Build the Anti-War Movement!
Fight for an Anti-War Government!

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Build the Anti-War Movement!
Fight for an Anti-War Government!

February 15 – Five Years On

Statement of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist), March 15, 2008

Today, March 15, five years after the criminal aggression against Iraq by the US-led invasion and occupation force, the people are once more taking to the streets, taking a stand together for the end of war and in defence of the rights of all. Our Party, RCPB(ML), militantly salutes the anti-war movement on this occasion, and congratulates the countless numbers who have continued to build the anti-war movement from the grass roots throughout this period. This movement represents the militant forward march of the people to affirm themselves, to take a stand to condemn the Brown New Labour government for its part in imperialist wars of aggression and occupation and for the part it plays in the Israeli siege of Gaza, and to fight for and organise to bring into being an anti-war government of the people.

The Bush/Brown "global war on terror" has not only meant crimes against peace and the violation of the sovereignty of nations. It has meant attacks on the Muslim community in Britain, with vile accusations of "home-grown terror" and "Islamic extremism" directed against this community. Slanders such as accusing the people of Islamic faith in this country of being "un-British" and "separate" have been viciously used to create the impression of "the enemy within" in order to divide the polity and to undermine the just resistance to aggression and the "war on terror". Such a racist policy has led also to the stripping away of civil liberties, a raft of "anti-terror" legislation and "terror suspects" locked up indefinitely without charge. The movement against war has also embraced a strong unified movement in defence of the rights of all and to bring an end to the unjust treatment of the Muslim community, which is an affront to human dignity.

The movement which has been consolidated over the past five years is therefore a movement which says no to war and fascism, the path down which New Labour has been leading the people, and to resist and block such a path. This is the here and now. The question arises as to how to develop such a movement, to put an end to war and fascism.

The political will of the people of Britain as expressed in the mass demonstrations against aggression and force has been consistently flouted by the ruling elite who have consolidated a pro-war government in their favour.

Today, under the banner of a "democratic imperative", the government has again signalled its flagrant disregard of the will of the majority in its intention to continue taking Britain down the path of global interference and empire-building.

Despite acknowledging that there is increasing opposition to imperialist wars, in the name of "exporting democracy" and imposing so-called "universal values" the government is attempting to justify the use of military might to occupy and dictate to other countries, particularly the developing nations.

The question of who has the political power to take decisions and implement them is crucial. An anti-war government can only be created by the working class and people themselves, and such a government vests sovereignty in the people. Such a government would respect the sovereignty of all countries big or small, having no truck with the imperialist conception of "failed" or "rogue" states.

The experience of the movement against imperialist war and occupation since the instigation of the "war on terror" has shown that there is a quality which can bring the anti-war opposition of the people into power, and solve this crisis of representation of the majority will in favour of the people. The unity in action of the anti-war movement has demonstrated the strength of the movement for change that has brought people together from different political backgrounds, in which workers, women, youth and national minorities have all participated to the full. The movement has developed its collectives, and the individuals within those collectives are becoming leaders, rejecting the passive role of following without thinking for one’s self, but fully participating in the decision-making process.

The bloody torturous wars that have killed over 1 million people and left Afghanistan and Iraq with their resources plundered and revenge inflicted on the people, have exposed how anachronistic are the political arrangements of big-party governance. The clear task of the working class and people is to defeat the pro-war programme of New Labour and the entire government, and to organise to elect an anti-war government. This requires the working class and people to take up the task of democratic renewal, standing their own candidates in elections, organising resistance, discussing with peers and mobilising collectives to take up the necessary work.

RCPB(ML) calls on everyone to take up this work, summing up the experience of building the movement, so as to create that political force which will settle scores once and for all with the warmongering of those that have usurped power by force and privilege. The working class and people of Britain, in unity with peoples around the world, are demanding an end to bloody wars. The principles for which they are fighting are to uphold the sovereignty and equality of all nations; renounce the use of force in settling international affairs; uphold the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of others; remove all troops from foreign soil; adopt a foreign policy independent of the United States; end the militarisation of the economy; pay reparations for all of Britain’s crimes of warmongering and imperialism; and to build fraternity between peoples.

