[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 132 (Thursday, October 4, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10262-S10266]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           AFTER SEPTEMBER 11

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, since September 11 there has been such a 
flood of emotions in America over the events of that day. I think all 
of us have been transformed by the experience and transformed by some 
of our fellow Americans and what they have said and what they have 
done.
  Some of the things that have been written are extraordinary. In just 
one moment, I am going to submit for the Record one that I think is 
exceptional, a piece from the BusinessWeek magazine of October 1, 2001, 
by a writer named Bruce Nussbaum entitled, ``Real Masters Of The 
Universe.'' I will not read the entire article, but I will submit it 
for the Record. I would like to quote a few sentences from it. He said 
some things with which I agree and I think help to put our experience 
into some perspective:

       A subtle shift in the American zeitgeist took place on 
     Sept. 11. It's hard to define, and it may not last. But on 
     the day of the World Trade Center cataclysm, the country 
     changed. Big, beefy working-class guys became heroes once 
     again, replacing the telegenic financial analysts and techno-
     billionaires who once had held the Nation in thrall. Uniforms 
     and public service became ``in.'' Real sacrifice and real 
     courage were on graphic display.
       Maybe it was the class reversals that were so revealing. 
     Men and women making 40 grand a year working for the city 
     responding--risking their own lives--to save investment 
     bankers and traders making 10 times that amount. And dying by 
     the hundreds for their effort. The image of self-sacrifice by 
     civil servants in uniform was simply breathtaking.
       For Americans conditioned in the '90s to think of oneself 
     first, to be rich above all else, to accumulate all the good 
     material things, to take safety and security for granted, 
     this was a new reality. So was the contrast of genuine 
     bravery to the faux values of reality TV shows such as 
     Survivor.

  He concludes:

       Tragedy has the power to transform us. But rarely is the 
     transformation permanent. People and societies revert back to 
     the norm. But what is the ``norm'' for America? Where are 
     this nation's true values? Have we stripped too much away in 
     recent years in order to make us lean and mean for the race 
     to riches? It is hard to look at the images of the World 
     Trade Center rescue again and again. At least once, however, 
     we should look at what the rescuers are teaching us, about 
     what matters--and who.

  Madam President, I ask unanimous consent this article be printed in 
the Record.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                   [From Business Week, Oct. 1, 2001]

                      Real Masters of the Universe

                          (By Bruce Nussbaum)

       A subtle shift in the American zeitgeist took place on 
     Sept. 11. It's hard to define, and it may not last. But on 
     the day of the World Trade Center cataclysm, the country 
     changed. Big, beefy working-class guys became heroes once 
     again, replacing the telegenic financial analysts and techno-
     billionaires who once had held the nation in thrall. Uniforms 
     and public service became ``in.'' Real sacrifice and real 
     courage were on graphic display.

[[Page S10263]]

       Maybe it was the class reversals that were so revealing. 
     Men and women making 40 grand a year working for the city 
     responding--risking their own lives--to save investment 
     bankers and traders making 10 times that amount. And dying by 
     the hundreds for the effort. The image of self-sacrifice by 
     civil servants in uniform was simply breathtaking.
       For Americans conditioned in the '90s to think of oneself 
     first, to be rich above all else, to accumulate all the good 
     material things, to take safety and security for granted, 
     this was a new reality. So was the contrast of genuine 
     bravery to the faux values of reality TV shows such as 
     Survivor.


                              Sea of Flags

       Noteworthy, too, was America's quick return to family, 
     community, church, and patriotism in the aftermath of the 
     tragedy. People became polite and generous to one another 
     without prodding. On that day and the days that followed, 
     they told their wives and husbands and children and parents 
     and significant others they loved them. And the flags, the 
     sea of flags that appeared out of nowhere and spread 
     everywhere, worn by business-suited managers and eyebrow-
     pierced, tattooed teenagers. As if by magic, city taxicabs, 
     building canopies, and nearly every truck in sight were 
     flying flags.
       The offerings of food, money, and blood were overwhelming. 
     The generosity was unsurpassed in our memories. But the 
     manner in which perfect strangers went out of their way to 
     help one another in all kinds of situations was most amazing. 
     To the surprise of its residents, New York became a small-
     town community. The day-to-day antagonisms among the 
     citizenry melted away.
       The rush to church, synagogue, and, yes, mosque was equally 
     unusual. People returned to their religious ceremonies and 
     congregations in huge numbers for support and guidance. The 
     overflow at the doors demonstrated that many who had not 
     visited in years showed up to participate in the familiar and 
     comforting liturgies of their childhoods. They joined with 
     their neighbors in mourning.


