Anti War Assembly - video

'This film by the Islam Channel captures the spirit and the inspiration of the Antiwar Assembly in Trafalgar Square on 8 October 2011. It features speeches and interviews with many of the participants, including John Pilger, Julian Assange, Anas alTikriti, Jemima Khan, Seumas Milne and many more. It took place on the tenth anniversary of the war on Afghanistan and the 'war on terror', which have caused so much death, destruction and suffering.'



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Tony Benn: what is the true cost of the Afghanistan war?

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Sign the pledge for Anti-War Assembly in Trafalgar Square

Tony Benn addressing a London anti-war rally

A special website has been set up for pledges to be in Trafalgar Square at a mass anti-war assembly on Saturday 8 October, the tenth anniversary of the war in Afghanistan and the 'war on terror', and -- not coincidentally -- the foundation of Stop the War Coalition. (http://www.antiwarassembly.org)

Join John Pilger, Tony Benn, Ahdaf Soueif, Brian Eno, Caroline
Lucas MP, Joe Glenton, Roger Lloyd Pack, Lindsey German and many
more in Trafalgar Square, and help make sure the world knows we want the troops home and an end to Britain's involvement in foreign wars.

You can join them by signing this pledge:

"I pledge that if British Troops are still in Afghanistan on the tenth anniversary of the invasion, I will join the mass assembly in Trafalgar Square on Saturday 8 October to make it clear to the government that they must not continue this brutal and pointless war in defiance of the will of the people."

SIGN THE PLEDGE NOW: http://www.antiwarassembly.org

The Antiwar Mass assembly has been called by Stop the War, CND and the British Muslim Initiative. It is being co-ordinated with a similar event in the United States, at Freedom Plaza, Washington, DC (SEE http://bit.ly/oUQ4I5).

Via a Stop the War Coalition circular.

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Jimmy Cliff at Glastonbury: We don't want another Vietnam in Afghanistan

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Libya and Afghanistan: there's always money for war?

Tripoli - after a NATO air strike

The age of austerity is putting extra strain on US and UK governments' ability to rally public opinion behind their wars.

This applies to both the long occupation of Afghanistan and the current bombing of Libya, which increasingly looks like it may not be the swift victory the politicians promised.

The costs of war are exposing the myth that 'there's no money'. George Osborne's recurring mantra that public sector cuts are 'necessary', 'unavoidable' or 'inevitable' looks hollow when £260 million is spent on a military campaign with no agreed purpose or exit strategy, which is generating criticisms from countries (e.g. Italy) and alliances (e.g. Arab League) that initially lined up in support, and which is opposed by a large portion of the British public.

As the New Statesman puts it:

'The cost of the mission undermines Osborne's previous insistence that "the cupboard is bare". It is harder for ministers to defend library closures, Sure Start closures and the rest when the government is spending hundreds of millions of pounds on a war far from home.

The coalition has sought to present many of its decisions (the VAT rise, the tuition fees increase, the abolition of universal child benefit) as "unavoidable" but today's news is a reminder that it has choices too. Given that the government spent £694.4bn in 2010-11, £260m is, as Jock Stirrup, the former chief of the defence staff, said on The World At One, "very small beer". But it's the perception that counts. Public support for the mission, already at a record low, is likely to plummet further.'

We might add, of course, that Trident replacement is estimated to cost £70 billion - and that's not 'small beer' by any standards. The wars and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan are thought to have cost this country at least £20 billion. The costs of attacking Libya are part of a pattern.

And, as we've seen in recent days, there can be the human cost of civilian casualties, including children, too. This is no flawlessly precise 'smart' bombing (who'd have thought it?).

The mounting costs of the 'war on terror' are also a huge factor in President Obama's announcement that a third of US troops in Afghanistan will be withdrawn by September 2012, before he faces re-election by an electorate which now has majority opposition to the occupation.

The Guardian reports:

'The withdrawal, which comes against a backdrop of rising US public weariness with the longest war in American history, could form part of Obama's pitch in the 2012 White House election campaign.

The president phoned leaders in Afghanistan, Pakistan, France, Germany and Britain to inform them of his decision. David Cameron is expected to make announcements on substantial UK troop withdrawals at the beginning of July. It is likely to represent the biggest troop withdrawal since British forces left Iraq but precise numbers have yet to be reached.'

