STOP THE WAR COALITION NEWSLETTER No 2006/3: February 12 National Office: Email office@stopwar.org.uk Telephone 020 7278 6694 To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank e-mail to: stwc-unsubscribe@lists.riseup.net ************************************************** IN THIS NEWSLETTER: 1) MARCH 18: FROM LONDON TO BAGHDAD 2) MUSLIM COMMUNITY SUPPORTS 18 MARCH 3) THE MEDIA AND THE WAR 4) TONY BENN FINANCIAL APPEAL 5) ANOMALY? OR TANTAMOUNT TO TORTURE? 6) THE THINGS THEY SAY 7) DON'T THROW THOSE LEAFLETS AWAY 8) USEFUL LINKS ************************************************** 1) MARCH 18: FROM LONDON TO BAGHDAD Saturday 18 March will be a unique day of protest against the US / UK occupation in Iraq. The protests already planned in over 40 towns and cities across the world will be joined by mass demonstrations in Baghdad and in Basra, all calling for "Troops Out of Iraq". The Iraqis marching in Baghdad and Basra will be uniting with protestors in Amsterdam, Ankara, Athens, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Boston, Copenhagen, Denver, Dublin, Geneva, Helsinki, Istanbul, Jakarta, Karachi, Lisbon, Ljubljana, London, Madrid, Managua, Manila, Melbourne, Memphis, Minneapolis, Montreal, New York, Odense, Oklahoma, Ottawa, Seoul, Stockholm, Sydney, Tarragona, Toronto, Vancouver, Vienna, Warsaw, and many other towns and cities. (To keep up to date with the list of international demonstrations, go to: http://www.stopwar.org.uk/march20/ Across Britain, meetings, street stalls, film shows and other events are being organised to help build support for the London demonstration. To get involved, contact your local Stop the Group (email the national office for contact details: office@stopwar.org.uk). Coaches to bring demonstrators to London are now being booked in most UK areas, with new details being posted daily on the Stop the War website at: http://www.stopwar.org.uk/new/Transporttodemo.htm If no coach is listed for your area, contact the Stop the War Office and we will put you in touch with your local group to find out transport arrangements. Please spread the information about the demonstration as widely as you can among your family and friends, in your workplace and community. March 18 is the third anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq, which has been opposed consistently by the majority of British people, millions of whom over the past four years have been actively involved in what is the biggest protest movement in British history. No one should be able to say after March 18 that they were not on the demonstration because they did not know about it. Leaflets, posters, stickers and badges publicising the demonstration are available from the national office now. To order: Email office@stopwar.org.uk Telephone 020 7278 6694 ************************************************** 2) MUSLIM COMMUNITY SUPPORTS 18 MARCH Close to 15,000 leaflets publicising the March 18 international day of protest against the Iraq occupation and threat of war against Iran, were distributed at the large anti-Islamophobia demonstrations held in London over the past two weekends, with many of the demonstrators saying they would be in London for the third anniversary of the attack on Iraq. Muslims came from all over Britain on February 11 and February 18 to protest against the attacks on their religion and the racism which has over the past few weeks too often been promulgated under the disguise of "freedom of speech", following the publication of offensive and racist cartoons in a Danish newspaper. As Muslim protestors queued to take the March 18 leaflets, it was clear that many of them understood that the attacks on their community were also being used to undermine the anti-war message, at a time when the news from Iraq and the details of torture and abuse perpetrated by the US and UK armies have once again highlighted the scale of the war crimes that have been ? and continue to be ? committed by the occupying forces. Many of the Muslims taking leaflets in Trafalgar Square said they wanted details of coaches coming to London on 18 March. Local Stop the War groups should visit the mosques and Muslim community centres in their area with transport details. All the signs were on Saturday that they will get a very appreciative response. NOTE ON POLICE MATHS SKILLS: As ever, there was a vast gap between the police estimates of how many attended the Muslim demonstrations and the assessments by the organisers. The police say 5000 demonstrated on Saturday 11 February and 10,000 last Saturday. Since the Stop the War Coalition distributed 15,000 leaflets in total, this would mean -- according to the police figures ? that every single demonstrator took one of our leaflets ?which even the most mathematically challenged police officer should be able to see is a somewhat fanciful idea. ************************************************** 3) PUBLIC MEETING: THE MEDIA AND THE WAR TUESDAY 7 MARCH 7PM TITLE: The Media, Islamophobia and the War on Terror" SPEAKERS: Jonathan Steele (The Guardian) Mark Steel (The Independent) Yvonne Ridley (The Islam Channel) Sami Ramadani (London Metropolitan University) Tim Lezard (President, National Union of Journalists) VENUE: Conway Hall, Red Lion Square WC1 (Holborn tube) ************************************************** 4) TONY BENN FINANCIAL APPEAL There has been an excellent response to the financial appeal by Tony Benn, the president of Stop the War Coalition, for donations to help us fund the March18 demonstration and to sustain our continuing campaign to build opposition to the Bush / Blair plans to spread their warmongering into Iran and Syria. If you have already donated to our financial appeal, your much needed support has helped us distribute 70,000 leaflets and 5,000 posters in the last week alone. But we need to do much more to ensure we publicise the 18 March demonstration as widely as possible. Tony Blair hoped that the anti-war movement would run out of steam and fade from view. On March 18, the third anniversary of Blair's illegal war, he will see