Anti-war campaigns
"All out for November 18 th " -
Conference call
Hundreds of activists from across the country attended the national conference of the Stop the War Coalition held in London on October 27 which represented an important step forward in building the movement to oppose the war drive of Blair and Bush.
The meeting took place in the context of remarkable mobilisations across the country, which have continued since which illustrate the breadth of opposition to their murderous crusade.
In town after town, from Exeter to Abergaveny, from Newcastle to Oxford demonstrations and public rallies have shown not only the numbers demanding that the war stop but the diversity of their backgrounds and political views.
The regular meetings of the Stop the War coalition in London had drawn in participants from the Muslim community, from direct action networks, from the mushrooming student networks and anti-globalisation networks as well at the far left – including many activists from the Socialist Alliance.
Now it was time to link up more effectively with groups springing up across the country – as well as to clarify the demands of the campaign and elect an authoritative steering committee.
Speeches from George Galloway, Jeremy Corbyn MP and Lindsay German opened the day, underlining the barbarity of the so-called "coalition against terrorism".
Despite what we are told in most of the media, the war is not going well for the imperialists either in terms of public support or in terms of actual military action. It was no surprise to any campaigner that opinion polls subsequently published underlined what we have all been clear of from discussions in workplaces and on the streets – there is less and less enthusiasm for what Blair is doing in service of his paymaster in the White House.
The interim steering committee had drafted a statement of aims for the conference to agree, which argued that the slogans of the campaign should remain as simple as possible.
Stop the War should be the main slogan, and we should also continue to raise demands in opposition to the racist backlash and in opposition to the erosion of civil liberties.
One change was welcome from the position that had previously been taken by the SWP, who have played a pivotal role in launching the movement, was the inclusion of a condemnation of the attacks on September 11.
Previously, this had been opposed by the SWP, who though they expressed compassion for those who were killed in the US, felt that condemnation was not the right formula for either the left or the anti-war movement to adopt.
It is welcome that they have subsequently changed their view, as in fact in order to build the broadest possible movement against the imperialist onslaught it is necessary to take this stance.
Two other resolutions were put forward as to what should be the aims of the campaign. The Communist Party of Great Britain and the AWL put forward a joint resolution, as did two members of the interim steering committee, Moayad Ahmed and Dasti Jamal.
In fact these two resolutions, though different in detail made the same fundamental political point – that the coalition should oppose Islamic fundamentalism.
The resolution from the CPGB/AWL did so in more measured tones, while the other resolution was more dramatic as could be seen from both its headline: "Stop the atrocities of both poles of terrorism" and one if its slogans , "No to US, Nato and Islamic terrorism".
The conference rightly rejected both these positions overwhelmingly. The majority of those present understood that it is necessary to build the broadest possible movement to stop this war, and that to add these types of demands would cut across our ability to do so in the most dramatic way, especially in terms of building on the remarkable and unprecedented involvement of huge sections of the Muslim community.
Such an approach should always be the one that revolutionaries take in building united front type organisations. At the same time of course, we have an obligation to argue for our own politics within the movement.
Opposition to the reactionary ideology of fundamentalism is a vital question for us to raise. However we will do so with rather more impact in a situation where we are marching shoulder to shoulder with young Muslims who may well not have had access to arguments against it in the past than if we cut ourselves off from this audience.
Having taken the right decision on the objectives of the movement, the conference went on to elect a new national steering committee. Unfortunately this was to prove a rather messy and unedifying affair. An impressive list of nominees had been drawn up by the interim steering committee and further nominations were invited, resulting in a rather long list.
Members of the steering committee eventually agreed included Christine Shawcroft from newly formed Labour against the War and a representative from the Socialist Alliance.
The movers of the CPGB/AWL resolution put themselves forward for election, despite having not supported the statement of aims as finally voted on. Martin Thomas of the AWL in particular gained few friends in motivating himself for the committee when he argued that he should be included in order to continue the debate!
Clearly the bulk of the conference felt that the role of the steering committee should be to work along the agreed lines to build the broadest possible opposition to the war.
At least the CPGB’s Tina Becker made clear that if elected she would work to build the campaign, while still arguing that it had not been established on the best basis. Neither nomination was agreed by the conference.
Despite this difficulties, and the fact that supporters of the other minority position withdrew their nominations after from the steering committee, the majority of participants went away determined to increase their efforts to ensure the November 18 march is even bigger than the October 13 demonstration. We can stop this war.