From: "Dick Withecombe" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> The rogue state By Jim Mortimer The US dumps Kyoto and prepares to abandon the ABM Treaty - who is the world's greatest rogue state? The rogue state http://www.poptel.org.uk/scgn/ By Jim Mortimer Much has been said in recent months about so-called 'rogue states'. It is a phrase that President Bush has made his own. Yet the real rogue state among the industrially developed powers is the US itself. It is the US President who wants to tear up the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty that for some 30 years has provided a framework between the great powers for a balance of control affecting the most destructive of weapons. President Bush wants instead to embark on a new weapons system. If the system works it would, for the immediate future, give the US an advantage which it could use to intimidate any other country that did not fall into line with US wishes. In the longer term it would encourage a new arms race. Last month in a letter to the Guardian, 17 general secretaries of British trade unions expressed alarm at George Bush's plans for a new anti-ballistic missile system. They included the general secretaries of the TGWU, GMB and UNISON. They pointed out Bush's proposal will not make the world a safer place, but that it would do immense damage to international treaties covering weapons of mass destruction. They also made the important point that, if implemented, it would undermine international confidence in treaties as a means of resolving problems, particularly if the US is to set them aside when it feels it is expedient to do so. The leading trade unionists who signed the letter concluded by stating that they considered it wholly inappropriate for the British government to support President Bush's initiative and they strongly urged it not to do so. Unfortunately, the evidence so far suggests that the British government is more inclined to give a sympathetic rather than a critical response to the US. It is also the United States that has rejected the Kyoto climate change treaty, despite the fact that the US is the world's worst polluter. There is no doubt about the real reason for President Bush's decision. He is serving the interests of the giant oil companies and other industrial multinational corporations responsible for the discharge of fumes and warming gases into the atmosphere. Profit comes before welfare. This is the pay-off for Bush's appointment as President. He was supported and pushed into power by US big business. It would be unfair to the US electorate to describe Bush's accession to the presidential office as the outcome of a democratic election. His principal opponent received more votes than he did, and the vital result in Florida was secured through a system that secured the exclusion of many black voters, that depended on family influence in high circles and on a judiciary biased in his favour. The qualification of the US as a rogue state is underlined also by its rejection in practice of the Charter of the United Nations. It initiated the bombing of Yugoslavia in defiance of the Charter. The preferred instrument of the US is NATO. It is the organisation through which it can more readily exert influence. Its proposal to extend the boundary of NATO to the frontier of Russia is a thoroughly dangerous move. It is all part of the grand design to ensure that capitalism and the domination of the private multinational corporations is maintained and strengthened. In the area of human behaviour, the US has also no claim to credit. It imprisons approximately two million of its own citizens, with a disproportionate number of Blacks and Hispanics as prisoners. It has a murder rate much higher than that of other developed countries and it has a repulsive culture of violence in which the 'right' to carry a gun is regarded as a hallmark of personal liberty. It maintains the death penalty. Significantly, in a recent ballot vote of nations the US lost its seat on the UN Committee of Human Rights. To recognise the reactionary reality of the ideology of President Bush and the group around him is not to condemn the entire people of the United States. There are many features of US history that are an inspiration, and some of its leaders made an immense contribution to social progress. The names of Jefferson, Lincoln and Franklin D Roosevelt are deservedly honoured. In the 1930s millions of US workers built new industrial unions despite the bitter and violent opposition of their employers. Today however, under President Bush, the US is not a country towards which a British government or people should look for leadership. NATO is not a substitute for the United Nations. CONTACT DETAILS SCGN PO Box 188 London SW1A 0SG [EMAIL PROTECTED] EDITORIAL BOARD Jim Mortimer (chair) Diane Abbott MP Tony Benn MP Jeremy Corbyn MP Anni Marjoram Bill Michie MP Pete Willsman Socialist Campaign Group News is published monthly by Campaign Group News Ltd. All articles reflect the views of individuals and not the Socialist Campaign Group unless otherwise stated. Socialist Campaign Group News welcomes letters and articles from readers. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
