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| VOICES NEWSLETTER (SEPT 2002)
Contents
We now have a real chance at stopping the war on Iraq in its tracks. As the incoming Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams (who has lent his support to voices) has commented, there has been a 'significant shift in what people assumed was an automatic run-up to war': there is now 'an extraordinary window of opportunity' for making peace. (Sunday Times, 25 Aug., p. 2)
A major mobilisation by the British peace movement over the next three months could force Tony Blair to withdraw Britain from military participation in the war; this could help to tip the balance in the US against an invasion.
Voices in the wilderness uk is concentrating on helping to build the anti-war movement into a force that can shake Mr Blair's determination and prevent President Bush's war.
The Achilles Heel
Militarily, Britain is irrelevant, but politically, British support seems to be essential in shoring up US public and congressional opinion. US polls show that while most Americans support military action against Iraq, that support drops significantly if the US has to go it alone. (Christian Science Monitor, 17 July; Times, 14 Aug., p. 14)
General Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of US-led forces in the 1991, and James Baker, US Secretary of State in 1991, have both warned George W. Bush. not to 'go it alone'. (Times, 26 Aug. p. 1)
We Are The Majority
Two out of three people in Britain who have an opinion oppose the threatened invasion of Iraq. A Daily Telegraph /YouGov poll found 58 per cent of people in Britain opposed to war - only 28 per cent are supportive. Only 19 per cent of people think
Britain should participate in the war. 54 per cent think Tony Blair looks like Bush's poodle - 39 per cent think that's unfair. (12 Aug., p. 12)
A majority of Conservative voters oppose war (49 per cent as against 39 per cent support). (Guardian, 28 Aug.,p. 1)
A programme For Peace
In the next few months we need to persuade doubters and supporters of the war; we need to strengthen those who oppose war by supplying the best information and arguments to combat war propaganda; and we need to mobilise and channel people's opposition and outrage into effective nonviolent protest.
Oppose 'Containment'
We must vehemently reject the choice we are being offered between 'containment' and 'regime change'.
'Containment' is a code word for strangling 23 million people with economic sanctions and killing tens of thousands of children every year through poverty and disease.
'Regime change', on the other hand, is a code word for assaulting the people of Iraq, disrupting the fragile network of humanitarian distribution on which they depend, and destroying key elements of Iraq's public health infrastructure - all in order to replace the current leader of Iraq with a more pliable Iraqi general.
To solve the humanitarian crisis in Iraq, we must lift the economic sanctions. To solve the inspection crisis in Iraq, we need to negotiate the return of UN weapons inspectors.
There are risks in taking this route. But the risks of sanctions and war are much greater - for the peoples of Iraq, for the peoples of the region, and perhaps even for the world.
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 Gleen 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 groups.
We can ask some or all of these local bodies to pass resolutions opposing the planned war and calling on the Prime Minister to publicly pledge that Britain will not participate in, or support, President Bush's attack on Iraq - these resolutions can be used as part of the lobbying of our local MPs. We can invite all of these groups to circulate the Stop The War petition www.stopwar.org.uk, ARROW Anti-War Briefings www.j-n-v.org, and news of anti-war events local and national.
We can ask the most supportive to sponsor or sign the Pledge of Resistance sponsored by ARROW, Pax Christi and voices uk.
Local Action
At the local level, weekly stalls, local vigils and demonstrations, anti-war church services, acts of nonviolent civil disobedience such as sit-down protests, letters to local newspapers, participation in local radio phone-ins, putting up anti-war posters and stickers, even wearing anti-war badges, can all help to raise awareness and move people into action.
Finally, the 28 Sept mass demonstration in London organised by the Stop the War Coalition and the Muslim Association of Britain will be a very important signal to the Government. Please do come. You are very welcome to join the Pledge section of the demo.
Poodle
Voices joined ARROW on 4 July to call for Independence from America, and to oppose a US attack on Iraq. 40 people gathered at Downing St to meet a cowboy-hatted George W.Bush leading a giant Tony Blair 'poodle' on a string (thank you, Stig).
A list of Pledge signers was handed in, and then it was off to the US Embassy, via Oxford Street where an ARROW lamppost climber hung up a large 'No war on Iraq' banner. Reuters carried the story and a photo.
54% of British people think Tony Blair 'looks increasingly like President Bush's poodle' (Telegraph, 12 Aug)
Week Of Action
6 Aug. was the twelfth anniversary of the imposition of economic sanctions on Iraq, as well as being Hiroshima Day. In London 'Children Against the War', ARROW and Women in Black all held vigils - the latter braving the elements to do so. Birmingham's Iraqi
People First had a 40 person demo outside the BBC to protest the media's coverage of the sanctions.
