Welfare not Warfare – Stop the War in Ukraine

by Theo Russell

At a public meeting on Thursday 7th August hosted by Lewisham and Greenwich CND, Lewisham Stop the War and Lewisham Trades Council the audience rejected “the Labour Government’s policy of lowering living standards and cutting public services and benefits in order to fund an unending war that has already killed hundreds of thousands of people and brought the world to the brink of nuclear Armageddon”.
They called on the government “to end its financial and military support for war in Ukraine, and commit to working for a diplomatic, negotiated, lasting peace settlement, and encourage local peace organisations and trade unions to do the same”.
Cheryl McLeod from Lewisham Trades Council opened the meeting, saying “we’re here tonight with a message that cuts through the lies, the spin, and the silence. Let’s be honest: Britain has become a puppet of US foreign policy Whether it’s backing Nato’s endless wars, or supporting the Gaza genocide,
“Our leaders do as they’re told even if it means fuelling death abroad while slashing support at home.Meanwhile, councils across the UK are going bankrupt, over 14 million people now live in poverty, the number of people using food banks has tripled since 2010, and the NHS is short of over 100,000 staff.
“And here’s the truth no one in Westminster will say out loud: Ukraine has no chance of winning this war, even US military officials are now admitting it: Ukraine is outgunned, outmanned, and out of time.
“So what’s the plan? To keep sending billions in weapons, to prolong the bloodshed, so NATO can “save face”? This isn’t helping the Ukrainian people. It’s sacrificing them.
“And as if that weren’t enough, let’s remember: President Zelenskyy, the so-called Hero of the West, chose to shut down Ukraine’s anti-corruption agency. He banned opposition parties. He postponed elections. 
“This is the democracy we’re funding? This is the government we’re pouring billions into while children here go to school hungry?
“We say: Enough. We need peace not posturing, diplomacy not destruction, welfare not warfare.
“No more weapons for unwinnable wars, no more billions for corrupt foreign regimes, no more silence on Gaza’s genocide, no more acting as America’s puppet. And we say: Yes to housing, yes to healthcare, yes to food, education, and dignity”.
Alfie Howls from CodePink UK gave a detailed account of the causes of the war in Ukraine: the US involvement in the 2014 coup d’etat and Nato’s continual eastward expansion. "Ukraine is not a democracy, and many parties and trade unions have been banned. It is intervening against progressive governments in Africa. NATO’s ultimate aim is to destabilise Russia and divide it into small states” he said.
Alex Gordon,  the vice-president of CND, said it was “high time Ukraine was discussed in the trade unions and peace movement, because until now anyone raising this has been accused of being a ‘Russian influencer’...
“...our media, academia and politicians are in grip of a highly influential ‘Military-Industrial-Media-Academic-Complex’ (MIMAC), which is behind such official warnings that ‘we are no longer in a postwar world, we are now living in a pre-war world’ – in other words that war with Russia is inevitable.
“The latest UK defence strategy says that because of the Ukraine war massive spending is needed on digital warfare, new munitions factories, and 12 new nuclear submarines. But this spending is not actual 'investment', it is at the cost of domestic welfare and foreign aid.
“Western governments and the media have blatantly lied about nuclear weapons in Iran, and it was Donald Trump who took the US out of the Iran nuclear deal in his first term as US president.”
Another CND leader, Kate Hudson, said that the majority of young people in Britain now see Nato as a greater threat to peace than Russia, and described how Nato suppresses opposition from member states.
“In July, US B61-12 nuclear bombs returned to RAF Lakenheath for the first time since 2008, as well as to Belgium, the Netherlands and Turkey. But when Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands demanded their removal, the US refused because the deployment was agreed by consensus. So if a majority of Nato states are in favour, the rest have to accept the decision, overriding their national sovereignty.
“The war in Ukraine is ultimately the result of Nato’s relentless eastward expansion. Nato officials have discussed deploying ‘tactical’ or ‘mini’ nuclear missiles in Europe, in fact their warheads are three times more powerful than those used in August 1945. The Russian responses to such moves mean that the threat of nuclear war is increasing.
“Nato now has partners in Asia, Latin America and Africa and spends $22 trillion a year compared to Russia’s $140 billion military budget. Nato is a blight on humanity in every conceivable way”.
Asked about the motion adopted at RMT’s conference in Manchester last month calling for Britain to end military aid to Ukraine, Alex Gordon said “the RMT has launched a drive to challenge the UK’s massive spending on support for Ukraine. In the past trade unions wrongly supported sending weapons to Ukraine. The RMT wants to challenge that position, and urges other unions to follow our example”.
Members of International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS) received a friendly response from the meeting, and two spoke from the floor. The meeting appears to be part of a new campaign and a marked change in Stop the War’s policy on Ukraine after years of appearing to lay all the blame on Russia and perceived open hostility towards IUAFS activists.

