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| VOICES NEWSLETTER (NOV 2002)
Contents
Mass nonviolent direct action has helped to stop wars in the past.
Mass nonviolent direct action can help to stop this war.
Even if the air assault against Iraq is launched in November, a
massive nonviolent protest in Whitehall on 2 December can help to
shake Mr Blair’s determination to join in the brutal ground invasion
that President Bush seems determined to pursue.
The passing of a vaguely worded UN Security Council
resolution does not and cannot make this a legitimate war. Article 33
of the UN Charter: ‘The parties to any dispute, the continuance of
which is likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and
security, shall, first of all, seek a solution by negotiation, enquiry,
mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to
regional agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their
own choice.’
The US approach has been to ‘first of all’ seek war, rejecting
Iraq’s offer to allow weapons inspectors to return, and tearing up
existing rules on weapons inspections to try to provoke Iraq into
withdrawing the offer (see ARROW A-W Briefing 20).
Tony Blair has helped President Bush to pursue war instead of
peace, invasion instead of inspection. We must bring into the centre
of Whitehall a vision of the human suffering that will result if he does
not pull back from the brink.
Even now, if Britain were to withdraw from participation in the
ground war, this could help to tip the balance in the US against an
invasion. There is considerable concern in the US over this war (see
inside).
No more business as usual. We will be nonviolently and
creatively disrupting Monday morning in Whitehall on 2 Dec. This is a
war that could cost tens of thousands of lives, and will have enormous
repercussions around the world. This is a war that will breed
terrorism, not a war against terrorism.
Whether the air war has started or not, we must confront
Downing St on 2 Dec. Let us say with our bodies and our freedom:
‘NO INVASION OF IRAQ–NO MORE SUFFERING FOR THE
FAMILIES OF IRAQ.’
President Bush went to the UN General Assembly on 12 Sept. and
said the UN faces ‘a difficult and defining moment’, said Mr Bush; ‘Are
Security Council resolutions to be honored and enforced, or cast
aside without consequence?’
Ignoring The Council
In Mar. 1998, UN Security Council Resolution 1154 said that it was
up to the Security Council to decide what to do about Iraqi
noncompliance with weapons inspectors; instead, in Dec. 1998, the
US and UK unilaterally bombed Iraq without consulting the Security
Council.
No action was taken against Washington or London.
Resolution 1154, cast aside without consequence.
Ripping Up A Resolution
Paragraph 22 of UNSC Resolution 687 (April 1991) promised
Baghdad that sanctions on Iraqi exports would be lifted in exchange
for nuclear, chemical, biological and long-range missile disarmament.
But in Apr. 1994, US Secretary of State Warren Christopher
wrote, ‘The US does not believe that Iraq’s compliance with
Paragraph 22 of Resolution 687 is enough to justify lifting the
embargo’, a position the US and UK have maintained ever since.
In Oct. 1998, Iraq requested a re-affirmation of Paragraph 22
by the Security Council. This was blocked by the US and UK, leading
Baghdad to temporarily stop co-operating with UNSCOM weapons
inspectors.
‘Mr Saddam’s decision to cripple UNSCOM was triggered by
the US refusal explicitly to commit itself to lifting the oil embargo if
Iraq complied with disarmament’. (FT, 12 Nov. 1998) ‘Iraq
interpreted this as confirmation of its long-held–and plausible–belief
that, even if it did come clean on all its weapons, no American
administration would lift the oil embargo so long as Mr Hussein
remained in power.’ (Economist, 7 Nov. 1998)
No action has been taken against the US or UK on this:
Resolution 687, cast aside without consequence.
Emma Sangster: Brian Haw, who has been protesting against war and
sanctions on Iraq around the clock for 16 months opposite the
Houses of Parliament, won a court victory on 4 Oct. allowing him to
continue.
A High Court judge refused to grant an injunction permitting
Westminster City Council to remove Brian on the grounds of
obstruction (deemed ‘not unreasonable’) or breach of advertising
regulations (the banners are advertising).
After coming out of court, Brian held up a picture of a young
Iraqi boy who died in terrible pain of cancer, on Christmas Eve 1997,
because the right medications were not available.
Brian said, ‘I can’t live with this. I’ve got seven children. This
could have been one of mine. War will be a sheer catastrophe.’
Brian has had enormous international and national media
coverage. Practical offers of support are very welcome–see Brian in
Parliament Square, or telephone 020 8806 6272.
The Power of a Leaflet
The woman passed by, then came back and took a leaflet. She read it,
and as a result came on her first demo–on 28 Sept. With her
husband and her five-year-old son. She’s never been politically active
before, but now she’s set up a local anti-war group in her town.
This story was told to me by an activist in Northampton, who
concluded by saying, ‘I used to wonder whether it was worth while
leafleting, and now I know it is.’
Not every leaflet spawns an anti-war group, but without the
tens of thousands of leaflets being handed out on the streets of
Britain, the anti-war movement would be a shadow of its present
strength.
Testing Times
These are very difficult days. The future of millions of people depends
in large measure on how the anti-war movements in the United States
and Britain cope with the challenges of the next few months.
