THOUGHT FOR THE DAY.

        As the dogs of war howl at the gates of Iran their thoughts are never on the "after", the blood, death and the chaos, such thoughts are alien to them. Such thoughts are for that quieter breed, those that keep this world turning, those that just want to get on with their lives.

The End and the Beginning.

 

 

After every war
someone has to clean up.
Things won’t
straighten themselves up, after all.
Someone has to push the rubble
to the sides of the road,
so the corpse-laden wagons can pass.

Someone has to get mired
in scum and ashes,
sofa-springs,
splintered glass,
and bloody rags.

Sleeves will go ragged

from rolling them up.

Someone, broom in hand,

still recalls how it was.

Someone listens

and nods with unsevered head.

Wislawa Szymborska

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WAR IS TERRORISM.

DAY OF PROTEST AGAINST NATO 

From Stop the War Coalition:

Saturday May 19th Troops out of Afghanistan,

Don't Attack Iran,

No intervention in the Middle East

         The occupation of Afghanistan has passed crisis point. Afghan soldiers are turning their guns on NATO troops, negotiations with the Taliban have broken down and protests against occupation are continuing.
        Meanwhile, further war in the Middle East is terrifyingly close. The debate about war on Iran in Israel is more about when rather than whether to attack. In the US there is also a sense of inevitability about war. Officials in the International Atomic Energy Agency say their leadership is being used by the US to justify war on Iran. The US is opposing direct intervention in Syria for the moment, but this can change and meanwhile Western allies Saudi Arabia and Qatar are arming the Free Syrian Army.
      Stop the War is calling a day of protest on Saturday May 19th to coincide with big protests in Chicago against the NATO summit.

Details will be announced in the next few days.

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IRAN - STOP THE WAR.

This from Stop the War coalition:

1) DAY OF PROTEST, SAT 24TH MARCH:
DON'T IRAQ IRAN, TROOPS OUT OF AFGHANISTAN
      The unravelling of the war in Afghanistan has been apparent in recent weeks. The shooting of 16 Afghans, mostly women and children, by a US soldier, surely marked a turning point in the war as Afghans reacted with anger to the latest in a long line of outrages by demanding the soldier was put on trial in their country. The Americans responded by flying him to Kansas. This week both their ally President Karzai and their enemy the Taliban have underlined just how much the western powers are losing the war. Karzai demanded that ISAF troops should be confined to barracks while the Taliban broke off talks.
       You would hardly know this from the summit in Washington last week which saw Cameron and Obama feting each other in the White House. Instead they said the war was on course and would continue till 2014 (although they are privately bringing the dates forward as they know it is unlikely to hold for that long).
      Even worse they made clear their determination to attack Iran. The recent visit by Israeli prime minister Netanyahu to the US piled on the pressure to back an attack. This week the Israeli deputy prime minister is visiting London to drum up support for an attack on Iran and is clearly confident of winning the backing of the US and British governments.
       We have held successful protests and meetings over both issues in recent weeks, particularly attracting young people. This Saturday we have a national day of protest based around 'Don't Iraq Iran' - see http://bit.ly/x67PUk. On the 9^th anniversary of the attack on Iraq, and the first anniversary of the bombing of Libya, the interest in anti war activity is being heightened. Protests can bring in these issues, plus the threats to Syria. This is the chance to get out on the streets and build a campaign against the next main threat.

See http://bit.ly/x67PUk for more details on the day of protest.
2) ONLINE PETITION
      Our letter to the Guardian against an attack on Iran, which was signed by a number of celebrities, will go live in the next few days as an online petition. We want as many signatories on it as possible. Check the website and add your name.

3) NEW MATERIALS

       We have a range of new materials available now or soon, to spread the message about the don't attack Iran campaign: '10 reasons' leaflets, 'don't Iraq Iran' badges, special tote bags, 'Who's threatening who' maps of the region and posters.

Contact 0207 561 9311 or office@stowpar.org.uk to order or for more information.