The Sheffield Campaign Against War in the Gulf held a vigil entitled 'Sanctions - a silent Hiroshima', while CASI launched a new booklet of ideas on how to oppose the sanctions available from Faslane
Up at Faslane Trident submarine base in Scotland, voice* joined forces with Trident Ploughshares for a 'die-in' to mark the two anniversaries and to protest recent British nuclear threats against Iraq.
A silent 40 minute procession led to the main gate, where, after twelve slow drum beats, most of those present lay in the road. There were 22 arrests - a picture from the demo was used in the Guardian. Thanks to Lizzie and Kez for beautiful banners! As the US and UK escalate their threats, voices in the wilderness uk is building up its anti-war/anti-sanctions campaign in response.
Anti-War Action Centre
In cooperation with ARROW (Active Resistance to the Roots of War), void has taken up an office in Central London and is busy trying to equip the room at 5 Caledonian Road (on the third floor), and replace our ageing computer and printer.
Having moved the office from Oxford, we would be very grateful for any offers of accommodation in the London area for our office volunteers, especially for the redoubtable Gabriel Carlyle: If you are able to offer a room for the next six months (perhaps for free?), please call Gabriel on 0845 458 2564.
The Anti-War Action Centre is intended to be a resource centre, a place to pick up the latest and best leaflets, briefings, badges, posters, stickers, books (Housmans Bookshop on the ground floor is a treasure trove). We will also hold regular anti-war organising meetings at No. 5.
If you live in the London area and are able to spare a few hours regularly over the next critical months, we would be very grateful for help in the office. We are also keen to recruit people to staff stalls at anti-war meetings and demonstrations.
If you would like to drop by the office to pick up materials, or if you would like to volunteer in some capacity, please call 0845 458 2564 before dropping in to check someone is in the office to let you in.
Voices Roadshow
Voice is keen to offer anti-wai/anti-sanctions speakers to do talks around the country. We are also now offering local groups a package of activities.
We can get together the materials and people to hold a public sanctions-breaking auction - either at a speaker meeting or in the open. We can also help with holding a public Pledge of Resistance signing stall.
We can also hold workshops for activists in preparation for Non Violent Direct Action, or a workshop for Getting Better at
Arguing Against War and Sanctions'.
The idea is that we can send two or more voices people to your area for one, two or three days to hold a number of events for external and internal consumption to help boost the movement
Please call the office or email voices@viwuk.fresserve.co.uk if you are interested. Please do book at least three weeks in
advance of when you want to hold the events.
Pledge
The Pledge of Resistance is entering a new, more active, phase. We now have over 1500 signatures, with nearly 1000 people pledged to take nonviolent action in the event of a major attack on Iraq, and hundreds of people publicly pledging to support those willing to risk arrest, prosecution, and legal penalties.
We know from past experience - certainly in the case of the Vietnam War - that mass civil disobedience can help to contain State violence. It turns out that President Nixon was intent on ending the war by dropping a nuclear bomb on North Vietnam in November 1969. He was deterred by the mobilisation culminating in the vast Vietnam Moratorium demonstration in October 1969. The threat of internal disruption was too great to go down the nuclear route. (More details in War Plan Iraq.)
It may require a credible threat of massive nonviolent disruption to stop this war.
Hence our plans for nonviolent civil disobedience on 2 December (see below) and around the Gulf War anniversary in January, and ourpromotion of the Pledge. If you haven't already, please do consider signing up at www.j-n-v.org.
Pledge Dayschool 20 Oct
To give the Pledge a boost, we have organised a Pledge section of the 28 Sept. Stop the War march, and a Pledgers' picnic afterwards.
We are also holding an action-packed National Pledge Dayschool on Sun. 20 Oct. from 11-4 at the north end of Gower St, London WC1, in the Cruciform Building of University College London. NVDA preparation and media workshops, 'how to run a local Pledge group', plus anti-war speakers including Mil and Gabriel.
Your Support Needed
Voices relies entirely on donations from the public. We are grateful for any support you can give, however large or small. Please make cheques out to 'voices in the wilderness uk' and send to Voices, 5 Caledonian Rd, London N1 9DX. Many thanks.
In all the recent media coverage surrounding the plan to attack Iraq, one topic has received virtually no attention: its impact on ordinary Iraqis.
This is not because nobody knows what the humanitarian consequences might be. Four years ago the Pentagon warned President Clinton that a military attack on Iraq might kill 10,000 Iraqis. In fact the humanitarian impact on civilians could be even more horrific.
