In solidarity

Eroding solidarity paradoxically makes a society more susceptible to the construction of substitute collectives and fascisms of all kinds.

Elfriede Jelinek

I am sure that I am not alone on this side of the pond in feeling the deepest sympathy for the family and friends of the member of the Canadian armed forces who was murdered whilst on duty in Ottowa on Wednesday last. Many of us in the UK would doubtless also like to take this opportunity to express our solidarity with our Canadian cousins.

On a number of occasions during the coverage from Ottowa on Wednesday Canadian commentators described the capital as a ‘sleepy’ city in a ‘sleepy’ country – the inference being that such sudden and brutal exposure to international terrorism had come as a rude shock.

The Kickass Canada Girl was in London on July 7th 2005 and was trying to get to the High Court when the bombs on the underground and the bus were detonated. She found herself with hundreds of thousands of others struggling to get out of the city with all public transport – as well as the mobile phone networks – having been closed down. One of her first observations to me on finally reaching home was how impressed she had been by the calm composure of all of those in whose company she had found herself. This was borne out the following day when the great majority of London commuters simply got back onto the underground and carried on as before. I had to point out that London does have an extensive history of such episodes – a good number having occurred in my life time.

Let me be blunt about this and re-state a truism. Terrorism does not work! The intent – to strike such fear into a civilian population that it will pressure its political leaders to follow a particular course of action – has been demonstrated time and time again throughout history to be a hopeless one. I hardly need detail here the tragic history of groups, sects and organisations that have – even over the last hundred years – failed to achieve their aims whilst creating carnage in the name of some misguided belief.

In the case of London it is hard to believe that a small group of deluded fundamentalist youths ever imagined they might succeed where the the entire might of the Luftwaffe and thirty years of dedicated campaigning by the IRA had failed. It is – of course – not just in Britain that the habitual response to the efforts of tyrants and murderers is a defiant refusal to let such vile actions affect – to the slightest degree – the normal course of life.

I would be most surprised if the response in Canada were significantly different.