Solidarity with Manchester today: this was an act of repulsive barbarism against innocents, many of them children. I was set to see a gig in the Arena myself in under a month’s time – the thought makes me shudder.
As with the assassination of Jo Cox, there is a pressure to remain ‘above politics’ in respect for those lost, but this is to do them a grave injustice. NOTHING is above politics, and least of all an atrocity like this, which so clearly reflects the instability and crisis in the global situation, which has bred the most horrendous form of black reaction.
If this morning’s papers are anything to go by, the right will not hesitate to profit politically from this tragedy: like vultures feeding on the dead. This kind of vile cynicism reveals the champions of capitalism for what they are.
We cannot allow the blood of 22 Mancunians to feed the scourges of nationalism, xenophobia and jingoism – it would do an enormous disservice to a city distinguished by a fine tradition of internationalism and class struggle against cruelty and injustice.
Sympathy for the dead, no peace for the system!
by Joe Attard, KCL Marxists
