LONDON, October 3, 2001 (LSN.ca) – In what is being hailed as his finest speech ever, British Prime Minister Tony Blair wowed the Labour Party conference yesterday, with a 54-minute speech, which garnered a standing ovation. During the speech he called for the creation of a new world order to be the memorial of the victims of the terrorist attacks.
In his speech, Blair spoke of “a coming together” and of the “power of community is asserting itself” on a global level. He said the interrelatedness of financial markets, and international conflicts, call for an interdependence among nations – the action of a “world community”. “I have long believed this interdependence defines the new world we live in,” he said. Spurred on by “our self-interest and our mutual interests (which) are today inextricably woven together” the world community can tackle the problems “of the financial markets, climate change, international terrorism, nuclear proliferation or world trade” said Blair.
Blair gave a strong endorsement to the “politics of globalisation” saying that “the alternative to globalisation is isolation.” And appealing once again to the terrorist crisis he drove home his point: “What is the answer to the current crisis? Not isolationism but the world coming together with America as a community.” Blair’s comment would seem to undermine the Bush administration’s reversal of the Clinton agenda at the U.N. At various U.N. sponsored meetings after Bush’s election, the U.S. has reversed direction and opposed anti-life and anti-family agendas at the U.N. and upheld national sovereignty, much to the chagrin of the European Union, Canada and UN bureaucrats.
Blair intimated that a world community was inevitable noting that “round the world, nations are instinctively drawing together,” pointing to the economic groupings forming in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Elated with his vision, Blair said, “This is an extraordinary moment for progressive politics.”
As he concluded he again used the backdrop of the terrorist attack to usher popular support for his globalist vision saying, “So I believe this is a fight for freedom. And I want to make it a fight for justice too. Justice not only to punish the guilty. But justice to bring those same values of democracy and freedom to people round the world.”
He closed with a rallying call: “let us re-order this world around us. Only the moral power of a world acting as a community can” decide to “provide prosperity to all.”“By the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more together than we can alone. For those people who lost their lives on 11 September and those that mourn them; now is the time for the strength to build that community. Let that be their memorial.”
To see the full text of Blair’s speech go to: https://www.labour.org.uk/lp/new/labour/docs/LONGSPEECHES/TBCONF2001SPEECH.html
Related coverage from the London Telegraph and the London Guardian: https://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/10/03/nlab03.xml https://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour2001/story/0,1414,562269,00.html