25.05.1995

State tools

Gay police pose for the press

IT WILL come as no great surprise to our readers that the British Army has been accused of being “perverse and irrational” - such is the nature of British imperialism and militarism in general.

This accurate assessment of ‘our’ army follows the decision to sack three servicemen and one servicewoman on the grounds that they were homosexual - an obvious ‘disability’ when it comes to combat, it seems.

When those sacked attempted to take the army to the High Court, in order to rule the automatic bar “perverse and irrational” and in breach of European and domestic law, it was decreed that the High Court did not have the power to interfere with the ban on homosexuals from military service, as the matter should be left to those “who have both the military and political responsibility for the armed forces ... this is not an area into which the courts should venture”. Tony Blair took a similar line. In other words, the army is a law unto itself.

The army is indeed falling behind in the ‘PR game’. The police now has its own ‘Gay Section’, which was spotted at a police conference with its own banner. We can rest assured that its commitment to anti-homophobia will be as principled as its commitment to anti-racism - remember the ‘anti-racist’ murders of Joy Gardner and Brian Douglas?

This does demonstrate, however, that gay rights, like anti-racism, is being incorporated into mainstream bourgeois politics. And, like racism, discrimination against homosexuals is becoming officially ‘unrespectable’ too. The bigots of the army and judicial establishment are holding out against this trend.

Communists are the true enemies of all prejudice and oppression, which is pervasive under capitalism.

Our future Red Army will admit all to its ranks, regardless of sexual orientation, in the fight against our common oppressor.

Eddie Ford