Ten years since the London 7/7 bombings

Government shows profit comes before lives

Paula Mitchell

7/7, in 2005, was a terrible nightmare. In rush hour traffic in London, suicide bombers attacked three underground tube trains and a bus. 52 people were killed and over 700 injured – ordinary working class people of all ages and ethnic groups.

The Socialist Party utterly condemned the bombings, as we did 9/11 and other terrorist attacks such as the killing of Lee Rigby in Woolwich in 2013 and the horrific attacks in Tunisia, Kuwait and Lyon in recent days.

On 14 July 2005, the Socialist said: “Those who carried this out deserve unequivocal and unqualified condemnation. But so do those who have created the conditions for the growth of terrorism.”

This attack took place just two years after two million people marched on the streets of London to try to prevent the invasion of Iraq by the US and Britain.

War in Iraq

The majority of the population opposed US President George Bush and UK Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair’s war. Between then and the summer of 2005, 100,000 Iraqi civilians were killed (added to by a further 50,000 since).

The invasion and occupation of Iraq was allegedly a “war on terror” after the dreadful Al-Qa’ida attacks on the Twin Towers in New York, 9/11. In reality Al-Qa’ida was a consequence of the US intervention in Afghanistan, where right-wing Islamists had been trained and armed by the CIA.

As we explained at the time, its war against the west was a product of the subjugation of the Middle East and other regions by western powers for decades, and the appalling treatment of Palestinians by Israel’s rulers, backed by the US. Al-Qa’ida did not exist in Iraq before the invasion.

But this bomb attack did not hit the warmongers, but working class people, many who likely opposed the war in Iraq. And it was ordinary working class people who strove to help the victims.

Firefighters, tube workers, bus drivers and hospital workers worked miracles. Nearby people did what they could to assist. What a contrast with some of the grasping big hotel owners who, while the tube and bus network was shut down and millions of people were stranded, took the opportunity to triple their prices.

Tony Blair denied the link with the Iraq war then and still tries to deny now that the rise of Isis and the nightmare in Iraq and Syria has anything to do with it.

Jack Straw, then Labour home secretary, incredibly tried to suggest that the bombings came “out of the blue”. However, the government’s own Joint Intelligence Committee had stated that the terrorist threat “would be heightened by military action against Iraq”.

In reality, ordinary working class people paid the price for Blair’s war, above all in Iraq. That war is today swept under the carpet by most of the Labour leadership contenders, with the exception of Jeremy Corbyn, but it was one of main reasons for Labour losing five million votes between 1997 and 2010 – along with Labour’s wholesale adoption of cuts and privatisation.

Anti-democratic

The Tories will use the memory of 7/7 – along with Tunisia – to justify their proposed anti-democratic legislation against ‘extremism’.

No amount of anti-terror legislation has made – or will make – the threat of attack go away. New anti-terrorism laws were introduced in 2000 which did not stop 7/7.

The so-called ‘war on terror’ brought terrorism to Iraq. Isis is western imperialism’s Frankenstein’s monster, a vicious reactionary force that has surpassed Al-Qa’ida in wreaking horrific brutality.

Imperialist interventions have created a daily nightmare, such as in Libya, from where desperate people flee only to drown in the Mediterranean while the same western governments that created the hell-hole turn their backs.

Posing as our defenders they want to force through a ‘snoopers charter’ and, effectively, surveillance of Muslims from nurseries to schools and colleges. Teachers will be expected to monitor for signs of radicalisation. This is at the same time as the proposed scrapping of the Human Rights Act.

With rank hypocrisy, the Tories say they want to crack down on those who cause “harassment, alarm or distress” (what about the distress caused by scrapping the Independent Living Fund, for example?).

Anti-terror legislation has been used to ‘kettle’ and stop and search peaceful protesters. Increased surveillance and limits on activities they deem a “threat to the function of democracy”, could be used against any form of protest, including a mass movement against austerity.

The truth is that capitalist politicians and the big business interests they represent are not bothered about our best interests at all. The heroes of 7/7 are now facing not only cuts and privatisation, but are also having their trade union rights curtailed.

On the Underground, Tory Mayor Boris Johnson is shutting down ticket offices and culling station staff, which has huge safety implications. In 2005 the RMT protested about the lack of guards on trains – now tube bosses even propose driverless trains!

Ten fire stations have been shut in London and many more fire engines removed. A&Es all over the city are under threat. London bus drivers have had to strike to fight for decent pay and now tube workers are preparing for action on pay and night working. Profit comes before lives.

Divisive politics

In 2005 the Sun’s inflammatory editorial on 8 July said: “Britain is crawling with suspected terrorists and those who give them succour”. Ten years after 7/7, the “anti-Muslim drumbeat”, in the words of Guardian journalist Seamus Milne, is pounding even louder. David Cameron recently accused “too many” Muslims of “quietly condoning” an ideology that drives Isis, “normalising hatred of British values”.

This increases division and racism, and encourages Ukip and Nigel Farage – who spoke after the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris last year of “a fifth column within our countries”.

Racist attacks increased 600% after 7/7, with 269 hate crimes in London in just three weeks. The day after the attacks, the Muslim Council of Britain reported that 30,000 threatening emails had been received by Muslim organisations.

This rhetoric runs the risk of further alienating black, Asian and Arab youth, who already face increased prejudice and disproportionate levels of poverty and unemployment.

The tiny number of young people who do look to Isis as an apparent stand against western imperialism (an estimated 100 British people are fighting with Isis in Syria) could be fuelled.

The vast majority of Muslims abhor terrorism, and in fact the majority of victims globally are Muslim – in Iraq, Pakistan, Nigeria and elsewhere.

In 2005 the Socialist Party campaigned for the unity of all working class people in London. We called for demonstrations to oppose war, terrorism, racism and oppressive legislation.

An alternative

The only way to rid our world of the threat of terror attacks is to eradicate the conditions that breed them: poverty, war, oppression and exploitation.

As austerity rains down in Britain, as more people are driven into poverty while those at the top enrich themselves, and as the capitalist parties try to divide us against each other, the need for a mass movement against the government and its austerity and racism is greater than ever.

On 20 June the massive End Austerity Now demonstration took place just six weeks after the Tories’ election victory. This was a foretaste of the movement that can be built, not only to end austerity, but also to fight for a socialist alternative to poverty, war and terror the world over.