|
|
Reports
2014
Stop Arming Israel - Protest at Barclays Newcastle
On Saturday, November 29th, Newastle Stop the War teamed up with
Newcastle PSC in a protest outside Barclays Grainger Street to oppose
Barclays arming
of the Israeli war industry
Elbit. Barclays invests in Elbit
and profits form these investments when this company is involved in the
whole military occupation of the West bank and Gaza and produces drones
and other technology which are directly used against its civilian
population and in its occupied territories. Most recently Elbit
supplied the military in the summer attack on Gaza which killed
more than 2,000 Palestinians including more than 500 children.
In
footsteps of Laurie Lee for a free Palestine
On September 20th,
2014, John
Tinmouth, aged 70, set out on a remarkable 440 mile walk for Free
Palestine
following in the footsteps of Laurie Lee who completed the same walk in
1935 before fighting against fascism in the Spanish civil war.
Read John's account of this remarkable trip:
here
Public
Meeting - Stop the
Bombing of Iraq! Don't Attack Syria!
On Thursday October 9th, a public meeting was held in the Central
Library Newcastle, with a good attendance, to oppose the bombing of
Iraq and the extension of the war into Syria. The meeting was
addressed by the Rev Andii Bowsher, co-Chair of Martin Luther King
Peace Committee and chaplain at Northumbria University and Andrew
Murray, Vice President Stop the War Coalition. The meeting was
chaired by Tony Dowling of Newcastle Stop the War. After the speeches
there followed a question and answer session. Prominent in that
discussion was the question of rebuilding the anti-war movement
and taking the anti-war stand into the General election next year to
encourage people to vote for candidates that would end Britain's
bombing of Iraq and military interventions in the Middle East and
elsewhere. flyer
.
Listen to audio: Tony
Dowling intro and speech of Andii Bowsher
Speech of
Andrew Murray
Protest in Newcastle to
Stop
the Bombing of Iraq, and Oppose the Attack on Syria!
Protest at Newcastle
Monument
with the new Stop the War banner
On
Saturday October 4th, around 50 people from the region took part in
a protest at the Monument, Newcastle to take a stand against the
bombing
of Iraq, the threat of the UK extending air strikes to Syria, and
against any further open and covert military operations in these
countries with troops, or other forces. Whilst hundreds of
leaflets were distributed speakers addressed the protest from Newcastle
Stop the
War, Newcastle Trades Union Council, the Campaign Against the Arms
Trade and the Sunderland Peace Movement. The chair concluded by saying
that; "Britain needs an
anti-war government that ends its crimes against the peace throughout
the world. No to the bombing of Iraq! No to an attack on Syria!"
Protest at Newcastle
Monument
Against Bombing of Iraq and Syria
On Thursday, September
25th Newcastle and South Tyneside
Stop the War
Coalitions held a protest, called at short notice at the
Monument at 5.30pm giving out leaflets and talking to people. The
protest was called at the same time as Stop the War's national protest in
Downing Street because David Cameron, the Coalition Prime Minister,
has recalled Parliament to get MPs to back his plan to join the US in
carrying out bombing in Syria and Iraq.
The protest called on
passers by to contact their MPs - via the Stop the War website and
demand that they do not vote for any further military intervention
in Iraq and Syria. Britain
will once again be carrying out direct
military intervention in Iraq three years after its
forces withdrew from Iraq and whilst its forces are still occupying
Afghanistan. Isis now in Syria and Iraq is in part a product of the
criminal and disastrous occupation of Iraq by the Western powers.
Cameron and Obama
want to use this as an excuse to get a consensus for military
intervention in Iraq and Syria. The US is already violating the
sovereignty of Iraq and
Syria with its bombing in those countries.
The supply of Western military equipment and the funding for
these armed groups like ISIS must be stopped so that the people and
countries of
the Middle East can resolve these conflicts themselves without the
interference from the big powers, who are responsible for
creating these conflicts in the first place. The protest demanded
that Parliament reject Cameron’s plan for more war. The people of
Britain want an anti-war government that gives up its direct, and
indirect military interventions abroad permanently. Newcastle Stop the War Coaliton
made the announcement that it would plan its next steps pending the
outcome of the recalled Parliamentary session on Friday.
No To Nato! Britain Out of Nato!
The Front of the March in Newport
on
Saturday August 30,
2014
On Saturday August 30, 2014 Newcastle
Stop
the War and
Newcastle Palestine Solidarity Campaign sent a coach of supporters to
this
demonstration against the NATO summit in Newport. NATO is being used as
the
military wing of the US and the EU to interfere in the Middle East,
Europe,
Asia and Africa. This dangerous military alliance, that has no
international
legitimacy, is being condemned by democratic and progressive people
everywhere.
People in Britain must hold the coalition government to account for the
crimes
that they are comitting in their support for interference in Syria, the
expansion east to Ukraine and other countries trying to topple regimes
and
expand NATO into countries they have no business to be. Whilst these
warmongers
and meddlers in other countries affairs claim to be learning the
lessons of
World War 1 at the same time they are are creating the conditions by
their
actions for an even more destructive world war.
Digitial Film: http://youtu.be/0Io2HGWPK1w
Around a
thousand
people taking part in the Newcastle
demonstration and Rally on July 26th.
The march which was headed by a
coffin
draped in
Palestinian flags passed along Northumberland Street and then ended
with and
hour long rally at the Monument. At the rally speaker after speaker
condemned
the Israeli state for its attack on Gaza and called for a united
campaign to
demand that the British government end its support for Israel and the
killing
of the people of Gaza. Speakers also gave their support to the right of
the
Palestinian people to resist and called on all to support their
resistance and
condemn the attempts to label the cause of the Palestinians as
“terrorist”.