We need to build the pressure on our own government to withdraw the troops from Afghanistan now and end the attacks on Libya. There are many reasons for opposing these military adventures. The obscene costs - and the accompanying hypocrisy - just add more.

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US activist David Swanson on Obama and the anti-war movement

David Swanson's own report of Saturday's Stop the War conference in London is HERE. This video is of his speech at the conference.




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Bin Laden's death: a happy outcome for US imperialism?

There's no reason to mourn the death of Osama Bin Laden, a wealthy backer of terrorism and a fundamentalist whose ideology had nothing in common with the anti-imperialism of socialists and anti-war campaigners (whether in the West or in the Arab world).

But it is noteworthy that the gloating and celebrating in the US appears to be greeted by widespread disgust, or at least unease. I'm sure it would have been different if he'd been killed just a few months after the atrocities of 11 September 2001. There would have been more jubilation, and more sympathy for those celebrating.

The explanation for the ambivalent or hostile reaction to scenes of jubilation now is simple. We've had nearly a decade of wars and occupations, of bloodshed and conflict. After all the disasters associated with US imperialism, most people aren't in the mood for celebrating when it scores a 'victory'.

There's another factor. It's now obvious that the peril of 'terrorism' has been used to justify foreign intervention, and all the injustices that accompany it. Few people believe either that Bin Laden's death marks the end of terrorism or that confronting terrorism is, in any case, the real basis of the 'war on terror'.

Bin Laden was a useful bogeyman for the US and its allies, including the UK. He has been a visible marker of something that is in fact largely anonymous and amorphous. His image helped the public relations departments of the White House and Pentagon. For anyone who's ever watched a James Bond film, the notion of an evil mastermind behind everything is a familiar and appealing one.

Yet it is certainly not the truth. There are strong reasons for believing Bin Laden had a central role in relation to the September 11 attacks, but he was no mastermind of a highly organised terrorist network. 'Al Qaeda' has been a label adopted by those who never had anything directly to do with its supposed leader.

US propagandists have scored a short-term coup, but they face a long-term dilemma. If Bin Laden was the reason why they had to invade and occupy foreign lands, what is the justification for keeping their troops on foreign soil?

If the need for 'heightened security' in response to Bin Laden's terror threat is the reason for curtailing civil liberties, should we now expect a turn towards greater respect for civil liberties? What about the rising Islamophobia which has been an ugly domestic accompaniment to the 'war on terror'? We can sadly expect the attacks on civil liberties and Muslim communities to continue, but there's an obvious ideological strain here. 

We can also expect continuing strains in the US State Department's relations with a number of governments in the Middle East and Western Asia. The most obvious one is Pakistan, especially as it is reported the country's authorities and intelligence agencies were not informed of the US special operations to kill Bin Laden. Pakistan already has a complex and ambivalent relationship with its old ally.     

In the UK we should renew calls for our troops to be brought home from Afghanistan. One of the final props for the discredited pro-occupation case has now vanished. It is evident that imperialist intervention has generated, not alleviated, terror attacks. An end to the occupations is necessary.

We must also oppose the new war in Libya, where Western bombing threatens to breed more terrorism, division and hate. Millions now know what happens when powerful Western states dictate, by military force, the affairs of weaker countries.

The momentary gloating over Bin Laden's body cannot resolve the deep problems the US has accumulated from almost a decade of the 'war on terror'. Neither does it compensate for the countless lives ended in that war. Justice can only come through an end to foreign intervention.  

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Two important conferences this spring

EUROPEAN CONFERENCE AGAINST ANTI-MUSLIM HATRED

Stop the War is working with the British Muslim Initiative, Cordoba Foundation, Islamic Forum of Europe, FOSIS, Friends of Al Aqsa, UAF and others for this conference which has even more importance since David Cameron's disgraceful attack on multiculturalism. (SEE David Cameron stoking the fires of Islamophobia: http://bit.ly/ewkXe1 )

EUROPEAN CONFERENCE AGAINST ANTI-MUSLIM HATRED
Saturday 21 May
10 am - 5pm, London Muslim Centre, London E1 1J Q

More details to be available soon.

***************

AFGHANISTAN AND THE WAR ON TERROR TEN YEARS ON: CONFERENCE

This event takes place in the tenth year of the occupation of Afghanistan. It will assess the damage done by the occupation on Afghanistan and across the area and discuss the impact of recent events in the Middle East on the wider War on Terror.