                             Lessons Taught

       It was, for a moment, an old America peeking out from 
     behind the new, me-now America. We saw a glimpse of a country 
     of shared values, not competing interest groups; of common 
     cause, not hateful opposition. There were a few exceptions: 
     Jerry Falwell declaring we brought the death and destruction 
     down on ourselves because of homosexuality, abortion, and the 
     American Civil Liberties Union. A silly, stupid comment to be 
     dismissed in light of the comity of the day--but an extremist 
     remark nonetheless made in the name of God. How sad.
       Tragedy has the power to transform us. But rarely is the 
     transformation permanent. People and societies revert back to 
     the norm. But what is the ``norm'' for America? Where are 
     this nation's true values? Have we stripped too much away in 
     recent years in order to make us lean and mean for the race 
     to riches? It is hard to look at the images of the World 
     Trade Center rescue again and again. At least once, however, 
     we should look at what the rescuers are teaching us, about 
     what matters--and who.

  Mr. DURBIN. I recall a few days after this tragedy making a telephone 
call to a friend of mine, a very successful business executive in 
Chicago, just to ask him how things were going. He said to me on the 
phone what this article said. He said: The roaring nineties are over. 
We are going into a new era.
  As this article says, he believes it is an era that focuses on a lot 
of other things, whether it is family, community, and church, values 
that all of us hold dear, and certainly a new respect for this great 
Nation, which has been symbolized by the sea of flags that you see in 
every community across Illinois and across the Nation.
  It is a time of testing for this country, and we will rise to that 
challenge, I am certain. We will count our friends.
  Madam President, I would like to also make a part of the Record--I 
will ask for consent in a moment--one of the most amazing speeches that 
I have read. It is a speech by someone who is not an American but who 
commented on our experience and then pledged his alliance, his 
friendship, and his solidarity to help us in our effort. I refer to 
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who gave an exceptional speech on 
solidarity with the United States in our war on terrorism. But it was 
much more than that. It was a call to united international action to 
work for democracy, prosperity, and freedom.
  Out of this tragedy, Prime Minister Blair sees an opportunity to 
remake our world and to reflect the values we hold dear. His inspiring 
call is for a progressive vision of the future where the world 
community, as a community, works for economic growth and social 
justice, and to end regional conflicts. We, in the United States, have 
been too caught up in dealing with our immediate crisis, from time to 
time, to see that this is, as Prime Minister Blair says, ``a moment to 
seize.''
  Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that Prime Minister Blair's 
entire speech be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the speech was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