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OCCUPY AIPAC PROTEST.

       AIPAC is a powerful Israeli lobby group in the US and they literally pour money into the hands of those that will push the Israeli call for war with Iran, their influence is widespread, overt and covert and they can be very brutal in their response to any form of criticism. Democracy doesn't seem to be in the vocabulary. The following from: CODEPINK.

March 6, 2012

“Mic check! We are the 99%. War benefits the 1%. Don’t bomb Iran! Use diplomacy not bombs!” Four Occupy AIPAC activists voices eruptedyesterday inside the AIPAC conference when Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who is pushing for a resolution which seeks to lower the threshold for the to US attack Iran, took the stage. An AIPAC delegate leaped over rows of chairs to pounce on the activists, choking one with his own tie. The People’s Microphone continued:“AIPAC wants war. We want peace.” More HERE:

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OCCUPY AIPAC.

An open letter from Chris Hedges: 

I invite you to join me at the Occupy AIPAC Summit in Washington this weekend.

       I spent seven years in the Middle East. I lived for two of those seven years in Jerusalem. I was the Middle East Bureau Chief for the New York Times. AIPAC does not speak for Jews or for Israel. It speaks for right-wing ideologues who believe that because they have capacity to wage war, they have a right to wage war.
And just as these elites were too blind and too enamored of their own rhetoric to see what invading Iraq would trigger, so too are they unable to comprehend the regional conflagration that would be unleashed by attacking Iran.
      The uprisings from Tunisia to Egypt to Greece to Occupy Wall Street to our gathering outside AIPAC's doors in Washington are all the same primal struggle for justice. The battle for justice in Middle East is our battle. It is part of the vast, global battle against the 1 percent. It is a battle against the fossil fuel industry, the weapons manufacturers, the security and surveillance state, the misuse of public funds that wastes $ 4 trillion on wars that never had to be fought, the trillions more in looted taxpayer money to prop up insolvent banks and swell bloated military budgets, the battle to protect working men and women who are left struggling in the name of "austerity" to save their homes and find work.
       Join us at Occupy AIPAC this weekend. Help us make the voices of the 99 percent—the voices of mothers, fathers and children in the squalid refugee camps in Gaza, in the suburbs of Tehran and in the bleak industrial wastelands in Ohio—heard. Yours,
Chris Hedges.

Read 10 Reasons Why the Israel Lobby is So Dangerous

Sign the petition

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THE SAD TALE OF A POINTLESS WAR.

             While the West continues with its Afghan adventure, the drug barons continue to make millions from the poppy fields of Afghanistan, The West while fighting the Taliban, now claim that their aim is to get rid of the opium poppy fields and choke the heroin trade. What they fail to mention is that the Taliban had already done that before the West went in to get rid of the Taliban. It was also the discontinuing of Western aid after the Soviet era that re-started the opium growing in Afganistan before the Taliban came to power. 

          During the Taliban rule, Afghanistan saw a bumper opium crop of 4,500 metric tons in 1999,.[13] However, in July 2000, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, collaborating with the United Nations to eradicate heroin production in Afghanistan, declared that growing poppies was un-Islamic, resulting in one of the world's most successful anti-drug campaigns. As a result of this ban, opium poppy cultivation was reduced by 91% from the previous year's estimate of 82,172 hectares. The ban was so effective that Helmand Province, which had accounted for more than half of this area, recorded no poppy cultivation during the 2001 season.[14]  (wikipedia)

            It is only since the West invaded that the heroin trade has once again flourished and grown to the multi-million dollar business that it is now. The Afghan puppet government is riddled with corruption and drug barons, who are making millions while the Western troops fight a losing battle.

