Dear Stop the War Supporter,

The Stop the War Coalition would like to send season's
greetings, all best wishes for a peaceful 2008 and many thanks
to all our supporters.

Although the anti-war movement has made a huge impact here and
around the world, regrettably our work is far from complete.

George Bush is now advocating an open-ended US occupation of
Iraq and an intensification of the war in Afghanistan. Despite
Gordon Brown's statements on Iraq, there are still 5,000
British troops in that country and British involvement in the
war in Afghanistan is intensifying. Although pressure against
an attack on Iran is growing, it is important to continue our
campaign on the issue.

The highly successful WORLD AGAINST WAR conference on 1
December, attended by delegates from 26 countries, agreed
unanimously to hold internationally co-ordinated WORLD AGAINST
WAR demonstrations on the fifth anniversary of the Iraq
invasion. They will call for the withdrawal of all foreign
troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and for no attack on Iran.

For reports and video of the World Against War conference
please go to: http://tinyurl.com/2ubo7b

Plans are in place for a WORLD AGAINST WAR website to help
facilitate links between anti-war movements across the world
and to maximise the co-ordination of events in 2008.

In Britain, the WORLD AGAINST WAR demonstration will take
place in London on Saturday 15 March. To help build the
national mobilisation, Stop the War will be organising a
series of rallies in late February and early March in all
major towns and regions, with speakers from the Middle East
joining prominent activists from this country. Please contact
your local group for more information and to get involved. For
details of groups go to: http://tinyurl.com/2fg3w2

BRIEFINGS
Four page briefings on Afghanistan and Iran are available from
the office containing background analysis and reports on the
current situation in both countries.

SEASON'S GREETINGS CARDS & GIFTS FROM STOP THE WAR

SEASONAL GREETINGS CARDS: 'Tony Benn in Trafalgar Square':
£5.00 for pack of six, including postage see
http://tinyurl.com/26k7mk

WAR WITH NO END: Essays and stories from Joe Sacco, Arundhati
Roy, John Berger, Haifa Zangana, Hanif Kureishi, Lindsey
German, Phyllis Bennis, Ahdaf Soueif, Tram Nguyen, Naomi Klein
and Sept 11th Families. Stop the War / Verso publication.
retail price £7.99. Our price: £7.00 including postage &
packing (UK only) see http://tinyurl.com/2helvo

NOT IN OUR NAME: Songs for Change CD: with leon Rosselson,
David Ferrard, Rory McLeod, Amy Martin, Roy Bailey, David
Rovics, jez Lower, Dick Gaughan, Jim Page, Seize the day, Mark
Erelli and others. Songs for Change
(http://www.songsforchange.com/

for STWC). Our price: £10.00
including postage & packing (UK only) see
http://tinyurl.com/2wu9bp

NEW T-SHIRTS AVAILABLE FROM http://tinyurl.com/386r

For a peaceful future
Stop the War Coalition--
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CORRECTION TO NEWSLETTER No. 1029
There was a misprint in the fifth bullet point of the International World
Against War Conference Declaration, which was distributed in our last mailing
The correct wording is reprinted below. Our apologies for this error.

DECLARATION OF WORLD AGAINST WAR CONFERENCE
Agreed unanimously by 1200 delegates from 26 countries
attending the World Against War Conference on Saturday 1
December 2007.

This conference of delegates from peace, anti-war,
anti-imperialist and liberation movements across the world
declares its opposition to the "endless war" prosecuted by the
US government against states, peoples and movements in all
parts of our planet.

We oppose the interference of the US and its allies in
sovereign states, and assert the right of all peoples to
self-determination. We support all people fighting for peace
and against imperialism.

In particular, we demand:

* An immediate end to the illegal military occupation of Iraq,
which has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and displaced
millions of people, a withdrawal of all foreign troops and the
full transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqi people and their
representatives.
* A halt to all preparations for an attack against Iran, and a
commitment to solve any issues through exclusively diplomatic
means.
* A withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan, allowing
the Afghan people to determine their own future.
* Justice for the Palestinian people, and an end to Israeli
aggression throughout the Middle East.
* An end to plans for US missile defence, and that all states
actively pursue nuclear disarmament.

We affirm the solidarity of all those fighting for peace,
social justice and self-determination worldwide, and commit
ourselves to strengthening our unity and developing new forms
of co-operation.

We therefore designate the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq
as a worldwide day of action in support of the demands NO
ATTACK on IRAN and TROOPS OUT OF IRAQ/ and AFGHANISTAN and
call on all national anti-war movements to hold mass protests
and demonstrations on that day.
--
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IN THIS NEWSLETTER:
1) WORLDWIDE PEACE PROTESTS PLANNED FOR MARCH 2008
2) DECLARATION OF WORLD AGAINST WAR CONFERENCE
3) RHYTHMS OF PEACE CONCERT: A GREAT SUCCESS

********************************
1) WORLDWIDE PEACE PROTESTS PLANNED FOR MARCH 2008
Over 1,200 delegates from the anti war movement across the
world came to London for the World Against War International
Peace Conference on 1 December. The conference ended with a
declaration announcing plans for worldwide protests in March
2008, on the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion, calling
for all foreign troops to be removed from Iraq and Afghanistan
and opposition to any attack on Iran (see declaration below).

