Messages

796

Newcastle Stop the War / Peace Viigil outside BAE Systems

« on: October 11, 2008, 08:41:59 AM »

Thursday October 23      7.30 am
Armstrong works scotswood road next to scotswood bridge

797

News Items / Re: 'No decisive victory in Afghanistan' says UK Brigadier

« on: October 08, 2008, 11:35:11 PM »

7 years of the War on Terror 
   
Written by Andrew Burgin   
 
Wednesday, 08 October 2008
 
Yesterday was the 7th anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan and the start of the so-called 'War on terror'. War in Afghanistan and then in Iraq was meant to cement US power and influence around the world. This new century we were told was to be the American century and Bush's neo-conservative project was to 'promoteAmerican global leadership' through a policy of 'military strength and moral clarity'. The peoples of Afghanistan and Iraq have paid a high price for this 'moral clarity'.
In Britain our government slavishly supported the warmongers in Washington - fixing the intelligence around the policy. An accounting still needs to be made with those who led an illegal invasion of Iraq resulting in the deaths of more than 1 million people in that country. As Stephen Hawking said - if that is not a war crime I don't know what one is.

After 7 years senior military commanders and diplomats in Afghanistan now tell us there can be no military victory there. The best that can be hoped for is to fight the Taliban to a standstill and then negotiate. In Iraq only the imprisoning of large sections of the population in Fallujah and in Basra city and elsewhere has allowed the US occupation to sustain itself.

These wars and the philosophy underpinning them have led to the destabilisation of the entire world. No longer do the prospects for a war between the great powers seem unthinkable. The expansion of NATO eastwards has laid the seeds for spreading war way beyond the Middle East. Both the USA and Britain have spent hundreds of billions of pounds and dollars on these wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This expenditure has contributed to the decay of the financial system that now faces collapse. The anti-war movement both here and in the USA has campaigned against the war on terror throughout its duration and we will continue our campaign against the spread of war and for the troops to be brought home form Iraq and Afghanistan. Last week anti-war protesters recognising that the people who run the economy are also those who lead the war-drive went down to Wall Street - their central slogan was No Bail Out! No War!
 

798

News Items / 'No decisive victory in Afghanistan' says UK Brigadier

« on: October 07, 2008, 05:04:14 PM »

'No decisive victory in Afghanistan' says UK Brigadier     
Written by Richard Norton-Taylor     
Monday, 06 October 2008 
Britain is stepping up pressure for a political and diplomatic settlement to the conflict in Afghanistan, a move set in sharp relief yesterday by the commander of UK troops who warned that the war against the Taliban was not going to be won.

The message is being delivered with increasing urgency by British military commanders, diplomats and intelligence officers, to Nato allies and governments in the region, the Guardian has learned.

"We're not going to win this war," Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith said yesterday. "It's about reducing it to a manageable level of insurgency that's not a strategic threat and can be managed by the Afghan army. We may well leave with there still being a low but steady ebb of rural insurgency."

Carleton-Smith, commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade, which has just completed a six-month mission in southern Afghanistan during which 32 of his soldiers were killed and 170 injured, said his forces had "taken the sting out of the Taliban for 2008". But he warned that the public should not expect "a decisive military victory". It was necessary to "lower our expectations" and accept it as unrealistic that multinational forces can entirely rid Afghanistan of armed bands.

He said the aim should be to change the nature of the debate in Afghanistan so that disputes were settled by negotiation and not violence.

"If the Taliban were prepared to sit on the other side of the table and talk about a political settlement, then that's precisely the sort of progress that concludes insurgencies like this," Carleton-Smith said. "That shouldn't make people uncomfortable."

Abdul Rahim Wardak, Afghanistan's defence minister, expressed disappointment at the comments.
But Carleton-Smith's warnings were echoed by a senior defence source yesterday, who said "the notion of winning and losing the decisive battle does not exist". Carleton-Smith added that all the Nato-led international military force could do in Afghanistan was provide the "parameters of security".

The deepening concerns reflect what British defence chiefs are saying privately. The conflict with the Taliban has reached "stalemate", they say. They also express increasing frustration with the weakness and corruption of President Hamid Karzai's government in Kabul.

Britain has denied that it believes the military campaign in Afghanistan is doomed to failure after the French weekly Le Canard Enchaîné reported that Sherard Cowper-Coles, UK ambassador to Kabul, told a French official that foreign troops added to the country's problems.

The newspaper reported that Cowper-Coles had said Afghanistan might best be "governed by an acceptable dictator", that the American strategy was "destined to fail", and the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan was "part of the problem, not the solution". The French foreign ministry said the newspaper report did not "correspond at all with what we hear from our British counterparts in our discussions on Afghanistan".

Writing on his website on Friday, David Miliband, the foreign secretary, described the report as "garbled" and insisted that Britain did not support a Kabul dictatorship.

"The future of Afghanistan is not about appointed dictators or foreign occupation, it is about building Afghan capabilities with the confidence of the Afghan people," he wrote.

A Foreign Office official was reported to have described the claim that Cowper-Coles advocated a dictatorship in Afghanistan as "utter nonsense", and that the comments attributed to the ambassador were likely to have been a distortion of what he had said in the meeting.

British officials are exasperated with the Karzai administration, the slowness in building up a national army and corruption in the Afghan police force.

Violence in Afghanistan has risen to its worst level since 2001, when US-led forces overthrew the Taliban.

Aid agencies say the Taliban and associated groups are controlling more territory and it is increasingly difficult to provide the population with their humanitarian needs, let alone physical security.

After months of indecision and attacking western diplomats and military officials for approaching Taliban forces and their local commanders, Karzai said last week he had asked the king of Saudi Arabia to mediate in negotiations.

From the Guardian
 

799

News Items / Dear Hands Off Iraqi Oil supporter

« on: October 01, 2008, 09:12:28 PM »

Dear Hands Off Iraqi Oil supporter,
 
Today is the 2,000th day of the occupation of Iraq - 2,000 days during which Iraq's future, in the shape of its oil, has been under dispute. On one side have been hundreds of thousands of US and UK occupying troops, and some of the world's most powerful and profitable multinational corporations, looking to take control of the world's second largest oil reserves. On the other, are the Iraqi people, including the oil workers, trying to defend their right to take decisions about their country's primary natural resource.
 
Incredibly, after 2,000 days of occupation, George Bush and Dick Cheney are about to enter the final 100 days of their administration without getting what many feel they came for. Yet still their efforts to get their hands on Iraq's oil before they are out of power continue - including through a status of forces agreement Bush is determined to sign before he leaves office (see below for more).
 
In two weeks time the Iraqi government will be meeting in London with 41 international oil companies to discuss doing business together. On the eve of this meeting, on Saturday 11 October, Hands Off Iraqi Oil is staging a demonstration in central London featuring a giant Dick Cheney puppet and visiting two of the companies, BP and Shell, at the forefront of these efforts. We urge you to join us. It's vital that international solidarity movements continue our support in the months ahead - so that we see out the last 100 days of Bush and Cheney with Iraq's future still in tact.
 
In solidarity,
Hands Off Iraqi Oil
www.handsoffiraqioil.org

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

 
1) JOIN US FOR THE 100 DAYS TO STOP BUSH AND CHENEY DEMO - SAT 11 OCT
2) IRAQ OIL CARVE-UP MEETING IN LONDON - MON 13 OCT
3) UPDATE: BIG OIL'S LATEST PLANS FOR IRAQ

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

1) JOIN US FOR THE 100 DAYS TO STOP BUSH AND CHENEY DEMO - SAT 11 OCT

Join us in central London next Saturday for a demonstration to mark the beginning of the last 100 days of the Bush-Cheney administration, and oppose Big Oil's Iraq carve-up meeting two days later (see below). There will be giant puppets, samba and more!

