Newsletter - Stop the War in 2018

Stop the War Nationwide tour on the war in Yemen

This has been a very important year for Stop the War and one where we have made important steps forward. Among the various activities we took part in were the following:

• We broke new ground with national tours "Why We Need an Anti-war Government", "War & the Special Relationship: No to Trump's Visit" and "Stop Arming Saudi Arabia - End the War in Yemen". Public rallies took place across the country.
• Stop the War also played a leading role in co-organising a gigantic demonstration against Trump's visit, which attracted around 250,000 people. One of the major demands coming out of the demonstration was the call for an end to the murderous alliance between the UK & Trump's administration. We also a produced a briefing on Trump & the "Special Relationship".
• We made significant progress in terms of bringing the anti-war argument to the Labour Party membership. We held our biggest ever fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference, with more people wanting to attend than the room allowed. A number of Constituency Labour Parties have also affiliated to Stop the War and have invited Stop the War speakers to their meetings.
• We held stalls at a series of trade union conferences, bringing the anti-war campaign into the labour movement.
• We have campaigned against the war in Yemen. We held a number of protests, including one in front of the Saudi Embassy. This month, our nationwide tour "Stop Arming Saudi Arabia - Stop Bombing Yemen" continued to gather momentum, with growing public concern over UK support for Saudi Arabia and the war and humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen.
• We held a very large meeting on the war in Yemen in London a few weeks ago. The meeting attracted 250 mainly young people and energised the campaign for Britain to stop arming Saudi Arabia and to end the war in Yemen, in addition to kick-starting this campaign in the universities.
• We continued our series of parliamentary meetings with a meeting on the situation in Yemen.
• A major fundraiser was held in the summer, with acts including Mark Rylance, Vanessa Redgrave, Lowkey and Johnny Flynn.
• Last week we also had a very successful Christmas fundraising dinner in London. Speakers included musician and Stop the War President Brian Eno, comedian and author Francesca Martinez, writer and broadcaster Tariq Ali and the Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union Kevin Courtney. Singer and guitarist Adam Beattie performed several songs. We also had a hugely successful auction, which raised around £4,000.

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