Humanitarian Disaster
According to Save the Children (SCP) UK bombing Iraq would lead to a humanitarian disaster for which the international community would bear a heavy responsibility'. Furthermore 'any attacks that targeted sectors used for ration distribution (eg transport) or for public health (eg water, sanitation, electricity) would be an attack on children's ability to survive.'
History suggests that such attacks will almost certainly take place.
1991; 'Long Term Leverage'
During the 1991 Gulf War the US deliberately targeted Iraq's infrastructure in what air force officers explained was an effort "to accelerate the effect of [economic] sanctions." Iraq's electricity generating system was deliberately crippled - in breach of the Geneva' Conventions - to create what Col. John Warden III, the deputy director of strategy, doctrine and plans for the Air Force, termed "long-term leverage."
4%
By the time the air war was over Iraq's electrical system was generating less than 4 percent of its pre-war output. "Saddam Hussein cannot restore his own electricity . He needs help", Warden explained. "If there are 3 political objectives that the UN
coalition has, it can say, 'Saddam, when you agree to do these things, we will allow people to come in and fix your electricity'" The human consequences were devastating.
47,000
The electricity cut-off - in a highly mechanised, electricity dependent society - led to a massive surge of water-borne and sewage related diseases such as cholera, typhoid, gastroenteritis and malaria. An estimated 47,000 Iraqi children died during the first eight months of 1991 as a result of the war's aftermath.
Today, as a direct consequence of the Gulf War and 12 years of economic sanctions, Iraqi children are still drinking dirty water and ordinary families are unable to earn a living. If Iraq's electricity system is damaged again in a future military attack, it could collapse completely.
According to the UN Secretary-General, the consequences of this 'could potentially dwarf all other difficulties so far endured by the Iraqi people.'
Famine
Sanctions have created unprecedented levels of dependency on the Government food ration - upon which millions of Iraqis depend
for their survival. According to Save the Children, 'dependency levels are so high that any shock to the system would lead directly and inevitably to a humanitarian disaster'.
UNICEF's representative in Baghdad, Carol de Rooy, has even stated that there is the possibilty of 'large scale famine' if bombing interrupts the ration's distribution.
Andrea Needham
Voices uk breaks the economic sanctions on Iraq by taking humanitarian goods into Iraq without an export licence, and by bringing Iraqi civilian goods back to sell in the UK without permission.
Until Iraq is allowed to resume normal civilian trade, and to re-inflate the Iraqi economy, the humanitarian crisis will
continue to kill large numbers every month.
We break the sanctions because they are a weapon of mass destruction. We break the sanctions because they have killed hundreds of thousands of children.
We break the sanctions because one of the finest health systems in the Middle East has been broken and destroyed as a matter of policy.
We break the sanctions because a people who had clean drinking water now a crime against humanity is being perpetrated in our name.
We break the sanctions because the government lies and lies about the effects of the policies it supports.
We break the sanctions because food and medicines have been affected by sanctions.
We break the sanctions because the oil-for-food deal has failed to meet the needs of the Iraqi people.
We break the sanctions because we cannot obey the rules that are killing civilians in their thousands every month.
We break the sanctions because we have seen the children dying in front of our eyes in Iraqi hospitals while British ministers claim to have no quarrel with the Iraqi people.
We break the sanctions because after ten years of vigils, and demonstrations, and lobbies, and letters, and countless, countless
leaflets, the time has come to say with our whole selves, with our futures, with our freedom, we will not be part of this.
We break the sanctions because a whole people is in agony through our cruelty and indifference.
Milan Rai, co-founder voices uk
Milan Rai: We are confronting two Big Lies. The first lie is that the US and UK are motivated by the threat from Iraq's suspected weapons of mass destruction programmes.
In reality, this is not a war for UN weapons inspectors. The US is undermining the new weapons inspection agency UNMOVIC, just as it did UNSCOM.
As a top US Senate foreign policy aide has said: 'The White House's biggest fear is that UN weapons inspectors will be allowed to go in.'(Time, 13 May, p. 38)
The second Big Lie is that the US and Britain are committed to/regime change' in Iraq. In reality the US is committed to 'regime stabilisation, leadership change'.
As Richard Haas, then director for Middle East Affairs for the US National Security Council, said in March 1991 after the end of the Gulf War, 'You don't understand. Our policy is to get rid of Saddam, not his regime.' (Andrew and Patrick Cockburn, Out of the Ashes, p. 37.)
The aim is merely to replace the Iraqi President and his immediate entourage with a more cooperative and obedient set of generals.