No nukes at Lakenheath

by New Worker correspondent

Kate Hudson at the protest

Campaigners, led by CND, gathered outside the RAF camp at Lakenheath last Saturday to protest at US plans to store nuclear missiles at the base.
The plan, which was revealed in US military announcements in January 2024 was agreed by the previous UK Tory Government led by Rishi Sunak, but the incoming Labour administration, led by Keir Starmer has shown itself even more determined to escalate military tensions and conflicts around the world. Since the start of July, Starmer has pressed for the use of US and NATO weapons inside Russia itself, made a commitment to send money to Ukraine 'for as long as it takes', and doubled the number of RAF surveillance flights over Gaza, gathering information to assist Israeli forces in their ongoing genocide.
Since 2008 the RAF base at Lakenheath has been nuclear weapons free, and the news of their planned return mirrors the placement of Russian nukes in Belarus, threatening a return to the arms races of the Cold War period, which benefitted nobody except the weapons manufacturers.
Each bomb that the Americans plan to store at Lakenheath will have three times the explosive power of the Hiroshima bomb, and as well as the deliberate heightening of military and political tensions. The possibility of accidents also increases, where each device has the potential to turn the neighbouring countryside into a nuclear wasteland.  
On Saturday, CND were joined by other organisations such as Medact, Campaign Against the Arms Trade, and some Green Party representatives such as Dame Jenny Jones, their former candidate for London Mayor. Their messages were all in the same vein, the dangerous and reckless ratcheting up of international tensions, the dangerous and immoral nature of the weapons themselves, the dangers posed to the people of this country by the deeper entanglement of the UK into the US war machine, and not least the dangers of accidents. More than one speaker mentioned the inappropriateness of British politicians sabre-rattling and threatening wars when the state of this country is taken into consideration.
Kate Hudson, who is probably the best known anti-nuclear campaigner in this country stood down from her role as CND president the day before this protest, and is now the honorary president. We managed to get a few words with Kate who said "Why is Britain and the US interfering in the AUKUS agreement for example, why are we getting involved in the so called Indo-Pacific? Why are we sending war ships out there? It's absolutely wrong, and it's part of the US determination to remain the single superpower, and if they have to do it through military means, they will do it through military means, and that is the reality of the situation, and we in the peace movement are determined to stop that.
"We're almost already at the brink of nuclear war in Ukraine, there's a danger of nuclear weapons use in the Middle East, because Israel is a nuclear weapons state, the only one in the region. Some of their ministers have talked about using nuclear weapons in Gaza, during the genocide; it's a terrible, disastrous situation. And these are places that we have no business being in”.
Asked why Britain gives the appearance of being more aggressive than the USA regarding the Ukraine conflict, Kate attributed this to Britain's determination to stick close to American strategic and policy goals, a determination that has existed since the 1956 Suez conflict, which dramatically, and for once and for all identified the United States as the senior party in the imperialist alliance. Since then Britain has clung determinedly to the Americans’ coat tails, as their most loyal lieutenant and supporter.
Britain had entered the Korean War a few years previously to cement their alliance with the USA, the first time in centuries that British troops had been deployed in a conflict of no strategic interest to it, but entirely to support US policy. Some British politicians including Churchill had hoped it would be a partnership of equals, with British know-how and experience supplementing US strength and power, but Suez revealed them for the pipe-dreams they were.

