Reports 2021
Online meeting on the pamphlet No Return to Blair Wars
On May 13 2021, Newcastle Stop the War hosted an online meeting on the pamphlet No Return to Blair Wars.
The pamphlet produced by Lindsey German and Andrew Murray for Stop the
war, was released in February this year with a foreward by Jeremy
Corbyn. Roger Nettleship chairing the meeting welcomed Lindsey
German, the Convenor and one of the founder members of Stop the War
Coalition as well as Paul Simpson, academic tutor in Modern History at
Sunderland University. Questions and contributions followed their
talks. Twenty people took part in the meeting.
The pamphlet is a very important contribution to removing the veil of
the warmongers in the leadership of the Labour Party and opposing the
pro-war consensus in Parliament since Jeremy Corbyn stepped down as
Labour Party leader. At this time, much of the discussion was centred
on the inability of the Labour Party leaders to provide any support for
the Palestinians against Israel's continued illegal occupation
and its criminal ethnic cleansing of their land. The meeting concluded
with the call to mobilise for the rally in Newcastle in support
of the Palestinians on May 15, as part of the national day of action in
London and other cities as well as world wide.
Pamphlet No Return to Blair Wars can be downloaded as a pdf
Listen to the speakers:
Lindsey German
Paul Simpson
Tyne & Wear May Day 2021
On May 1 2021, a number
of activists from Newcastle Stop the War Coalition took part in
the online Tyne & Wear May Day Rally and contributed to its
success. Tony Dowling led a discussion on the unemployment fight back
and Dave Mcallister contributed to the event with songs of the workers
movement, including one he has written. During the international
session Alex Snowdon, the secretary spoke as Chair of the Newcastle
Palestine Solidarity Campaign and spoke on the struggle of the Palestine
people and of the importance of joining their work. Roger Nettleship, Chair
of Newcastle Stop the War spoke on the importance of joining the
anti-war movement in Newcastle. The rally was chaired by Martin
Levy and organised by the Tyne & Wear May Day Committee, part of
Newcastle Trades Union Council. A big thanks to their work in
continuing this important event and organising some wonderful footage
of past May Days and most importantly in taking the May Day march and
rally forward into the future.
Audio files: Audio of the contribution of Alex Snowdon
Audio of the contribution of Roger Nettleship
Songs of Dave Macallister
Recording of full Tyne & Wear May Day Rally 2021
North East Meeting held on the Assange Case
On
February 23 2021, a very well attended webinar meeting was hosted by
Newcastle Stop the War and the County Association of Trade Union
Councils to support the immediate release of Julian Assange. Speakers
addressing the meeting were Tariq Ali, writer, journalist, historian,
Yvonne Ridley, Journalist, author & TV presenter, Alan Mardghum,
secretary Durham Miners Association, David Baines, Newcastle National
Union of Journalists branch chair and a representative of Teeside
Amnesty International. The meeting was chaired by Daniel Kebede.
Report of online meeting of the Book Launch
The War Lawyers: The United States, Israel and Juridical Warfare
Discount copies of The War Lawyers are available from:
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-war-lawyers-9780198842927?cc=gb⟨=en&
(enter: ALAUTHC4 for 30% off)
On
Wednesday February 10, Newcastle Stop the War and the Newcastle
University Politics, Space, and Power Research Cluster sponsored a book
launch, by Dr Craig Jones, Lecturer in Political Geography, Newcastle
University, of his book The War Lawyers: The United States, Israel and Juridical Warfare.
The
online meeting was introduced by Nick Megoran and chaired by Pam Wortley and attended by over 50
people including University students. It opened
with Alex Snowdon, Newcastle Stop the War speaking on the ongoing War
on Terror and the Stop the War movement. He said the context for
the book was the "war on terror" which had become in many ways a "war
of terror" and also the war of Israel on Palestine. He said these
wars were and are really brutal and could not be claimed to be
about "human interests" but about imperialist self interest for
Washington. He said it was necessary to dress them up as
something that they are not and dress them up as "humanitarian".
He concluded by saying getting our ideas and facts across with todays
event is an important part of raising awareness and we have a
particular responsibility to deal with Blair's legacy of support for
the US today.
Craig
then presented his examination of the laws of war
interpreted and applied by military lawyers since the time of the US
defeat in the Vietnam war and the need for these powerful states to try
and give their bombing campaigns and wars "legality" in international
law since that time. The
book is about lawyers in the war room and how the military now can't
move without them in their wars and the "kill chain" in operations
carried out by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan, and
the Israel military in Gaza.
Why is it? What are the consequences? He ended with
talking about the anti-war movement and the need to get
away from confining the question to law because it is a slippery slope
to some moral and legal language that justifies and diverts from the
discourse of opposing these wars and an anti-war politics that stops war.
In
the discussion that followed Craig and Alex answered questions
that led to some important discussion on the issues facing the
anti-war movement.
Audio recordings:
Introduction - Nick Megoran
Alex Snowdon
Craig Jones
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