Jim Anderton: Let's keep our mind firmly on getting rid of fascists

In the months immediately following the outrageous terrorist attacks on innocent Americans and other nationals in September 2001, a broad-based international coalition of nations came together to co-operate in the battle to defeat al Qaeda and other like-minded terrorist organisations.

The international community correctly sanctioned military action against the former Afghanistan regime, for example, after it refused to comply with the demands from the united community of nations for its co-operation against the al Qaeda bandits operating from its soil.

It is vital that the unity of the global coalition against terrorism is strengthened and not derailed, because all the evidence confirms that al Qaeda represents a threat to our way of life and our values every bit as real as the European fascist movement in the first half of last century.

Fascism is the term used to describe those totalitarian regimes which emerged in central and eastern Europe in the early part of last century that were strongly nationalistic, racist, violently opposed to progressive policies, the free press and free trade unions.

Fascism, which we think of as being a European phenomenon from last century, stood in opposition to liberalism, the one-person-one-vote secret ballot electoral system, equality of opportunity between men and women and equal rights under the law for people of different cultural backgrounds.

Fascists often exploited real problems in the world such as widespread unemployment, rampant inflation or social injustice to advance their narrow political agenda.

Their tactics were anti-democratic, espousing the use of terror against innocent bystanders to advance the political objectives of one-party dictatorship.

We know from propaganda coming out of al Qaeda and its allies that they fit the bill of a fascist threat to democratic nations, as well as a threat to the development of democracy in emerging nations where they tend to operate.

The Progressive Coalition, as the junior partner in the Labour-led Government, is conscious that the best efforts of many democrats in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s to nip the rise of fascism in the bud failed - and that Europe went on to pay a terrible price in a World War that cost tens of millions of innocent lives.

We must learn from the mistakes of the 1920s and 1930s in Europe as we face this new fascist threat. We must not let divisions emerge which would endanger the international level of solidarity with what the United States Government has called the War Against Terrorism.

We are afraid that talk of, let alone execution of, a war in Iraq could pose just such a threat to the unity of the international campaign against the modern fascist threat.

That is because many of the key Islamic nations that support the international war against terrorism will not trust - and many would strongly oppose - anything they judged to be a precipitous or unjustified military action in Iraq.

We believe it is absolutely vital that key Islamic nations such as Indonesia and Iran remain fully involved in the global effort to tackle international terrorism and its root causes.

We are also concerned that a precipitous war in Iraq is neither in our own national security interests nor the wider interests of international security and prosperity.

We need to remember that the campaign to confront the fundamentalist terrorist threat is only in its infancy.

It is true that Iraq's dictator, Saddam Hussein, may indeed make a war in Iraq inevitable but it is crucial that if or when that time comes it is a truly international effort with the broad support of the community of nations.

Any war in Iraq must not be a precursor of the weakening of the global coalition against terrorism because anything that hurts the international coalition against terrorism will be a terrible blow to a peaceful world and an undeserved fillip to the terrorist networks themselves.

With the diversion of Iraq in the news, we need to remain firmly focused on the serious threat to peace posed by the bigger, fundamentalist challenge to the values of the international community of nations as we work together to defeat it. And to the challenge the international community has accepted to help tp develop a modern, democratic Afghanistan.

The war to defeat al Qaeda will be long, and involve not only a military and security response but much more.

The best guarantee of winning this long struggle against evil will involve developed nations significantly opening their markets to the goods and services of developing nations and to invest in their infrastructure so they can build stronger economies and healthy civil societies.

The developed nations will also need to show leadership in resolving long-festering social and political injustices which plague parts of Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Problems such as poverty and inequality are the real injustices that the terrorist networks exploit as they look for new recruits in their terrorist campaign.

* Jim Anderton is Minister for Economic Development and leader of the Progressive Coalition.