President Bush and Tony Blair aim to create hopelessness and
despair in those who oppose their brutal plans. The cultivated image
of ‘inevitability’ is their biggest weapon.
Margaret Thatcher projected an ‘unstoppable’ image. Her
victory over the miners appeared inevitable, but it is now clear that
‘the period during which the miners came closest to victory and the
Thatcher government to falling was in fact in the autumn of 1984,
when most pundits had already written the strike off’. (Seumas Milne,
The Enemy Within: The Secret War Against the Miners, Pan 1995, p.
21)
We must ignore the PR-crafted image of ‘inevitable war/victory’,
and concentrate on what we can win.
At the time of writing, we still have a chance of stopping this war.
Even if the air war is started, we may still be able to stop the ground
invasion–which could cost thousands of lives (military as well as
civilian) if it involves street-by-street fighting in Iraqi cities.
Protest and Save Lives
Our protests can and will affect the way future wars are fought. We
cannot afford to lose hope if the bombing starts or the tanks go in.
Even if Britain and the US launch a full-scale invasion, our determined
pressure can affect the tactics used–and can save many, many lives.
If, because of our campaigning, the Iraqi electricity sector is
spared (it was deliberately targeted in 1991), we will have saved
thousands of lives. Those lives are worth fighting for.
If, as a result of our campaigning, the US and UK choose not to
use cluster bombs in Iraq, we will have saved hundreds of civilians
from death and injury. Those lives and limbs are worth fighting for.
If we can show that we will remain united and strong, if we can
remain a powerful anti-war movement despite the reverses that may
yet confront us, if we demonstrate the tenacity to build an even
stronger movement after this crisis, that will help to deter the
warmongers as they contemplate future wars.
The children of Iraq, and of other countries, will pay a heavy
price if we succumb to hopelessness and inactivity. Inaction is not an
option.
The majority of people in this country are either opposed to
war on Iraq or extremely dubious. We are the majority. Every action
we take matters. Never under-estimate the effect of our actions–even
of handing out a leaflet.
Milan Rai
We need to persuade doubters and supporters of the war;
strengthen those who oppose war by supplying them with the best
information/arguments against the war; and mobilise and channel
people’s opposition and outrage into effective forms of nonviolent
protest.
Local Organising
In our local anti-war groups, we have the opportunity to reach out to
a wide range of groups and institutions for support–to local
constituency party organisations, including the Green Party; to local
churches and mosques, including Friends Meeting Houses; to trade
unions and trades councils; to local peace and human rights groups; to
students, women’s organisations (women are much more hostile to
the proposed war than men), and environmental action groups.
We can ask some or all of these local bodies to pass resolutions
opposing the planned war and calling on the Mr Blair to publicly
pledge that Britain will not participate in, or support, President Bush’s
invasion of Iraq–these resolutions can be used as part of the lobbying
of our local MPs. We can ask them to pass around a petition
Local Action
At the local level, weekly stalls, local vigils and demos, anti-war church
services, acts of nonviolent civil disobedience such as sit-down
protests, letters to local newspapers, local radio phone-ins, putting up
anti-war posters and stickers, showing anti-war videos, even wearing
anti-war badges, all help to raise awareness and mobilise people.
Everything counts. Everything we do, however small, makes a difference.
The Unheard Voices
Over 90 Iraqi exiles signed the following statement drawn up by Haifa
Zengana, Kamil Mahdi, Mundher Al-Adhami, and Tahrir Numan. The
statement is stored at Not In Our Name
We are told a war on Iraq is needed to pre-empt a threat to the
region and to free the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussain's tyranny.
We as Iraqis already free from that tyranny, living outside Iraq and in
the western democracies, say that both these claims are false.
As professionals, writers, teachers and other responsible and
concerned citizens, many of whom have personally experienced the
persecution of the dictatorship in Iraq, we say: “no to war; not in our
name, not in the name of the suffering Iraqi people”.
Generations of Iraqis have endured a succession of tyrannical
regimes, two devastating wars, and twelve years of “the most
pervasive sanctions ever imposed on a nation in the history of
mankind” (US National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, 14 November
1997).
On the arms issue, Iraq underwent seven and a half years of
intrusive inspection and its proscribed production facilities were
controlled or destroyed, while the most threatening power in the
region, Israel, refuses inspection of its nuclear, chemical and biological
facilities.
In Iraq, the regime of Saddam Hussain has nothing left but
bombast. Hence it tries to exploit the genuine explosive rise of anger
in the whole Middle East at the unbelievable suffering of the
Palestinian people. It is the inhumanity of the civilised world in letting
Sharon’s atrocities continue in defiance of scores of UN resolutions
that leaves the Iraqi regime with any credibility at all.
In the meantime, the sanctions have been catastrophic for the
welfare of the people of Iraq. They have made the lives of Iraqis
dependent on the state machine rather than on free production and
distribution. The fabric of society is barely holding out under the
brutality of UN siege, manipulation by the regime and unscrupulous
regional intrigues. Sectarian and ethnic politics has displaced modern
civil political activity, and intellectual and cultural life is in accelerated
decline with the flight of creative talents and technically qualified
people.