Confirmed speakers include writers Mehdi Hassan and Pankaj Mishra, Tariq Ali, Lindsey German, US activist and writer David Swanson, Tony Benn, and Joan Humphries and Joe Glenton from Military Families Against the War.

AFGHANISTAN AND THE WAR ON TERROR TEN YEARS ON: CONFERENCE
Conway Hall, London
Saturday 11 June

More details to be available soon.

Via Stop the War circular

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Welfare not warfare: marching for a different set of priorities in our world

I've been to London for the weekend, including yesterday's very good 5000-strong demo calling for an end to the occupation of Afghanistan. If you were also marching, see if you can spot yourself in this video from Ady Cousins and Paul Hanes.  



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The achievements of the anti-war movement

On the eve of another important national anti-war demo, I thought I'd re-post a very useful assessment of the movement's achievements from John Rees (posted on the comment thread for this article today).

'I think the achievement of Stop the War Coalition was more than the Feb 15 demonstration. It was precisely the sustained campaign and its results over a decade that should be assessed. These are:

1. We permanantly changed public opinion, and sharpened it politically, over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.We re-introduced the idea of imperialism to a mass audience for the first time since the Vietnam war. We provided the environment in which a majority began to support the Palestinians not the Israeli state.

2. We broke Blair's prime ministership. He wanted to stay in power until 2009-2010, as he said in a speech after the 2005 election. When he refused to call for a ceasefire when Israel attacked Lebanon in 2006 we mobilised 100,000 at a week's notice. The following Monday 6 government aides resigned and wrote to Blair saying he had to promise to be gone within a year. This he was.

3. We helped create the political environment in which Britain quit Iraq before the US. That is why there are no British troops in Iraq now.

4. Bush and Blair, as Bush's memoirs show, wanted to attack Iran but have been inhibited so far by the anti-war movement.

5. The STWC provided the framework for the largest ever political mobilisation of the Muslim community in alliance with the left. This has created a permanent barrier to the Islamophobic discourse generated by the establishment to justify the war and taken up by the BNP and EDL.

6. The attacks on civil liberties have been repeatedly contested by the STWC and we have contributed to the political failure of some of these attacks, like the Prevent scheme, the use of control orders and the most severe attempts to lenghten detension without trial.

7.Our record of direct action (on the day war broke out, the biggest nationwide co-ordinated moment of direct action in the last decade, the school student walk-outs, on the Gaza protests) remains an inspiration to the students and school students.

8. We supported the limited but effective industrial action that took place against the war. For it to have been greater than it was would have required action by the Trade Union leadership, which was not forthcoming.

9. The STWC model will not be repeated exactly, of course. But its general principles~a broad united left response which simultaneouly mobilises beyond the left and is still radical~is precisely what has been missing in the left's response to the economic crisis.

This is why so many people who are involved in STWC have launched the Coalition of Resistance. If this proves to be even more radical than STWC, good. But you have to construct a boat before you can steer it anywhere!'

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Malalai Joya: we need your solidarity

Malalai Joya, Afghan political campaigner who opposes the occupation of her country, writes:

'My people are caught now between two powerful enemies, and they are being crushed. From the sky, the bombs of the occupation forces are falling, killing civilians. And on the ground, there is the Taliban, and also these warlords.

So we have three kinds of enemies. But the withdrawal of one enemy—these US occupation forces whose government sends them to war, and also supports the corrupt mafia system of Hamid Karzai with more money and men—will make it much easier to fight the enemies that are left.

I promise I will never be tired as long as war is in Afghanistan as well as in other countries—what is going on in Iraq, in Burma, in Pakistan, in Palestine. The list can be longer. No nation can bring liberation to another nation. These are nations that can liberate themselves. The nations that pose themselves as liberators to others will lead them into slavery. What we have experienced in Afghanistan and in Iraq prove this point.

If the US and its allies let us have a little bit of space and peace, then we know what to do with our destiny. The people of Afghanistan don’t want occupation. They need honest support, they need educational support, they need your powerful voice—which means, first of all, international solidarity against the warmongers of your government.'