Stop Israeli terror now!

by Theo Russell

Over 80,000 joined a London wide protest calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza last Saturday which ended in a mass rally outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, central London.
Millions of people across Britain have been marching every weekend for over six months now, in by far the biggest mass peace movement since the protests to try and prevent the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq in 2003. But while our imperialist masters, the global Lords of War, brushed aside those protests, since October 2023 the Palestine protests in Britain and around the world have shaken our ruling class to the core, and put them on the back foot.
Addressing the rally in Parliament Square, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told protesters that people all around the world were marching. "Let us continue and let the people of Gaza and the West Bank, the refugee camps and the diaspora, know that you are not alone. We are here with you, we will give you our support for as long as it takes until there is a free Palestine for the Palestinian people to live in. Our message to parliament over there is, 'we ain't disappearing, we'll be here, watching what you're doing' ".
CND General Secretary Kate Hudson said: "Friends, two weeks ago Israel launched its attack on Damascus, killing 16 people. This was a hugely provocative and illegal attack by Israel, but the way the media and the politicians talk about, it you'd think that it's Iran that wants to start a wider war.
“But the truth is it's Israel that wants to start a wider war, not only with Iran but in Lebanon too. Such a conflict would be terrible, how many thousands would be added to the terrible death toll in Gaza?
“But the greatest toll would be if Israel uses its nuclear arsenal, which could kill hundreds of thousands of people, and affect hundreds of thousands more through radiation burns and poisoning,  miscarriages and birth defects.
"It was Britain which in the past made it possible for Israel to develop its nuclear weapons. It was Britain which supplied 20 tons of heavy water to Israel, with no safeguards against military use".
All of those taking part last Saturday would never have believed last October that they would still be marching six months later, with the death toll in the Gaza Strip reaching over 33,000, including almost 12,000 children under 15 and over 8,000 women and girls over 14.
But millions of British citizens, the vast majority of the entire population of the UK, support an immediate, permanent ceasefire. The Tories, Labour and some Unionist parties in the north of Ireland, who call for arming Israel and support Zionist aggression, are the only ones resisting this demand and they are increasingly isolated. But the mass solidarity movement with the people of Gaza and Palestine will continue until Israel's genocide and collective punishment ends. Then the priority will be to demand a just solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict once and for all, with a genuine state the Palestinians can call their home.

Stop US nukes coming to Lakenheath!

by New Worker correspondent

London comrades travelled to Suffolk last month to join hundreds of other anti-war campaigners outside the Lakenheath airbase in Suffolk on Saturday 20th May. The demonstrators were protesting against the return of US nuclear bombs to UK soil for the first time since 2008.
    RAF Lakenheath is run by the Americans, who have recently added the UK to a list of NATO nuclear weapons storage locations in Europe being upgraded under a multi-million-dollar infrastructure programme. This means that US nuclear weapons will be returning to RAF Lakenheath.
     Cumbria and Lancashire CND spokesperson, Philip Gilligan, who travelled to the protest on Saturday, told the media that: "The last thing the world needs at the moment is an escalation in nuclear sabre rattling. We need to be de-escalating the nuclear rhetoric, not importing more nuclear weapons of mass destruction to our shores. Doing so would not only add further instability to an already very dangerous international situation but would also increase the risks of a nuclear accident on British soil."
    The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, which organised the protest, has condemned the return of US nuclear weapons to Lakenheath and has launched a campaign to stop this extremely dangerous and destabilising development.
    CND General Secretary Kate Hudson said: “The siting of these upgraded guided nuclear bombs at Lakenheath is not just a matter of concern for the people of East Anglia, but for the entire country as it makes Britain a clear target in any nuclear confrontation between Russia and the USA. The aircraft used to deliver these bombs, the F-35, is also a significant polluter to the local area with one tank of fuel emitting the equivalent of 28 metric tons of carbon dioxide. The F-35 programme has also been plagued with technical problems which remain unsolved and pose a serious accident risk. We’re calling on the British government to deny any US request to site B61-12s at Lakenheath and to engage in serious efforts to de-escalate tensions between nuclear-armed states.”
    Dutch peace campaigner Guido van Leemput added that: “A new nuclear arms race is coming. Russia wants to station nuclear weapons in Belarus and the USA is going to deploy its upgraded B61-12 guided nuclear bomb across Europe, at Volkel Air Base in the Netherlands and possibly at Lakenheath. It’s necessary to speak out loudly about the modernisation of nuclear weapons as part of a European-wide voice for peace.”
    CND says: “US nuclear weapons look set to return to RAF Lakenheath, a base in the UK that is run by the US. Their return will only increase global tensions and put Britain on the frontline in a NATO/Russia war.
    “The UK government can stop this from happening. If we show enough public resistance we can press them to reject these plans and prevent these terrible weapons from making us a target.
    “The US Department of Defense has added the UK to a list of NATO nuclear weapons storage locations in Europe being upgraded under a multi-million-dollar infrastructure programme. This means that US nuclear weapons will be coming to RAF Lakenheath.
    “110 nuclear bombs were stored at the airbase but they were removed by 2008 following persistent popular protest. Without public opposition, led by CND, they would still be here today. We stopped these weapons before – will you help us stop them again?”

