27.11.1997

Making solidarity illegal

Britain has long acted as a magnet for political exiles of all kinds. Karl Marx, to name the most famous, was one of these revolutionary refugees who fled to London. VI Lenin and Leon Trotsky also took sanctuary in the capital, albeit briefly. During their stay, all of them engaged in ceaseless revolutionary activity - including fundraising.

Following the grim massacre last week of tourists in the Egyptian town of Luxor by Islamic militants, Jack Straw signalled his determination to table an ‘anti-terrorism’ bill next year. This bill would make it a criminal offence to conspire to commit terrorist acts abroad and to raise money for political movements which use violence.

If Straw’s bill became law it would see the bourgeois state accrue more anti-democratic powers and give it carte blanche - if it so wished - to harass and intimidate ‘foreign’ political organisations, and all those who support them. London is a - if not the - major international centre for political fundraising. It is also no secret that many of the ‘charities’ which operate in Britain act as financial conduits to what the bourgeois state defines as ‘terrorist’ organisations.

Thus, for example, Israel has long been putting pressure on the British government to crack down on muslim charities. It has claimed that Interpal, a Leicester-based charity which raises funds for development work in the West Bank and Gaza, provides £7 million each year for Hamas. Last year Interpal had its accounts frozen by the Charity Commission, after charges were made that its money was being spent on ‘improper’ causes. The commission eventually cleared Interpal of such allegations. Meanwhile, of course, the US government and the very powerful - and rich - Zionist lobbies throughout the world are perfectly at liberty to bankroll the Israel state’s continuous terror campaign.

Political communities which would be particularly hit by such an ‘anti-terror’ bill would be Tamils, Kashmiris, Sikhs, a whole swathe of islamic/Arab/Palestinian groups, Turks and Kurds. London is awash with revolutionary Turkish groups, which raise large amounts of money for their respective movements.

Previously, Irish groups raising funds for Sinn Fein and other republican organisations could also have been victims of an ‘anti-terror’ bill. However, now that Sinn Fein/IRA is becoming respectable - and if the ‘peace process’ goes to plan - the bourgeois state will in all probability leave them to get on with it. The ANC, as Jack Straw readily admitted, would also have fallen foul of such a bill.

Communists oppose all statemeasures tosuppress or inhibit the building of independent political organisations. Any state clampdown on reactionary organisations like Hamas would have profoundly negative ramifications for the whole working class.

Paul Greenaway