Assemble 12 noon, outside the Shell Centre (York Rd, SE1 7NA), opp. Waterloo train station, next to Waterloo tube. 
 
**************************************************************************************

2) OIL CARVE-UP MEETING IN LONDON - MON 13 OCTOBER

Want another reason to come to the 100 Days to Stop Bush and Cheney demo on Saturday 11 October?

How about that two days later, on Monday 13 October, Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al Shahristani is meeting with Big Oil in London to discuss long-term deals for controlling Iraqi oil.

41 international oil companies including Shell, BP and Exxon, which have pre-qualified for bids on existing producing oil and gas fields will attend.

The meeting is thought to be an interim replacement for a major oil and gas event which had been schedueled to take place in Baghdad in October. This event has now been postponed until December.

The London meeting will mark a crucial step forward in making privatisation of Iraqi oil a long-term reality.

According to Oil Ministry spokesperson Assim Jihad 'The oil ministry will unveil the legal framework and conditions for signing service contracts by qualified oil companies,'

Technical Service Contracts normally do not allow investing companies control over development, production or depletion of reserves.

Yet the service deals currently on the table have been written by the oil majors and US State Department and reportedly include clauses allowing companies to effectively transform the service contracts into Production Sharing Agreements at a later date.

PSAs are reserves-granting contracts which hand control over oil reserves to companies. Iraqi oil experts, trade unions, MPs and civil society have condemned the contracts as a form of economic occupation and a violation of any future potential Iraqi sovereignty.

The situation in Iraq is far from fair or normal for any long-term deals to be negotiated let alone signed.

Over one million people have died since the beginning of the war and occupation.

Millions are dispalced by occupation-stoked sectarian violence. Occupation forces and mercenaries continue to kill and main with impunity, thousands suffer in prison camps, indiscriminate aerial attacks and curfews terrorize thousands.
Profound injustice, disempowerment, poverty and distress dominate the daily lives of most people living in occupied Iraq.

The oil law threatens to escalate and perpetuate the occupation and sectarian violence. Its' passage could re-draw the map of Iraq through allowing regions to control their own oil industries, sign contracts with majors without democratic oversight and economically empower their already occupation supported political and military power structures.

Passage of the oil law and the signing of longterm privatisation deals in Iraq will escalate conflict, entrench the occupation and increase the number of paramilitary and mercenary forces in the beleagured country. The stakes could not be higher for the future of Iraq´s economy, independence, stability and unity. This is why the law is still off the statute books and Iraqis up and down the country continue to oppose it.

Thwarting the economic and geo-political aims of the neo-conservative right which are profiting from the war on Iraq, such as the US oil lobby and its´ man in the whitehouse Dick Cheney should be at the forefront of the anti-war movement.

The Bush-Cheney administration and its' allies in the oil industry and are not giving up, neither are the people of Iraq and neither should we.

It is vital for the anti war movement, social justice movements and the trade union movement to come out into the streets on saturday. We need to show our solidarity with the Iraqi people in resisting the rip off of their resources and the ongoing occupation - military and economic - of Iraq.

Join us on the streets of London on Saturday 11 October in telling Shell, BP and the others, Hands Off Iraqi Oil - End the Occupation Now!

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

3) UPDATE: BIG OIL'S LATEST PLANS FOR IRAQ

Technical Service Contracts cancelled by Iraqi government – what next?
 
Briefly, the recent cancellation of the TSAs or TSCs – originally part-written by the US state department and international oil companies - is evidence of the progress the Iraqi and international campaign has made, and how much there is still left to play for.
 
The oil law is now unlikely to be passed before Bush and Cheney leave office. The Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani himself admits there is no prospect for the foreseeable future.
 
However, the rumours in Baghdad are that some kind of oil agreement will be included in the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). SOFA remains unratified yet the deal is likely to reflect not only long term US military interests in the region but a long-term economic agenda favourable to allied oil industry interests.
 
The Chinese development contracts for the al-Ahdab deal near Baghdad as well as the gas capture contract for Shell have not yet been signed, merely their terms agreed by the Iraqi cabinet.
 
The details of the contracts have not been released to the parliament, nor have they been subject of public scrutiny or debate. However they could be signed soon. Oil experts and civil society leaders in Iraq continue to call for an open debate and transparency and consultation with all Iraqi resource deals.
 
Some oil experts privately suspect that US officials were involved in the decision to agree the Chinese deal. By Iraqi standards, it is a small field and gives a handy answer to charges that the US administration wanted Iraq's oil for US companies. However these suspicions lack evidence.

FAQs

So why weren't the Technical Service Contracts not signed?
Essentially, the reason for the collapse of these negotiations (after nearly a year) was that the western oil companies were so greedy. They weren't interested in the contracts in their own right (they're only 1-year service contracts), but in what they could give them beyond. So they were insisting on long-term extension rights, giving them first refusal on subsequent longer contracts - something the Iraqi government resisted. But the companies were too greedy and have now missed out altogether, so will have to wait for the bidding round.
 
Why has the Iraqi Ministry of Oil taken this position?
That the Oil Ministry was prepared to stand up to the companies is due to the shift in the politics of the oil issue. Eighteen months ago, oil policy in Iraq was consistently reflecting the interests of the western companies and governments - it was due to the popular campaign in Iraq that the Oil Ministry felt able to (and needed to) push a firmer line.
 
So what happens next?
Other contracts are proceeding. A bidding round is about to be launched for 8 large oilfields (roughly the same ones that would have been covered by these no-bid contracts), and then there is the contract agreed recently with Chinese companies for the al-Ahdab field and with Shell for gas development for the domestic and export market. All of those are long-term contracts (reportedly 20 years).
 
What kind of contracts are these long term 'development' contracts?
According to the Ministry's claims, they are service contracts. If that is true, they would be comparable at least to contracts in Venezuela and Iran, rather than giving such a large share of ownership, control and revenues as the production sharing contracts the companies wanted; but still giving away more than in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, where foreign companies do not manage a whole field, but are just contracted to install a piece of technology, for example. Russia by comparison is a different case altogether, as it is mostly closed to foreign companies.
 
How do we know that these contracts won't just be Production Sharing Agreements of privatisation deals by another name?
It is hard to say because so far there has been absolutely no transparency, and no-one knows what the terms of the contracts are. The priority now in Iraq has to be for these terms to be disclosed - the issues are too important to be decided in secret.
 
How can the companies start work in Iraq when the oil law is still not passed?
The legal position in Iraq is that limited contracts (like in Saudi Arabia) can be signed without an oil law, but extensive ones (like production sharing contracts) can't. These contracts currently being considered are in a grey area in between. To know the answer, we would have to see the precise terms of the contracts, and take legal advice.
 
**************************************************************************************
 
HANDS OFF IRAQI OIL is a UK coalition of development, anti-war, environmental and human rights groups opposed to the rip-off of Iraq's oil wealth. For more information see our website at: www.handsoffiraqioil.org.
 
About this list: This is the news and action email list for supporters of Hands Off Iraqi Oil.
To subscribe, email: handsoff-update-subscribe@lists.riseup.net.
To unsubscribe, email: handsoff-update-unsubscribe@lists.riseup.net.

 

800

News Items / WERE YOU ON THE GEORGE BUSH DEMO 15 JUNE 2008?

« on: October 01, 2008, 09:09:36 PM »

WERE YOU ON THE GEORGE BUSH DEMO 15 JUNE 2008?

Message from bushdemo@gmail. com

POST-ACTION ARRESTS ARE TAKING PLACE - THE LONDON PAPER HAS PRINTED A POLICE APPEAL - KNOW YOUR RIGHTS!