              Speech by British Prime Minister Tony Blair

       In retrospect, the Millennium marked only a moment in time. 
     It was the events of September 11 that marked a turning point 
     in history, where we confront the dangers of the future and 
     assess the choices facing humankind.
       It was a tragedy. An act of evil. From this nation, goes 
     our deepest sympathy and prayers for the victims and our 
     profound solidarity with the American people.
       We were with you at the first. We will stay with you to the 
     last.
       Just two weeks ago, in New York, after the church service I 
     met some of the families of the British victims.
       It was in many ways a very British occasion. Tea and 
     biscuits. It was raining outside. Around the edge of the 
     room, strangers making small talk, trying to be normal people 
     in an abnormal situation.
       And as you crossed the room, you felt the longing and 
     sadness; hands clutching photos of sons and daughters, wives 
     and husbands; imploring you to believe them when they said 
     there was still an outside chance of their loved ones being 
     found alive, when you knew in truth that all hope was gone.
       And then a middle-aged mother looks you in the eyes and 
     tells you her only son has died, and asks you: why?
       I tell you: you do not feel like the most powerful person 
     in the country at times like that.
       Because there is no answer. There is no justification for 
     their pain. Their son did nothing wrong. The woman, seven 
     months pregnant, whose child will never know its father, did 
     nothing wrong.
       They don't want revenge. They want something better in 
     memory of their loved ones.
       I believe their memorial can and should be greater than 
     simply the punishment of the guilty. It is that out of the 
     shadow of this evil, should emerge lasting good: destruction 
     of the machinery of terrorism wherever it is found; hope 
     amongst all nations of a new beginning where we seek to 
     resolve differences in a calm and ordered way; greater 
     understanding between nations and between faiths; and above 
     all justice and prosperity for the poor and dispossessed, so 
     that people everywhere can see the chance of a better future 
     through the hard work and creative power of the free citizen, 
     not the violence and savagery of the fanatic.
       I know that here in Britain people are anxious, even a 
     little frightened. I understand that. People know we must act 
     but they worry what might follow.
       They worry about the economy and talk of recession.
       And, of course there are dangers; it is a new situation. 
     But the fundamentals of the US, British and European 
     economies are strong.
       Every reasonable measure of internal security is being 
     undertaken.
       Our way of life is a great deal stronger and will last a 
     great deal longer than the actions of fanatics, small in 
     number and now facing a unified world against them.
       People should have confidence.
       This is a battle with only one outcome: our victory not 
     theirs.
       What happened on 11 September was without parallel in the 
     bloody history of terrorism.
       Within a few hours, up to 7000 people were annihilated, the 
     commercial centre of New York was reduced to rubble and in 
     Washington and Pennsylvania further death and horror on an 
     unimaginable scale. Let no one say this was a blow for Islam 
     when the blood of innocent Muslims was shed along with those 
     of the Christian, Jewish and other faiths around the world.
       We know those responsible. In Afghanistan are scores of 
     training camps for the export of terror. Chief amongst the 
     sponsors and organisers is Usama Bin Laden.
       He is supported, shielded and given succour by the Taliban 
     regime.
       Two days before the 11 September attacks, Masood, the 
     leader of the opposition Northern Alliance, was assassinated 
     by two suicide bombers. Both were linked to Bin Laden. Some 
     may call that coincidence. I call it payment--payment in the 
     currency these people deal in: blood.
       Be in no doubt: Bin Laden and his people organised this 
     atrocity. The Taliban aid and abet him. He will not desist 
     from further acts of terror. They will not stop helping him.
       Whatever the dangers of the action we take, the dangers of 
     inaction are far, far greater.
       Look for a moment at the Taliban regime. It is 
     undemocratic. That goes without saying.
       There is no sport allowed, or television or photography. No 
     art or culture is permitted. All other faiths, all other 
     interpretations of Islam are ruthlessly suppressed. Those who 
     practice their faith are imprisoned. Women are treated in a 
     way almost too revolting to be credible. First driven out of 
     university; girls not allowed to go to school; no legal 
     rights; unable to go out of doors without a man. Those that 
     disobey are stoned.
       There is now no contact permitted with western agencies, 
     even those delivering food. The people live in abject 
     poverty. It is a regime founded on fear and funded on the

[[Page S10264]]