         11 years of bloodshed and misery to remove the Taliban and as the West pulls out the Taliban are ready to move in and take control. However what we have left is a country in ruins with massive unemployment, heart breaking drug addiction, unbelievable poverty and wealthy drug barons in control. This is the legacy the West hands to the Afghan people, they paid in lives and misery, we paid in billions of dollars and the pointless deaths of far too many of our young people. The story in Iraq is much the same, the ordinary people pay and are left to cope with depleted uranium, deaths in every family, destroyed infrastructure, homelessness, poverty and deprivation. Where is the benefit of either of these actions, where is the public outrage in the West. We accept this slaughter and no doubt if the powers that be decide, for what ever insane reason, to do the same to Syria and /or Iran, the people of the West will put up with it with the usual anti-war protest by the handful. We live under a state of international corporate fascism and the public seem to want it, accept it, or are blind to the fact. WHY.

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CLEARING THE GROUND FOR WAR AGAINST IRAN.

       Here we go, here we go, here we go, the three nuclear bullies of the West, America, UK and France, are foaming at the mouth like rabid dogs as they circle Iran. The US has sent another carrier to the Gulf, and the shrieks from the war mongers in the various parliaments is reaching fever pitch. The second world war lasted 5 years, but since 2001 we have been at war in Afghanistan, that's 11 years. The West has been killing in Iraq since 2003, more than that if you include the killings from the ten years of sanctions before we invaded, and though the UK is out, the Americans are still there and the killing still goes on. However even with this amount of blood on their hands they want more, they are ratcheting up the tension to the same pitch as the “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq and we all know the validity in that line.

       Why is it that the so called defenders of freedom and democracy seem to be the only countries that invade other countries? Shouldn't it be the other way? After eleven years of bloodshed in Afghanistan to remove the Taliban, we are all set to leave and a leaked report form the top military, states that the Taliban are poised to take control after we leave. Iraq, nine years after we bombed them into liberation, the country is in turmoil with death a daily occurrence. With these kind of results you would think that invasion would be away down the list if ideas, but no, blood and death are of no consequence when the country to be decimated contains lots of oil and gas. Corporate fascism will spill the blood of any amount of ordinary people just to get control of what they deem valuable assets. How long will we tolerate the type of insanity that trades our blood for oil?

 

From Stop The War: 

            There is a frightening crescendo building towards war in the Middle East. The UN is debating a resolution on Syria demanding regime change. This follows the withdrawal of the Arab League delegation there and calls for intervention. The US military is clearing the ground for war against Iran. In a report to Congress, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper claimed that Iranian leaders "are now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States."
             Meanwhile Defence Secretary Leon Panetta went on TV to assert that Iran would have a nuclear bomb within a year. The US is conducting a military build-up in parallel to the propaganda offensive. A third US carrier is now on the way to the Gulf. On 28 January, Stop the War launched its national DON'T ATTACK IRAN campaign at a 500 strong rally outside the US Embassy in London. SEE REPORT & VIDEOS OF SPEECHES: http://bit.ly/zMKNEL.
             We are asking Stop the War local groups and supporters to organise urgent activists' meetings in every area to start planning local campaigns against an attack on Iran. On Saturday 11th February we are calling a national day of action with protests, die-ins, sit-ins, mock air raids, petitioning and street meetings, to publicise the arguments against an attack.
          Please check the Stop the War website for details about local activities as they are published. FOR UPDATES SEE: http://bit.ly/wTXnfL
The Facebook Event for the day of action is here:
http://on.fb.me/werrhn
If you want to get involved in the Don't Attack Iran campaign please e-mail office@stopwar.co.uk or call 020 7801 2768.

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WAR IS BUSINESS, PROFITS OUTWEIGH DEATHS!!!

        Here we go again, the Western “defenders of democracy” are rattling their big sabres. This time it is at Iran. It is rather bizarre the the sabre rattlers are always those with the biggest sabres. The three most vociferous in threatening Iran, USA, UK and France, are in the top four for military budgets. When it comes to the world's military budget the USA is away out in front with a massive 42.8%. Even China, which has a quarter of the world's population is dwarfed by this, coming in with a mere 7.3%, followed by that small island of the coast of Europe, the UK, with a totally disproportionate 3.7% and then France with 3.6%. Iran's percentage is so small it doesn't even register on the chart below.

