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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SHE NEVER SAW IT COMING.

From Stop The War:           THE GIRL KILLED BY BARACK OBAMA.
     Barack Obama has authorised over 260 drone attacks -- five times as many as George W Bush -- in six different countries. Close to 3000 people have been killed, many of them civilians, including women and children. On 30 January 2012, Obama claimed that the drone attacks he authorises are targetted only at named people on a list of active terrorists who are a direct threat to America. The facts tell a different story, as this video shows.

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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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BREAK THE SILENCE ON AFGHANISTAN.

From STOP THE WAR.       

        There is a conspiracy of silence about the war in Afghanistan, despite the fact that the occupation is in growing trouble. Five British soldiers have died in the last ten days but their deaths have barely been reported. Britain and the US are trying to push an agreement that they can keep thousands of soldiers in the country after the so-called withdrawal date of 2014. Polls show this is deeply unpopular with the Afghans. On Saturday 1,000 students marched against the deal in Jalalabad. But the plans are barely mentioned in the British media.

        Stop the War is supporting an Afghanistan Withdrawal Group meeting tonight in parliament featuring Rodric Braithwaite, author of an important book about the Russian occupation of Afghanistan, 'Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan 1979-89'. Tariq Ali wrote in the London Review of Books that: 'Each page reads like a warning to Afghanistan's current occupiers.'

PUBLIC MEETING:
Afghanistan Withdrawal Group of MPs
The Russians in Afghanistan 1979-89: Lessons for Today
Tuesday 22 November, 6.30-8.30pm
Committee Room 9, House of Commons, SW1A 0AA
(St Stephens entrance, nearest tube Westminster)
See: http://bit.ly/s0KZ48

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WAR = PROFITS.

       

         Ten years of death and destruction in Afghanistan and still it goes on. Hundreds of UK troops killed and thousands injured, plus billions of pounds spent on maintaining this inhumane, pointless slaughter. Where does all that money go? It pours into the arms industry who are delighted to see tons of munitions being exploded, creating a need to have them replaced, at the same time allowing the other psychopaths in power across the globe an opportunity to see these destructive weapons in use. A war is like a trade show to the arms industry and it doesn't cost them a penny.

         There are urgent and pressing needs across the globe, they are not being seen to, the usual excuse is lack of resources. How much of the capitalist world's resources are spent on destruction and killing, what impact would there be if all those resources were directed at people's needs? Of course for that to happen we need to get rid of the capitalist system itself. As long as we have the present system of corporate capitalism and national governments, we will have wars and destruction, suffering and deprivation, as the parasites engineer everything to their own benefit.

STOP THE WAR 

       The Antiwar Mass Assembly in Trafalgar Square on 8 October is going to be one of Stop the War's most important events.  Thousands of people have pledged to be there (see  http://bit.ly/pBlNMI), transport is being organised around the country (see http://bit.ly/oM17x9), the timetable for the event
has just been published, with a very impressive list of speakers, musicians, artists and performers (see http://bit.ly/poSQPd).

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ETHICAL KILLING.

A short extract from Stop the War.  

    A defining feature of state power is rhetoric about a ‘moral’ or ‘ethical’ role in world affairs. Errors of judgement, blunders and tactical mistakes can, and do, occur. But the motivation underlying state policy is fundamentally benign. Reporters and commentators, trained or selected for professional ‘reliability’, tend to slavishly adopt this prevailing ideology.

How an "ethical" war looks from the receiving end.

         Thus, on the ten-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, an editorial in the Independent on Sunday gushed about ‘Bush's desire to spread democracy as an end in itself’. It was, the paper said, ‘the germ of a noble idea’. There was ‘an idealism’ about Blair’s support for Bush. The drawback was that the execution of the righteous vision had been ‘naive, arrogant and morally compromised by torture and the abrogation of the very values for which the US-led coalition claimed to fight’.

Continue reading HERE.

WAR = TERRORISM.