that we have no intention of going away. If you have not yet donated to Tony Benn's financial appeal and would like to make a contribution now, choose one of the following methods to make your contribution: a) Phone the Stop the War office for credit card payments: 020 72786694 b) Use Paypal online at http://www.stopwar.org.uk/new/involved/joinonline.htm c) Send a cheque made out to 'Stop the War Coalition'. ************************************************** 5) ANOMALY? OR TANTAMOUNT TO TORTURE? "The force-feeding happens in an abusive fashion as the tubes are rammed up their noses, then taken out again and rammed in again until they bleed. For a while tubes were used that were thicker than a finger, because the smaller tubes did not provide the detainees with enough food. The tubes caused the detainees to gag, and often they would vomit blood. The force-feeding happens twice daily..." Tony Blair says this is an 'anomaly'. "There is evidence of interrogation techniques deliberately designed to offend inmate's religious sensibilities, such as female officers "lap-dancing" during interrogations. Menstrual blood is alleged to have been smeared on detainees' faces to "bring home the futility of the situation". Tony Blair says this is an 'anomaly'. Al-Qadasi was taken from Guantanamo to Yemen in secret in April 2004?He stayed there for 13 months in solitary confinement in an underground cell. He was routinely beaten and received only rotten food and was prevented from using the toilet. He was then temporarily transferred to Ta'iz prison, where he was also not provided food and had to rely on his family to feed him. In June 2005 he was transferred back to Sana'a prison, where he is still held without being aware of any charges." Tony Blair says this is an 'anomaly'. Un General Secretary Kofi Annan says, "Guantanamo Bay should close. It is just flat wrong." The Archibishop Of York says, "To hold someone for up to four years without charge indicates a society heading towards George Orwell's Animal Farm." Bishop Desmond Tutu says, "It's horrendous." The International Red Cross says, "The Interrogation techniques are tantamount to torture." Uk Government Minister Peter Hain says: "I would prefer Guatanamo was closed, yes." Challenged on whether Mr Blair agreed with him, he said: "I think so, yes." ************************************************** 6) THE THINGS THEY SAY "The international terrorist is not constrained by legality, by morality, by any conventions, Geneva or otherwise." Who could UK Defence Minister John Reid be talking about when he made this statement? Could it be George Bush and Tony Blair, who are guilty of a war of unprovoked aggression, which is the supreme international crime, as defined by the Nuremburg Tribunal of 1945. The only two situations under which the United Nations Charter permits the use of armed force against another state is in self-defence, or when authorized by the UN Security Council. Iraq had not invaded the US, or any other country, Iraq did not constitute an imminent threat to any country, and the Security Council never sanctioned Bush and Blair's war. They are guilty of the crime of aggression. So much for legality. As for morality, perhaps John Reid was thinking of US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who personally authorised the abandonment of America's prohibition against torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and who advocated the use of brutal and illegal interrogation techniques on detainees in US military custody, which included the use of 'stress positions', 20-hour interrogations, the removal of clothing, the use of dogs, isolation, and sensory deprivation. As for lack of constraint, perhaps John Reid had in mind US Army's decision in November 2004 to turn the entire city of Fallujah, with more than 350,000 civilians, into "a free-fire-zone", killing between 4,000 and 6,000 civilians and employing illegal weapons, including cluster bombs, depleted uranium, and white phosphorous. As for breaking the Geneva conventions, perhaps John Reid was thinking of US Attorney General Albert Gonzales, who called the Conventions "quaint" and "obsolete" and initiated a report which stated that all interrogation methods were permissible up to but not including "organ failure". We know that for some of the US detainees who have been 'disappeared' into US torture chambers in Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, Bagram, Diego Garcia and untold secret destinations, interrogation has in fact concluded with "organ failure" ? in short, death. We await with interest John Reid's comments on how the "war on terror" will bring to account these international terrorists, who are responsible for the deaths of over 100,000 Iraqis and who have initiated a regime of worldwide lawlessness, encompassing widespread kidnapping and torture. ************************************************** 7) DON'T THROW THOSE LEAFLETS AWAY In 2002 the Working Class Movement Library (WCML) in Salford opened a section on the then emerging Stop the War movement. The WCML is a unique resource. It holds a range of sources that document the working class movement in the UK over the last 200 years. Numerous documents, posters, placards, leaflets & photos etc from the Stop the War movement have already been deposited with the library and this section continues to grow. It is important that our movement's continuing activities are recorded and documented. This is call to STW groups and activists. If you have any national leaflets, posters, placards, newsletters, photos and videos, CD-ROMS, DVDs of local, national, international demos, actions, meetings or events, please don't throw them away. Send them to: STOP THE WAR MOVEMENT ARCHIVE WORKING CLASS MOVEMENT LIBRARY 51 THE CRESCENT SALFORD M5 4WX EMAIL: enquiries@wcml.org.uk TELEPHONE: 0161 736 3601; Outside UK ++44 161 736 3601 WEBSITE: http://www.wcml.org.uk/ If you have the time, please put a note on the item(s) you send, documenting the group, event, author or designer, and the date/year of production.