Commons. The Irishman said how he wanted to blow the place up, much to James's surprise as a more verbal opponent of the British, while the Indian displayed enormous erudition on the history of rebellion against the empire. This event impressed on James the need to get serious with his politics. The point is that, in the decades leading up to the First World War, Britain lost its commercial leadership to Germany and the USA, much as Amewrica and Europe are now watching Brazil, China, India take over as the cheapest producers of agriculture, manufactures and information services. At the same time, the British empire faced formidable opposition in Ireland, South Africa and India. It was in response to this dire situation that they resorted to dirty tricks in an impressive and innovative way. They invented concentration camps in the Boer War and death squads, disinformation campaigns and much else in the fight against Irish independence. One story captures this period for me and I got it from Tim Pat Coogan's biography of Michael Collins (Arrow, 1991). In 1913 or thereabouts, Jan Christian Smuts, South Africa's prime minister, wrote to Lloyd George with some military advice on how to keep the Irish down. A senior civil servant wrote a memo: 'Who does this man think he is to advise US on counter-terrorism? We've been putting down revolutions in India for fifty years!' A footnote on this hidden history of early collaboration in the anti-colonial revolution. Between the wars, the British regularly tried to get their imperial subjects to sign up for the League of Nations enterprise. This effort was often sabotaged by an alliance of the Irish Free State (de Valeira), South Africa (Malan) and Canada (Mackenzie King), all of whom wanted to get out, but found it practical to stay in and make trouble. Imagine the Canadians in such company, but they wanted their independence too -- and got it. Keith Hart # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net