In recent weeks several people have been arrested in connection with the demo against Bush's visit to Downing Street in June, in addition to the 25 people who were arrested on the day of the demo itself. These arrests are continuing - people are still being identified and arrested by the police as we write this on 29th September.

We think it's really important for people who may have been involved to know that this operation is happening and to be prepared. Some of those arrested so far have unexpectedly had their houses raided, and been arrested at home or unexpectedly picked up on unconnected actions or demonstrations. Those arrested are in some cases facing unreasonably serious charges such as 'violent disorder'.

On Thursday 25 September the London Paper printed pictures released by the police of 4 men who they are pursuing in connection with the demo. The article relates people 'thought to be anarchists' trying to 'push through police lines' and makes claims about sharpened sticks being poked into the eyes of police officers.

The police have an operation dedicated to pursuing people from this demo called 'Operation Spring Brook'. The plain clothes police working on this are using footage from several different FIT video cameras which were positioned behind police lines at the demo and also aerial CCTV footage.

This does not mean that everyone who attended the demo is going to be arrested tomorrow. However, we suggest that anyone who was near the front of the demonstration when the police decided to attack protesters with batons should be aware of what is happening and be aware of their rights.

THINGS YOU CAN DO:

1) Tell people you know who might have been on the demo how this situation is developing. Forward them this email including the LEGAL BRIEFING included below, especially if they might not know much about their rights when being arrested. Some people who have already been arrested ended up without solicitors and answering lots of questions they didn't need to answer when they were surprised by the police turning up at their door!

2) If you didn't see the London Paper article with the photos in it and would like to see a copy we can send you one. Email us via bushdemo@gmail. com and we will email you back. If you are worried about revealing your email address to us you can eg. set up a new email address on Gmail and email us from that.

3) If you have been arrested in connection with this demo and you do not yet have a solicitor contact Bindmans on 020 7833 4433. They are a law firm that sometimes represents activists - explain the situation and see if they are able to represent you.

4) If you have been arrested and you want to make contact with others in the same situation get in contact with us by emailing bushdemo@gmail. com. You can also call up the Stop the War Coalition office as they organised the demonstration - tel 020 7278 6694 or email office@stopwar. org.uk. They have held one meeting for defendents in recent weeks.

5) Whether or not you were at the demo, if you're interested in doing solidarity work for the people who have been arrested you can also contact us on bushdemo@gmail. com. Again, you could also contact Stop the War: 020 7278 6694 or office@stopwar. org.uk.

6) Contact the London Paper to tell them what you think about their cooperation with this political policing, and the baseless claims in their article. Email talk@thelondonpaper .com, write to The London Paper, 1 Pennington St, London E98 1XY, phone 020 7782 4848 or text 88855.

For reports and images from the demonstration, see:
- http://www.indymedi a.org.uk/ en/2008/06/ 401432.html
- http://www.indymedi a.org.uk/ en/2008/06/ 401236.html
- http://www.indymedi a.org.uk/ en/2008/06/ 401276.html
- http://www.indymedi a.org.uk/ en/2008/06/ 401258.html
- http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=5mVR--UdL78

In struggle,
Bush Demo Arrest Solidarity
bushdemo@gmail. com

YOUR RIGHTS IF YOU ARE ARRESTED

If you are arrested you are entitled to:
- Know what you have been arrested for - ask the police officer who is arresting you
- Access to free legal advice either from a solicitor (some activists use the firm Bindmans - ring them on 020 7833 4433 and explain your situation) or sometimes now via telephone. If you want a solicitor who is sympathetic to activist needs we strongly recommend you don't accept a duty solicitor.
- If you are arrested for a non-imprisonable offence (which maybe isn't very likely in this case) you may have to use telephone advice from CDS Direct or pay for a solicitor's advice.
- Have one phone call made on your behalf informing someone of your arrest.
- Remain Silent - You can answer 'no comment' if interviewed to ALL questions - this may well be to your own benefit (although you can consult your solicitor about this). The police will try to convince you that you have done something wrong, and all their questions will be trying to incriminate you - try to stay strong. You can refuse to take part in an interview or answer any questions until you have spoken to your solicitor. From the moment you are cautioned everything you say is evidence. There is no such thing as a friendly chat. The police are not trying to help you. Do not sign any statements.
- Be offered a translator if English is not your first language.
- Vegan/Vegetarian Food if you want it
- Not give your name, address or date of birth. This may however delay your release, and if you have been charged and refuse to give these details you are unlikely to be given bail (ie. be released until you have to appear in court). The police may well try to ask you lots of other questions - eg. your hair colour, height, place of birth, favourite film etc, and may even present it as just filling in a questionnaire - but you do not have to answer these questions and it should not be a reason not to grant bail. This can be hard to do especially if they are friendly about it - but it is your right to decline to answer and ask them to come up with their own answers to their questionnaire.
- Request a medical examination if you feel unwell.
- Inform the custody officer if you are on prescribed medication. You may be permitted to take it.
- Your photograph, fingerprints and DNA may be taken without your consent.

For more legal information see the website of the Activist Legal Project: http://www.activist slegalproject. org.uk/

INSIST ON YOUR RIGHTS! (otherwise you won't get them)

801

Newcastle Stop the War / Meeting TROOPS OUT OF IRAQ & AFGHANISTAN NO TO ARMY RECRUITMENT ON CAMPUS

« on: October 01, 2008, 09:07:17 PM »

STOP the WAR COALITION Public Meeting
TROOPS OUT OF IRAQ & AFGHANISTAN NO TO ARMY RECRUITMENT ON CAMPUS
6:30pm, Monday 13th October
Curtis Auditorium, Newcastle University (opposite Haymarket metro)

Speakers:
JANE SHALLICE – National Officer STWC and author, Afghanistan: Why We Should Get Out
ROSE GENTLE – Mother of fusilier Gordon Gentle who lost his life in Iraq - Honorary vice-president, National Union of Students - Military Families Against the War (www.mfaw.org.uk)
ARTEM LIEBENTHAL - Student suspended for protesting against army recruitment

802

For Your Information / Peace in Iraq is an option

« on: September 24, 2008, 09:36:13 PM »

Peace in Iraq is an option
International Anti Occupation Network
- Le Feyt Declaration

Contact with the Anti-Occupation Network :
only at Anti Occupation Network

The undersigned, friends of Iraq from France, Belgium, the United Kingdom,
Italy, Spain, Portugal, the United States of America, Egypt, Sweden and
Iraq, organized in the International Anti-Occupation Network (IAON) and
gathered in Le Feyt, France, from 25 to 27 August 2008, have adopted the
following position and declaration reflecting our commitment to a true end
to the occupation and to a lasting, sustainable peace in Iraq.

27 August 2008, Le Feyt, France

The US occupation of Iraq is illegal and cannot be made legal. All that has
derived from the occupation is illegal and illegitimate and cannot gain
legitimacy. These facts are incontrovertible. What are their consequences?

Peace, stability and democracy in Iraq are impossible under occupation.
Foreign occupation is opposed by nature to the interests of the occupied
people, as proven by the six million Iraqis displaced both inside and outside
Iraq, the planned assassination of Iraqi academics and professionals and
the destruction of their culture, and the more than one million killed.

Propaganda in the West tries to make palatable the absurdity that the
invader and destroyer of Iraq can play the role of Iraq's protector. The
convenient fear of a "security vacuum" -- used to perpetuate the
occupation -- ignores the fact that the Iraqi army never capitulated and
forms the backbone of the Iraqi armed resistance. That backbone is
concerned only with defending the Iraqi people and Iraq's sovereignty.
Similarly, projections of civil war ignore the reality that the Iraqi population
overwhelmingly, by number and by interest, rejects the occupation and will
continue to do so.