     drugs trade. The biggest drugs hoard in the world is in 
     Afghanistan, controlled by the Taliban. Ninety per cent of 
     the heroin on British streets originates in Afghanistan.
       The arms the Taliban are buying today are paid for with the 
     lives of young British people buying their drugs on British 
     streets.
       That is another part of their regime that we should seek to 
     destroy.
       So what do we do?
       Don't overreact some say. We aren't.
       We haven't lashed out. No missiles on the first night just 
     for effect.
       Don't kill innocent people. We are not the ones who waged 
     war on the innocent. We seek the guilty.
       Look for a diplomatic solution. There is no diplomacy with 
     Bin Laden or the Taliban regime.
       State an ultimatum and get their response. We stated the 
     ultimatum; they haven't responded.
       Understand the causes of terror. Yes, we should try, but 
     let there be no moral ambiguity about this: nothing could 
     ever justify the events of 11 September, and it is to turn 
     justice on its head to pretend it could.
       The action we take will be proportionate; targeted; we will 
     do all we humanly can to avoid civilian casualties. But 
     understand what we are dealing with. Listen to the calls of 
     those passengers on the planes. Think of the children on 
     them, told they were going to die.
       Think of the cruelty beyond our comprehension as amongst 
     the screams and the anguish of the innocent, those hijackers 
     drove at full throttle planes laden with fuel into buildings 
     where tens of thousands worked.
       They have no moral inhibition on the slaughter of the 
     innocent. If they could have murdered not 7,000 but 70,000 
     does anyone doubt they would have done so and rejoiced in it?
       There is no compromise possible with such people, no 
     meeting of minds, no point of understanding with such terror.
       Just a choice: defeat it or be defeated by it. And defeat 
     it we must.
       Any action taken will be against the terrorist network of 
     Bin Laden.
       As for the Taliban, they can surrender the terrorists; or 
     face the consequences and again in any action the aim will be 
     to eliminate their military hardware, cut off their finances, 
     disrupt their supplies, target their troops, not civilians. 
     We will put a trap around the regime.
       I say to the Taliban: surrender the terrorists; or 
     surrender power. It's your choice.
       We will take action at every level, national and 
     international, in the UN, in G8, in the EU, in NATO, in every 
     regional grouping in the world, to strike at international 
     terrorism wherever it exists.
       For the first time, the UN security council has imposed 
     mandatory obligations on all UN members to cut off terrorist 
     financing and end safe havens for terrorists.
       Those that finance terror, those who launder their money, 
     those that cover their tracks are every bit as guilty as the 
     fanatic who commits the final act.
       Here in this country and in other nations round the world, 
     laws will be changed, not to deny basic liberties but to 
     prevent their abuse and protect the most basic liberty of 
     all: freedom from terror. New extradition laws will be 
     introduced; new rules to ensure asylum is not a front for 
     terrorist entry. This country is proud of its tradition in 
     giving asylum to those fleeing tyranny. We will always do so. 
     But we have a duty to protect the system from abuse.
       It must be overhauled radically so that from now on, those 
     who abide by the rules get help and those that don't, can no 
     longer play the system to gain unfair advantage over others.
       Round the world, 11 September is bringing Governments and 
     people to reflect, consider and change. And in this process, 
     amidst all the talk of war and action, there is another 
     dimension appearing.
       There is a coming together. The power of community is 
     asserting itself. We are realising how fragile are our 
     frontiers in the face of the world's new challenges.
       Today conflicts rarely stay within national boundaries.
       Today a tremor in one financial market is repeated in the 
     markets of the world.
       Today confidence is global; either its presence or its 
     absence.
       Today the threat is chaos; because for people with work to 
     do, family life to balance, mortgages to pay, careers to 
     further, pensions to provide, the yearning is for order and 
     stability and if it doesn't exist elsewhere, it is unlikely 
     to exist here.
       I have long believed this interdependence defines the new 
     world we live in.
       People say: we are only acting because it's the USA that 
     was attacked. Double standards, they say. But when Milosevic 
     embarked on the ethnic cleansing of Muslims in Kosovo, we 
     acted.
       The sceptics said it was pointless, we'd make matters 
     worse, we'd make Milosevic stronger and look what happened, 
     we won, the refugees went home, the policies of ethnic 
     cleansing were reversed and one of the great dictators of the 
     last century, will see justice in this century.
       And I tell you if Rwanda happened again today as it did in 
     1993, when a million people were slaughtered in cold blood, 
     we would have a moral duty to act there also. We were there 
     in Sierra Leone when a murderous group of gangsters 
     threatened its democratically elected Government and people.