WAGING WAR ABROAD AND WAR ON PUBLIC SERVICES AT HOME.

An appeal from Stop the War Coalition.

      The war in Libya will soon have cost the UK two billion pounds. We were told at the start of the NATO intervention that the cost to Britain would be "tens, not hundreds of millions". The war is in its seventh month and British planes have flown around one in five of all the bombing raids on the country, destroying or damaging more than 900 sites. The £2 billion spent on Libya comes on top of £5 billion a year on the war in Afghanistan and the £2 billion a year spent maintaining the Trident nuclear missile system.

       Just as we're being told there is no alternative to deep cuts in the NHS, in disability allowances, pensions, and every area of the public services, £9 billion is being spent on two wars opposed by the majority of the British public, and on maintaining the militarily pointless Trident system. Britain is facing its worst economic crisis since the 1930s, but David Cameron in his speech last week to the United Nations, called for yet more war, adopting from Tony Blair the justification of "humanitarian intervention" for western powers to wage war wherever they please. (SEE: http://bit.ly/rk11ZC).

       It will be the main purpose of the Antiwar Mass Assembly on 8 October (see below) to mobilise as big a display of popular opposition as possible to this government's policy of spending billions on wars abroad while waging a war at home to cut billions from our public services.

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IT'S ALL FOR YOUR OWN GOOD!!!!

STOP THE BOMBING OF LIBYA NOW: PROTEST 19 APRIL

        Britain France and the US have now come clean. The article signed by Cameron, Sarkozy and Obama, and published today in Washington, Paris and London, makes clear the war on Libya is not about protecting civilians but about regime change. Having ignored peace moves from the African Union, NATO is now set on escalating the bombing.

The humanitarian spin they are putting on the operation is exposed by the fact that the Western governments continue to support brutal regimes in Yemen, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, where severe repression against democracy activists continues virtually uncriticised.

        Meanwhile as predicted the bombing is claiming many civilian casualties and helping to deepen the division in the country. In response to the continued bombing and this open and illegal statement of intent, Stop the War has called a protest at Downing Street next Tuesday 19 April at 5pm.

IT'S FOR YOUR OWN GOOD.

Please attend if you can and spread the word as widely as possible. http://stopwar.org.uk/



PROTEST: STOP THE BOMBING OF LIBYA NOW
TUESDAY 19 APRIL, 5PM
DOWNING STREET, LONDON

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THE DOGS OF WAR SMELL BLOOD.

STOP THE WAR COALITION   19 March 2011

Email office@stopwar.org.uk
Tel: 020 7801 2768
Web: http://stopwar.org.uk/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/STWuk
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/stopthewarcoalition

EMERGENCY PROTEST:
HANDS OFF LIBYA: STOP THE BOMBING NOW
SUNDAY 20 MARCH 3-4PM
DOWNING ST, WHITEHALL, LONDON

     Britain and the USA have bombed Libya with more than one hundred Tomahawk  cruise missiles. These are not precision guided weapons but weapons of mass destruction that will create many civilian casualties in Libya. The United Nations resolution authorising a no-fly zone begins as it will continue, with a full-scale military attack on the country.

   

       Stop the War condemns this barbarous attack which will result, not in protecting the people of Libya, but in enslaving them under the domination of the West. We know only too well the death and destruction that imperialism has brought to the peoples of the region. We call on all those who oppose these attacks to demonstrate at Downing Street at 3pm on Sunday 20 March.

SOLIDARITY

LOCAL STOP THE WAR GROUPS

     We are asking all local Stop the War groups around the country to call protests in their area. If you would like to be involved in local protests where you live, contact your nearest Stop the War group: SEE http://bit.ly/dRSlpl

     A leaflet putting the case for non-intervention and a petition, initiated by Tony Benn, John Pilger and others, are both available to download for printing, here:

LEAFLET: http://tinyurl.com/6henp2l

PETITION: http://tinyurl.com/6z9lk2x

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