In Iraq, the Iraqi people resist the occupation by all means, in accordance
with international law1. Only the popular resistance can be recognized to
express and defend the Iraqi people's interests and will. Until now the
United States is blind to this reality, hoping that a "diplomatic surge",
following the military surge of effective ethnic cleansing, will secure a
government it imposes on Iraq. Regardless of who wins the upcoming US
presidential election, the US can never achieve its imperial goals and the
forces it imposes on Iraq are opposed to the interests of the Iraqi people.

Some in the West continue to justify the negation of popular sovereignty
under the rubric of the "war on terror", criminalizing not only resistance2,
but also humanitarian assistance to a besieged people. Under international
law the Iraqi resistance constitutes a national liberation movement.
Recognition of the Iraqi resistance is consequently a right, not an option3.
The international community has the right to withdraw recognition from the
US-imposed government in Iraq and recognize the Iraqi resistance.

It is evident that Iraq cannot recover lasting stability, unity and territorial
integrity until its sovereignty is guaranteed. It is also evident that the US
occupation cannot avoid accountability by trying to switch responsibility to
Iraq's neighbors. A pact of non-aggression, development and cooperation
between a liberated Iraq and its immediate neighbors is the obvious means
by which to achieve this stability4. In its median geopolitical position, and
given its natural resources, a liberated, peaceful and democratic Iraq is
central to the welfare and development of its neighbors. All of Iraq's
neighbors should recognize that stability in Iraq serves their own interests
and commit to not interfering in its internal affairs.

If the international community and the United States are interested in
peace, stability and democracy in Iraq they should accept that only the Iraqi
resistance -- armed, civil and political -- can achieve these by securing the
interests of the Iraqi people. The first demand of the Iraqi resistance is the
unconditional withdrawal of all foreign forces illegally occupying Iraq --
including private contractors -- and disbanding all armed forces established
by the occupation.

The Iraqi anti-occupation movement -- in all its expressions -- in defending
the Iraqi people is the only force empowered to ensure democracy in Iraq.
Across the spectrum of this movement it is agreed that upon US withdrawal
a temporary administrative government would be charged with two tasks:
preparing the ground for democratic elections and reconstituting the
national army. Upon completion of these tasks the administrative
government would disband, leaving decisions regarding reparations,
development and reconstruction to a sovereign and freely elected Iraqi
government in a state of all its citizens without religious, ethnic,
confessional or gender discrimination.

All laws, contracts, treaties and agreements signed under occupation are
unequivocally null and void. According to international law and the will of
the Iraqi people, total sovereignty of Iraqi oil and all natural, cultural and
material resources rests in the hands of the Iraqi people, in all its
generations, past, present and future. Across the spectrum of the Iraqi
anti-occupation movement all agree that Iraq should sell its oil on the
international market to all states not at war with Iraq, and in line with Iraq's
obligations as a member of OPEC.

The 2003 US invasion was and remains illegal and the law of state
responsibility demands that states refuse to recognize the consequences of
illegal state acts5. State responsibility also includes a duty to restore.
Compensation should be paid by all state and non-state actors that profited
from the destruction and plundering of Iraq.

The Iraqi people are longing for long-term peace. On the basis of the 2005
Istanbul conclusions of the World Tribunal on Iraq6, and in recognition of
the tremendous suffering of the aggressed Iraqi people, the signatories to
this declaration endorse the abovementioned principles for peace, stability
and democracy in Iraq.

The sovereignty of Iraq rests in the hands of its people in resistance. Peace
in Iraq is simple to attain: unconditional US withdrawal and recognition of
the Iraqi resistance that by definition represents the will of the Iraqi people.

We appeal to all peace loving people in the world to work to support the
Iraqi people and its resistance. The future of peace, democracy and
progress in Iraq, the region and the world depends on this.

Please circulate this statement widely

Members of the International Anti-Occupation Network :

Abdul Ilah Albayaty, member of the BRussells Tribunal Executive
Committee, France - Iraq
Hana Al Bayaty, Coordinator of the Iraqi International Initiative on refugees,
France - Egypt
Dirk Adriaensens, member of the BRussells Tribunal Executive Committee,
Belgium
John Catalinotto, International Action Center, USA
Ian Douglas, Coordinator of the International Initiative to Prosecute US
Genocide in Iraq, UK - Egypt
Max Fuller, Author of For Iraq, the Salvador Option Become Reality and
Crying Wolf, death squads in Iraq, UK - Crying Wolf
Paola Manduca, Scientist, New Weapons Committee, Italy
Sigyn Meder, member of the Iraq Solidarity Association in Stockholm,
Sweden
Cristina Meneses, member of the Portuguese session of the World Tribunal
on Iraq, Portugal
Mike Powers, member of the Iraq Solidarity Association in Stockholm,
Sweden
Manuel Raposo, member of the Portuguese session of the World Tribunal
on Iraq, Portugal
Manuel Talens, writer, member of Cubadebate, Rebelión and Tlaxcala, Spain
Paloma Valverde, member of the Spanish Campaign Against the Occupation
and for the Sovereignty of Iraq (CEOSI), Spain

International figures who join us in our commitment to a true end to the
occupation and to a lasting, sustainable peace in Iraq :

Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General, international human rights
activist, founder of the International Action Center - USA
Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, former Chief of Naval Staff -- India
Cynthia McKinney, Green Party US Presidential Candidate - USA
Denis Halliday, Former UN Assistant Secretary General & United Nations
Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq 1997-98 - Ireland
Hans von Sponeck, Former UN Assistant Secretary General & United
Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq 1998-2000 - Germany
François Houtart, Director of the Tricontinental Center (Cetri), spiritual
father and member of the International Committee of the World Social
Forum of Porto Alegre, Executive Secretary of the Alternative World Forum,
President of the International League for rights and liberation of people and
president of the BRussells Tribunal - Belgium
Socorro Gomes, Chairwoman of WPC - World Peace Council and of
Cebrapaz - Brazilian Center of Solidarity with Peoples and Struggle for
Peace - Brazil
José Francisco Gallardo Rodríguez, General Major and PhD. in Public
Administration - Mexico
Manik Mukherjee, Deputy, International Affairs, Socialist Unity Center of
India, General Secretary, International Anti-imperialist and People's
Solidarity Coordinating Committee - India
Eduardo Galeano, Essayist, journalist, historian, and activist - Uruguay
Harold Pinter, Author, Nobel Prize in Literature 2005 - UK
James Petras, Author - USA
Jan Myrdal, Author - Sweden
Michael Parenti, Author - USA
Peter Curman, Author - Sweden
Rosa Regàs, Author - Spain
Santiago Alba Rico, Author, philosopher, member of Rebelion, Spain -
Tunisia
William Blum, Author, USA
Issam Chalabi, former Iraqi Oil Minister, Iraq/Jordan
Dr. Omar Al Kubaisy, senior iraqi cardiologist, anti occupation politician and
activist on iraq health & medical situation
Dr. Saeed H. Hasan, Former Iraqi Permanent Representative to the United
Nations - Iraq
Dr. Saadallah Al-Fathi, former head of the Energy Studies Department at
OPEC - Iraq
Salah Omar Al Ali, ex iraqi minister/ex Iraq's ambassador to UN
Faruq Ziada, Former Iraqi Ambassador
Majid Al Samarai, former Iraqi ambassador
Wajdi A. Mardan, writer and Iraqi Diplomat
Naji Haraj, former Iraqi diplomat, human rights activist
Ridha Al Ridha, President of Iraqi Ja'fari shiits association: Al Ja'faria
Hassan T. Walli Aydinli, President of the Committee for the Defence of the
Iraqi Turkmens' Rights - Belgium-Iraq
Saif Al din Al Douri, Iraqi writer and researcher
Sabah Al-Mukhtar, President of the Arab Lawyers Association - Iraq / UK
Mohammed Younis Alobaidi, Oil Expert, Petroleum Consultancy Group
(PCG) Board Member
Prof. Dr. Zuhair Al Sharook, Former President of Mosul University, Iraq
Dr. Abdul Razaq M. Al Dulaimi, Dean of college of communication in
Baghdad before the invasion
"Hana Ibrahim", Chair of Women's Will Organisation - Iraq
Mohammed Aref, Science writer - Iraq / UK
Muhamad Tareq Al-Deraji, Director of Monitoring net of human rights in Iraq
- President of CCERF - Fallujah
Dr. Mousa Al-Hussaini, Iraqi Writer
Buthaina al Nasiri, author and activist, iraq-egypt
Dr. Souad Naji Al-Azzawi, Asst. Prof. Env. Eng. - University of Baghdad -
Iraq
Dr. Fadhil .M. Albadrani, Professor in media, journalist. baghdad - Iraq
Mundher Al-Adhami, Research Fellow at Kings College London - Iraq / UK
Nermeen Al-Mufti, Former co-director of Occupation Watch - Journalist -
Iraq
Salam Musafir, Iraqi author and journalist based in Russia
Wafaa' Al-Natheema, independent journalist, activist, founder of the
Institute of Near Eastern & African Studies (INEAS), filmmaker, author of
"Untamed Nostalgia - Wild Poems"
Hisham Bustani, Writer and Activist, Secretary - Socialist Thought Forum,
Jordan
Nada Kassass, activist, Egypt
Arab Lotfy, artist and activist, Resistance Alliance, Lebanon- Egypt
Dr Sahera Al Abta, Academic,Doctor in biology,Faculty of
Sience,Iraq/Amman
Sabah Al-Khozai, Academic & Politician
Yihia Abu Safi, searcher and activist, committies RIGHT TO RETURN
palestinian, member of Resistance Alliance-Cairo
Dr. Mahmoud Khalid Almsafir, Ass. Prof. International Economics, Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia
Ghali Hassan, Independent writer living in Syndey, Australia
Yasar Mohammed Salman Hasan, computer science and business
management - UK
Abdul Wahab Hamid Rashid, Iraq/Sweden
Asma Darwish Al-Haidari, Economist and Activist - Amman
Dr. Curtis F.J. Doebbler, International Human Rights Lawyer - USA
Karen Parker, Attorney , Association of Humanitarian Lawyers, partners of
the BRussells Tribunal - USA
Niloufer Bhagwat, Vice President of Indian Lawyers Association - Mumbai /
India
Amy Bartholomew, Law professor - Canada
Jennifer Van Bergen, journalist, author writing about civil liberties, human
rights and international law, law lecturer at the Anglo-American University
in Prague
Ana Esther Ceceña, Researcher/professor in geopolitics, National
Autonomous University of México, Director of the Geopolitics Latinamerican
Observatory - Mexico
Ángel Guerra Cabrera, journalist and professor - Cuba
April Hurley, MD, Iraq Peace Team, Baghdad 2003 - California, USA
Azildin Bin Hussain Al Qutamil, Arab Avant Guard-blog - Tunis
Dr. Bert De Belder, Coordinator Intal & Medical Aid For The Third World -
Belgium
Carlos Fazio, journalist and academic - Mexico
Carlos Taibo, professor of Political Sciences, Madrid Autonomous
University - Spain
Carmen Bohorquez, philosopher, Coordinator of the network of networks
In Defense of Humanity - Venezuela
Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, President of JUST International - Malaysia
Claudio Moffa, Professor of History - Italy
Corinne Kumar, Secretary General of El Taller International - Tunesia / India
Dahr Jamail, independent journalist, author: Beyond the Green Zone:
Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq - USA
David Hungerford, antiwar activist - USA
David Miller, Professor of Sociology at Strathclyde University, co-founder of
Spinwatch - UK
Dirk Tuypens, Actor - Belgium
Elias Davidsson, composer, international law scholar and activist for 9/11
truth - Germany
Eric Goeman, coordinator ATTAC - Belgium
Fausto Giudice, Writer, translator, activist, member of Tlaxcala -
Italy/France
Felicity Arbuthnot, Journalist - UK
Frank Vercruyssen, Actor, TG Stan - Belgium
Dr. Gideon Polya, scientist, author of Body Count, Global avoidable
mortality since 1950, Australia
Gie van den Berghe, professor University of Ghent - Belgium
Gilad Atzmon, Musician, writer, pro-Palestinian activist - UK
Gilberto López y Rivas, anthropologist - Mexico
Prof. Hedvig Ekerwald, Dept of Sociology, Uppsala University - Sweden
Prof. Em. Herman De Ley, Em. Prof. Ghent University, Ex-director of Centre
for Islam in Europe - Belgium
Isaac Rosa, Writer - Spain
James E. Jennings, PH.D., President , Conscience International, Inc., a
humanitarian aid and human rights organization working primarily in the
Middle East; and Executive Director, US Academics for Peace, a group of
university professors dedicated to dialogue among civilizations - USA
Jean Pestieau, Professor Emeritus, Catholic Univercity of Louvain (UCL),
Belgium
Joachim Guilliard, Journalist, Anti-war movement - Germany
John Saxe-Fernández, Professor of political science, National Autonomous
University - México
Jos Hennes, Publisher EPO - Edition House - Belgium
José Reinaldo Carvalho, Journalist, politologue, Relations Internationales,
Cebrapaz - Centre Brésilien Pour la Solidarité avec les Peuples et la Lutte
pour la Paix - Brazil
Kris Smet, Former Journalist - Belgium
Larry Holmes, Troops Out Now Coalition - USA
LeiLani Dowell, Fight Imperialism, Stand Together - USA
Prof. Dr. Lieven De Cauter, philosopher, K.U. Leuven / Rits, initiator of the
BRussells Tribunal - Belgium
Lolo Rico, screenwriter - Spain
Ludo De brabander, Vrede, Peace Organisation - Belgium
Luz Gomez Garcia, Lecturer. Universidad Autonoma de Madrid - Spain
Manlio Dinucci, journalist Il Manifesto - Italy
Marc Vandepitte, philosopher - Belgium
Maria McGavigan, Institute for Marxist Studies, Brussels
Dr Mario Novelli, Lecturer in International Development, University of
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Maruja Torres, writer and journalist - Spain
Mary Rizzo, Writer, translator, pro-Palestinian activist, member of Tlaxcala -
USA/Italy
Mathias Cederholm, historian University of Lund, member in the Iraq
Committe in Malmö, Sweden
Merry Fitzgerald, Europe-Turkmens of Iraq Friendships - Belgium
Michel Chossudovsky, economics professor and director, Centre for
Research on Globalization (CRG) - Canada
Michel Collon, author, journalist - Belgium
Miguel Álvarez Gándara, member of SERAPAZ - Mexico
Mohamed Larbi Benotmane, law professor, Mohamed V University (Rabat).
Dr. Nayar López Castellanos, National Autonomous University of México -
Mexico
Pascual Serrano, journalist, member of Rebelion - Spain
Paul Vanden Bavière, Former journalist De Standaard, publicist and editor
of webzine Uitpers - Belgium
Pedro Monzón, Professor, Coordinator of the Cuban Chapter In Defense of
Humanity - Cuba
Dr. Pol De Vos, Public Health Researcher - Peace movement, Belgium
René Naba, journalist, writer - France
Robin Eastman-Abaya, physician and human rights activist - USA
Prof. Rudi Laermans, sociologist, Catholic University of Leuven - Belgium
Sasha Crow, founder, co-directer of Collateral Repair Project
Sara Flounders, co-director of the International Action Center
Sarah Meyer, Independent researcher living in Sussex - UK
Saul Landau, scholar, author, commentator, and filmmaker on foreign and
domestic policy issues, fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies - USA.
Sköld Peter Matthis, ophthalmologist - Sweden
Stephan Galon, ABVV Trade-Union Secretary / Permanent Syndical
Centrale Générale FGTB - Belgium
Stéphane Lathion, swiss scholar (Fribourg University) - President of the
GRIS (Research Group on Islam in Switzerland).
Stephen Eric Bronner, Professor of political science, Rutgers University -
USA
Stevan Kirschbaum, Chair Grievance Committee United Steel Workers 8751
- USA
Steve Gillis, Vice President, United Steel Workers Local 8751 - USA
Teresa Gutierrez, May 1st Coalition for Immigrant and Worker Rights
Co-Coordinator and Deputy Secretary General International Migrant
Alliance (organizations for ID only) - USA
Dr. Thomas M. Fasy, MD PhD, Clinical Associate Professor, Mount Sinai
School of Medicine - USA
Víctor Flores Olea, writer and political scientist - Mexico

