No to Trump and No to War!

By New Worker correspondent

 Londoners braved the cold weather on Saturday to attend Stop the War’s march against war on Iran. Although there were only a few hundred on the march from BBC headquarters to Trafalgar Square, plenty more came to hear Jeremy Corbyn, Tariq Ali and Steve Hedley speak at the rally at the end of the protest.

Jeremy Corbyn took the rostrum to the usual chorus of “ooh Jeremy Corbyn” from the crowd now several thousand strong. The retiring Labour leader referred to the tragic incident of the Ukrainian airliner downed in error by the Iranians, who mistook it for a hostile US aircraft.

This was a product of war, Corbyn said: “Today, let's recognise the horror that the families of those that died in the airliner travelling from Tehran to the Ukraine are suffering from now.”

The tragedy, which claimed the lives of all passengers and crew, was an “appalling act and part of a wide pattern of appalling acts all across the region”.

“There's no excuse for shooting down an airliner, there's no excuse for a targeted assassination by one state against another,” Corbyn said.

“Let’s be clear, there can be no excuses here. Let’s also recognise that that event and the events of the last few days and weeks have consequences.

“When big powers act illegally, when people step outside the norms of international law, there are consequences.

“All this does is set off a spiral of violence and danger which will lead us to yet more wars in the future.”

But probably the best speaker of all was Steve Hedley, a senior full-timer in the RMT transport union, who called Trump a draft dodger and said that if the likes of Trump had to actually fight in a war then there would not be any war. He then finished with the rousing call of “No war but the class war!”.

Thousands march for refugees

by New Worker correspondent

AN ESTIMATED 10,000 people gathered in Park Lane, London on Saturday 17^th September for a march and rally to demand that Theresa May and her government fulfil their obligations under international law to admit more refugees to Britain to help to alleviate the growing world refugee crisis.

The march, organised by Solidarity with Refugees,  Amnesty International, the Stop the War Coalition and a number of charities was one of many around the world aiming to put pressure on the United Nations summit for refugees and migrants, which began in New York on Monday and was hosted by US President Barack Obama. Theresa May also attended this summit.

Currently there are 65 million displaced people and another 20 million in danger, the highest number since the end of the Second World War.

Marchers carried banners and placards from many diverse organisations, parties and community groups. Prominent slogans were: “No-one is illegal”, “Stop the drowning”, “Choose love” and  “Be human”.

The speakers at the rally in Parliament Square, where the huge march from Park Lane concluded  included Green leader Caroline Lucas, Labour peer and veteran campaigner Alf Dubs as well as actors Vanessa Redgrave, Douglas Booth, Juliet Stevenson and Liberal Democrat campaigner Shas Sheehan.

Vanessa Redgrave told the rally: “Citizens in this country, of whatever background, all want to obey the law. There are human rights laws. The present government and previous governments, Labour, coalition and Conservative, have been breaking international human rights law. We must hold them to account.”

Lord Dubs, who arrived in Britain under the Kindertransport programme for Jewish children as a six-year-old fleeing Nazi persecution, said in his speech that the Government has been “pretty hopeless” at dealing with the issue.

He told the crowd as he pointed towards Parliament: “I tell you, speaking here is a million times better than speaking in there. There is only one thing that is shifting this government and that is the force of public opinion and that means you.”

Solidarity with Refugees director Ros Ereira there had been a lack of leadership over taking action on the issue. “This week is going to be Theresa May’s first opportunity as our Prime Minister to represent us at a global summit.

“I really hope she is going to set the tone for what kind of a country we can be post-Brexit and with her new leadership. Hopefully she will want to portray us as an open, tolerant, welcoming society that wants to play an important role on the global stage and lead an appropriate global humanitarian response.”

Green MP Caroline Lucas told the rally that the solution to the refugee crisis is “not just humanitarian, it is political will”. She added: “It is not a crisis of the numbers of people coming, it is a crisis about the way the Government is managing it.”