From 'The Case for Withdrawal' (Verso). See HERE

Show solidarity by joining this Saturday's 'Troops out of Afghanistan' demo

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Soldier Joe Glenton hands his medals to Cameron

'Former soldier Joe Glenton, who served nine months imprisonment for refusing to return to Afghanistan, and who has been tirelessly speaking at public meetings across the country to help mobilise support for the demonstration on 20 November, will hand his military medals into David Cameron at Downing Street on Friday 19 November, the eve of our protest.

Joe will be joined by military families who have lost loved ones or have relatives serving in Afghanistan. They will deliver to David Cameron their letter calling for the British army to be withdrawn from Afghanistan now, which is the only way to support the troops who have been ordered to serve there so pointlessly.

Joe Glenton and the military families will be leading the march to Trafalgar Square on the 20 November demonstration.'

Via Stop the War circular.

See HERE for more on the 20 November national demonstration.

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Join the 20 November demonstration : bring the troops home now

Also see:
Afghanistan: Reasons to demonstrate no2, featuring Joe Glenton
Afghanistan: Reasons to demonstrate no3, featuring Rory Stewart MP

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Afghanistan: Time to Go - Troops Home Now

The info below comes from a national Stop the War circular. We have a Tyneside Stop the War coach leaving Newcastle Central Station at 6.30am on the day, leaving London for the return journey at 5pm.

Email nestopwar@yahoo.co.uk if you would like more info, or to reserve a seat (£30 waged/£15 unwaged).

NATIONAL DEMONSTRATION -SATURDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2010

ASSEMBLE 12 NOON SPEAKERS' CORNER, HYDE PARK, LONDON, MARCH TO TRAFALGAR SQUARE

'The demonstration is timed to coincide with the Lisbon NATO conference at which Afghanistan will be the main talking point. For all the talk of diplomacy and troop drawdown, there are more NATO troops in the country than at any time since 2001.

This year has seen the highest number of casualties amongst Afghan civilians and NATO troops since the invasion, and there is widespread recognition that the war is a disaster.

The 20 November demonstration, which has been called by Stop the War, CND and the British Muslim Initiative, will be led by members of military families who oppose the war and want to see their loved ones return immediately.

They will be joined by Joe Glenton, the soldier who went to prison for refusing to return to Afghanistan to fight a war he believed to be unjustified.

College and school students from across the country will be out in force, raising the slogan "Fund Education Not War" and protesting against a war that has now lasted as long as World I and World War II combined.

Coaches are being organised to bring protesters from outside London. The list of towns organising coaches, and details of how to book a place, will be updated here: http://bit.ly/cDXKmN

HOW TO HELP BUILD THE DEMONSTRATION

We do not want anyone after the demonstration to be able to say they were not on the demonstration because they did not know about it. This is why we are asking all our supporters not just to come on the demonstration but actively to help publicise it as widely as possible. Everyone can contribute:

* EMAIL: Email all your contacts with details of the demonstration and encourage them to join us

* LEAFLETING: Order leaflets, window posters and stickers from the national office (020 7801 2768) and use them to spread the word among your friends, family, work colleagues, fellow students etc

* FACEBOOK, TWITTER, BLOGS: If you use social media networks, these can be one of the most effective ways of publicising the demonstration very widely

* LOCAL STOP THE WAR GROUPS: If there is a local group in your area, they will very much welcome you joining their activities promoting the demonstration. Call the national office for contact details.'

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Wikileaks: 391,832 reasons to march on 20 November

The whistleblowing website Wikileaks has released nearly 400,000 American military documents, detailing widespread torture, summary executions and war crimes. They reveal the truth about the US/UK legacy in Iraq.

The source of the leaks is thought to be the same US army intelligence analyst who recently leaked 90,000 documents concerning brutality, abuse and civilian killings in Afghanistan.

The Guardian has full coverage - see HERE - including detail on how:

• 'US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, torture, rape and even murder by Iraqi police and soldiers whose conduct appears to be systematic and normally unpunished.

• A US helicopter gunship involved in a notorious Baghdad incident had previously killed Iraqi insurgents after they tried to surrender.

• More than 15,000 civilians died in previously unknown incidents. US and UK officials have insisted that no official record of civilian casualties exists but the logs record 66,081 non-combatant deaths out of a total of 109,000 fatalities.'

It's easy to become complacent about the horrors of war and occupation in Iraq. The same applies to Afghanistan. But the scale of human suffering - and the deliberateness behind that suffering - revealed by these war logs is still a jolt.