Delegates from 26 countries addressed the conference, reported
on developments in their regions and discussed strategy for
the movement. Countries represented were Canada, Czech
Republic, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland,
Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Lebanon, Netherlands,
Norway, Pakistan, Palestine, Poland, Somalia, South Korea,
Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, United States and the United
Kingdom, which had around 1000 delegates from all corners of
the country.

Videos of all the speeches at the conference are now available
on the Stop the War website (http://www.stopwar.org.uk/).

There was a unanimous commitment by all participants to
organise worldwide demonstrations between 15-22 March 2008 and
this declaration was re-affirmed at an organising meeting for
international delegates on the day following the World Against
War conference.

All Stop the War Coalition local groups and affiliated
organisations are urged to start planning now for building the
largest possible turnout for the British WORLD AGAINST WAR
demonstration, which will take place on 15 March 2008.

********************************
2) DECLARATION OF WORLD AGAINST WAR CONFERENCE
Agreed unanimously by 1200 delegates from 26 countries
attending the World Against War Conference on Saturday 1
December 2007.

This conference of delegates from peace, anti-war,
anti-imperialist and liberation movements across the world
declares its opposition to the "endless war" prosecuted by the
US government against states, peoples and movements in all
parts of our planet.

We oppose the interference of the US and its allies in
sovereign states, and assert the right of all peoples to
self-determination. We support all people fighting for peace
and against imperialism.

In particular, we demand:

* An immediate end to the illegal military occupation of Iraq,
which has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and displaced
millions of people, a withdrawal of all foreign troops and the
full transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqi people and their
representatives.
* A halt to all preparations for an attack against Iran, and a
commitment to solve any issues through exclusively diplomatic
means.
* A withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan, allowing
the Afghan people to determine their own future.
* Justice for the Palestinian people, and an end to Israeli
aggression throughout the Middle East.
* An end to plans for US missile defence, and that all states
actively pursue nuclear deterrence.

We affirm the solidarity of all those fighting for peace,
social justice and self-determination worldwide, and commit
ourselves to strengthening our unity and developing new forms
of co-operation.

We therefore designate the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq
as a worldwide day of action in support of the demands NO
ATTACK on IRAN and TROOPS OUT OF IRAQ/ and AFGHANISTAN and
call on all national anti-war movements to hold mass protests
and demonstrations on that day.

********************************
3) RHYTHMS OF PEACE CONCERT: A GREAT SUCCESS
On the eve of the World Against War Peace Conference,
musicians and singers, actors and comedians, politicians and
authors, activists and artists, performed at the highly
successful Rhythms of Peace fundraising concert for Stop the
War Coalition in St James' Church in Piccadilly.

The performers were introduced by Andrew Murray, national
chair of Stop the War, and began with Eugene Skeef drumming
the audience into the church and giving a recital on the
berimbau, a musical instrument derived from a bow and arrow.

Novelists Ahdaf Soueif and Haifa Zangana read from their
novels. Journalist John Pilger received a very warm welcome
and read an extract about the Vietnam war from one of his
books.

The acting profession was represented magnificently by Julie
Christie reading poems by Palestinians, David Soul,
accompanied by guitarist Hugh Burns, singing his own anti-war
song, Timothy West and Prunella Scales, whose contributions
included passages from Shakespeare, and Janet Suzman, who
stood in for Michael Kustow to read his angry poem about the
2006 Israeli attack on Lebanon

Mezzo soprano Janet Shell, accompanied by composer Keith
Burstein, sang writer Ben Okri's words to Ben himself, who
joined the audience. Dave Randall from Faithless performed
with his new group Slovo, in which the young rapper Bobby
Whiskers got a tremendous reception.

There were contributions from Stop the War president Tony
Benn, Stop the War officers Lindsey German and John Rees,
Jeremy Corbyn MP and CND chair Kate Hudson. The evening ended
uproariously with US comedian Dave Lippman as CIA singing
agent George Shrub (from the Committee to Intervene Anywhere).

Eugene Skeef drummed the audience out of the church past
artist Gerry Judah's 'Motherland' painting, a final reminder
that art is a vital and necessary ally of the anti-war
movement.

Stop the War gives its warmest thanks to all the performers
who made the concert such a memorable evening and to the
audience which filled St James' Church and enabled us to raise
the ever important funds we need to sustain our anti-war
activities, as the warmongers plan for even more mass
slaughter and destruction.
--
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