Movement for a Socialist Future

In the wake of the terror attacks on U.S. targets, New Labour is preparing a raft of measures that amount to an unprecedented attack on the civil liberties of everyone in Britain. Dylan Eydal reports.

MEASURES TO BE introduced by the government will include undemocratic, unaccountable and repressive powers allowing police, the security forces and other government agencies to monitor the activities of anyone they choose.

David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, claims that the emergency legislation introducing “anti-terrorism” measures is made necessary by the terror attacks on America. But a closer analysis shows that they amount to a wish-list from reactionary forces. The new laws will target asylum seekers, ethnic minorities, anyone showing the slightest dissent to the Bush-Blair world view and those supporting the growing anti-globalisation movement.

There is also a reactionary plan to make verbal attacks on specific religions a crime. It will lump together particular religions with particular ethnic groups – racial stereotyping of the worst kind. Those who criticise religion from a humanist or atheist standpoint could also fall foul of the law.

The proposed new legislation, supported so enthusiastically at the New Labour conference, would include such measures as the introduction of compulsory ID cards, the tracking and freezing of bank accounts and the increased tapping of e-mail communications and telephone conversations.

The repressive nature of what is proposed is clear from an examination of each of the proposals.

ID Cards

The introduction of compulsory ID cards is advocated by Blunkett as part of the Bush-Blair “war against terrorism”. He says that the card will “entitle rather than restrict”. However, the reality is that the card will be used as a tool of repression against the most vulnerable sections of society.

Eminent civil rights lawyer Tim Owen of the Matrix Chambers has said that there is much evidence from EU countries which have ID cards that the police disproportionately target citizens from ethnic minorities. In the current climate there is no doubt that the Islamic community in particular would be targeted.

As well as a means of encouraging an institutionally racist police force to target ethnic and religious minorities, the ID card system could be extended to contain all types of personal information not connected in any way to terrorism.

One member of the government has already said that “if you go to hospital they will ask you for your identity card. If you go to school they will ask you for your identity card. If you claim benefits they will ask you for your identity card”.

Modern technology is so advanced that it would be possible for the magnetic strip on these cards to be programmed to monitor the exact location of anyone holding a card much in the same way as satellite technology can determine within a few yards the position of anyone using a mobile phone by using the SIM card as a reference point.

Bill Morris, the leader of the Transport and General Workers Union, has said that the present atmosphere will lead to draconian curbs on asylum seekers and the use of ID cards to target innocent people. Even the right-wing Police Federation of England and Wales has said that “the benefits are unclear, the practical obstacles daunting... and the threat to privacy and community relations all too apparent”.

Rights of refugees and asylum seekers

Another of the insidious measures which the New Labour government wants to railroad through on the back of the terror attacks is to place severe restrictions on the rights of asylum seekers fleeing persecution who wish to apply for UK residence.

Blunkett has made it quite clear that the government will exclude what it calls “suspected terrorists” from any rights of asylum. The definition of “terrorists” is to be based entirely on information provided by British security services and there will be no rights of appeal or judicial review over Home Office judgements as to who is a suspected terrorist.

The new measures will include immediate extradition without the right of appeal. Blunkett has gone even further by warning human rights lawyers and judges not to stand in the way of the proposed legislation. In a blatant attack on what he sees as a “liberal” legal system he said: “It is justice we seek, not the primacy of jurisprudence.”

The entirely subjective nature of this system will give powers to the government to exclude anyone they wish from rights of asylum without being answerable to anyone for their actions. No-one will have a right of appeal or even a right to be told why they are being excluded other than that the decision is on “security grounds”.

Tracking bank accounts

The G7 group of leading industrial nations plus Russia is about to meet to approve what is called a “global crackdown on the financing of terrorist groups”. They have an agenda which includes powers to track and freeze bank accounts of suspected terrorists without the need for hard evidence of a link between the account holder and a terrorist organisation.

The proposals include powers to introduce laws to allow the freezing of funds when there is a “suspicion” that they are used for terrorism and monitoring of accounts without proof of a link to terrorism. Again, the evidence of a terrorist link will be entirely on the basis of evidence produced by the national security forces.

Monitoring e-mail and telephone calls

Most people believe that e-mail messages sent from their PC, telephone calls and faxes are secure and not subject to bugging. They should think again, particularly after the new security measures being introduced after the events of September 11.

A sinister US-based organisation called Echelon is considered to be the most powerful intelligence gathering organisation in the world. It has close links to America’s National Security Agency who in turn have close links to Britain’s GCHQ.

The NSA’s biggest base for electronic spying is at Menwith Hill on the Yorkshire Moors where 25 giant golf ball like structures are tuned in to intercept all types of electronic communications.

In a chilling message on the Echelon web-site the organisation issued the following message: “We at Echelon are deeply saddened by the terrible events of September 11…history shows that times of national crisis are often accompanied by enormous pressure to expand surveillance. We expect that in the coming months the redoubled effort to prevent terrorism will lead to an expansion of Echelon and the related communications surveillance systems… This is why Congress and the democratic institutions of other nations must take their oversight responsibilities more seriously.”

All of the proposed measures are based on the Bush doctrine that “you are either for us or against us”. The Blair and Bush governments are using the terror attacks as an excuse for the most severe restrictions on civil liberties ever carried out with no place for dissent of any kind.