1) JANUARY 24: ALL EYES ON PARLIAMENT
Predictably, Tony Blair is virtually alone among world leaders in supporting George Bush’s “new strategy” for Iraq. Blair says the plan “makes sense”. Is this the same Tony Blair who barely one month ago welcomed the Iraq Study Group’s report, saying, “It is practical, it’s clear, and it offers also the way of bringing people together”? The ISG report called for a phased withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and dialogue with Iran and Syria — in other words, the opposite of Bush’s “new strategy.”
There is one group that has always had the power to stop Blair’s compulsive subservience to George Bush: members of parliament. So far, the majority have acquiesced in every stage of Blair’s warmongering. On 24 January, Iraq will be debated and voted on in parliament. Stop the War has called for a lunchtime lobby of MPs, followed by an evening demonstration outside the House of Commons (details below). Between now and then we need to do everything possible to ensure that MPs know that they must not repeat their abject performance on 31 October 2006, when only 12 Labour MPs voted for an inquiry into the whole Iraq disaster. (See http://tinyurl.com/y95y6q)
Stop the War is organising a concerted campaign over the next two weeks to put pressure on MPs ? particularly Labour MPs — to stop collaborating with Blair’s war policies. Round the country, all local Stop the War Groups are being asked to organise protests and lobbies at MPs’ surgeries, where the local MP can be urged face-to-face to say yes Troops Out of Iraq. We have launched a postcard write-in campaign (see below), for MPs’ constituents to write to their local MP and ask how he or she will be voting on Iraq and on Trident missiles (see below).
This will culminate in the two events at parliament on 24 January. Please join us and encourage as many of their friends, work colleagues, fellow students, etc, to be there too. See the Stop the War website for further details: www.stopwar.org.uk
*JOIN THE LUNCHTIME LOBBY AT PARLIAMENT
WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY AT 1.00PM
STOP TRIDENT / TROOPS OUT OF IRAQ
HOUSE OF COMMONS, PARLIAMENT SQUARE
*JOIN THE EVENING DEMONSTRATION
WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY AT 5.00-7.00PM
STOP TRIDENT / TROOPS OUT OF IRAQ
HOUSE OF COMMONS, PARLIAMENT SQUARE
(MPs vote on the Iraq motion at 7.00pm)
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2) NO TO TRIDENT / YES TO TROOPS OUT OF IRAQ
Stop the War and CND are organising a postcard write-in campaign aimed at every MP. We are asking all our supporters to get as many people as possible to send their local MP a special postcard, which is available free of charge from the Stop the War office. The postcard calls for a commitment from the MP to vote for Troops Out of Iraq and against Tony Blair’s plans for a new generation of Trident nuclear weapons. The postcards are available from the Stop the War office (office@stopwar.org.uk or 020 7278 6694). The design and text of the postcard can be viewed on the Stop the War website here: http://tinyurl.com/y5ky5k
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3) TURNING BAGHDAD INTO VIETNAM
There is nothing “new” about George Bush’s latest plans for Iraq. The same strategy has been used repeatedly, twice before in Baghdad, in Falluja, in Ramadi, in Tal Afar and many other places. The intention and the result have always been the same. Devastating military force aimed at pacifying a town or city doesn’t achieve its aim but turns much of the target into rubble, slaughters countless civilians, drives thousands from their homes and destroys the local infrastructure.
This time the consequences have the potential to be more horrific than anything we have seen before in Iraq. The main aim of the “new strategy” is to destroy the resistance to the US occupation which has made Sadr City, home to two million of Baghdad’s poorest citizens, a virtual no-go area for the occupying army. This is a dramatic escalation of the Iraq war but the Bush plans don’t stop there. The “new strategy” includes open threats against Syria and Iran, which — coupled with the leaks that show Israeli has it own plans for bombing Iran — means that we may be on the brink of a Middle East conflagration with results too horrendous to contemplate.
For these reasons, this is a pivotal moment for the anti-war movement, particularly in Britain and the US, home to the two war criminals who instigated the Iraq catastrophe. The stakes are very high. The “new strategy” is George Bush’s last throw of the dice, aimed at disproving what everyone else knows: America has lost the Iraq war.
We have been here before, as Senator Hagel from Bush’s own Party reminded us when he said the “new strategy” “represents the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam.” In 1968, America had clearly lost in Vietnam but it was six more bloody years, in which two million people were killed, before the US military was driven out.
The worldwide anti-war movement has to do all it can to help stop a repeat of the Vietnam experience. Time is short but the opposition to Bush’s plans is huge. Seventy per cent of Americans and over 70 per cent of Iraqis oppose the “new strategy”. In Britain, over 60 per cent of people have consistently opposed Tony Blair’s warmongering and his slavish support for George Bush. Millions of British people have been involved in anti-war activity over the past five years.