       And we as a country should, and I as Prime Minister do, 
     give thanks for the brilliance, dedication and sheer 
     professionalism of the British Armed Forces.
       We can't do it all. Neither can the Americans.
       But the power of the international community could, 
     together, if it chose to.
       It could, with our help, sort out the blight that is the 
     continuing conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 
     where three million people have died through war or famine in 
     the last decade.
       A Partnership for Africa, between the developed and 
     developing world based around the New African Initiative, is 
     there to be done if we find the will.
       On our side: provide more aid, untied to trade; write off 
     debt; help with good governance and infrastructure; training 
     to the soldiers, with UN blessing, in conflict resolution; 
     encouraging investment; and access to our markets so that we 
     practise the free trade we are so fond of preaching.
       But it's a deal: on the African side: true democracy, no 
     more excuses for dictatorship, abuses of human rights; no 
     tolerance of bad governance, from the endemic corruption of 
     some states, to the activities of Mr Mugabe's henchmen in 
     Zimbabwe. Proper commercial, legal and financial systems.
       The will, with our help, to broker agreements for peace and 
     provide troops to police them.
       The state of Africa is a scar on the conscience of the 
     world. But if the world as a community focused on it, we 
     could heal it. And if we don't, it will become deeper and 
     angrier.
       We could defeat climate change if we chose to. Kyoto is 
     right. We will implement it and call upon all other nations 
     to do so.
       But it's only a start. With imagination, we could use or 
     find the technologies that create energy without destroying 
     our planet; we could provide work and trade without 
     deforestation.
       If humankind was able, finally, to make industrial progress 
     without the factory conditions of the 19th Century; surely we 
     have the wit and will to develop economically without 
     despoiling the very environment we depend upon. And if we 
     wanted to, we could breathe new life into the Middle East 
     Peace Process and we must.
       The state of Israel must be given recognition by all; freed 
     from terror; know that it is accepted as part of the future 
     of the Middle East not its very existence under threat. The 
     Palestinians must have justice, the chance to prosper and in 
     their own land, as equal partners with Israel in that future.
       We know that. It is the only way, just as we know in our 
     own peace process, in Northern Ireland, there will be no 
     unification of Ireland except by consent--and there will be 
     no return to the days of unionist or Protestant supremacy 
     because those days have no place in the modern world. So the 
     unionists must accept justice and equality for nationalists.
       The Republicans must show they have given up violence--not 
     just a ceasefire but weapons put beyond use. And not only the 
     Republicans, but those people who call themselves Loyalists, 
     but who by acts of terrorism, sully the name of the United 
     Kingdom.
       We know this also. The values we believe in should shine 
     through what we do in Afghanistan.
       To the Afghan people we make this commitment. The conflict 
     will not be the end. We will not walk away, as the outside 
     world has done so many times before.
       If the Taliban regime changes, we will work with you to 
     make sure its successor is one that is broad-based, that 
     unites all ethnic groups, and that offers some way out of the 
     miserable poverty that is your present existence.
       And, more than ever now, with every bit as much thought and 
     planning, we will assemble a humanitarian coalition alongside 
     the military coalition so that inside and outside 
     Afghanistan, the refugees, millions on the move even before 
     September 11, are given shelter, food and help during the 
     winter months.
       The world community must show as much its capacity for 
     compassion as for force.
       The critics will say: but how can the world be a community? 
     Nations act in their own self-interest. Of course they do. 
     But what is the lesson of the financial markets, climate 
     change, international terrorism, nuclear proliferation or 
     world trade? It is that our self-interest and our mutual 
     interests are today inextricably woven together.
       This is the politics of globalisation.
       I realise why people protest against globalisation.
       We watch aspects of it with trepidation. We feel powerless, 
     as if we were now pushed to and fro by forces far beyond our 
     control.
       But there's a risk that political leaders, faced with 
     street demonstrations, pander to the argument rather than 
     answer it. The demonstrators are right to say there's 
     injustice, poverty, environmental degradation.
       But globalisation is a fact and, by and large, it is driven 
     by people.
       Not just in finance, but in communication, in technology, 
     increasingly in culture, in recreation. In the world of the 
     internet, information technology and TV, there will be 
     globalisation. And in trade, the problem is not there's too 
     much of it; on the contrary there's too little of it.
       The issue is not how to stop globalisation.
       The issue is how we use the power of community to combine 
     it with justice. If

