Yesterday I got the latest email newsletter from the Stop the War Coalition, detailing their forthcoming protests against the war in Ukraine, the government’s increased funding for the British military, which is particularly noxious given the government’s lukewarm response to the cost of living crisis, and their protest against Blair being granted a knighthood. The Coalition’s assembling a demonstration at Windsor on the 13th, when Blair is due to join the others being inducted into the Order of the Garter. Blair’s a war criminal through his illegal invasion of Iraq, which killed 100,000 people and displaced a further two million. The same invasion wrecked the country, destroying its relatively secular, welfare state. This was replaced by sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shias, women may no longer work outside the home as they formerly could under Saddam Hussein’s regime, and the mercenary troops brought in as part of the occupation amused and enriched themselves through running drugs and prostitution rings and shooting innocent Iraqis for sport. Not all of this carnage is Blair’s responsibility. A large part of it is his mate’s George W. Bush. But he was actively complicit, and, as books have argued, deserves to be up before the Court of International Human Rights or whatever on charges of war crimes. And this is quite apart from his role in the similar destruction of Libya, which has resulted in the Islamist nutters there opening slave markets again. They are also calling on their supporters to organise protests in their local community on the 25th of this month. I won’t be able to attend any of these demonstrations, but I’m putting up notice of them for those who may.
‘Protest: No Knighthood for Tony Blair – 13 June
Tony Blair should be heading to The Hague. Instead, on 13th June he will be heading to the castle at Windsor where he will be knighted by the Queen.
Despite the disastrous legacy of Blair’s foreign policy the British establishment has learnt few lessons. Blair has blood on his hands and is personally responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians as well as servicemen and women in Afganistan and Iraq. He is the least deserving person of any public honour.
Join the Stop the War protest at the annual Garter Day procession in Windsor and let the world know there is only one court that Blair should be attending, and it’s not the royal one.
We’re assembling at 1pm at the Queen Victoria Statue on Castle Hill, Windsor, SL4 1PD to say ‘Jail Blair! No knighthoods for war criminals’.
For those traveling from London we will be meeting at Paddington Station at midday for the 12:20 train. Changing at Slough at 12:36.
18 June: Peace & Anti-War Bloc – TUC ‘We Demand Better!’ March
Boris Johnson is set to announce further unprecedented increases in the UK’s military budget despite his woefully inadequate response to the biggest cost of living crisis in our lifetime. We believe that taxpayer’s money should be prioritised for our public services and protecting people’s livelihoods rather than new technologies of mass killing.
Stop the War is supporting the TUC’s ‘We Demand Better’ demonstration against the soaring costs of living on June 18th to say ‘Cut War Not Welfare’. Let’s get on the streets and make our voices heard.
I’m Joining the Anti-War Bloc on 18 June
International Day of Action – 25 June
We are asking all our groups to organise a local protest on the International Day of Action on 25 June. In the run up this we need to be broadening and deepening the movement everywhere. We ask every group to put together an action plan including:
– Stalls every weekend to build for 25 June, leafletting, collecting signatures and building a local base of activists.
– A public meeting/rally if you haven’t held one, a follow up meeting if you have.
– A systematic campaign to get our resolution passed in trades councils and trade union branches.
– Banner drops and stunts.
– Cultural events – music nights, spoken word events, film screenings etc.
There is a wide range of people and organisations who can help build a Stop the War group, including trade unionists and trades councils, peace movement activists, local churches and mosques, Labour Party activists, Momentum groups, environmental campaigners etc. Please make sure you approach all of these as you organise the campaign.
I’m Organising An Event on 25 June‘
Tags: 'Momentum', Armed Forces, Churches, Demonstrations, Drugs, George 'Dubya' Bush, Hu, Human Rights, Iraq Invasion, Labour Party, London, Mercenaries, Mosques, Murder, Prostitution, Protests, Saddam Hussein, Sectarianism, Shi'a, Stop the War Coalition, Sunnis, tony blair, Trades Councils, TUC, War Crimes, Welfare State, Windsor, Women
Beastrabban\'s Weblog 
June 5, 2022 at 5:05 pm |
“Cut War not Welfare”, I like the sound of that but can’t help wondering what Rachel Reeves would make of it. Not only did Blair and New Labour lead us into the Iraq War but also continued the Class War against the “economically inactive” by way of the ‘New Deal for the Unemployed’ and accompanying Benefit Sanctions, the beginnings of a punitive Social Security system now much favoured of course by the Tories but also Ms. Reeves who has publicly expressed her hatred of the unemployed.
June 5, 2022 at 7:03 pm |
I honestly don’t think she’d like the slogan one bit. Blair was a Neocon – a neo-Conservative – as shown by his invasion of Iraq. And I think Reeves is exactly the same. She’s going to be all for cutting welfare and starting wars, so long as the latter can be disguised with rubbish about liberating the invaded countries from tyrants or spreading democracy or some other nonense.