New Labour’s Quest for “International Leadership”

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New Labour’s Quest for “International Leadership”

On World Poverty Day, last Sunday, there were strenuous attempts by New Labour to claim that it is only by electing a Labour government that major global issues could be tackled. New Labour held its own Make Poverty History rally, addressed by Tony Blair, while Gordon Brown decided to deliver a sermon on the subject in St John’s Church, Isleworth. Not to be left out, Hilary Benn, the Minister for International Development, made a statement in which he too claimed that New Labour were the only party that really cared about world poverty. On the same day Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, delivered a major speech on the link between poverty and war in Africa, wherein he reiterated the need for a global arms trade treaty. As if this were not enough, New Labour’s approach to world poverty also gained support from former US president Bill Clinton and South Africa’s Finance Minister, who apparently claimed that an electoral defeat for New Labour would be a “calamity” for the world’s poor.

            New Labour has made mention of what it calls “the global fight against poverty”, with particular reference to Africa, in its election manifesto and makes specific commitments to work for international agreements on climate change, the arms trade, and “fairer” international trade. It presents itself as striving for “international leadership” and a “stronger country in a secure, sustainable and just world”. But although New Labour’s leading politicians regularly shed crocodile tears about the fate of Africa and other parts of the world, what credence can be given to the pious statements of those like Gordon Brown, who professes concern for Africa while in Britain but during his visit to Africa last year brazenly declared that Britain needed to stop apologising for colonial rule?

            What credence can be given to Jack Straw’s and New Labour’s commitment to international arms control, when Britain under Labour is not only one of the biggest warmongers but also the world’s second biggest arms trader? Was it not a Labour government with an “ethical” foreign policy that illegally smuggled arms into Sierra Leone, breaching a UN embargo? It was also the New Labour government that encouraged Tanzania to purchase from the arms BAe Systems, Britain’s leading arms trading monopoly, a £28 million military air traffic control system it did not need and South Africa to enter into £3 billion arms deal involving BAe Systems, which led to a major corruption trial in that country.

            New Labour’s manifesto actually claims that the government “will always uphold the rule of international law”, but the evidence from the government’s criminal activity in Iraq, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia, as well as closer to home shows that it considers itself above the law and committed to flout it as a matter of policy.

            New Labour’s posturing on Africa, global poverty, arms control, climate and international trade are part of its attempts to take the high moral ground in international affairs, as a means to justify its continual interference and warmongering as the main ally of the US. It seeks leadership in the EU and internationally as part of its aim to make Britain “great” again and openly boasts of the key role Britain’s armed forces will play “in advancing our interests and values”. New Labour’s manifesto shows that it plans to step up its warmongering activity around the world, its quest for “international leadership” on behalf of the big monopolies and financial institutions.