THERE WAS a small revolution in St Albans last week, one that should give Tony Blair pause for thought as he shackles Britain to the chariot wheels of US imperialism. A meeting called by the Stop the War Coalition turned out to be the biggest protest meeting the city has seen in living memory.
THE WEEKEND'S newspapers had some of the most uplifting coverage for ages-and some of the most disgusting. On the one hand, there was extensive coverage of the mushrooming anti-war movement across the globe. On the other, there was a deluge of bile against asylum seekers, linking them with terrorism and whipping up a frenzy whereby every refugee could be a killer with a vat of ricin in their flat.
IT'S A fair bet that when Doreen and Neville Lawrence accepted their OBEs in the new year they had no idea the report they had fought so hard for would be tossed into the bin by the home secretary.
THE ASIAN Social Forum (ASF) held in Hyderabad in India ended last week with a closing rally of over 10,000 people. It was followed by a demonstration that drew in thousands more. Trucks and coaches from across the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh arrived with people who had made the trip to demonstrate their opposition to imperialism and war.
I REMEMBER it like it was just yesterday-the day 14 years ago when four men carrying hammers walked into the nightclub I was DJing in and proceeded to smash up the record decks. Apparently these hammer-wielding psychopaths came from a rival sound system which wanted to put us out of business. It was my first and hopefully my last brush with the activities of the criminal underworld.
TALK OF empire is everywhere. Right wing historian Niall Ferguson is presenting a TV series on Channel 4 celebrating the British Empire. American neo-conservatives like Charles Krauthammer openly boast that the US has acquired a global empire since the end of the Cold War.
"TROOPS IN the Philippines have rescued a kidnapped Italian priest who had been held on the southern island of Mindanao for six months. He was kidnapped in October by a gang of bandits called the Pentagon Gang. The military says the group is mainly made up of former members of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Philippine President Arroyo said Father Pierantoni's rescue was a big step towards achieving peace in the troubled southern Philippines. " 'Give them no quarter. Annihilate these criminal gangs. I appeal to the people, to our Muslim brothers, to help us end this scourge of kidnapping,' she said."
ACTIVISTS FROM the anti-war and "anti-globalisation" movement joined forces with delegates from across the Arab world at a remarkable conference in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, in late December. The Egyptian government tried to ban it. Then it was forced to allow it to go ahead. The 1,000-strong demonstration that followed the conference was surrounded by riot police and armoured cars.
"YES, BUT what do you think it achieves?" If you took part in the marches and demonstrations against the Vietnam War in the 1960s, this was a question that you would be asked over and over again. It didn't come from people in favour of the US bombing peasant farmers but from people who were, let's say, uneasy.
THAT SMALL portion of the media not obsessed with Cherie Blair has been rhubarbing about how "historic" last weekend's European Union (EU) summit in Copenhagen was. It was in a way, but not primarily because the EU has finally decided to expand to incorporate ten new member states, mainly relatively poor countries in Central and Eastern Europe.
THE UPPER classes of Venezuela, in South America, last week launched another desperate attempt to overthrow the government of president Hugo Chavez. Their last attempt to do so, in April, ousted him from office for only three days before hundreds of thousands of poor people poured into the centre of the capital, Caracas, and forced the army to reinstate him.
RIGHT NOW in the US it seems impossible to escape the war on terrorism. Bush and his clones in the White House are using every trick to whip up a patriotic fever. Serious news programmes run terrifying reports of so called terrorist plans to kill every US citizen. Countless shops display posters declaring their allegiance to the war against terrorism.