Another war will crush a vulnerable society and may mean civil
war, with unpredictable spillovers all over the Middle East and
potential destabilisation to Europe and the world at large. Already,
Iraqis form a large proportion of those risking their lives while seeking
asylum in the west.
Our aspirations for Iraq and indeed the whole of the Middle
East are for nations that respect human rights, guarantee the national
rights of the Kurdish people, universally apply international law and
are free of WMD. We believe that Saddam Hussain’s regime is
responsible for leading Iraq from a situation of great promise into one
of unmitigated catastrophe, and this regime must be held to account
for its abject failure and for the crimes it committed against Iraqi
people, Arabs and Kurds, of all beliefs and persuasions.
But the remedy must not cause greater damage to the innocent
and to society at large. Real change can only be brought about by the
Iraqi people themselves within an environment of peace and justice
for all the peoples of the Middle East.
A change of this kind, combining truth and reconciliation with
legal processes of punishing offenders is being espoused all over the
world. Why shouldn't that be the case for Iraq?
We call on the UN to put together a timetable for the lifting of
the economic sanctions and do all it can to halt the drive for war that
will only plunge the region into the abyss. We also call on everyone to
challenge the dangerous and irresponsible war plans of the US
administration.
Counter-Dossier
CASI’s Glen Rangwala has produced an excellent ‘counter-dossier’ on
Iraq and a very good commentary on the Government’s Iraq dossier
which you can order from the voices office or view at
4 New Anti-War Books
Tinderbox: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Roots of Terrorism by
Stephen Zunes (Zed Books 0207 837 4014, £9.99) ‘A very useful
handbook to the complexities of this disturbed and fateful region,’
says Noam Chomsky.
War On Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn’t Want You To Know by
William Rivers Pitt with Scott Ritter (Profile Books, £4.99). Interview
with Scott Ritter, the former head of UNSCOM’s concealment unit.
Targeting Iraq by Geoff Simons (Saqi Books, £14.99). ‘Important and
timely’ says Denis Halliday, former UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator.
War Plan Iraq. Ten Reasons Against War on Iraq by voices Joint Co-
ordinator Milan Rai (Verso, £9.99, ISBN 1859845010). ‘The clearest
and most persuasive explanation of the reasons not to go to war with
Iraq,’ says George Monbiot.
Ask your library to order copies.
Leaflets And Postcards
Voices has produced an anti-war leaflet for use on stalls, vigils etc...
Please order your copies using the tear-off slip on the back-page - or
call the office on 0845 458 2564 for a top copy that you can
photocopy yourself.
Copies of voices popular anti-war postcard (‘For the people of
Iraq . . . Raise your voices against war’) are still available from the
office. So far 40,000 have been distributed. Help us flood Number 10!
videos
A local video screening is an excellent way of getting people informed
and involved. voices currently has two titles:
Hidden Wars of Desert Storm narrated by John Hurt. (£10+£1.50
p&p). ‘an uncommonly sober, well-researched film of its type’, says
the New York Times. ‘A convincing, powerful argument that
Operation Desert Storm was a politically motivated attack on Iraq’
Boston Globe.
Greetings from Missile Street (£4 incl. p&p). In Summer 2000, a small
group of voices us activists lived for a month on a street in Basra
which had been hit by US missiles in January 1999. This film
documents the lives of the families who live there, their grief as they
remember those who died and their hardship after a decade of
sanctions. An intimate portrait of a neighbourhood surviving under
devastating conditions and a compelling call for peace.
Nonviolent Action
For those contemplating–or planning–nonviolent resistance these
web-sites by experienced and successful activists have a wealth of
useful information: The Activists’ Legal project have produced some excellent
briefings on possible charges for nonviolent civil disobedience, police
arrest procedures and how to run a legal support group.
These are available from the voices office or from the ALP site:
Finally, good media work is often essential to the success of an
action. George Monbiot’s Activists’ Guide to Exploiting the Media
provides all you need to know. Available from the office (£1.50 incl.
p&p) or on-line at Volunteers
A very big ‘Thank You’ to Debbie, Laura, Ann, Cedric, Pauline,
Katriona, Andrea, Les, Justin, and Richard who all helped Gabriel with
the last newsletter mail-out.
Thank you also to Evelyn, Cedric and Matt for their varied
herculean efforts in the office.
The voices office can always do with volunteer help–whether in
the office, or taking a stall to anti-war events to get anti-war materials
into people’s hands.
If you are in the London area and you can spare some time at
the King’s Cross office or on stall duty, please give Gabriel a call on
0845 458 2564. Thank you.
Pledge actions across the country.
London, sit-downs start from south side of Traf. Sq., gathering at: 7pm
that evening if war starts before 4pm, 7pm next evening if war starts after 4pm; AND 11am on the first Sat.
after war starts unless first action takes place on Fri., in which case sit-down 11am on second Sat. after war starts.
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