One candidate being considered is Brigadier-General Najib al-Salhi, who served Baghdad faithfully through the Iran-Iraq war, the campaign against the Kurds, the invasion of Kuwait, and the crushing of the 1991 rebellions, until he defected in 1995.
General al-Salhi has made grand statements about introducing 'multi-party democracy' into Iraq. The reality is revealed by his emphasis on 'the need to encourage Iraqi military leaders to switch sides by promising that no more than 20 of Saddam's closest henchmen would be treated as criminals by an incoming Iraqi government.' (Sunday Telegraph, 17 March 2002, p. 15)
In other words, 'regime stabilisation, leadership change'.
Ten reasons against another war on Iraq: There is no evidence Iraq has developed or acquired weapons of mass destruction; There is no link between Iraq and the terrorist attacks of 11 September; This is not a war for democracy; A war on raq could trigger a humanitarian disaster; A war on Iraq could demolish Iraqi Kurdistan; A war on Iraq would be illegal; Iraq's neighbours oppose the war, and fear its consequences; Generals on both sides of the Atlantic oppose the war; A majority of people in Britain oppose the war; A war on Iraq could trigger a world recession.
War Plan Iraq: Ten Reasons Not To Launch Another War on Iraq by Milan Rai (240pp) is published on 11 Sept. £10 post-free until 7 Oct. (£12 in bookshops.) Please send cheques made out to 'ARROW Publications' to 29 Gensing Rd, St. Leonards on Sea, East Sussex TN38 OHE.
'Excellent.' Alice Mahon MP
John Sweeney's BBC2 Correspondent programme 'Mother of All Ironies' alleged: (1) that 'oil-for-food' has solved the humanitarian crisis in south/central Iraq; and (2) that Baghdad is deliberately withholding medicines purchased under oil-for-food from the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.
Milk And Honey
Whilst Sweeney acknowledged that sanctions had caused suffering in the past, he insinuated that this was no longer the case as 'billions of dollars are coming in from oil-for-food and sanctions-busting'.
But goods coming into Iraq from oil-for-food have amounted to less than $200 per capita per year. A recent UNICEF document states that 'many Iraqis [are] living on as little as the equivalent of $3 to $6 a month'.
Open To Question?
Sweeney claimed that a 1999 UNICEF child mortality estimate was 'open to question' because the surveys which it was based on were conducted jointly with the Iraqi Government.
He failed to point out however that UNICEF helped design the surveys; were involved in the training of survey supervisors; conducted field visits to every governorate while the survey was being conducted; oversaw the process of data entry; and asked a panel of experts to review the surveys for evidence of manipulation. They found no such evidence.
Medicines
Sweeney claimed that 'according to UN figures' $250 million earmarked for medicines for northern Iraq was lying in a UN account 'unspent by Saddam'. No verifiable source was given. It is unclear how much of this '$250m' really is 'unspent' and how much is just awaiting UN approval or even delivery by the suppliers.
'Saddam', Sweeney claimed, is 'blocking' medicines for the Kurds suffering shortages. But UN reports refer to 'inefficient procurement procedures' for medicines for the north. Neither the UN nor the US have any evidence that the problems - which also affect the centre/south - are caused by malice, rather than inefficiency or bureaucracy.
Politicians
Over 160 MPs have now signed Early Day Motion (EDM 927) expressing 'deep unease' at the prospect that Britain might support US action against Iraq. The Prime Minister has refused to promise a Parliamentary vote on war. Deputy PM John Prescott said later there would be only 'a kind of decision', suggesting there would be no vote.
The Times reports (30 Aug.) that 'an overwhelming majority of Labour constituency chairmen in the party's most vulnerable seats said they would not support Mr Blair if he committed British forces to war'.
Church
The Archbishop of Canterbury elect, Rowan Williams, was one of over 3000 people to sign Pax Christi's 'Christian declaration' opposing war against Iraq. The declaration, which condemned any attack as 'immoral and illegal', received widespread media coverage. Meanwhile the Bishop of Oxford - who has supported previous military action against Iraq - used the pages of the Observer to declare that 'This war would not be a just war'.
Unions
In a letter to the Guardian the General Secretaries of 9 major unions, including Bill Morris of the TGWU, urged the Government to 'listen to the bishops' and '[reject] George W Bush's push for military action' (30 July). 'An influential group of union
leaders are planning to use their votes...to put the TUC in the opposition camp and ensure the issue is debated at the Labour conference in October' with potentially embarrassing results for the Mr Blair (Guardian, 9 Aug.)
Diplomats
'At a private gathering in London recently, a serving ambassador was asked if it was true that all British ambassadors in the Middle East believe and attack on Iraq would be a disaster. After an embarrassed pause, [he] replied: "Yes"'(Guardian, 1 Aug).