Endorsing Organisations :

All India Anti-imperialist Forum - India
BRussells Tribunal - Belgium
CEOSI - Spain
Conscience International - USA
El Taller International - Tunesia
INTAL - Belgium
International Action Center - USA
International Anti-imperialist and People's Solidarity Coordinating
Committee
The Iraq Solidarity Association in Stockholm (IrakSolidaritet) - Sweden
Medical Aid For The Third World - Belgium
Muslim Peacemaker Teams - Iraq
Palestine Think Tank (Free Minds for a Free Palestine)
Tlaxcala, The Translators' (Global) Network for Linguistic Diversity
US Academics for Peace - USA
World Courts of Women
Collateral Repair Project (www.collateralrepairproject.org)

We encourage the international peace movement, civil society and
politicians to follow their example :

1 The right to self-determination, national independence, territorial
integrity, national unity, and sovereignty without external interference has
been affirmed numerous times by a number of UN bodies, including the UN
Security Council, UN General Assembly, UN Commission on Human Rights,
the International Law Commission and the International Court of Justice.
The principle of self-determination provides that where forcible action has
been taken to suppress this right, force may be used in order to counter
this and achieve self-determination.
The Commission on Human Rights has routinely reaffirmed the legitimacy of
struggling against occupation by all available means, including armed
struggle (CHR Resolution No. 3 XXXV, 21 February 1979 and CHR
Resolution No. 1989/19, 6 March 1989). Explicitly, UN General Assembly
Resolution 37/43, adopted 3 December 1982: "Reaffirms the legitimacy of
the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity
and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation
by all available means, including armed struggle." (See also UN General
Assembly Resolutions 1514, 3070, 3103, 3246, 3328, 3382, 3421, 3481, 31/91,
32/42 and 32/154).

2 Article 1(4) of the 1st Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions,
1977, considers self-determination struggles as international armed conflict
situations. The Geneva Declaration on Terrorism states: "As repeatedly
recognized by the United Nations General Assembly, peoples who are
fighting against colonial domination and alien occupation and against racist
regimes in the exercise of their right of self-determination have the right to
use force to accomplish their objectives within the framework of
international humanitarian law. Such lawful uses of force must not be
confused with acts of international terrorism."

3 National liberation movements are recognized as the consequence of the
right of self-determination. In the exercise of their right to
self-determination, peoples under colonial and alien domination have the
right "to struggle ... and to seek and receive support, in accordance with
the principles of the Charter" and in conformity with the Declaration on
Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and
Co-operation among States. It is in these terms that Article 7 of the
Definition of Aggression (General Assembly Resolution 3314 (XXIX) of 14
December 1974) recognizes the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples under
colonial or alien domination. Recognition by the UN of the legitimacy of the
struggle of peoples under colonial and alien domination or occupation is in
line with the general prohibition of the use of force enshrined in the UN
Charter as a state that forcibly subjugates a people to colonial or alien
domination is committing an unlawful act as defined by international law,
and the subject people, in the exercise of its inherent right of self-defence,
may fight to defend and attain its right to self-determination.

4 The Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly
Relations and Co-operation among States (General Assembly Resolution
2625 (XXV)) cites the principle that, "States shall refrain in their
international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial
integrity or political independence of any State, or in any other manner
inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations." Individually and
collectively, Iraq and its neighbors would commit to refrain from the use of
force or threat of the use of force, facilitating the use of force or threat of
use of force by other actors, and refraining from all forms of interference in
the affairs of other states. Individually and collectively, Iraq and its
neighbors would also commit to cooperation and development on the basis
of negotiation, arbitrage and mutual advantage.

5 Article 41(2) of the United Nations International Law Commission's Draft
Articles on State Responsibility, representing the rule of customary
international law (adopted in UN General Assembly Resolution 56/83 of 28
January 2002, "Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts"),
prevents states from benefiting from their own illegal acts: "No State shall
recognize as lawful a situation created by a serious breach [of an obligation
arising under a peremptory norm of general international law]"; Section III,
UN General Assembly Resolution 36/103 of 14 December 1962, "Declaration
on the Inadmissibility of Intervention and Interference in the Internal Affairs
of States".

6 Declaration of the Jury of Conscience, World Tribunal on Iraq, Istanbul,
23-27 June 2005.

7 The International Anti-occupation Network is a coalition of groups that
stand in solidarity with the Iraqi people and for Iraqi sovereignty and
against the US-led occupation of Iraq. It was established in April 2006 at the
Madrid International Seminar on the Assassination of Iraqi Academics and
Health Professionals, the final resolution of which can be read here.

Original and official text of "Le Feyt Declaration: Peace in Iraq is an option".
This text cannot be altered. If copied in its entirety, or in parts, the original
source should always be mentioned: http://anti-occupation.org

803

News Items / Re: Addiction to War! Says U.N. Boss

« on: September 24, 2008, 08:43:48 PM »

Good Post Rick I have found the report and almost whole speech on the UN site

New General Assembly President calls for democratization of United Nations

16 September 2008 - The new President of the General Assembly today kicked off the 63rd session of the 192-member forum with a call to democratize the United Nations so that it can deal more effectively with the world’s most pressing problems and ensure that the voices of a few do not overwhelm the views of the majority of others.

Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, a former foreign minister of Nicaragua, pledged in his opening address to the session to dedicate his year as President to representing the interests of “the dispossessed of the world” and fostering solidarity between peoples and Member States.

“I am aware of the great expectations which the vast majority of the dispossessed inhabitants of our threatened planet have placed in the United Nations to bring them peace, security and to defend their right to life and to full development,” he said. “We must not fail them.”

Mr. D’Escoto told delegates that he had taken up the post “at this difficult time for humanity,” citing a series of deep problems, including widespread hunger and poverty, the impact of climate change and unequal access to water.

“The central and overarching objective of this… [session] will be to democratize our United Nations. In so doing we will ensure that the United Nations maintains its place as the world’s most important and indispensable Organization for achieving the levels of peace and security that our peoples are so rightly demanding of us.”

Mr. D’Escoto noted he would try to transform what he labelled “the prevailing exclusionary logic of selfishness” in the world, saying it had crippled the ability of the General Assembly to fulfil its mandate.