[[Page S10265]]

     globalisation works only for the benefit of the few, then it 
     will fail and will deserve to fail.
       But if we follow the principles that have served us so well 
     at home--that power, wealth and opportunity must be in the 
     hands of the many, not the few--if we make that our guiding 
     light for the global economy, then it will be a force for 
     good and an international movement that we should take pride 
     in leading.
       Because the alternative to globalisation is isolation.
       Confronted by this reality, round the world, nations are 
     instinctively drawing together. In Quebec, all the countries 
     of North and South America deciding to make one huge free 
     trade area, rivalling Europe.
       In Asia. In Europe, the most integrated grouping of all, we 
     are now 15 nations. Another 12 countries negotiating to join, 
     and more beyond that.
       A new relationship between Russia and Europe is beginning.
       And will not India and China, each with three times as many 
     citizens as the whole of the EU put together, once their 
     economies have developed sufficiently as they will do, not 
     reconfigure entirely the geopolitics of the world and in our 
     lifetime?
       That is why, with 60 per cent of our trade dependent on 
     Europe, three million jobs tied up with Europe, much of our 
     political weight engaged in Europe, it would be a fundamental 
     denial of our true national interest to turn our backs on 
     Europe.
       We will never let that happen.
       For 50 years, Britain has, uncharacteristically, followed 
     not led in Europe. At each and every step.
       There are debates central to our future coming up: how we 
     reform European economic policy; how we take forward European 
     defence; how we fight organised crime and terrorism.
       Britain needs its voice strong in Europe and bluntly Europe 
     needs a strong Britain, rock solid in our alliance with the 
     USA, yet determined to play its full part in shaping Europe's 
     destiny.
       We should only be part of the single currency if the 
     economic conditions are met. They are not window-dressing for 
     a political decision. They are fundamental. But if they are 
     met, we should join, and if met in this parliament, we should 
     have the courage of our argument, to ask the British people 
     for their consent in this Parliament.
       Europe is not a threat to Britain. Europe is an 
     opportunity.
       It is in taking the best of the Anglo-Saxon and European 
     models of development that Britain's hope of a prosperous 
     future lies. The American spirit of enterprise; the European 
     spirit of solidarity. We have, here also, an opportunity. Not 
     just to build bridges politically, but economically.
       What is the answer to the current crisis? Not isolationism 
     but the world coming together with America as a community.
       What is the answer to Britain's relations with Europe? Not 
     opting out, but being leading members of a community in 
     which, in alliance with others, we gain strength.
       What is the answer to Britain's future? Not each person for 
     themselves, but working together as a community to ensure 
     that everyone, not just the privileged few get the chance to 
     succeed.
       This is an extraordinary moment for progressive politics.
       Our values are the right ones for this age: the power of 
     community, solidarity, the collective ability to further the 
     individual's interests.
       People ask me if I think ideology is dead. My answer is:
       In the sense of rigid forms of economic and social theory, 
     yes.
       The 20th century killed those ideologies and their passing 
     causes little regret. But, in the sense of a governing idea 
     in politics, based on values, no. The governing idea of 
     modern social democracy is community. Founded on the 
     principles of social justice. That people should rise 
     according to merit not birth; that the test of any decent 
     society is not the contentment of the wealthy and strong, but 
     the commitment to the poor and weak.
       But values aren't enough. The mantle of leadership comes at 
     a price: the courage to learn and change; to show how values 
     that stand for all ages, can be applied in a way relevant to 
     each age.
       Our politics only succeed when the realism is as clear as 
     the idealism.
       This party's strength today comes from the journey of 
     change and learning we have made.
       We learnt that however much we strive for peace, we need 
     strong defence capability where a peaceful approach fails.
       We learnt that equality is about equal worth, not equal 
     outcomes.
       Today our idea of society is shaped around mutual 
     responsibility; a deal, an agreement between citizens not a 
     one-way gift, from the well-off to the dependent.
       Our economic and social policy today owes as much to the 
     liberal social democratic tradition of Lloyd George, Keynes 
     and Beveridge as to the socialist principles of the 1945 
     Government.
       Just over a decade ago, people asked if Labour could ever 
     win again. Today they ask the same question of the 
     Opposition. Painful though that journey of change has been, 
     it has been worth it, every stage of the way.
       On this journey, the values have never changed. The aims 
     haven't. Our aims would be instantly recognisable to every 
     Labour leader from Keir Hardie onwards. But the means do 
     change.
