http://www.marxist.com/Europe/london-terrorist-attack070705.htm

Terrorist atrocity in London

By Alan Woods



At approximately ten to nine this morning London was rocked by a series of explosions in underground trains. Blasts were reported at Aldgate East, Edgware Rd, Kings Cross, Liverpool Street, Moorgate and Russell Square tube stations. A bus was ripped apart at Tavistock Square and London’s transport network was paralysed. The capital was in a state of chaos. Scotland Yard declared the emergency a “major incident”. The Home Secretary Charles Clarke reported that the explosions had caused “terrible injuries”.

Eyewitnesses reported “multiple casualties” at Liverpool Street. One witness who had been in a train at the time of the explosions reported seeing bodies everywhere in the carriages and limbs lying on the floor. She said the carriage where an explosion happened was “black on the inside”. She saw people who appeared to have their clothes blown off, and she saw bodies lying inside the carriage.

There were many more stories of horror. Shocked passengers spoke of victims covered in blood. People were seen streaming out of one underground station covered with blood and soot. Passengers were evacuated from stations across the capital, many in shock and with their clothes ripped to shreds. Hospitals have said they are no longer accepting non-emergency cases. They report serious head injuries, loss of limbs and injuries caused by smoke inhalation.

Loyita Worley, who works for a City law firm, told the BBC she was on the underground train when an explosion took place in the next carriage, while it was in a tunnel. The 49-year-old said: “All the lights went out and the train came to an immediate halt. There was smoke everywhere and everyone was coughing and choking, but remained calm. We couldn’t open the doors.”

The entire system was shut down and major thoroughfares were blocked off by police and ambulance services. Police sealed off large areas around other underground and mainline rail stations. Firemen donned chemical protection suits before rushing into stations. Emergency services crews were attending wounded passengers outside Aldgate station, and there were reports of passengers covered in soot emerging from King’s Cross.

British Transport Police initially attributed the explosions to power surges but the electricity company later stated that nothing in the electricity supply could explain such a thing. The self-evident truth soon became clear: London was the target of a savage terrorist attack. It appears there were up to seven blasts. Officers were sent into the network to assist with rescue operations and were working at tunnel and platform level to help get people out. Travellers emerged from tunnels covered in blood. A British Transport police spokesman said that two trains remain stuck in tunnels. The effects of an explosion in a confined space, with flying shards of glass can only be imagined.

The first bomb on a bus exploded near Russell Square not long after several blasts were reported on London subways. A witness said the entire top deck of the bus was destroyed. A passenger said the bus was packed with people: “It was a massive explosion and there were papers and half a bus flying through the air,” she said. One caller to BBC Five said his friend had seen “the bus ripped open like a can of sardines and bodies everywhere”.

The causes of the incidents are so far unclear. But following the Madrid atrocity of last year, a link to the Middle East cannot be ruled out. As in Madrid, it was a well-planned coordinated attack. As in Madrid, no warning was issued. As in Madrid, the target was indiscriminate and calculated to kill and maim the maximum number of people. This has all the hallmarks of fanatics of the al-Oaeda type. Arab websites linked to al-Qaeda have apparently stated that the terrorist organization was behind the attacks. Though this has not yet been confirmed, it is entirely probable.

The explosions on the underground were timed to go off at a certain time, when a large number of ordinary working class people were travelling to work. This was then followed by an explosion on a bus. The bombings occurred one day after London was awarded the 2012 Olympics and the sense of collective shock was even greater as a result of the cruel contrast with the scenes of popular jubilation the day before. It also occurred as leaders of the Group of Eight rich nations met in Scotland. It seems probable that the attack has been planned to coincide with the latter.

The London attack is intended as a message. The content of this message is quite clear: you claim that the war on terror is being won, that the world is now a safer place, and the invasion of Iraq has succeeded, but all these claims are false. The identity of the terrorists is unknown, but whoever was responsible showed no mercy to the innocent victims of their actions. Such activities are utterly repugnant to anybody who defends the cause of socialism and the working class. This kind of action serves only to bolster the forces of reaction. There is absolutely no justification for it. It must be condemned outright.

Our condemnation of terrorist atrocities has nothing in common with the hypocritical condemnations of Bush and Blair. In his statement Tony Blair said: “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.” In the next breath he then reiterated his determination to “defeat terrorism”. These gentlemen shed no tears over the tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children slaughtered in Iraq as a result of their policies. That is also terrorism – terrorism on a far vaster and more inhuman scale. They have no moral right to condemn violence when they themselves are responsible for spreading wars and violence throughout the world in search of their own cynical agenda.