Stop the War in Ukraine!

 By New Worker correspondent

Comrades joined other campaigners in London for a Stop the War rally at Hamilton House last weekend that brought together a number of British and international speakers under the banner of ‘Stop The War In Ukraine’.
    Stop the War (StW) has been on a journey over the last year where their position on the Russian intervention in Ukraine has gradually changed, partly under pressure from members, from a position that wasn’t very different to the Government and the mainstream media, to now, where the only call at Saturday’s meeting was to end the war.
    Having attended many StW events in that time, Saturday was also notable for the absence of any assertions that Russia is an imperialist state.
    Kate Hudson from CND spoke on the increasing militarisation of the region, where states are dramatically increasing their military budgets, and the increased danger this causes. Also the depleted uranium shells, which the UK proposes to send to Ukraine, will escalate the conflict, cause long term damage to the people of Ukraine, and increase the risk of further British involvement in the war. CND has arranged a protest at RAF Lakenheath on 20th May against US nuclear weapons being stationed in Britain, and asks all who can to attend.
    Next up was the rapper and activist Lowkey, who always presents lots of complex information in very accessible form. He touched on the same themes as Kate, on the birth defects still happening in Fallujah, due to the use of depleted uranium 20 years ago during the American occupation of Iraq.
    His other theme was how for some companies, war is good for business. He spoke of the four main US defence contractors who have doubled their profits in the last year, and of the endemic corruption, giving the example of defence secretary Ben Wallace who was previously director of weapons company QinetiQ.
    QinetiQ has received hundreds of millions of pounds in contracts since the start of the conflict, and is so entwined with power that a QinetiQ director, Gordon Messenger was appointed to head a review into the NHS, surely a conflict of interest as the company has expressed interest in gaining NHS contracts.
    Lowkey finished by warning about the media. “The same people who lied to us about WMDs in Iraq are the same people lying to us about the war in Ukraine. They are the very same people in the media and in the government”.
    Sevim Dağdelen, a German MP from Die Linke (The Left party) spoke of her experience of opposing the war inside the German parliament, and how the anti-war campaigners are routinely smeared as puppets of Putin, or connected to the far-right – both untrue. She spoke strongly on how NATO and the US are the main danger to world peace, and our duty to oppose them.
    “While people are dying in Ukraine, arms companies are making billions increasing their profits by 11.5 per cent. It is our responsibility to stand up to the warmongers in our governments and end this escalating spiral of war”.
    Irish MEP Clare Daly has become one of the voices and faces of opposition to escalation and war mongering and she had a great reception. She spoke from her perspective of the changes since February 2022, where only a few MEPs spoke against NATO and EU escalation, to now where more are openly opposing the war. She said any opposition to the drive to war is delegitimised, in a conflict that has seen what she described as ‘unprecedented censorship’ where the only view we have on the conflict is through government press releases.
    She spoke of the numbers of people who contact her every day, saying they agree with everything she and fellow MEP Mick Wallace say, but they are scared to say it themselves.‘War can never be stopped by war. It can only be stopped by peace. We are in a majority but we are silenced by the establishment because they fear the power of this movement against war.’
    This was a good meeting, and StW are to be commended for organising. But there was no Q&A session after the speakers, and some people wondered who the organisers were more worried about, the members from the floor, or the platform speakers?

