BUSH and Blair say that they are ‘fighting for democracy and freedom’ in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, the more they step up this fight, the more they attack and trample upon the basic liberties and democratic rights of the working class at home.

In fact, the imperialist powers are fighting for control of Iraq and the Arabian peninsula’s oil resources, and control over the oil and gas resources of central Asia. They are fighting for the freedom to loot and plunder.

This is why they have slaughtered hundreds of thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan with their criminal sanctions and their ‘shock and awe’ mass terror attacks.

Now however, they have found out, to their cost, that the Iraqi and Afghan people, far from bending the knee, are hitting their forces hard, to the point where even bourgeois voices are calling for withdrawal.

But they can’t withdraw. Imperialism being imperialism, it cannot just leave the most strategic oil and gas fields on the planet in the hands of others.

They must have them in their grip.

These wars and the mass killings are therefore set to intensify, until the imperialist powers are beaten both at home and abroad.

Because the imperialists are going to continue with their terror attacks, there will be more bombing attacks on the UK in retaliation.

Blair’s reaction to this fact is to try and convince the British people, who are having none of it, that the London bombings and any future attacks have nothing to do with his rape of Iraq and Afghanistan.

From this premise, Blair claims it is the responsibility of the Muslims to halt bombings in the UK, by defeating the evil ‘misinterpretation’ of Islam, which he says are responsible for them.

Finally, in order to make it more difficult for the terrorists to operate, basic democratic rights will have to become history.

Labour has just announced that new anti-terror offences will be made law by next summer, including making it illegal to indirectly incite terrorist acts by ‘glorifying’ bombings, or engage in ‘acts preparatory to terrorism’, Home Office Minister Hazel Blears said: ‘We want to make sure we can intervene early enough to disrupt people who are planning acts of terrorism and get convictions.’

The bill is expected in the autumn and the legislation could be on the statute books by next summer.

Labour ministers also say they will take notice if the police and security services want the measures sooner, or if they want further powers.

Britain is to be run by MI5, MI6, the special branch, the police commissioners and the army general staff, with no limit to the powers made available to them.

The new powers will mean the end of press and media freedom in Britain, where support for national liberation movements in Iraq and Afghanistan, and their struggle against the occupation, or merely publicising their victories, will be claimed to be ‘indirectly inciting terrorist acts’.

They will also mean a field day for agents provocateurs. They will be able to intervene at public and private meetings and discuss and propose actions, that will then be presented by the Home Secretary, when issuing ‘internment orders’, as ‘acts preparatory to terrorism’.

This is the bourgeois military police state in the making.

There is only one way to defeat it. That is to bring down the Blair government, and to bring in a workers’ government. This will withdraw all troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and repeal all the draconian anti-terror laws.

Such a government will build fraternal relations with the countries of Africa and Asia in place of the current master and slave relations.

Ending imperialist terrorism will speedily bring an end to all other forms of terrorism, misinterpretations of the Koran or even the Bible notwithstanding.

This is the way forward, to overthrow capitalism and imperialism and advance to world socialism.