“The state of our world today is deplorable, inexcusable and, therefore, shameful. What Tolstoy denounced as ‘mad selfishness’ explains why, as trillions of dollars are spent on wars of aggression, more than half the world’s people languish in hunger and destitution. Our priorities, sisters and brothers, could hardly be more confused.”

The President said Assembly members would focus during this session on examining the root causes of major problems, such as the current crisis caused by soaring prices of many basic foods, and its effect on hunger and poverty.

He also said a high-level dialogue will be held during the next year on the subject of democratizing the UN. The event will be split into three sessions that consider the Bretton Woods and other international finance institutions, the role of the General Assembly, and the size and format of the Security Council.

Reform of the 15-member Council was among the most urgent challenges facing the UN, he noted.

“It is a sad but undeniable fact that serious breaches of the peace and threats to international peace and security are being perpetrated by some members of the Security Council that seem unable to break what appears like an addiction to war.

“In the case of some of those members, the veto privilege seems to have gone to their heads and has confused them to the point of making them think they are entitled to do as they please without consequence.”

The resolutions of the General Assembly should also become binding, warning that all too often the resolutions are ignored by Member States.

He added that climate change, access to water, terrorism and human rights, nuclear control and disarmament and human trafficking are among the other priority themes during the 63rd session.

Later, in response to questions from journalists, he said he hoped to reach the heart of people and show them the value of love and solidarity and the dangers to the human species and the natural world.

“We must… do away with dreams and hopes about planetary domination. All imperial dreams and behaviour are totally against the spirit and the letter of our Charter and certainly are going to lead us to our extinction.”

804

South Tyneside Stop the War / Witch hunt against Chris

« on: September 23, 2008, 09:31:46 PM »

Dear All
 
One of the Stop the War Coalition activists who has been working on  the stall and been involved in a number of our protests in the town has been singled out in a witchunt conducted by the Chronicle into the Newcastle Sunderland match last year in which the paper has been conducting a guilty campaign on the say so of the police.  The consequence of which are serious for Chris. I have protested in this letter to the Chronicle which I doublt will be published.
 
Roger
 
 
Chronicle
 
Dear Editor
 
I would like to protest in the strongest possible terms against the article you
published by Adam Jupp, "Shocking Statistics Reveal Extent of Soccer
Violence."  Not only does this article seem to be aimed at diverting attention
when Newcastle fans are protesting against the corporate greed that is
destroying football but it unjustly labels many supporter  involved as thugs
on the police say so.
 
The article names Chris Brannan in this way as the so-called 50th soccer
hooligan. The fact is Chris is a loyal  Newcastle supporter who admitted to
throwing some of his bottled water over a policeman in full riot gear with
dog.  He also admitted to condemning the police action in charging the fans
with riot police batons and horses as fascist because there was not a
Sunderland fan in sight and he felt the police action was unprovoked.  The
article does not report what he said but reports him as "hurling abuse".
 
I have personally known Chris Brannan  for many years and he is not a thug
or a hooligan. In fact Chris is one of the kindest people I know always keen
to help people in the community where he lives and is well liked.
 
Recently we took part together in naming of the dead ceremony of the 100
soldiers killed in Afghanistan attended by ourselves and military families as a
protest to the government invasion and occupation of that country as well
as Iraq.  It is interesting to note that whilst the journalist and your paper are
quick to condemn these young people as thugs, using a two page spread
and to print their picture and give out their address,  you are very slow to
condemn the real thugs in 10 Downing Street who have carried out war
crimes in our name that have led to the death of so many people in Iraq and
Afghanistan and who are responsible for the death, wounding and maiming
of so many British soldiers and whose policies are also devastating the
communities in which we live.
 
Yours faithfully
 
Roger Nettleship

805

News Items / Manchester Demonstration Shows the Continuing Vitality of the Anti-War Movement

« on: September 21, 2008, 01:18:55 PM »

On Saturday, September 20th thousands of people travelled to Manchester to take part in a mass protest to coincide with the start of Labour Party Conference to oppose the spread of war and to demand an end to the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. The demonstration was aimed not just against the Labour Government but all of the big parties and against their pro war agenda. Slogans of No to NATO! and Stop the Warmongering! were carried by peace activists, military families, youth, minorities and Manchester and other trade unionists that took part on mass. Manchester Trades Council Banner was proudly carried with the slogan Unity Is Strength and A Better World Is Possible! The demonstation finished with a large rally at the end adddressed by a range of speakers finishing with Tony Benn President of the Stop the War Coalition. The Demonstration showed once again the continuing vitality of the anti-war movement.

A Coach went from Newcastle to take part in the demonstration organised by the Tyneside Stop the War Coalition. Participants on the coach dedicated this action and day to the memory of Julie Fowler, an activist of the Tyneside Stop the War Coalition, who suddenly passed away days before the demonstration and whilst working for the success of this important event

806

Newcastle Stop the War / Defend democracy, defend our right to speak out, defend Artem

« on: September 19, 2008, 03:01:25 PM »

On Friday the 12th Sept Newcastle College invited onto campus the
army in order to do a presentation to recruit students with the promise of
financial assistance for college and University fees. This time last year the
Students' Union passed a policy against Army recruitment on campus and banned
the Army from the fresher's fair.

Last Friday an emergency protest was organised by students at
Newcastle College. Artem and other students went into the presentation to ask
simply `How many of our students would be killed'? for this he was threatened
with security and in the end left of his free will.

The following Monday Artem was told by phone that he was being
suspended for a week pending an investigation and a disciplinary
hearing on the 22nd Sept.

No other student involved in the protest is being punished for the
same activities that Artem carried out. This is simply a way to spread fear and
intimidation in order to paralyse any student activism, democracy or
accountability.

Those of us who wish to defend our rights to speak out, to vote, to
stand in elections or to organise on campus as activists should have the right
to do so. Democracy and human rights are not something that you leave at the
doorstep of the college but something that you carry with you everywhere you go.

Defend democracy, defend our right to speak out, defend Artem
Liebenthal! Download the leaflet defending Artem.

Breaking News...sign the online petition here
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://www.petitiononline.com/nowar567/petition.\
html
What you can do...
1) Email to complain to the college linda.moore@ncl-
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://coll.ac.uk? This e-mail address is being
protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
2) Email Artem in support artem_88@web.deThis e-mail address is being
protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
3) Join the protest (details below)
4) Get support from your Students'/Trade Union

Join the protest
PROTEST OUTSIDE HIS DISCIPLINARY HEARING
MONDAY 22ND SEPT 12NOON, ASSEMBLE ON
ELSWICK EAST TERRACE
(Please bring union banners, delegations etc. etc.)

807

General Discussion / Re: Britain Out of Nato!

« on: September 17, 2008, 10:35:35 PM »

Protest this Thursday as NATO comes to London     
Written by Stewart office     
Monday, 15 September 2008 

Victim of NATO bombingProtest this Thursday as NATO comes to London
Stop the Spread of War, No to US missile defence
7pm Thursday September 18th, Lancaster House, Stable Yard Road, London SW1A 1BB
Nearest tube Green Park
***Note Change of Time*** 



NATO defence ministers are meeting in London on Thursday and Friday for 'talks about NATO reorganisation'. Chaired by our very own Des Browne, items on the agenda include Afghanistan, US incursions into Pakistan, and the 'Star Wars' missile defence project.


On 3 September, at least 20 civilians were killed when US ground forces attacked a village in Pakistan. In the last week, 38 Pakistanis have been killed in US airstrikes.

Pakistan has been a key ally of the US in the 'War on Terror', but popular opinion there says that the alliance has brought only violence to their country. The spread of the war to Pakistan, a nuclear armed state, could ignite a regional war.