Donbas solidarity at Stop the War

Salma Yaqoob addresses conference

by New Worker correspondent

Donbas solidarity activists were at the Stop the War trade union conference last Saturday to leaflet the meeting and intervene during the debate in the hall. The latest leaflet of the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity movement was handed out at the doors in support of the just struggle of the people of the Donbas for freedom and self-determination.
    But the main focus of this conference was on building a bigger peace movement and working to reverse the TUC’s decision last year to support increased arms spending.
    Many speakers, like the Italian worker talking about the Genoese dockers’ efforts to stop arms going to Israel and Saudi Arabia never even mentioned Ukraine. Those that did stuck to the mealy-mouthed position of the leadership whose calls for an end to the war are linked with the demand for a complete withdrawal of all Russian troops from Crimea and the Donbas – which is exactly what NATO wants.
    In the past left Labour MPs were happy to openly support the efforts of the Stop the War campaign. But none of them showed up for Saturday’s conference at Hamilton House in central London.
    Stop the War vice-chair Andrew Murray said: “If you remember the vast demonstration 20 years ago against the Iraq war, which Stop the War led, that demonstration had the support of nearly every major union in the country — and in many cases the union leaderships had been driven there by their members, rather than necessarily by their own willingness to confront the Labour government”.
    Then nearly 140 Labour MPs defied Tony Blair to vote against the invasion of Iraq. Now none of them are prepared to face the wrath of Starmer and the inevitable suspension à la Corbyn that would inevitably follow for refusing to toe the imperialist line.
    Murray said “the leader of the Labour Party, revealing himself every day as more of an authoritarian imperialist has made it clear that any Labour MP would sacrifice the whip and their seat in Parliament if they associate with the anti-war movement — something even Tony Blair did not do. That is a democratic outrage which our movement should be standing against loud and clear”.
    Jeremy Corbyn was also absent having just returned from campaigning in America on behalf of Julian Assange. But he did at least make a video call to conference in support of peace negotiations. Though the former Labour leader avoided the ‘Russian troops out’ mantra he did say that the Russian invasion was “wrong” – before calling for peace talks, possibly brokered by Brazil, to end the fighting.
    The anti-war movement’s calls to ‘stop the war’ and ‘no to NATO expansion’ are routinely prefaced with the ‘Russian troops out’ demand which is what the imperialists and the Ukrainian fascists are fighting for in the first place.
    The two leaders of the self-styled “anti-war” movement – CND Chair Kate Hudson and Stop the War convener Lindsey German – both rejected the argument of one participant who intervened from the floor to say that blaming both Nato and Russia for the Ukraine war confused the question and that Russia should be seen as a victim of US imperialism.
    Lindsey German said it was important to acknowledge the “humanitarian catastrophe” unleashed by Putin’s invasion and what she called the aggressive expansionism of Russia, while also recognising the role of NATO expansion in provoking the war.
    Though the Stop the War leadership and their supporters amongst the left social-democratic and pacifist trends within the Labour Party have distanced themselves from the fake left’s “arm Ukraine” brigade they have not broken with the bourgeois consensus on both sides of the Atlantic that ignores the fascist nature of the Kiev regime, brands Russia the aggressor and ignores the legitimate rights of the people of Crimea and the Donbas who have joined the Russian Federation.
    The anti-imperialist struggle in Ukraine is part of the global front of the poor and the oppressed who are fighting for freedom all around the world. We must counter the bogus ‘evenhandedness’ within the peace movement with the call for victory for the Russian and Donbas forces fighting fascism and NATO-inspired aggression.