        We in the West live in a civilization that seems to indulge in endless wars, a civilization that somehow believes that the destruction of other countries, with the resultant thousands of deaths of ordinary innocent civilians is a legitimate answer to a problem. Think of the pretexts offered for our invasion and destruction of Afghanistan and Iraq, think of the number of lives lost and those injured physically and mentally on both sides. Has it been the answer? Can we hold our head up and say “problem solved”? Can we honestly say that the world is now a better place because of the destruction of these two countries, has the hundreds of thousands of deaths of innocent people been justified?

        The reasons being put forward for an attack on Iran is that it is trying to do what we and a host of other nations, including Israel, have already done. We have no proof, just speculation. Is that justification for what would be the death of hundreds of thousands of ordinary innocent people. We would be killing plumbers, bus drivers, gardeners, doctors, typists, teachers, elderly and children, for what? Perhaps the really reason is that we in the West live in a society where war makes unimaginable wealth for the corporate world. A society that is under the control of a military industrial complex, producing wealth and power for that small cabal of billionaire parasites. The same billionaire parasites that hold the “elected” governments of the West in their pocket.

Chart from Informed Comment.

From Stop the war coalition.

STOP THE WAR BEFORE IT STARTS - EMERGENCY PROTEST THIS SAT JAN 28
Hands off Iran and Syria
2 - 4pm, US Embassy
Grosvenor Square
London W1K 2Called by Stop the War Coalition.       Supported by UNITE the Union, War on Want, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Campaign against Sanctions and Military Intervention on Iran, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Goldsmiths Student Union and SOAS Student Union.

        This is the most dangerous moment in the world since 2003. The sanctions on Iranian oil imposed by the EU on Monday are a provocation that could spark a war at any time. Iran's threats to retaliate by closing the Straits of Hormuz were answered on the weekend by US Defence Secretary Panetta saying the US would 'respond' if there was a closure and by US, British and French navy ships sailing through the Straits.

        The new sanctions mark a sharp escalation in an ongoing campaign of cyber attacks, assassinations and US troop deployments in the area all designed to destabilise the Iranian regime. Such a strategy of tension isn't just deeply irresponsible. It shows the argument for war is gaining ground in the west. An article by influential US hawk Mattew Kroenig in the current edition of Foreign Affairs is headlined 'Time to Attack Iran'. His basic argument is summed up in a single subheading: 'Strike Now or Suffer Later'.

       As yesterdays Financial Times pointed out, this approach is making headway. Both US Republican presidential contenders Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich favour an attack. Sections of the British establishment are now talking up confrontation. Meanwhile calls for intervention against Iran's ally Syria are also growing.The echoes of the build up to war on Iraq are loud and clear.
        If you oppose the terrible prospect of a war on Iran or Syria please join the protest this Saturday. Speakers will include Tony Benn, Lindsey German, Roger Lloyd Pack, Abbas Edalat, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Sabah Jawad, Shirin Shafie.

TWEET-OUT TO SPREAD THE WORD, TODAY 12 ONWARDS

       Please help publicise the protest by joining our tweet-out and facebook surge today, starting at 12 noon. Tweet with hashtag  #DontAttackIran, retweet our tweets, share links, share photos and anything else using this same hashtag. Copy us into your tweets if you like using @StwUK so we know what you want us to repost. Also please do include the Facebook event for the protest - http://on.fb.me/yR9Q3i .

If we can get #DontAttackIran trending in London it will be a big publicity boost for the protest.

Join the Tweet-out - #DontAttackIran
Invite friends on Facebook - http://on.fb.me/yR9Q3i
Follow StoptheWar on Twitter - http://twitter.com/STWuk

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MISSION ACCOMPLISHED -- AGAIN!!!