The US Missile Defence Shield is also on the agenda. The Georgian crisis a few weeks ago has led to the speeding up of the 'Star Wars' project. Poland has agreed to have US 'Interceptor' missiles, another provocation to war in Eastern Europe.

Stop the War Coalition and CND are calling a joint protest at this NATO meeting, and we're asking all of our supporters to be there and be noisy! Spread the word. 

808

General Discussion / Britain Out of Nato!

« on: September 17, 2008, 08:46:49 PM »

Tony Benn joins peace activists to protest NATO expansion
     
Written by Stewart office
     
Thursday, 28 August 2008 

Tony Benn, Lindsey German and Chris Nineham were joined by Brian Eno, David Gentleman and kate Hudson as they handed in a letter of protest to Downing Street condemning the expansion of NATO which has led to the war in Georgia.

The letter, reprinted below, highlighted the double standards of a government which invades countries across the world then accuses others of doing the same.

When Stop the War Coalition marched against the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, we said that the world would become a more dangerous place as other countries sought to use war to achieve political ends. There is a direct causal relationship between the Iraq war and the Georgian War, not least Georgia's 2,000 troops who learned their trade in Iraq.

If NATO expansion is allowed to continue unhindered, this will be seen not as an isolated incident but the beginning of a new cold war.

 

Dear Prime Minister,

We write to express our deep concern at the policy of the British government
toward the recent war in Georgia.

Government policy must recognise that the military action of the Georgian
government against South Ossetia was the trigger for Russian military action.

In addition, the government should grasp that the encouragement given to
Georgia by the US and Britain to become part of NATO was seen by Georgia as a
direct encouragement in its conflict with Russia. NATO's eastward expansion to
include most of the countries in Russia's former sphere of influence was bound
to lead to just such a conflict.

We are also concerned that the government's slavish repetition of the
statements being made by the US government, even down to the repetition of
exact phrases, risks re-running the errors that the Blair government made
during the Iraq war.

Those making government statements seem unaware that echoing George Bush's
denunciation of Russia for having "invaded a sovereign neighbouring state" can
only further diminish the standing of those making them when they are widely
seen as responsible for two such invasions - those of Afghanistan and Iraq.

The government needs to break decisively with the US-led aggressive expansion
of NATO around Russia's borders. The end of the Cold War should have been an
opportunity to inaugurate a peaceful era in international relations. But the US
determination to exercise global hegemony through a series of military
adventures, the expansion of NATO, the adoption of first strike and pre-emptive
strike policies and the spread of US bases through the former Soviet central
Asian republics has all but destroyed this prospect.

It should be the policy of the British government to revive this vision of
peace. The first step is to break with the war-drive of the US state.

Yours sincerely

Tony Benn
Brian Eno
David Gentleman
Andrew Murray (STWC)
Kate Hudson(CND)
Lindsey German (STWC)
Billy Hayes (CWU) 

809

For Your Information / Miliband's true colours

« on: September 17, 2008, 08:34:48 PM »

Miliband's true colours

The foreign secretary's Bush-echoing stance on Georgia shows just what kind of leader he'd be    All comments (159) 

Andrew Murray The Guardian, Friday August 22 2008

If there is a Labour party leadership election this autumn, Dick Cheney and John McCain have their candidate. Step forward David Miliband, neoconservative. The foreign secretary's aggressive posturing on the side of Washington over the Ossetian crisis has made it abundantly clear where he stands on the great divide in world politics today. He is for the US empire.

This is bad news for those Labour party supporters who correctly believe that the party's troubles cannot be overcome without ending its witless support for US foreign policy and the calamities it is causing, of which the continuing Iraq war is the most lurid exhibit.

There was a flutter of hope during his momentary honeymoon period last summer that Gordon Brown would make the change the party and the public wanted - he muttered about pulling troops out of Iraq and looked a study in sulkiness when visiting George Bush.

All huff and puff, as it turned out. At least Miliband has made a point of puncturing any similar illusions in advance. His now famous manifesto in the Guardian parroted the standard Washington line on Iraq to the effect that the only problem was the failure of the invaders to prepare for the peace as well as the war, a proposition that even Donald Rumsfeld and Christopher Hitchens may by now agree with. But it is in relation to the Russia-Georgia crisis that he has most clearly broken cover.

Mikheil Saakashvili's role in igniting the conflict is ignored or downplayed. Russia should be punished. Nato must expand headlong. The view of the peoples of South Ossetia and Abkhazia that they do not wish to be Georgian must be ignored. Above all, the part played by US global expansionism in provoking the crisis must go unexamined.

Miliband has put Britain back in the centre of almost exactly the same "coalition of the willing" as rallied behind the Iraq infamy - Washington, London and "new Europe". The main difference is that this time Italy and Spain have joined France and Germany on the side of caution, leaving the British government even more isolated.

And even more hypocritical. For Miliband to insist - as he did in an article in the Times this week - that Russia must respect international law, displays a breathtaking lack of self-awareness. Pre-Iraq, support for the UN and international legality were cornerstones of Labour's stated approach to world politics. Tony Blair put paid to that and here we are half a million or so corpses later.

You can't play cop and robber at the same time on the world stage, just as you can't offer Labour a fresh start while clinging doggedly to the most disastrous policy of the last 11 years. Deputy chief whip Nick Brown appears to have got the message with a remarkable article on Comment is Free this week, trashing the Miliband line and Georgia's Nato aspirations.

Perhaps he has noticed that the foreign secretary is not only echoing George Bush's approach to the Georgian crisis but even David Cameron's, whose brief flirtation with less subservience to Washington seems to have gone by the board. Indeed, Miliband seems irked that Cameron got to Tbilisi first to deliver a Russophobic rant - the Tory leader's pledge to bar Russians from Selfridges marks the only point of difference. Miliband apparently stands firm on the right to shop, come what may.

Of course, the collateral damage done to the foreign secretary's prime ministerial pretensions is surely the least of the tragedies of the unnecessary war in the Caucasus. But it does leave an opening for any politician who can articulate the public desire for a foreign policy more independent of the US, before imperial Washington drags us into conflicts which may make even the immense suffering of Iraq seem like an appetiser.

· Andrew Murray is chair of the Stop the War Coalition
office@stopwar.org.uk

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News Items / Protest this Thursday as NATO comes to London

« on: September 17, 2008, 08:25:08 PM »

Protest this Thursday as NATO comes to London     
Written by Stewart office     
Monday, 15 September 2008 

Victim of NATO bombingProtest this Thursday as NATO comes to London
Stop the Spread of War, No to US missile defence
7pm Thursday September 18th, Lancaster House, Stable Yard Road, London SW1A 1BB
Nearest tube Green Park
***Note Change of Time*** 



NATO defence ministers are meeting in London on Thursday and Friday for 'talks about NATO reorganisation'. Chaired by our very own Des Browne, items on the agenda include Afghanistan, US incursions into Pakistan, and the 'Star Wars' missile defence project.


On 3 September, at least 20 civilians were killed when US ground forces attacked a village in Pakistan. In the last week, 38 Pakistanis have been killed in US airstrikes.

Pakistan has been a key ally of the US in the 'War on Terror', but popular opinion there says that the alliance has brought only violence to their country. The spread of the war to Pakistan, a nuclear armed state, could ignite a regional war.

The US Missile Defence Shield is also on the agenda. The Georgian crisis a few weeks ago has led to the speeding up of the 'Star Wars' project. Poland has agreed to have US 'Interceptor' missiles, another provocation to war in Eastern Europe.

Stop the War Coalition and CND are calling a joint protest at this NATO meeting, and we're asking all of our supporters to be there and be noisy! Spread the word.