A Letter to Max

The problem is that the Fascists are relentless once they gain a foothold and they build on the developing euroscepticism which is running throughout established parties and in the UK has been running deep in the equivocal support the mainstream British parties have given to the European (Peace) project. One would have thought they would have learned their lesson by now. I can tell you that there is no appetite among the rising generation of NZers or Aussies to come come back to fight in Europe yet again if it all falls apart and that we, their parents and grandparents will not send them. NZers refused to send young men and women to Iraq to fight in that Imperialist war and will not do it again, lightly.

The political classes in Europe have made two critical errors - they have stopped explaining to the rising generations why they created the European Union (for peace in Europe) and have left the impression it was all just about free markets, which are now failing badly. Instead they created a complex system to keep the economic and social peace; so complex it is difficult to explain in translation from the official languages. Second, those national politicians, seeking to gain advantage over their national fellows, have attacked and denigrated European institutions as both too feeble and too powerful. When Europe has produced some stunning achievements they have often claimed credit for them, themselves. For example, Eurpean trade unions and employers organisations negotiated equal treatment in pay etc for both part-time workers and workers on fixed term contracts. these agreements have become the law of Europe and every member state, bringing equality and millions of euros in wage increases and benefits to millions of European citizens. Blair and Brown and many other national leaders claimed they had achieved this, when in the case of Blair and Brown, they did everything in their power to wreck our negotiations, as UK business did not want to pay equal wages.

So it does not surprise me that, with leaders who will not defend the peace treaties, that millions do not vote.

You should indeed Max, write a letter to the Independent and carry on doing all those things you have been doing before to campaign against this party, the BNP; for it is a party which supports what Hitler did in Germany and what the Japanese Imperial Army did in China and throughout Asia Pacific during the second world war. This is why it is so sad that it was able to secure two seats in the European Parliament created by a Peace Treaty after the end of that war in Europe, a treaty whose main purpose was to create an economic and social basis for a lasting peace in Europe.

As you know there are now quite a few parties like the BNP in other European countries and in the European Parliament, all seeking to pull the European Union apart and to establish militant, nationalist regimes in their own countries. If these, and other less militant parties with similar nationalist politics succeed in their efforts to wreck the European Treaties then we will not be just back to 1945 but probably to 1914 in Europe. The EU has many problems to solve, but not one of these parties has any intention of helping to do so.

My father 'did his duty' like millions of others (including many other colonials of German descent in Australian, Canadian and American armies), when he was asked to do it but he never once talked to us about this, so great was the effect of that episode of his life on him. But I thank God he did so, despite the tragedy that befell the German part of my family, some of whom went to their graves years before they should have done, during the wars of the 20th century. My father, an engineer on aship blown up off the D-Day beaches, grabbed the engine room clock as he finally left the bow section of the ship, which had remained afloat after being blown apart and he used to wind it up every week. It was a seven day clock and it ticked throughout our childhoods. We all knew that something terrible had happened, and this was the way he remembered his fallen comrades.

There are two films now showing in China about the 'rape of Nanjing'. One is the 'City of Life and Death' and it documents how the Japanese Army killed 300,000 citizens of the former Chinese capital city and raped thousands of women and girls in public and private. That Imperial Army, one million strong, went on to kill 4 million Chinese citizens citizens during the occupation of China, but was tied down by the Chinese people's resistance, instead of coming south to Australia and New Zealand, or east to the US, where they were trying to go. Japanese bombers and submarines did get as far as Sydney and Darwin in Australia in any event.

So, yes, Max, I do support everything you are doing to fight the ideas and influence of Mr Brons and his party. It is a very sad day for Britain indeed that you now have to do this.

in solidarity,

Dave