Tony Benn, one of the UK’s foremost radical leftist politicians, president of Stop the War Coalition, long-time supporter of Kurdish rights, sadly passed on today. Here we recall his words on the Terrorism Act 2001, which criminalises the entire Kurdish community and many others as ‘terrorist’, when it was first introduced:
“Until we can get the act defeated we are all going to live under its shadow”
Tony BennOne of the last things I did before I left Parliament to devote more time to politics was to vote against the Terrorism Bill. It was introduced, after 24 hours, without any real discussion … I might add this was just after the Americans had bombed Sudan allegedly in an anti-terrorist act described as a humanitarian mission by the United States … What you have to recognise is that imperialism always dresses itself up in the language of humanitarianism, always. Any one who remembers as I do what Britain was like when the Empire was there, it was our mission to the world, the sun never set on the British Empire, it was the white man civilising the world.
Continue reading “Rest in peace and power, Tony Benn (1925-2014)”