Horrific as they were, compared to the eleventh of September, the London attacks were on a relatively small scale. That was a spectacular attack that struck at the heart of the USA. But what was the end result? Only the strengthening of the most reactionary right wing elements of the ruling class, the strengthening of imperialism, the victory of George Bush, the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq. In cases of murder the lawyers ask the question: cui bono? – who benefits. The only people who benefit from terrorism are the worst enemies of the working class, democracy and socialism.

We condemn the methods of the terrorists not only because they slaughter innocent people. We condemn them because they play into the hands of imperialism and reaction. We condemn them because they provide all the excuses Bush and Blair need to continue their criminal policies. It is a present to those right wing elements who are trying to restrict civil rights. The police will be given new powers. The state will be strengthened. Public opinion will be softened up for new acts of repression and military aggression with the excuse of “fighting terrorism” that will, in turn, increase the risk of terrorist attacks.

This is horror without end. It is a disease that is spreading like a global pandemic from one country and continent to another. Nobody is safe. No country is secure. The speeches of the leaders to the effect that “we are going to win the war on terror” ring hollow in the face of this.

The picture is still very confused. The population is stricken by shock and grief. It is natural that people are shocked and horrified. But when the smoke from the explosions finally clears, and when minds clear, some hard questions will have to be asked. It was clearly only a matter of time before the terrorist madmen would attack London. By his actions Tony Blair has placed his people in the front line of this madness. The result was entirely predictable.

The latest atrocity may seem to demonstrate the efficacy of the methods of terrorism. A small group of fanatics with bombs can paralyse a great city. Yet in the last analysis, the terrorists cannot succeed. These insane and barbaric acts only serve the interests of imperialism. Terrorism and imperialism feed off each other. The barbarities of the one serve as the pretext for the barbarities of the other. And it is always the ordinary people who pay the price.

The mass media will now have a field day. Blair and Bush will use this atrocity to try to justify their policy in Iraq and at home. But when people begin to reflect calmly on these events they will draw very different conclusions. The war on terror has not been won. The invasion of Iraq has destabilized the whole Middle East and made many new recruits for terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda. And the world is a far more dangerous place than it was before the invasion of Iraq.

London, 7 July.



See also: In Defence of Marxism - http://www.marxist.com

Madrid atrocities: Who is responsible? by Alan Woods (March 12, 2004)

Terrorist Atrocity in Madrid By Alan Woods (March 11, 2004)

The bombings in Istanbul - The reactionary face of terrorism - Editorial statement (November, 21, 2003)

September 11 - two years on By Alan Woods (September 11, 2003)

US Suicide Bombing - Terrorism Aids Reaction By Ted Grant and Alan Woods (September,11, 2001)

Why Marxists oppose Individual Terrorism by Leon Trotsky (1909)

The only people who benefit from terrorism are the worst enemies of the working class, democracy and socialism."

[gag]

This is beginning to sound like the strategy of tention so often employed by the jackels of the CIA. Because the worst enemies of the RULING CLASS are democracy and socialism.

And... doesn't London have nearly the same level of security that Israel has after the many IRA bombings? And don't terrorists ( the genuine type ) usually claim responsibility in order to further their goals and spotlight their grievances?

Cui Bono indeed. Do we now, here in the U.S. have a season of CIA terror to look forward to? It apparently seems so.

Jesus Christ I LOVE this stuff!!!!!

Unbelievable! Already sheep is weaving one of his schizophrenic conspiracy theories.

The old "they bombed themselves" yarn.

Man, the comic insanity just keeps getting richer and richer around here.

Sure must suck to be sheep.

By the way, london's security is NOWHERE near the level of Israel's. Nowhere.

Please don't call me names... I'm sensitive. It's the one thing I can't stand.

Now I shall again go into a dark corner and weep, broken and sick at heart, cursing the day I was born.

...called you a name.

Merely observing your mental condition is NOT calling you a name.

You need to try and read and comprehend at a higher level.

That is unless the CIA gets ya first.

Who could feel unappreciated when I have such a dedicated little puppy like fresca following me around all the time. Please use the newspaper next time, you rascal.

Calm down, Fresca, baby or the doctor will give you another dosage increase in your medication.

