The Blood Never Dried: A People's History of the British Empire

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Revolutionary Kenyans used their employment positions – as cleaners, waiters, servants, desk clerks – to gather sensitive information on the colonial regime. Through coded language (which is collated in a table by Durrani) this was then disseminated around the country. This is a tactic that has been used around the world by anti-imperialists, including, as the author points out, in revolutionary Cuba and Vietnam. Durrani advises us there is much to be explored in these connections, but falls short of doing it himself. While this is a text intended more to be a reference guide for the student or teacher of this historical period, one can’t help but wish that Durrani would have further drawn out these threads rather than teasing us with suggestions. Written largely as a response to the revisionists and apologists for empires whose writings attempted to sanitize the invasion of Iraq, the book remains essential reading, particularly so in this year of Jubilympics. Iran: Although only part of Britain’s informal empire, there was a clear understanding that whatever else might be going on, Iranian governments were expected to allow the British controlled AIOC, today’s BP, to exploit the country’s rsources without interference. Iran’s oil was there for the benefit of the British Empire, not for the benefit of Iran.

One other confusing thing for me is can you have an unwritten constitution? You ether have one which by definition must be written down to be of any use, or you don’t. The UK has no constitution just a series of precedents that are drawn on to (supposedly) help consistency and fairness. The process of running two-parliaments-in-one sort of, half-worked, so why not reprise it for the successor to the European Parliament? What could go wrong with running a parliament-by-decree over a devolved state inside the British/English hybrid parliament? English Minsters using decrees to make pan-UK decisions whilst wearing the UK ministerial hats over the heads of their devolved colleagues won’t be stable. How nationalism has changed since then Newsinger rejects this. He complains ‘if only the rebels had waited’ (p102) and although he concedes that ‘Lenin provided the starting point for any analysis of the Easter Rising’, he adds that ‘he [Lenin] lamented the fact “that they rose prematurely, when the European revolt of the proletariat had not yet matured”’ (p102) without referring to Lenin’s subsequent comments. Elsewhere Newsinger has described the Rising as ‘a classic instance of a putsch’ which Connolly should have opposed (Newsinger, Rebel City – Larkin, Connolly and the Dublin Labour Movement). He also refers to a report the Labour Party issued in January 1921 that in his view: Insane mothers began to eat their young who died of famine before them; and still fleets of ships were sailing with every tide, carrying Irish cattle and corn to England.’ Charles Gorden eventually succeeded to command of the force and became a popular hero in Britain where he was celebrated as ‘Chinese Gordon.’ In his account of the Taipings, Lindley described how Gordon captured the town of Taitsan in May 1863 and promptly handed it over to the Manchus, who proceeded to massacre the population.What about the use of torture? As French points out, there were “no manuals detailing how these techniques should be employed. They were taught at the Intelligence Corps training centre by word of mouth.” He quotes one former soldier remembering his 1949 Intelligence Corps training: “The tortures that were described to us had the advantage of leaving none of the visible traces that might be noticed …beating the prisoner after his body had been wrapped in a wet blanket, filling his body with water, and holding him against a hot stove.” 10 Of course, recognizing the realities of British counterinsurgency does not necessarily lead to anti-imperialist conclusions; it can lead to the “realist” conclusion that if that is how an empire has to be ruled then so be it. But this is not something that most people are prepared to countenance, which is why so much effort is put into hiding the evidence and denying the truth.

Lenin was very precise about what was required of anti-imperialists, arguing that the ‘fight against imperialism is a sham and humbug unless it is inseparably bound up with the fight against opportunism’. In other words, such Labour members would have to break with and fight openly against the imperialist and racist party to which they belong. Instead, the anti-American standpoint Newsinger sets out continues to tie the working class to the middle class and bourgeoisie, and hence to the Labour Party: it is a defence of opportunism. India: Protesters decided to proceed with an anti-Rowlatt rally on the afternoon of 13 April at the Jalianwalla Bagh, an enclosed space. The meeting was banned but they decided to defy it. General Reginald Dwyer decided to make an example of them. He marched a detachment of Gurkhas to the rally any without any warning opened fire on 20 to 25 thousand people peacefully listening to speeches. The troops continued firing for over ten minutes. By the time they finished the bodies were piled ten to 12 deep around the exits. Elsewhere in Punjab there was ‘violent brutal repression’ with shootings and floggings, villages bombed from the air and the imposition of collective punishments. The rebel leader Nazir Khan was hanged. He was surrounded by “soldiers who were stuffing him with pork . . . well flogged and his person exposed, which he fought against manfully. He died game . . . One of the most remarkable sights I ever in my life beheld: no less than 20 men all hanging naked on one tree . . . A number of women killed while clinging to and trying to hide their delinquent husbands. Other women died when they refused to leave a house that was set on fire.” Written constitutions can be easily consulted and appealed to. They’re also difficult to tamper with. They set clear limits on the powers of the respective offices of government. However, they can also be difficult to amend. They can enshrine inequalities in their language and/or the cultural presuppositions on which their articles depend.ISIS is the progeny of those in Washington, London and Paris who, in conspiring to destroy Iraq, Syria and Libya, committed an epic crime against humanity. Like Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, ISIS are the mutations of a western state terror dispensed by a venal imperial elite undeterred by the consequences of actions taken at great remove in distance and culture. Their culpability is unmentionable in "our" societies, making accomplices of those who suppress this critical truth. Newsinger is a member of the Socialist Workers Party, [3] speaking at their Marxism Festival in 2014 [4] and participated in meetings for the Socialist Alliance. [5] Education [ edit ] The British proceeded to pour reinforcements into Surabaya. Against ferocious opposition, British and Indian troops fought their way into the city. They were assisted by a tremendous artillery and naval bombardment that devastated large areas and killed many civilians. Two cruisers and three destroyers shelled the city. Bodies of men, horses, cats and dogs, lay in the gutter. The routine brutality of colonial rule is brought out in David Smiley’s account of his experiences as a young officer in Palestine: ‘The first man was seized by two Arab policemen and held upside down while his feet were placed between a rifle and its sling. He was then kept in this position while policemen took it in turns to beat the soles of his feet with a leather belt. The second man talked after the the application of a lighted cigarette to his testicles, but the third seemed to be the leader and was more truculent. In a flash the Arab segeant flew at him and hit him in the face until both his eyes were closed, blood flowing, and a number of teeth were spewed out onto the floor.’