In a letter to the Sunday Times former British High Commissioner to Australia Sir Brian Barder warned the Government that 'If the US attacks Iraq without security council approval in the absence of a new Iraqi armed attack on a UN member it will be acting illegally and setting a potentially disastrous precedent by providing cover for future aggression'(Sunday Times, 11 Aug).
Military
'Tony Blair's military advisers are currently expressing deep anxiety about the Bush administration's seemingly inevitable march to war'(Guardian, 1 Aug.). Sir Michael Quinlan, a former top civil servant at the MoD, condemned the idea of attacking Iraq as 'not necessary, not prudent, and not right' whilst the former chief of defence staff. Field Marshal Lord Bramall, has warned that an invasion would put 'petrol rather than water' on the flames.
The Polls: Britain
According to the Bishop of Coventry Cohn Bennetts, 'the government's failure to set out a convincing case for military action has created a vacuum in which public opinion, left to its own devices, has already concluded that such an action would be both illegal and immoral' (Guardian, 9 Aug). Polls consistently show a majority opposed to war.
A YouGov poll for the Daily Telegraph found 58% opposed to military action against Iraq 'under present circumstances', with only 28% in favour. Only 19% would support Britain joining the US if military action takes place (Telegraph 12 Aug).
The Polls: US
Public support for war against Iraq has been falling in the US. A USA Today poll showed only a slim majority (53%) of Americans supporting the use of ground troops against Iraq, down from 61% in June and 74% last November (Guardian, 24 Aug.). A June Galiup poll found only a minority in favour of military action in which the US acted alone (Christian Science Monitor, 17 July).
Wesley Clark, former Nato Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, says, 'it hasn't really penetrated popular understaning in the United States that there is some possibility that the UK wouldn't be there with us' (Independent, 21 Aug.).
People Power
Given Washington's international isolation, British support for, and participation in, US war plans are of critical importance on the diplomatic and public relations fronts.
If Britain can be forced to withdraw its support this could help to terminate or delay the US war effort.
'(T]he Gulf Wat of 1990 - 1991 was a disaster for the West as a whole...Another attack in the present situation would be even more isastrous'.
'We deplore any military action that regards the death of innocent men, women and children as a price worth paying in fighting terrorists, since this is to fight terror with terror'.
I am dreadfully worried... Why are people not in Trafalgar Square night after night? We seem to be sleepwalking'.
On September 11, 2001, 12 of us were on day 37 of a 40 day fast across from the UN headquarters and the US Mission to the UN in New York City.
We particularly urged UN workers and officials to challenge US and UK led policies that use the UN to wage economic warfare against Iraqi civilians.
Some of us were heading toward Manhattan when the suicide attackers hit the World Trade Center.
I was in Brooklyn preparing a press release about our intention to invite the US Mission to the UN to share with us a meal of cooked lentils and rice, along with untreated water which we would bear only as a symbol of the privation visited upon ordinary families in Iraq.
But after the attacks, we completed our fast in quiet remorse.
From a rooftop in Brooklyn, watching a thick cloud of black smoke billow over the city, I thought of the many people whose arms
would ache emptily for loved ones that would never return.
I knew that among those who could best understand the agony, grief and loss felt by people in the US were the people with whom we've so often met, in Iraq.
Now, in 2002, we are again nearing the end of a forty-day fast, still calling for an end to the economic sanctions that have so cruelly afflicted vulnerable and innocent people in Iraq.
A new war looms. Iraqi brothers and sisters no doubt anticipate explosions, clouds of smoke, destruction, rubble, pain and death. They've endured decades of warfare, and 12 years of siege. But unlike the families of victims here in the US, Iraqis who lose their beloved children, parents, and friends to warfare and siege can't count on condolence, reparations, and mercy from sympathizers around the world.
Instead they have been ostracized, exhausted, humiliated, and punished by lethally punitive measures.
One might expect that upon visiting families in Iraq we would return with answers to the question: "Why do they hate us so much?"
Instead, we return ratherbewildered, wondering, "Why do they love us so much?"
Kindness and hospitality consistently mark our encounters with ordinary people in Iraq. Their remarkable courage fuels our persistence in begging people to "Break Ranks" before its too late.
Kathy Kelly, co-founder voices, New York, 1 September 2002
'Will the invasion of Iraq really bring us closer to a more peaceful global community? I know from personal experience what the violent death of a family member does to the human spirit.
To be honest, I am tired of the violence here and abroad.
There has to be a better way'
Amber Amundson, widow of Craig Scott Amundson who dies in the Pentagon on 11 September 2001.
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