This is a little off the subject, but today's Drudge Report had an AP story entitled "London Olympic Jubilation Turns to Horror." Now, apparantly thousands of people of all kinds of ethnic and racial backgrounds, ages, and so forth were either injured or had the daylights scared out of them by this tragedy. But who gets pictured in the AP photo? A beautiful, blond, white young woman. Purely coincidental, of course. It had nothing to do with any ideas of Aryan supremecy or assumptions that newspaper buyers would be more interested in a photo of that type. Nah.

Meyer, are you really that fucking paranoid or are you simply a simple minded fool?

Face it, you're savage heroes of islam have struck again. Already sheep is concocting another flat earth scenario and here you are with some nonsense about aryan pride in the media.

Besides, you being a Jew Hating nazi, you'd think you'd like that.

I come here for one reason...to have an avenue of communication, however small, to the wretchedly insane and delusioned of the paranoid far left.

As long as you continue to provide such predictably glorious material for me to feast on, I will follow you and the likes of meyer, kpc and a few others anywhere.

Consider yourself blessed.

A guy eating from a bag of cheetos and wearing a t-shirt with the message Throw the Mexicans Out would never sell any papers.

And the attacks come the day after Karl Rove is exposed as the Republinmazi traitor that handed V. Plame's name to America's enemies. And the attacks knock the Bush regime's latest treason off the news.

What a coincidence!

schizophrenic conspiracy theories

savage heroes of islam have struck again

predictably glorious material

.

Fresca provides self-neutralizing statements

...I knew that da dancing shitpile would be dancing on the still warm corpses...

..you are one sick pussy, shitpile. If one thing gives credence to the Dog, it is you anxiously smacking spittle from you lying lips as relect on the current bloodshed and future carnage you anticipate ...

Question for ya...see if you can follow:

Are you so fuckin' ball challenged because your are a woman, or because you are a mere pussy of a man without a hair on your ass?

...oh, that and why do you continue to deny that you admitted to being a racist? Is it related to being ball/asshair challenged?

I believe it was your hero sheep who was the first to jump all over the story of the bombings and claim that it was another nefarious false flag operation or some such nonsense.

I simply called him on his obvious schizophrenia.

If you want to call it sick, be my guest.

And as for admitting that I'm a racist, I have on numerous occassions admitted that, by your definition, I am, as you've claimed yourself to be, a racist.

There you go.

We're on the same side I guess.

"And the attacks come the day after Karl Rove is exposed as the Republinmazi traitor that handed V. Plame's name to America's enemies. And the attacks knock the Bush regime's latest treason off the news.

What a coincidence! "

Well considering that these koranimals strike somewhere on the globe pretty much everyday, those guys should have cover for quite some time.

...I never claimed to be a racist, you lying....what is it..."buddy"..."bitch"...does it start with a "c"...?

...what is 'it', ....."actually"...?

...well, shipile...do you "follow"?

Of course you did.

You fell into your own childish trap when you tried to define me as one and then clumsily fell into all on your own.

Worse than a racist (which is just tired and so "who cares") you're an idiot and now a whiner.

You fucking self admitted racist.

...oooh...gotcher admitted racist "panties" in a bunch there, huh?

Yeah, yeah...I'm a "racist" because I hate republican and your a racist because you actually hate races....we all know that you can DANCE shitpile...

...so, balls or no...which is it...or don't you "follow"?

I ain't gonna be no 'hero' without taking as many weasels out with me as I can.

Bring it on.

...oh, dog, MY HEREO... can you send me another photo...the other got all frayed and sticky....



...da shitpile's in rare form today...I guess da pussy is in full bloom!

"admitted racist "panties" in a bunch"

when you squeeze her for questions she squeals

- no hair at all

The leftist European Press was caught by surprise on this one.

So far the Guardian and other left-wing liberal rags are just reporting the news.

They're working late tonight -- scratching their heads-- trying to figure out how they can pin this on America.

sorry Ned - I know she's your wife

Hey - what happened to Chris "the professional network engineer's" new website conservativeundergound.com ?

I thought my "thinly-veiled threat was laughable" - that the worst thing I could do to CU was post my opinions ?

hahahahahahaaaa

"Experts" who took a few classes are a dime a dozen - you really have no idea who/where I am or what I can do

Starting to find out though huh ?

socialists are ohhsoo opportunistic(even morbidly) and backwards and treacherous and..you know the rest.

LINK: http://angrygwn.mu.nu/archives/100466.php

From sheeps kneejerk concoction of another delusional CIA conspiracy theory to kpc still trying desperately to take back his admission of racism, it's pathetic how there's just no mention or discourse about the scumbags who actually built and dentonate dthe bombs.