This is what happens in modern warfare. It's a long time since men in uniform were overwhelmingly the casualties of war. We live in an age in which civilians - women, men and children, from all walks of life - are the direct victims of policies formulated by governments thousands of miles away.

But of course that's not the 'narrative' our media want us to hear. On the BBC news bulletin I listened to earlier we only heard one voice other than the newsreader's. It was the voice of a US Army spokesman, condemning Wikileaks for sharing this information. In fact we heard him twice.

So the BBC, like (I'm sure) many other media organisations, is already complying merrily with American efforts to turn this into a story about the leaks causing a supposed security threat, not a story about massive levels of abuse, killing and cover-ups.

It reminded me of the deceit and distortion we had from the pro-war propagandists, especially those former lefties who turned into cheerleaders for US imperialism: Nick Cohen, David Aaronovitch, Christopher Hitchens and the rest. Even now you'll struggle to discern any remorse from these people - no doubt they'll push the smears against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and whip up a non-existent 'security threat'.

But we all know, and they all know, that the real threat to security comes from the casual brutality and cruelty revealed in the leaked documents. There is nothing 'secure' in the lives of the relatives of those 15,000 or more Iraqi civilians who 'died in previously unknown incidents'.

What security is there for those victims of 'abuse, torture, rape and even murder'? If the crimes against them were reported nothing was done. Instead they were covered up, didn't count, made invisible.

There are 391, 832 leaked documents. Every one is a reminder of why we need US and allied troops out of countries where they don't belong. Only a complete and immediate end to the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan will bring any hope of ending the abuses and the killing.

Every one of those documents is a call to action. Join Stop the War's national demonstration on Saturday 20 November. It's Time To Go.

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Lowkey: American power and the legacy of war

'Over 120 people packed out yet another Stop the War Coalition meeting, this time in Tower Hamlets.

The war in Afghanistan is in crisis. Talk of withdrawal dates is an admission of failure. But there are more NATO troops in Afghanistan than ever and the violence is growing. Meanwhile, for all the talk of a peace process, the Israeli occupation of Palestine continues to cause misery for the Palestinians and anger across the Middle East.'
 

 
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Stop the War's Lindsey German: demonstrations DO matter

Also see HERE


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John Pilger warned that Julian Assange and Wikileaks would be smeared

There's a very good John Pilger article in this week's New Statesman, praising Julian Assange and Wikileaks. Pilger perceptively, perhaps even presciently, noted the US authorities' determination to discredit Assange:

'There is understandably hysteria on high, with demands that the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, be "hunted down" and "rendered".

In Washington, I interviewed a senior official in the defence department and asked: "Can you give a guarantee that the editors of WikiLeaks and the editor-in-chief, who is not American, will not be subjected to the kind of manhunt that we read about in the media?" He replied: "It's not my position to give guarantees on anything."
He referred me to the "ongoing criminal investigation" of a US soldier, Bradley Manning, an alleged whistleblower. In a nation that claims its constitution protects truth-tellers, the Obama administration is pursuing and prosecuting more whistleblowers than any of its modern predecessors.

A Pentagon document states bluntly that US intelligence intends to "fatally marginalise" WikiLeaks. The preferred tactic is smear, with corporate journalists ever ready to play their part.'

Pilger also comments on broader issues around the political role of journalism:

'The WikiLeaks revelations shame the dominant section of journalism, devoted merely to taking down what cynical and malign power tells it. This is state stenography, not journalism.

Look on the WikiLeaks site and read a Ministry of Defence document that describes the "threat" of real journalism. And so it should be a threat. Having skilfully published the WikiLeaks exposé of a fraudulent war, the Guardian should now give its most powerful and unreserved editorial support to the protection of Assange and his colleagues, whose truth-telling is as important as any in my lifetime.'


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Tony Benn: the anti-war movement is vindicated

Also see HERE.

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Joe Glenton: "In the current climate I consider it a badge of honour to have served a prison sentence"

Joe Glenton's moving speech at last night's Stop the War public rally in central London:




More speeches from the rally:
Lindsey German
Mark Steel
Jeremy Corbyn

Also see:
Peace crime: Joe Glenton served his country in military prison (Brendan Montague's report of yesterday's rally)
Wikileaks revelations: beginning of the end in Afghanistan? (Lindsey German, convenor of Stop the War, on the afermath of the Wikileaks revelations)

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