This is the way forward for the anti-war movement!

Defeat the programme of pro-war government!

Forward in the work of building the anti-war movement!

Organise to elect an anti-war government!

Silence is Shame! March 12, 2008

Silence is Shame is published by South Tyneside Stop the War Coalition. This, the ninth issue, has been timed to appear on the eve of the National Demonstration in London, World Against War – Troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, Don’t attack Iran, End the siege of Gaza. The articles in the publication are based on a discussion Forum: February 15th – 5 Years On which was organised in South Shields on February 15 this year to mark the 5th anniversary of the mass anti-war demonstration in London. We are reprinting extracts from the article by Roger Nettleship under the above title.

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As you know the government and major political parties ignored the censure of the millions that took to the streets and then having ignored the will of the people they also cynically tried to claim that the demonstration had failed. But thinking, discussing and acting on the here and now and the necessity for change we recognised that February 15 was the defining moment that the people had been waiting for. The people had spoken – such wars were not in their name, occupation was not liberation and another world is possible.

This was the reality that launched us on a journey to build the anti-war movement as a mass movement of the working class and people that can put an end to war.

[…]

February 15 was that defining moment in Britain which gave rise to the demand for an anti-war government and the elaboration of some of its features and programme as a complete alternative to the pro-war cabinet government of present day Britain. But most importantly an anti-war government is a fundamental principle of democracy that you cannot have a system that claims to be democratic yet brings warmongers and war criminals to power, that violates the rights of the people at home and abroad and does not have the well being of the people of Britain and other countries at heart.

Also, since 2003, the British government and ruling elite have more and more drawn on their most inhuman values of past colonial slavery in an attempt to counter the anti-war movement. The attack on human rights, imprisonment without trial, the justification of torture and return to medievalism are all reminders of their brutal colonial rule. In particular, the attack on the Muslim community and the systematic everyday demonisation of them by the mass media has become such a fascistic feature of Britain today.

[…]

The Muslims are playing such an important role in the anti-war movement and this is an attempt to attack the developing coherence of all the people. This has placed an important responsibility on those active in the anti-war movement to respond in the context that this is an attack on all of us and thus gives rise to the need to oppose this attack on Muslims in the context of defending the rights of all.

It is an attack on the coherence of the anti-war movement so we cannot accept any role that tries to marginalise us to one of either a spectator or a victim. Whoever we are, whether Muslim, Christian or other, whether student or worker, whatever walk of life or political allegiance, we have a common cause in defence of our dignity and the rights of all.

We are one polity. It is those that want to divide people that do not recognise society as existing in one polity but see society in feudal and medieval terms and wanting to exert power of a small minority of very rich monopoly interests by creating arrangements and alliances of the most backward of their class and trying to divide the polity. They attack and try to criminalise the youth, that most precious force that should be nurtured in every way. They single out one section of the people and try and incite it against another. These interests in such values and outlook are the same that incite chauvinism and hatred towards peoples of other countries and are prerequisite to wars and genocide. This kind of medieval outlook on the world and its problems which is endemic in the outlook of these ruling circles and their multinational media companies is a world apart from the outlook of the working class and people who strive to solve the problems of their collectives and harmonise the interests of the various collectives with the interests of the individual to achieve their aims.

In the anti-war movement, the basis of unity is unity in action against the war. Any organised force that operates within the collective of the anti-war movement should have only the interests, unity and aims of the anti-war collective and individuals at heart. Each has their views but the issue is unity in action and especially with those individuals that have taken such an important and very brave stand in the anti-war movement, such as the military families, individuals in the armed forces and as well as some political as well as the many personalities of standing in the society.

[…]

The task is to consolidate the anti-war movement to demand an anti-war pro-people government with modern arrangements that put human beings at the centre and defend their unity as the most precious thing. I think this forum organised on the momentous events five years ago is a testament to that building movement.