Praying for Trident

outside the abbey

by New Worker correspondent

The great and the good turned up in droves last week for a bizarre Trident “national service of thanksgiving” at Westminster Abbey that recognised the “sailors’ sacrifice” in operating the American Trident nuclear missile system that Britain maintains as its so-called ‘nuclear deterrent’.

An Abbey official said the event recognised “the commitment of the Royal Navy to effective peacekeeping through the deterrent over the past 50 years and will pray for peace throughout the world”.

But as the worthies, led by Prince William, trooped in to the hallowed hall of the Church of England they were met with boos and jeers from peace campaigners who then staged a “die-in” during the service. Veteran CND leaders and supporters took part in the protest, including Bruce Kent and musician Brian Eno.

No Nuclear War over Korea!

By New Worker correspondent

London comrades joined anti-war campaigners in Whitehall calling for peace on the Korean peninsula last week. Around 200 protesters gathered opposite Downing Street to hear speakers from the Stop the War Coalition and other peace campaigners call for negotiations to end the tension over the nuclear issue in Korea that could easily trigger a nuclear war.

CND and Stop the War movement activists called on the British Government to reject a military solution to the conflict and urgently use its influence to press for all involved to avoid and refrain from further provocative rhetoric or military exercises and tests.

No War in Korea!

Tariq Ali speaking

by Theo Russell

 About 90 people attended a meeting at Friends House in central London last Tuesday called by the Stop the War Coalition, with writer and film-maker Tariq Ali, CND General Secretary Kate Hudson, Stop the War convenor Lindsey German, and Owen Miller, a Lecturer in Korean Studies at the School of African and Oriental Studies, on the panel.

All of the speakers condemned the warmongering history and recent actions by the USA and NATO, and recalled in great detail the crimes committed by the US-led forces in the Korean War. The platform also showed how the history of the introduction of nuclear weapons into the Korean peninsula, the failure of attempts to negotiate any agreements because of US sabotage, and the recent history of wars and regime change, all explained why the DPRK had embarked on its nuclear and missile development programmes. The peace and anti-THAAD [Terminal High Altitude Area Defence; an American anti-ballistic missile defence system] movements in south Korea, and solidarity with them and with the DPRK, were also discussed. Tariq Ali summed up the feeling of the meeting when he said that thanks to its strong defences “North Korea is one of very few  genuinely sovereign states left in the world.”

No new Korean War!

Andy Brooks with the latest edition!

By New Worker correspondent

London comrades joined other peace campaigners outside the American embassy on Friday 11^th August to protest against Donald Trump’s latest threats against north Korea. New Communist Party leader Andy Brooks and other members of the Central Committee gathered outside the centre of US imperialism in London to call on the US President to pursue a diplomatic solution to the crisis that is entirely of America’s making.

Some comrades sold the New Worker whilst others gave out Korean Friendship Association (KFA) leaflets to the crowd, which included a woman dressed as the “Statue of Taking Liberties” and a man wearing a Trump mask who had come along for the lunch-time protest in Grosvenor Square.

Even though the emergency protest was called at short notice by the Stop the War campaign and CND, there was still a good turn-out to hear the campaign speakers who later attempted to deliver a letter from the peace movements but were turned aside by US embassy staff.

No to new Korean war!

by New Worker correspondent

Londoners picketed the American embassy in Grosvenor square last week to demonstrate against a new Korean war brought nearer by the provocations of US war-lord Donald Trump in recent days. Stop the War and CND called the emergency protest outside the US embassy to protest at Trump's aggression and the British government's shameful support for his policy.  Hundreds of Londoners joined the protest against the new US threat to peace that has created a frightening stand-off with nuclear-armed Democratic Korea. This, combined with missile attacks on Syria and the use of a weapon of mass destruction (MOAB, the so-called Mother of All Bombs) in Afghanistan, signals a sharp turn to intervention that is ratcheting up tension around the world.