The keynote speaker, Yvonne Ridley,
journalist and writer,
condemned in particular the British government for not ending the
supply of
military equipment to the Israeli state which made Britain complicit in
the
genocide being carried out by Israel in Gaza. She condemned Israel for
refusing
to sign a peace with Hamas, the elected government of Gaza, because
they justly
demand the lifting of the siege on Gaza. She finally called on all to
unite and
support the justice of the cause of the people Palestine.
No to Nato military
exercises
in Ukraine
The petition the government tried to ban
Nato military exercises are due to
take
place in Ukraine in
July. UK troops will be deployed as part of Nato's Rapid Trident
manoeuvres. This is a dangerous move that will inevitably
escalate an
already tense situation. On the 7 May Stop the War, along with CND and
a number
of politicians and celebrities, submitted a petition to the
government's
e-petition web site in order to initiate a debate in parliament
and bring
a stop to this dangerous escalation. Three weeks passed and the
government refused to publish the petition, even when the Leader of the
House
of Commons' office intervened on our behalf. Today we went to the
press,
contacting all the major news outlets. As soon as journalists began
phoning the
Ministry of Defence, the government backed down and published the
petition. Sign the petition the government tried to ban.
Let's collect 100,000 signatures and
stop
this dangerous
escalation of war. No to Nato military exercises in Ukraine
Sign the e-petition: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/64756
The New Scramble for
Africa
Hakim Adi and Kate Manzo speaking at the
meeting
Newcastle Stop the War Coalition and
the
Newcastle
University's Power/Space/Politics research cluster organised a very
important
public meeting in Newcastle on Monday May 12th, 2014 on the New
Scramble for
Africa. In the main intervention Dr Hakim Adi gave what was described
as a
fascinating talk about the scramble for Africa, new and old, but
especially the
new and as one person pointed out that the 40 people who came so
clearly
"had an appetite for making sense of this big dimension of contemporary
imperialism in Africa."
Hakim's talk was not only a very
thorough
exposure of this
new contention of the old imperialist powers with the new powers in
Africa but
particularly the massive crimes of the Anglo US and other EU powers are
committing in using the scars that they created in Africa and among
African
nations and the millions killed, and continuing to be killed, to
justify their
further intervention. His talk highlighted the whole resistance of the
African
people to liberate themselves as the main factor to support with action
here
against our own government's military, political and economic
intereference
which protects the interests of its multi-nationals to exploit the
African
people and interfere in Africa's affairs.
Dr Kate Manzo response discussant
then
gave a short
intervention elaborating her views on some questions including the the
land
grab by imperialism in Africa. There then followed a question and
answer
session in which a number of points made were further discussed and
emphasised
bringing to conclusion this important meeting for the anti-war movement.
Audio
- Dr Hakim Adi
main intervention (MP3)
Audio
- Dr Kate Manzo
response discussant (MP3)
Audio
- Question
and answer session (MP3)
Newcastle Meeting “No
Glory
in War”
Thursday March 20th 2014 was the
date of
this meeting in
Newcastle University. 61 people from the Universities in Newcastle and
Durham
and people from the surrounding area took part. Dr Neil Faulkner and Dr
Clive
Barrett addressed the meeting opposing the disinformation on World War
I and to
affirm the lessons of the peace movement today. The speakers
highlighted that
between 1914 and 1918 military competition between opposing alliances
of
imperialist powers over colonial possessions and world domination
erupted into
a massive industrialised war. 15 million people were killed.
Alex Snowden then gave a moving
tribute to
Tony Benn, who
was President of the Stop the War Coalition and who died a week
before
the meeting. Stop
the War Coaliton Tribute
Meeting flyer
Newcastle Meeting
For A Future Without War
Lindsey German addressing the
Newcastle
meeting
On Thursday February 27th 2014, a
public
meeting entitled For a Future Without War took place in
Newcastle in
which around 25 people attended. The meeting took up the aims of the
anti-war
movement in the wake of last year's defeat of the government’s plan for
an
unprovoked military intervention on Syria and to stop all Britain’s
military interventions and wars in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Africa
and
beyond. During the speeches and discussion the central question that
was raised
was what are the ideas, plans and vision to turn the situation around?
The
issue of turning the Syria vote into permanent change to stop the
interventionist policy of Britain, ending the militarisation of the
econony and
society. It was also highlighted that the anti-war movement is the main
force
that unites the people against war and is itself a movement that needs
to be
taken further into government as an anti-war government. The meeting
also
raised the need to dismantle the dangerous NATO military alliance,
which was
intervening everywhere including now in Ukraine, and the need to do
work to
oppose the disinformation on World War I and to affirm the lessons and
work
together to build a future without war. The speakers were Lindsey
German -
Convenor of Stop the War Coalition, Clare Williams - Unison Northern
Region and
Nick Megoran - Martin Luther King Peace Committee. The meeting was
chaired by
Roger Nettleship. The meeting was organised by: Newcastle Stop the War,
Unison
Northern Region and Newcastle Universities Martin Luther King Peace
Committee.
Audio
-
Question and
Answer Session
|
|
Join Stop the War
Newcastle demonstration
against the invasion of Afghanistan, October 2001
You can join
and/ or donate to the Stop the War
Coalition: Here
(National Website)
To keep
informed or Join in the work here in the North East
|
