Watching the Watchers

One of the things that troubles me about much of the British "left" (for want of a better term) is the emphasis put on the crimes of the US. No doubt these are very real, serious, worthy of attention and - given the power of the world's sole superpower - potentially a threat to our very survival. Nonetheless I think there is a danger that we ignore the very real crimes of our own government, something we have a greater ability to influence and therefore a greater moral culpability in. Many activists I know could recount an extensive list of US attrocities, but know little about the British repression of the Mau Mau in Kenya or the expulsion of the Chagossians.

Fortunately this problem is not complete and a site has been set up by activists concerned about this very problem. Entitled UK Watch it seem to follow the model of the massively succesful but US based Z-Net, from which I think it draws inspiration and with which it may have links. I was particularly interested to see that they had reprinted my article on potential strategies for ending the occupation of Iraq, which is very nice of them. They also have articles on a whole range of issues. In short, it looks pretty good. Go check it out.