Confronting a World at War

 by New Worker correspondent

HUNDREDS of peace activists packed the main conference chamber of the TUC headquarters in Bloomsbury on Saturday 6th June for the Stop the War conference “Confronting a World at War”.

Topics debated included war and austerity, Palestine, civil liberties, Saudi Arabia, Latin America, the United States’ “Pivot to Asia”, Africa, scrapping Trident, Ukraine, imperialism and ISIS, the military industrial complex and migration and war.

A powerful array of speakers made presentations and led the debates. They included veteran peace campaigner Bruce Kent, Mustafa Barghouti, general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, Explo Nani-Kofi, a campaigner for African self-determination, leading US peace activist Medea Benjamin, Lindsey German, Kate Hudson, Andrew Murray, anti-racist activist Lee Jasper, Chris Nineham, writer David Edgar, Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell, journalist Seumas Milne, pro-Venezuela activist Matt Willgress, George Galloway and many more.

The conference was opened by Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn, who won a tremendous applause for his decision last week to stand for the leadership of the Labour Party on a promise to combat austerity.

In the opening plenary session Bruce Kent called on all peace activists in many different organisations to work together “in parallel” using a range of different tactics and strategies towards a common goal.

Lindsey German, who is the convenor of Stop the War, warned of the pernicious and dangerous measures taken by the Government in the “War on Terror” – now calling on primary schools to monitor what very young children are saying to each other. She recounted an instance where one child from a Muslim home was reported for telling fellow pupils that Father Christmas was not real – and thereby undermining British culture!

In the discussion session on Palestine Mustafa Barghouti spoke of the imperialist destruction of Middle Eastern states “one after another”.

And he spoke at length of the increasing success of the BDS – boycott, disinvest and sanction – campaign against the brutal and genocidal oppression of the Palestinian people by Israel.

He said the Israeli economy is now really being hit by this campaign as Israeli exporters lose contract after contract due to customer pressure through boycotting Israeli goods, especially those produced on occupied Palestinian land.

The Israeli government and its supporters are crying anti-Semitism but this is belied by the growing numbers of progressive Jewish people around the world who are supporting the BDS campaign.

In a session on “Zombie Imperialism: The Return of the Neocons” American peace campaigner Medea Benjamin spoke of the American police war against young Black people, the increasing numbers of war veterans joining the peace campaign and the new remote control weapons like drones that allow the US military to kill people by remote control.

Jeremy Corbyn spoke of the development of the role of Nato after the fall of the Soviet Union, when the ostensible reason for the existence of Nato had disappeared.

He said the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia rescued Nato by giving a new role and it has since gone on to intervene in the Middle east and all around the globe and is encircling Russia and China with hostile military bases.

In the session on the conflict in Ukraine writer David Edgar gave an account of the two conflicting left and right-wing narratives of what had happened there.

From the floor RMT member Alex Gordon, speaking on behalf of Solidarity with Antifascist Resistance in Ukraine, countered this, pointing out that there is an underlying objective reality of what is really happening – that open Nazis are now in positions of power in Kiev and that the people of Donbas and Lugansk are really being bombed and shelled by the Kiev regime.

Academic Richard Sakwa spoke against Nato intervention in Ukraine but claimed that membership of the European Union would bring economic stability to Ukraine and overcome the corruption of the ruling oligarchs.

From the floor, Daphne Liddle challenged this assertion, pointing out the effect of EU membership on another weak economy: Greece. She said the economic bail-out package offered by the EU and IMF would require even more drastic austerity measures than in Athens, measures that could not be forced on the population except with a fascist government – and that the population of Ukraine had been divided over EU membership with a small majority opposed to it, with good reason.

George Galloway addressed the final plenary session, along with Jeremy Corbyn, Mustafa Barghouti, Medea Benjamin, Lee Jasper and Chris Nineham. Galloway gave a rousing speech in which he warned the conference that US imperialism has “unleashed the Anti-Christ” on the modern world.