AGM of Tyneside Stop The War Coalition
On Monday May 16th it was the AGM of the Tyneside Stop the War Coalition. Roger Nettleship convenor gave a report on last year's work and summed up the experience. He made 4 main points in summing up the work of the coalition:
Firstly, it underlines the crimes of the British, US, and now French governments and others in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya and elsewhere. The vast scale of their crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan to seize their resources and achieve geo-political domination. Millions Killed, injured and people made homeless. The impositon of their political and economic "values" on countries with differing social systems so their global monopolies can dominate these countries.
Secondly, that the Anglo-US powers switch their pretext for war from one excuse to another. From the war on terror to now adding the war to "protect civilians" which of course is a contradiction in launching state terrorism on a scale the world has not seen before to interfere in the affairs of a sovereign country. The attack on Libya was particularly criminal a total of 6525 sorties and 2556 strike sorties as of May 14th. Every night killing Libyans with their bombings and attempting political assassination of the Gaddafi. Now even a general over the weekend was criminally advocating the complete destruction of Libya's infrastructure.
Thirdly, the pro-war consensus of the big parties to wage war against and discuss the internal and future affairs of other sovereign countries as with Libya. No opposition in effect it is a pro-war dictatorship in Britain with an obedient mass media. There is an urgent need to end this pro-war consensus by fighting for an alternative in an anti-war government in Britain.
Fourthly, we have to condemn the interference in regime change of the big powers and we have to be very clear about this and this is one of the big lessons over recent times with the upsurge of the people in the Middle East. There are different views on the internal matters in these countries but it has always been the norm in the anti-war movement people should unite to oppose Britain's interference and warmongering regardless of any differences on the internal situation both here and abroad. We should oppose war being used to settle international conflicts as well as oppose violence internally but this cannot be used as an excuse to intervene as the imperialist powers are doing.
He pointed out that the elections showed that apart from the blow to the ConDem coalition the stop the war agenda had come to the fore in Scotland in the form of the Scottish people asserting their right to sovereignty on the question of the opposing these wars and getting out of NATO and opposing Israel's crimes in the occupied territories. Along with the solid ground opinion against the war this showed stop the war is and can play a vital role in fighting for the alternative in Britain and opposing the interference in the sovereignty of all countries threatened by the Anglo-US powers. We have to condemn the interference in regime change of the big powers - we have to be clear about this as one of the big lessons of these times. End the occupation of Afghanistan. Stop the bombing and end the interference in Libya and other countries of the Middle East and North Africa. We need to build the movement to end these crimes against the peace.
There was quite a long discussion on these issues. So, dealing with this issue became the main discussion. Tony Dowling and others elaborated the stop the war position very well.
The AGM decided to prepare a leaflet on Libya for the Durham Miners Gala with an advert for a meeting on the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan in October 2011
The AGM reelected the same steering committee and officers of the coalition and passed the treasurers report.