She accused the Government of “failing to recognise that those seeking refuge in the UK are not desperate to come here, they are just desperate”.

According to the UN’s refugee agency, more than 3,200 people have died or gone missing attempting to cross the Mediterranean to Europe so far this year. Figures show a total of almost 300,000 people have attempted the journey and thousands remain stranded in Greece and Italy in poor living conditions.

Last year’s Refugees Welcome event attracted 100,000 demonstrators according to the organiser and took place shortly after the publication of pictures of refugee toddler Alan Kurdi’s body washed up on a Turkish beach.

Following that rally, the Government agreed to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020. But, Ros  Ereira said, progress since then has been much too slow.

“We were really excited to hear the agreement was made,” she said. “I was always going to wish it would be more and better than that – but it was a huge step in the right direction. We are not on track to be meeting that commitment at the moment and of course we need to be doing more. The situation is growing, there are people dying and we need to stop that happening.”

Don’t Bomb Syria!

Mark Rylance makes his point!

By New Worker correspondent

THOUSANDS of anti-war protesters filled Whitehall on Saturday 28th November  with a single message for all MPs: “Don’t vote to bomb Syria”.

They were joined by actor Mark Rylance, Labour MP Diane Abbott, musician Brian Eno, Tariq Ali, journalist Owen Jones and George Galloway, who all addressed the crowds outside Downing Street.

Owen Jones was met with stony silence when he claimed that the Assad elected government of Syria was a bigger threat than ISIS.

But George Galloway followed with a powerful speech that put the blame for the conflict in the region squarely on the avarice and intrigues of western imperialism.

A letter from musicians, writers, union chiefs and politicians was delivered to 10 Downing Street, telling David Cameron not to bomb Syria.

As the letter was being delivered to 10 Downing Street, protests were also underway in many other towns across the country.

Further protests were staged on Tuesday and Wednesday this week as David Cameron opted for a vote on the issue to take place on Wednesday 2nd December.

Hands off Yemen!

by New Worker correspondent

AROUND 100 people gathered in Curzon Street, London, opposite the Saudi Arabian embassy, to protest at Saudi Arabia’ bombing of Yemen, resulting in deaths and horrific injuries to hundreds of innocent men, women and children.

The rally, on Saturday 11th April, included many Yemeni nationals who condemned the Saudis loudly and the imperialist leaders behind Saudi Arabia’s unprovoked and aggressive action. They also attacked United Nations general secretary Ban Ki Moon for his failure to condemn the attacks.

Speakers at the rally included Andrew Murray and John Rees from Stop the War, Maz Saleem and STW student organiser Shadia Edwards-Dashti 

The Saudi-led attack on Yemen has killed more than 540 people, of which at least 74 are children, and has left 1,700 wounded.

Supported and directed by the United States, using arms supplied by Britain, Saudi Arabia is waging a war that can bring nothing but more death and destruction for the people of Yemen.

The main message from Stop the War was that Saudi Arabia has no business intervening in internal differences within Yemen – the Yemenis must be allowed to resolve these differences themselves.

John Rees said: “The United States and Britain are up to their ears in this.” He went on to say that Saudi Arabia is Britain’s number one customer for weapons and that is ever a deal is in doubt, one of the royal family is sent to ease it through.

He said that the bombs, drones and guns that are raining death and terror on innocent Yemenis are falling with the blessing of the British government and were supplied by British arms companies.

The US has a central role in all of this. As US officials told the Wall Street Journal: “American military planners are using live intelligence feeds from surveillance flights over Yemen to help Saudi Arabia decide what and where to bomb.”

And Yemen has for a long time suffered repeated drone strikes from the US, killing innocent civilians.

Maz Saleem told the rally that western-backed attacks on Arab countries add to Islamophobia in this country. Her father, aged 82, was stabbed and murdered by a fascist terrorist two years ago while walking home from his local mosque simply because he was a Muslim.