       The journey hasn't ended. It never ends. The next stage for 
     New Labour is not backwards; it is renewing ourselves again. 
     Just after the election, an old colleague of mine said: 
     ``Come on Tony, now we've won again, can't we drop all this 
     New Labour and do what we believe in?''
       I said: ``It's worse than you think. I really do believe in 
     it.''
       We didn't revolutionise British economic policy--Bank of 
     England independence, tough spending rules--for some 
     managerial reason or as a clever wheeze to steal Tory 
     clothes.
       We did it because the victims of economic incompetence--15 
     per cent interest rates, 3m unemployed--are hard-working 
     families. They are the ones--and even more so, now--with 
     tough times ahead--that the economy should be run for, not 
     speculators, or currency dealers or senior executives whose 
     pay packets don't seem to bear any resemblance to the 
     performance of their companies.
       Economic competence is the pre-condition of social justice.
       We have legislated for fairness at work, like the minimum 
     wage which people struggled a century for. But we won't give 
     up the essential flexibility of our economy or our commitment 
     to enterprise.
       Why? Because in a world leaving behind mass production, 
     where technology revolutionises not just companies but whole 
     industries, almost overnight, enterprise creates the jobs 
     people depend on.
       We have boosted pensions, child benefit, family incomes. We 
     will do more. But our number one priority for spending is and 
     will remain education.
       Why? Because in the new markets countries like Britain can 
     only create wealth by brain power not low wages and sweatshop 
     labour.
       We have cut youth unemployment by 75 per cent.
       By more than any government before us. But we refuse to pay 
     benefit to those who refuse to work. Why? Because the welfare 
     that works is welfare that helps people to help themselves.
       The graffiti, the vandalism, the burnt out cars, the street 
     corner drug dealers, the teenage mugger just graduating from 
     the minor school of crime: we're not old fashioned or right-
     wing to take action against this social menace.
       We're standing up for the people we represent, who play by 
     the rules and have a right to expect others to do the same.
       And especially at this time let us say: we celebrate the 
     diversity in our country, get strength from the cultures and 
     races that go to make up Britain today; and racist abuse and 
     racist attacks have no place in the Britain we believe in.
       All these policies are linked by a common thread of 
     principle.
       Now with this second term, our duty is not to sit back and 
     bask in it. It is across the board, in competition policy, 
     enterprise, pensions, criminal justice, the civil service and 
     of course public services, to go still further in the journey 
     of change. All for the same reason: to allow us to deliver 
     social justice in the modern world.
       Public services are the power of community in action.
       They are social justice made real. The child with a good 
     education flourishes. The child given a poor education lives 
     with it for the rest of their life. How much talent and 
     ability and potential do we waste? How many children never 
     know not just the earning power of a good education but the 
     joy of art and culture and the stretching of imagination and 
     horizons which true education brings? Poor education is a 
     personal tragedy and national scandal.
       Yet even now, with all the progress of recent years, a 
     quarter of 11-year-olds fail their basic tests and almost a 
     half of 16 year olds don't get five decent GCSEs.
       The NHS meant that for succeeding generations, anxiety was 
     lifted from their shoulders. For millions who get superb 
     treatment still, the NHS remains the ultimate symbol of 
     social justice.
       But for every patient waiting in pain, that can't get 
     treatment for cancer or a heart condition or in desperation 
     ends up paying for their operation, that patient's suffering 
     is the ultimate social injustice.
       And the demands on the system are ever greater. Children 
     need to be better and better educated.
       People live longer. There is a vast array of new treatment 
     available.
       And expectations are higher. This is a consumer age. People 
     don't take what they're given. They demand more.
       We're not alone in this. All round the world governments 
     are struggling with the same problems.
       So what is the solution? Yes, public services need more 
     money. We are putting in the largest ever increases in NHS, 
     education and transport spending in the next few years; and 
     on the police too. We will keep to those spending plans. And 
     I say in all honesty to the country: if we want that to 
     continue and the choice is between investment and tax cuts, 
     then investment must come first.
       There is a simple truth we all know. For decades there has 
     been chronic under-investment in British public services. Our 
     historic mission is to put that right; and the historic shift 
     represented by the election of June 7 was that investment to 
     provide quality public services for all comprehensively 
     defeated short-term tax cuts for the few.
       We need better pay and conditions for the staff; better 
     incentives for recruitment; and