It's amazing how the islamic animals get a full ride free pass from the left no matter who they blow up.

Damndest thing.

to back up your automagic ASSumsion it must be the boogie man

no ?

Most of the socialist I know thought that US support for Israeli actions, no matter how criminal and bloody, helped to bring on terrorist attacks on the US or on US citizens abroad and thought that an unprovoked invasion of Iraq by the US and the UK would bring more terrorist attacks. Hardly sounds like paranoia to me - it sounds more like realism.

And that would not only account for ALL of the other islamic atrocities around the world (Indonesia, Sudan, Russia, India) but is somehow justified because why?

Most of the socialist you know, would seem to be opportunistic fools who are defending the actions of these savges in order to continue their favorite game of "let's hate America and Israel".

The very fact that the left has never once even come near discussing the violence of militant islam let alone condemn it is VERY telling and VERY transparent.

The 9/11 attacks, the train explosions in Madrid, and the bombings in London had nothing to do with conflicts in Russia or India. Even a fool like you knows that. They also had nothing to do with Islam being essentially more violent than most other major religions. After all, the two bloodiest conflicts in history -World War I and World War II - were fought primarily by people who considered themselves Christians.

What I did say, and say quite clearly, was that socialists believed that US support for bloody Israeli actions would result in more terrorist attacks upon the US and upon US citizens abroad, and that the unprovoked invasion and occupation of Iraq would bring more terrorist attacks on the nations which participated in the invasion or the occupation. Duh! Even you should be able to understand that. Paranoia? I don't think so. And listen fool, I did not justify terrorist attacks on civilians, I merely stated the obvious - that the actions of people like Bush and Blair would bring more of these attacks.

By the way, since you are so morally outraged by terrorism, why don't you write to the Israeli government and tell them to stop glorifying terrorist thugs like Begin and Shamir as heroes?

da dancing shitpile - admitted racist: "...no mention or discourse about the scumbags who actually built and dentonate the bombs."

There is no shortage in the world of scumbags who will actually build and detonate bombs, but I think the mention and discourse you are looking for would be aimed at a paticular race...

...or "culture" if you want to split "hairs"...

...if you've got 'em to split...

Hey Meyer, there's probably lots of collectivists that support the Bush approach to terrorism, and lots of capitalists that don't, so what.

When the SWP party in Britain issues a statement like that, within 3 HOURS of the bombings, what other word is there besides opportunism? The tooobs were still clogged, bodies and parts all over,etc....?

they even cancelled their glorious Marxist day, fuck them.

I don't know of any people who refer to themselves as collectivists, so I can't tell you if they support Bush. What do they collect, stamps? Maybe they are those guys who list themselves in the phone book as Adolf Hitler or Adolpho Hitler.

Since Marxists had already said before the London attacks that the war was bringing on terrorist attacks, it is a bit difficult to see what is opportunistic about saying so after the explosions took place. What should they have said, "we support Bush and Blair"?

I support putting Bush and Blair on trial for war crimes.

if you take bush and blair as war criminals then you might as well take every leader(sic) of the western world, like schroeder, chirac, martin, fox, and some of the eastern countries leachers, theyre guilty of even worse!!

How many times can a country wave the white flag ?

on the radio, michael nedved says the spanish guy zapatero is directly responsible, because he pulled his troops out of iraq. good point.

Bush and Blair invaded Iraq; they are responsible for deceit about the alleged wmds and for the war crimes, including probably hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths. The Spanish leader is guilty of nothing but doing what his people wanted him to do; this is called democracy. People were condemned at the Nurenberg trials for doing some of the things that the B Boys have done. They should be on trial as well - especially Bush.

Bush and Blair have demonstrated great leadership traits since 9/11. Both of them have risen to the challenge and done the right thing.

It could have been better if Maggie Thatcher and Ronald Reagan were still in power. They would have taken no prisoners.

Meyer London should be incarcerated in Guantanamo with the other America haters.

yeah - the "just in time to save my ass" trait - isn't that great ?

Talk about distortion of reality! Geez Hex, you're the worst.

Bush and Blair are both outstanding leaders.

When you compare them with other heads of state they stand far far above. Consider names like Castro, Chirac, Shroeder, Mugabe, Clinton (our worst ever failure of a slimeball President), and Chavez the guy who is single handedly ruining Venezuela.