       In 2003 George W. Bush stood in all his military regalia and with that daft Hollywood salute proudly stated, “Mission accomplished”, which was his announcement telling the world that the war in Iraq was over and they had won. Here we are in 2011 and Obama has announced that the US troops are leaving Iraq, the war is over and they have won, "Mission accomplished", again. Well it is now true, they have won, they have won the oil and that was what it was all about, the rest is of no consequence to our corporate world. What price have the people of Iraq had to pay for this Western oil adventure? What sort of country is Iraq now, after the West has “liberated” them? Saddam was no angel, but who is that rules over a country? Under his rule there was a considerable movement to get more women to participate in the affairs of society. His government was a secular government and didn't tolerate religious fundamentalists. From 1970 to 1980 the Iraqi economy grow by 11.7%, this after they finally nationalised the oil, which was the real problem with the West, they don't allow nationalised oil. The economic growth all came to an end with the Iraq/Iran war, aided and abetted by the US. The first Gulf war and the 10 years of sanctions imposed by the West, all but destroyed the country. The death toll from the sanctions varies form 500,000 upwards. One comment made about two years ago by a young Iraqi tells us something of what they might be thinking, "When the Americans started this whole war issue, we started to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and we walked toward it. But when the war happened, that light was the American train coming the other way that ran us over."

    What has more than 8 years of occupation cost? In cash terms it has cost the USA over $1 trillion, roughly about $5,000 a second. In coalition deaths, over 5,000, and in injured approaching 40,000. One other figure that doesn't seem to get much headlines is the fact that 30% of US troops suffer some form of mental illness within 3 to 4 months of going home. No matter what it cost those troops of the coalition it fades when compared to what the Iraqi people have suffered and they didn't ask to be “liberated”. Estimates, and that is all we can get as nobody seemed to be interested in recording the true numbers, of Iraqi civilian deaths vary from 600,000 to 1 million. Those Iraqis displaced but remaining in Iraq number approximately 3 million, those displaced to Syria and Jordan approximately 3 million. Those Iraqis injured, the number is just not available and would dwarf any of the figures already given.

      We could say the war is over so everything is fine, but unemployment is running about 60%, child chronic malnutrition approximately 30%. The number of hours that the average Iraqi has electricity to their homes (Ryan Crocker, US Ambassador to Iraq 2007) 1 to 2 hours. The number of Iraqi homes connected to sewer system 37%.

      Another tragedy of this war is that just prior to the war Iraq had 34,000 physicians, today it is less than 12,000, though the need today is far greater than ever. One poll shows that 82% of Iraqis are “strongly opposed to the presence of the coalition troops. Only 1% believe that the coalition forces are responsible for any improvements in security. 67% feel less secure because of the occupation and 72% have no confidence in the coalition forces.

        In your own analysis, do these figures look like a success story, does it look like the “liberation” of a people? Or does it look like the decimation of a country and its people for the sole reason of getting our hands on that nationalised oil? 

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MANUFACTURING HATE IN PREPARATION FOR WAR??

From Stop The War.
      Last Monday about 250 people packed into Conway hall to hear a range of speakers address the threat of an attack on Iran. Abbas Edelat from CASMII (Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran) busted the myths used to demonise Iran, showing that there is in fact no evidence of Iran developing nuclear weapons and that far from Iran being the belligerent country, it is the western powers that have played this role for over 50 years.

     There were messages of solidarity from John McDonnel MP and Darren Johnson from the Green Party. George Galloway drew the worrying parallels with the media campaign and the 'dodgy dossier' in the build up to war on Iraq. But unlike Iraq, Iran is far from being isolated or internally divided. If Iran is attacked, people inside the country will unite in resistance and many nations of the world will very quickly be involved. An attack on Iran will set the Middle East on fire.

      In light of this disastrous potential, Tony Benn urged everyone to speak out against any possibility of an attack and start building the resistance now to a new war in the Middle East.

      The public meeting last Monday was the start of a campaign to do just that. We need to follow this up with local meetings and events to start spreading these arguments far and wide. Stop the War is urging supporters who want to organise such an event to get in touch now so we can start planning a mass campaign in the new year.