The American anti-war movement has called a March on Washington on 27 January and there are now campaigns in every US locality to pressure US Congressmen and Congresswomen to stop Bush’s strategy in its tracks.
(See http://tinyurl.com/sz2s4)
In Britain, on 24 January, when parliament will debate and vote on Iraq, Stop the War is organising two protests, including an evening demonstration at the time MPs will be voting on the Iraq motion (see above and www.stopwar.org.uk).
On 24 February, CND and Stop the War have called a national demonstration combining the call for Troops Out of Iraq with the Stop Trident campaign (see below and see http://tinyurl.com/y9c7z5).
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4) NATIONAL DEMONSTRATION: 24 FEBRUARY
Hot on the heels of parliament’s debate and vote on Iraq on 24 January will be the House of Commons debate and vote on another strand of Tony Blair’s war policies — his intention to spend a projected 75 billion pounds on a new generation of weapons of mass destruction (see http://tinyurl.com/y6y8os). The Trident debate will take place in early March. CND and Stop the War Coalition have called a national demonstration on 24 February which will have a twin purpose: Stop Trident / Troops Out of Iraq.
Coaches are now being organised around the country to bring protestors to London for this crucial demonstration. We will be publicising details on the Stop the War website as we get them (see http://tinyurl.com/y9c7z5). If there are no coach details yet for where you live, contact the Stop the War office and we will put you in touch with the local group organising transport.
Local groups, often in conjunction with CND, are organising Stop Trident / Troops Out of Iraq public meetings and rallies, details for which can be found on our website here: http://tinyurl.com/q3y4k
If you are not involved in a local group and would like to help build support for the demonstration on 24 February, contact the Stop the War office and we will give you contact details for anti-war activists in your area.
NATIONAL DEMONSTRATION
STOP TRIDENT / TROOPS OUT OF IRAQ
SATURDAY 24 FEBRUARY
ASSEMBLE HYDE PARK 12 NOON
MARCH TO TRAFALGAR SQUARE
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5) MORE WAR CRIMES IN SOMALIA
George Bush’s bombing of Somalia this week broke innumerable international laws but you wouldn’t know it from the mainstream media, which hasn’t questioned the legality of a bombing campaign that has devastated four villages, killing over 100 Somali civilians, without any indication that any of the supposed Al-Qaeda targets of the bombing were killed. This is yet another indication of the barbarity that has characterised much of Bush’s foreign policy. These Somali civilians were killed by attacks which were to a large extent publicity exercises aimed at softening opposition to the “new strategy” in Iraq and an attempt by Bush to re-assert his “right” to order mass slaughter anywhere he pleases in his bogus “war on terror”.
Stop the War has organised an all-London public meeting on Wednesday 17 January to discuss the escalating crises in Somalia:
PUBLIC MEETING: HANDS OFF SOMALIA
WHY US INTERVENTION WON’T HELP
WEDNESDAY 17 JANUARY 7.00PM
ROOM G50, SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES
THORNAUGH STREET, LONDON WC1
Speakers:
DAHABO ISSE (Somali Civil Liberties And Human Rights Organisation)
LINDSEY GERMAN Stop The War Coalition
JEREMY CORBYN MP
All welcome.
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6) THE TRIAL OF TONY BLAIR
You have always hoped it would happen but feared it never would: the indictment of Tony Blair for war crimes. Well, next Monday he will be held to account exactly as we always wanted. Unfortunately, it’s only a television drama but the track record of the anti-war playwright Alistair Beaton, who has produced some of the best and funniest satires on Bush and Blair’s warmongering, makes this an unmissable event. Who knows, maybe it will presage the real thing.
The feature length film is on More 4 on Monday 15 January at 10pm and repeated on Channel 4 on Thursday 18 January. See: http://tinyurl.com/y7oxos
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7) PUBLIC MEETING: ISLAMOPHOBIA ? THE NEW RACISM
A public meeting in London will discuss, Islamophobia which featured so prominently in the media over recent years. Speakers include Guardian journalist Gary Younge and human rights lawyer Lousise Cristian. All Welcome.
Public Meeting:
ISLAMOPHOBIA – THE NEW RACISM
Speakers:
GARY YOUNGE (Guardian)
URMEE MAZHAR (Bangla TV)
LOUISE CHRISTIAN (Lawyer for Guantanamo detainees)
CRAIG MURRAY (Former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan)
CHRIS NINEHAM (Stop the War Coalition)
DATE & TIME: Monday 22 January, 7.30pm
VENUE: Bloomsbury Central Church Hall, 235 Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2 (Directions www.bloomsbury.org.uk)
Organised by Media Workers Against the War
Contact: mwaw@btinternet.com