No one can condone the violence aimed at working people going about their daily lives in London last Thursday. They have not been a party to, nor are they responsible for, the decisions of their government.
"I'm not racist, but..." Everyone, at some point, will have heard that disclaimer followed by a stream of patently racist nonsense. In the wake of the London bombings large sections of the British media have struck a similar tone in articles and broadcasts about Muslim people living in Britain.
Peter Brierley, who lost his son Shaun in Iraq in 2003, spoke to Socialist Worker after addressing a 1,000-strong vigil organised by the Stop the War Coalition on the Saturday after the London bombings:
From Iraq We have no mouthsWe evaporatedYou don’t see the holes in the ground where we were putWe are the unfoundWe are uncountedYou don’t see the homes we madeWe’re not even the small print or the bit in brackets.You see less of us than you see of the dustYou see less of us than you see of the windBecause we were somewhere else,because we lived far from you,because our minutes, hours, days and years did not last as long as yours,because you have cameras that point the other way,because you talk about other people……Of that moment when we wentyou can’t even say you missed it.
First of all there is this topline figure that they have given of $50 billion in aid by 2010. The thing to do is to compare that with the scale of the problem and what was needed.
The G8 summit has missed a major opportunity to tackle climate change.
Many of the organisations that have been involved with the Make Poverty History campaign are disappointed with the G8’s communiqué.
Staff in the public services played a crucial and heroic role in the aftermath of the bombings in London on Thursday of last week — none more so than Tube drivers and station workers.
Health workers were another group of emergency service workers who performed tirelessly last week to save lives.
I and a number of friends took the number 30 bus from Hackney, east London, to attend the Marxism 2005 event on Friday of last week.
I offer my sincere condolences to all those affected and stand shoulder to shoulder with them.
Around 70 people attended a peace vigil in Edinburgh on Friday of last week after the London bombings.