Watch videos from the meeting here: http://bit.ly/sV9Ixd
Sign the petition here: http://bit.ly/rXkyFZ

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WAR IS OUR BUSINESS!!

        It is quite frightening how the “Free Democratic Peace Loving West” can drum up all manner of reasons to attack, invade and destroy so many countries across the globe. Our most recent list includes, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya to mention a few. Now our war hungry political class is screwing up the tension for having a go at Syria and Iran. There are those who claim that the war against Iran has already started with covert attacks on industrial installations and the assassination of a general. What drives our war crazy “leaders”? Do you honestly believe it is all for the benefit of the Iraqis, Afghans and Libyans? Or is it big money corporatism seeking control over all the planet's valuable resources? The following is a short extract from a recent article in The Guardian, it is well worth reading the whole article.

"---The whole campaign has an Alice in Wonderland quality about it. Iran, which says it doesn't want nuclear weapons, is surrounded by nuclear-weapon states: the US – which also has forces in neighbouring Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as military bases across the region – Israel, Russia, Pakistan and India.

Iran is of course an authoritarian state, though not as repressive as western allies such as Saudi Arabia. But it has invaded no one in 200 years. It was itself invaded by Iraq with western support in the 1980s, while the US and Israel have attacked 10 countries or territories between them in the past decade. Britain exploited, occupied and overthrew governments in Iran for over a century. So who threatens who exactly?---"

Continue reading.

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WAR IS THE WAY OF CORPORATE CAPITALISM.

        David Cameron is probably feeling all flushed with success after bombing Libya back a couple of centuries, and is now looking around for another little ego trip. After all there is oil and gas to be got in Iran, can't let a little thing like human casualties to stand in the way of that. The West is in dire fanacial straits, but the expense of war will be far out weigh by all those lovely oil and gas assets to add to the coffers of the Western corporate Mafia.

This from Stop the War.

       The western powers seem to be doing everything possible to increase tension with Iran. Yesterday EU ministers imposed new sanctions on top of those agreed by Canada, the US and Britain last week. David Cameron promised yet another round in January, meanwhile he has expelled Iranian diplomats in response to protests at the British Embassy in Tehran, closing one of the last channels for negotiation.
      A British minister recently promised that further unspecified 'appropriate measures' will be taken against Iran. The recent IAEA report showed there is no conclusive evidence that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, but this kind of western brinkmanship can only antagonise the Iranian regime.
      Stop the War is planning a national campaign against an attack on Iran in the next months. The campaign starts with a public rally in London on Monday.

Public Meeting: Don't Attack Iran
Mon 5 December, 7pm
Speakers include George Galloway, Tony Benn, Lindsey German and Abbas Edalat
Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion sq, London WC1R 4RL

Please tweet and share widely: http://on.fb.me/sJqZKg
You can download a leaflet from: http://bit.ly/tYZkXL
Sign the petition here: http://bit.ly/rXkyFZ

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EX-CIA AGENT ON THE MIDDLE EAST.

       An interesting interview with an ex-CIA agent. He seems to talk with a load of common sense and in a way that so many of the ordinary people with a little political savvy talk. Of course I don't think that he will get much cover in our mainstream press.

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THE MARCH OF THE DOLLAR EMPIRE.

       

          As the dollar empire gets into a frenzy to attack Iran, we can look around the Middle East and see that there are only two countries, with any resources, left, that are not under the heel of the dollar empire. One is Iran and the other Syria, there used to be Libya and Iraq, but they have been sorted out. If you are not in the dollar club, your are labelled evil, corrupt, repressive. Of course you can get away with these qualities if you happen to be in the dollar club, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain for example. America may be waning, but it is not giving up on its attempt to control the entire world. Any country that doesn't allow the dollar to dominate there economy is deemed to be evil and has to be converted to the faith of the mighty dollar. Once it has the whole of the resource rich part of the Middle East under its dollar dominance, Africa is the next battle ground. It is a continent rich in a multitude of valuable resources and America will do its damnedest to see that the other empires, China and Russia don't get the biggest bit of the pie.

