Missile Defence: a multi-billion-dollar boondoggle ple of how this system can class parties denied. work is helpful. In 12 small George Bush's first days in states where Bush won, he the White House have gone received a total of 73 elec- beyond the usual "honeytoral votes. In the single moon" period accorded all state of California, where new presidents. He has Gore received more popular courted leading Democrats, votes than ine combined who in return have signed total of Bush in these up to his early proposals, states, Gore received an including a further gutting Electoral College vote of 54. of funds to public education.
Kut it is just the Federal Reserve Chair undemocratic Electoral Alan Greenspan, the guru of College, or even racist and the staggered U.S. economy, corrupt voting practices that gave Bush the go-ahead for a marks U.S. "democracy" as a massive tax cut for the rich. fraud. in the Greenspan, in his natonally United States are the prop- televised speech last week, erty of the ruling rich, whose broke new ground in advorepresenlalives OWIl and cating the very policies that control literally every key Bush's Republicans are planinstitution of the capitalist ning. state. Some 90 percent of the soFrom the expenditure of called tax cut planned is earbillions of corporate dollars marked for the ruling rich, to promote their candidates. while working people will to the direct ownership receive little or nothing. the vast proportion of the Citing the Suale of media. lo reacuonary laws California's just revealed that ban working-class energy crisis, Bush opposition parties from the announced plans to "end ballot. U.S. elections are a America's dependency on charade played out among ferisanion" bo inegdu ing the élites who vie among one legislation begin another for power to better exploration in the now propromote their corporate tected Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Bush's new interests at the expense of the vast majority. environmental chief won In truth, working people her spurs as a lobbyist for have no say within the elec- the lead industry! toral system in regard to the Thus the Bush team plans critical decisions that affect to do in public view what the our lives. The great mass of Clinton LOd I did without VOTeN are relegated to the hoopla and fanfare. choice between their oppres- Clinton cut more social sors and exploiters. serices ana engineered Any and significant more corporate welfare than social and political change the combined presidencies has always been a product of of Nixon, Reagan and mass movements George Bush Senior. rooted in the daily struggles The new president, like of working people who chal- Clinton before him, is far lenge the status quo. from a rogue individual with From the winning of the a conservative agenda. He is franchise by the general pop- the U.S. ruling class answer ulation (it Was originally o inctesine canitaiı com. restricted to white, male petition and delining U.S. oTODCILV oners), to the corporate rates. TiCA OT niOne to oroanice The transparency of Bush's and bargain collectively, to agenda and the expected the gains of the mass civil support of his Democratic rights movement including Party "critics" may well the ending of legal segrega- result in a renewed fighttion, to the stopping of the back by today's workers and murderous Vietnam War, allies in U.S. society: working people broke with The mass national protests the policies of the ruling- on January 20, Bush's inauclass parties and took to the guration day, brought tens of streets to win practice thousands into the streets. what the law and the ruling- The battle has begun. USA under Bush Veronica Fagan You wouldn't expect the Yorkshire Evening Post to be overly concerned with the outcome of the US Presidential Election.
However the most significant international message to come out of the new American administranon since the election of George W Bush is that the National Missile Defence system -dubbed "son of Star Wars" after Reagan's failed 80's project - will go full steam ahead. This is despite its estimated cóst of $60billion. and the fact that two of the first three tests of the system failed.
This has huge implications for Yorkshire in particular, given the likelibood that US bases at Menwith Hill near Harrogate and Fylingdales on the North •Yorkshire moors will be an integral part of the system. hat is why the paper ran a major article by Helen Hutchinson on February 2 headlined " Son of Star Wars puts Yorkshire in the front line" which focuses on the likely role of Menwith. Hutchinson points out that the base, which hides some of the most powerful spying devices on the planet, capable of listening in on millions of conversations by phone, fax or e-mail worldwide, would be a prime target in a new nuclear arms lalc. No weapons are stored at Menwith, but it is linked to a new a new generation of satellites in deep space through receiving aerials known as racomed These satellites are powerful enough to detect the heat of a missile launched 25,000 miles away. through a mechanism known as a Space Based Infra-Red System (SBRIS). This is expected to come on line at Menwith by 2003, and would be a clear breach of the 1972 AntiBallistic Missiles Treaty (ABM) signed with the DARN. HOPEFULY WELL NEVER FE АПАСКЕР RY А BARN. Soviet Union.
Professor Paul Rogers of Bradford's Peace Studies Department commented: "As soon as the decision is given to go ahead with NMD then it becomes part of the process which breaks the treaty.... One of the first targets to be hit will be Men-with Hill and Fylingdales.".
Hutchinson also points out • that Blair's New Labour government, who have made in clear that they will do everything to maintain Britain's "special relationship" with the USA, despite the defeat of their great buddy Bill Clinton, is refusing to discuss US plans in any detail.
M ore than 40 MPs have signed an early day motion opposing NMD, but there has been no Parlamentary debate. Blair says that until the Americans make a formal request to use bases in Britain there will be no comment.
So important is the National Missile Defence Project to the Bush team that the first international trip since inauguration was the visit of new Defence Secretary Rumsfeld to Munich on February 3 to a European Defence conference to meet withEuropean and Russian politicians to attempt to get them on side. Peace campaigners made their opposition to the project strongly felt.
German Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping has indicated that he is opposed to any breach of the ABM -though Chancellor Schroder has been more circumspect. French President, Jacques Chirac, has been one of the most outspoken critics of the American plans, commenting at a Turin press conference on January 30 "In our opinion NMD cannot fail to relaunch the arms race. The costs of this technology are colossal. It seems to us there is something contradictory between unrestrained increases in defence spending and the very excessive reduction on development aid throughout the world."
US Secretary of State Colin Powell made clear, in his first comprehensive TV interview on February 4, that if going ahead with the programme meant America leaving the ABM treaty, then this was a price they were definitely prepared to pay.
Both Vadimir Putin and Secretary of the Russian Security Council Segei Ivanov, have made it plain that they are extremely unhappy about this prospect. They argue that they would have no choice but to respond by beefing up their own armoury in Icsoulsc.
Putin, in a statement on January 27 commented that a National Missile Defence shield would do "irreparable damage to the architecture of international relations". Ivanov, speaking at the Munich conference, argued that "destruction of the ABM Treaty will... create prerequisites for a new arms race, including one in outer space".
Hostility to the US plans is also strong In China, while India has used the developments to carry out a test on January 17 of what it claims is• an improved version of its Agni Two missile.
This is an intermediate ballistic missile capable of reaching all of Pakistan and much of China. Given the fact that Pakistan also has nuclear capability and carried out its own tests in retaliation to the preOutlook vious Indian salvo, the situation in the sub-continent also looks precarious.
Of course this proHanunc was Illtated under Clinton. His supporters on both sides of the Atlantic are now trying to claim that he was a reluctant convert, but the reality is that this is one more area where bi-partisanship in US politics is clear. The differences are around lacucs ana tempo, nol the enormous waste of human life and resources that this project represents.
The political justification used by both the former President and his successor is the supposed "threat" from so-called rogue states such as North Korea, Libya and Iraq and Iran.
But as commentators have pointed out, relations with North Korea, for example have improved over the last year. More importantly the whole notion of "rogue" states is itself a construction of US imperialism to justify whatever mechanisms they see as in their interests -either at an economic or political level (of course combining the two is even more preferable.)
Campaigners for nuclear disarmament across the globe are clear that opposition to NMD is their first priority. That is why an international conference, hosted by Yorkshire CND, is being held in Leeds on May 4-6 to focus on this real threat to all our security posed by the warmongering of American imperialism.
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