[[Page S10266]]

     for retention. We're getting them and recruitment is rising.
       This year, for the first time in nearly a decade, public 
     sector pay will rise faster than private sector pay.
       And we are the only major government in Europe this year to 
     be increasing public spending on health and education as a 
     percentage of our national income.
       This Party believes in public services; believes in the 
     ethos of public service; and believes in the dedication the 
     vast majority of public servants show; and the proof of it is 
     that we're spending more, hiring more and paying more than 
     ever before.
       Public servants don't do it for money or glory. They do it 
     because they find fulfilment in a child well taught or a 
     patient well cared-for; or a community made safer and we 
     salute them for it.
       All that is true. But this is also true.
       That often they work in systems and structures that are 
     hopelessly old fashioned or even worse, work against the very 
     goals they aim for.
       There are schools, with exactly the same social intake. One 
     does well; the other badly.
       There are hospitals with exactly the same patient mix. One 
     performs well; the other badly.
       Without reform, more money and pay won't succeed.
       First, we need a national framework of accountability, 
     inspection; and minimum standards of delivery.
       Second, within that framework, we need to free up local 
     leaders to be able to innovate, develop and be creative.
       Third, there should be far greater flexibility in the terms 
     and conditions of employment of public servants.
       Fourth, there has to be choice for the user of public 
     services and the ability, where provision of the service 
     fails, to have an alternative provider.
       If schools want to develop or specialise in a particular 
     area; or hire classroom assistants or computer professionals 
     as well as teachers, let them. If in a Primary Care Trust, 
     doctors can provide minor surgery or physiotherapists see 
     patients otherwise referred to a consultant, let them.
       There are too many old demarcations, especially between 
     nurses, doctors and consultants; too little use of the 
     potential of new technology; too much bureaucracy, too many 
     outdated practices, too great an adherence to the way we've 
     always done it rather than the way public servants would like 
     to do it if they got the time to think and the freedom to 
     act.
       It's not reform that is the enemy of public services. It's 
     the status quo.
       Part of that reform programme is partnership with the 
     private or voluntary sector.
       Let's get one thing clear. Nobody is talking about 
     privatising the NHS or schools.
       Nobody believes the private sector is a panacea.
       There are great examples of public service and poor 
     examples. There are excellent private sector companies and 
     poor ones. There are areas where the private sector has 
     worked well; and areas where, as with parts of the railways, 
     it's been a disaster.
       Where the private sector is used, it should not make a 
     profit simply by cutting the wages and conditions of its 
     staff.
       But where the private sector can help lever in vital 
     capital investment, where it helps raise standards, where it 
     improves the public service as a public service, then to set 
     up some dogmatic barrier to using it, is to let down the very 
     people who most need our public services to improve.
       This programme of reform is huge: in the NHS, education, 
     including student finance,--we have to find a better way to 
     combine state funding and student contributions criminal 
     justice; and transport.
       I regard it as being as important for the country as Clause 
     IV's reform was for the Party, and obviously far more 
     important for the lives of the people we serve.
       And it is a vital test for the modern Labour Party
       If people lose faith in public services, be under no 
     illusion as to what will happen.
       There is a different approach waiting in the wings. Cut 
     public spending drastically; let those that can afford to, 
     buy their own services; and those that can't, will depend on 
     a demoralised, sink public service. That would be a denial of 
     social justice on a massive scale.
       It would be contrary to the very basis of community.
       So this is a battle of values. Let's have that battle but 
     not amongst ourselves. The real fight is between those who 
     believe in strong public services and those who don't.
       That's the fight worth having.
       In all of this, at home and abroad, the same beliefs 
     throughout: that we are a community of people, whose self-
     interest and mutual interest at crucial points merge, and 
     that it is through a sense of justice that community is born 
     and nurtured.
       And what does this concept of justice consist of?
       Fairness, people all of equal worth, of course. But also 
     reason and tolerance. Justice has no favourites; not amongst 
     nations, peoples or faiths.
       When we act to bring to account those that committed the 
     atrocity of September 11, we do so, not out of bloodlust.
       We do so because it is just. We do not act against Islam. 
     The true followers of Islam are our brothers and sisters in 
     this struggle. Bin Laden is no more obedient to the proper 
     teaching of the Koran than those Crusaders of the 12th 
     century who pillaged and murdered, represented the 
     teaching of the Gospel.
       It is time the west confronted its ignorance of Islam. 
     Jews, Muslims and Christians are all children of Abraham.
       This is the moment to bring the faiths closer together in 
     understanding of our common values and heritage, a source of 
     unity and strength.
       It is time also for parts of Islam to confront prejudice 
     against America and not only Islam but parts of western 
     societies too.
       America has its faults as a society, as we have ours.
       But I think of the Union of America born out of the defeat 
     of slavery.
       I think of its Constitution, with its inalienable rights 
     granted to every citizen still a model for the world.
       I think of a black man, born in poverty, who became chief 
     of their armed forces and is now secretary of state Colin 
     Powell and I wonder frankly whether such a thing could have 
     happened here.
       I think of the Statue of Liberty and how many refugees, 
     migrants and the impoverished passed its light and felt that 
     if not for them, for their children, a new world could indeed 
     be theirs.
       I think of a country where people who do well, don't have 
     questions asked about their accent, their class, their 
     beginnings but have admiration for what they have done and 
     the success they've achieved.
       I think of those New Yorkers I met, still in shock, but 
     resolute; the fire fighters and police, mourning their 
     comrades but still head held high.
       I think of all this and I reflect: yes, America has its 
     faults, but it is a free country, a democracy, it is our ally 
     and some of the reaction to September 11 betrays a hatred of 
     America that shames those that feel it.
       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.
       And I mean: freedom, not only in the narrow sense of 
     personal liberty but in the broader sense of each individual 
     having the economic and social freedom to develop their 
     potential to the full. That is what community means, founded 
     on the equal worth of all.
       The starving, the wretched, the dispossessed, the ignorant, 
     those living in want and squalor from the deserts of Northern 
     Africa to the slums of Gaza, to the mountain ranges of 
     Afghanistan: they too are our cause.
       This is a moment to seize. The Kaleidoscope has been 
     shaken. The pieces are in flux. Soon they will settle again. 
     Before they do, let us re-order this world around us.
       Today, humankind has the science and technology to destroy 
     itself or to provide prosperity to all. Yet science can't 
     make that choice for us. Only the moral power of a world 
     acting as a community, can.
       ``By the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more 
     together than we can alone''.
       For those people who lost their lives on September 11 and 
     those that mourn them; now is the time for the strength to 
     build that community. Let that be their memorial.

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