         We in the West will rush in and FREE the African people from their evil, corrupt and repressive regimes and replace them with nice friendly dollar worshipping leaders. Of course to do this it will employ thousands of our young people to shed their blood as the dollar marches forward slaughtering those we are freeing. Call it what you will, imperialism, corporatism, corporate capitalism, corporate fascism, all of them would fit. What you can't call it, is democracy at work.

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CAPITALISM=WAR.

       Can you think of a year when the capitalist world has been at peace? It has been continuous wars from regional conflicts, illegal invasions to world wars and back again. War is part of the capitalist system, it fights over resources and markets and the fodder is the ordinary people. Wars create wealth for some and misery for most, but they are endless.The last ten years has seen death and destruction in Afghanistan, the obliteration of Iraq and the smashing of the Libyan infrastructure. The arms industry has grown fat on this mountain of misery, the oil corporations have gained immensely, and the construction gaints have made fortunes, but the ordinary people have borne the brunt of all this misery. Now we are looking at Iran. If we wnat peace on this planet we have to get rid of the capitalist system, there is no other way.

An appeal from StopTheWar.

      Recent reports that the MoD are drawing up plans for military action against Iran are deeply worrying. Any attack on Iran would risk a wave of destruction across the Middle East. The West is justifying tightened sanctions and an increasingly aggressive posture with a series of vague claims that Iran is trying to protect its nuclear reactors and defying sanctions.

      These claims are about as convincing as those used to justify the attack on Iraq. Meanwhile the US is sending more troops, warships and arms to the region. All this as they remain silent about the well documented strengthening of the Israeli nuclear arsenal, the only one in the Middle East.

       Stop the War has produced a statement calling on the British government to scrap any plans for intervention and to pledge to take no part in any military action against Iran. Go to
http://bit.ly/uFpHHL

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NEW WORLD ORDER???

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THEY CALL IT RELIGIOUS FREEDOM!!

        An appeal from Amnesty International.

Stoning.

       It’s designed to cause maximum suffering. It generally takes between 20 minutes and two agonising hours to kill someone. Those sentenced to death are more likely to be poor and marginalised, particularly women.

And as you read this, 14 people in Iran are at risk of this inhumane death.

Take action: stop stoning 

How to stone someone to death.

      Stoning is mandatory under Iranian law for men and women convicted of ‘adultery while married’.

The Penal Code explains in chilling detail how to carry out the punishment, from how deeply to bury the victim in the ground to the size of the stones to use: not so large as to kill too quickly, not so small as to cause too little hurt.

Watch Shappi Khorsandi explain how a stoning is carried out 

How to help stop stoning.

        However, right now the Iranian authorities are reviewing that very document - the Penal Code - which details all the country’s criminal law. They can and should remove stoning from it.

With your pressure we can encourage them to end this barbaric practice, once and for all.

Call on the Iranian authorities to stop stoning

Thank you,

Clare Bracey
Death Penalty Campaigner

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FEMINIST SAUDI ARABIA!!!!

         Is it worth it, all that marching and demonstrating against the war, does it make any difference? Well of course it is worth it and of course it makes a difference, if you don't put your ideas on the table, they'll never be taken up. Also, little by little you expose the brutal lies of this corrupt system, consciousness shifts one small step at a time. There is now no doubt in the majority of the people across the world that the Afghan war was built on a series of lies and is maintained by more lies.
      Comedian Mark Steel, with his great sense of the absurd, mocks the endlessly changing justification for the war in Afghanistan - whether it's democracy, the heroin trade, terrorism or women's rights - and celebrates how the anti-war movement across the world has changed people's view of wars and the lies our leaders tell to take us into them.

       Mark Steel will be performing at the Antiwar Mass Assembly in Trafalgar Square on 8 October 2011, alongside John Pilger, Billy Bragg, Jemima Khan, Brian Eno, Julian Assange and many more.

Antiwar Mass Assembly details...

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