Snouts and entrails. posted by Richard Seymour

Simona Touretta, the kidnapped Italian aid worker who was freed last week, has spoken out on the resistance to the occupation:

"I said it before the kidnapping and I repeat it today," she told Corriere della Sera newspaper in an interview published on Friday.

"You have to distinguish between terrorism and resistance. The guerrilla war is justified, but I am against the kidnapping of civilians."

Paul Bigley tells Socialist Worker :

“It is the actions of the family and those who have rallied to our support that give rise to that hope,” said Paul.

“The Foreign Office and Blair did nothing useful.

“While our efforts secured a call from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for Ken’s release, all Blair did was phone my brother in Liverpool and my mum.

“He has sent no communique to the hostage takers, nor has he made a direct intervention. Instead we have a total silence. Silence is a death warrant for Ken.”

...

"...I have called for the government to set a firm date for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq.

“The government says it will not negotiate with terrorists. But I’m not talking about negotiation. I’m talking about communication.”

The dignity and courage of Paul Bigley and his family shame Blair and his government. While New

Labour “fixers” scrabbled around this week desperately trying to avoid being held to account for the disaster of Iraq. Paul was spending every hour trying to secure his brother’s release.

He said, “It was utterly disgraceful that Peter Hain, a Labour minister, referred to Iraq as a ‘fringe issue’ as he tried to stop discussion on it.”

...

For Ken’s sake and for the sake of everyone in Iraq I ask you to make your feelings known to our government, to protest and to join the demonstration on 17 October.”

And Michael Berg, whose son Nick was executed in Iraq, told Socialist Worker that Blair can immediately withdraw all British troops from Iraq and join other nations in rejecting George Bush’s war on terror.

“Bush and Blair say the hostage taking means foreign troops should stay in Iraq. But it is that kind of thinking that has led to the loss of over 21,000 lives.

“The people of the Middle East want what we all want—sovereignty, self determination, freedom from abuse.”

He also has an article on the occupation in the same paper. There may not be much more of that now that the Dutch government have nicked his computer, so read closely.

The US is losing the war in Iraq "slowly but steadily" , and if we think we've seen some serious murder now, wait until after the elections.

Finally, someone asked me to comment on Respect's result in Hartlepool. A vote of 572 doesn't inspire me with thoughts of revolution, but there's no need to sit around giggling to yourself if you happen to be a pro-war Labour supporter. We still kicked your ass in Millwall. The Respect website have put a brave face on it , but I doubt there were any conga-lines formed behind the "nicest man in Hartlepool" John Bloom that night. On the other hand, there is one thing I would say for those concerned about making the left alternative to New Labour as powerful as possible. The Green vote was 255, approximately half that of Respect. This suggests that the Greens' strategy of refusing any electoral pact (and indulging in stupid vitriolic attacks on Respect) hasn't really paid off. Dr Caroline Lucas' chief justification for not forming a pact was that the Greens were doing very well, had experienced their best results in years and saw no reason to allow that trajectory to falter. Well, the answer is that the Greens have a different constituency to Respect even though there is some overlap. They can no longer hope to be the main party of the non-Labour left, but if they are interested in building an electoral challenge based on the anticapitalist and antiwar movements then the answer must be to combine the powers. Respect and the Greens ought to form an electoral pact. If nothing else, it'll piss the AWL off.