Stop the War Coalition
On 19 January 2015, around 200 people attended a briefing meeting on a new year of war, hosted by Jeremy Corbyn MP in parliament last night. The room booked for the meeting quickly filled, as did a hurriedly requisitioned overflow room. Even so around 100 more people were turned away from the event.
Those who did get in were addressed by a range of speakers on different aspects of the topic, including Seumas Milne, Guardian journalist, George Galloway MP, Andrew Murray, former Stop the War chair and now chief of staff at Unite, Sami Ramadani, Iraqi writer and campaigner, and Lindsey German, convenor of the Stop the War Coalition.
The meeting stood in marked contrast to the dominant narrative of the government and the media. Instead the speakers told about the real situation in Iraq, Syria and Libya. They also talked about the situation post the Paris attacks, which a number linked to wars and foreign policy, and which it was feared would lead to greater Islamophobia.
The meeting was very diverse, and quite young. It reflected a growing thirst for understanding and campaigning over a series of wars which are now casting a very long shadow over millions of people around the world.
Stop the War is following this up with another public meeting on Islamophobia and War on February 12th. There are also a number of events around the country, and Stop the War is encouraging all its local groups to hold meetings round these topics.
Nearly 14 years after the start of the war on terror, there is more terrorism, more war and more Islamophobia. That counts as a failure. Time to end the wars and start the peace.
Source: Stop the War Coalition|
