editor of Pluto Press's Iraq Under Siege) was in Britain for a tour organised by Americans against the War and spoke at a number of public meetings in London. TC: What are the differences and similarities in the attitude to the war here and in the US? ML: I think the population here is much more anti-war than in the United States. Millions of Americans have been marching against the war, especially in the last 6 overall views are much more divided than in Britain where, not withstanding the polls, it seems almost everyone is against the war. You are subject to a lot of patriotic barrage here but it seems to be less effective than in TC: We didn't have September 11 ML: That's a lot of it and politically it's more to the left in general. The US movement is more of an echo of the movement in Britain - its not as large and is more likely to be susceptible to the "supporting our troops" argument. Then there's the notion of pay back for 9/11 - though there is no evidence that Iraq was involved that.
One similarity is that this antiwar movement in the States is much more diverse than any previous organised movement: racially and ethnically - as yours is.
On the trade union front things have changed. Officially, many British unions have
been in the leadership of the anti-war movement. In the US, groups like New
York Labour against the War that I'm with,
that spoke out against the war right after
9/11. were very much a small minority.
But then in the last 6 months the movement exploded internationally and at home,
and more unions passed anti-war resolusons. So now there is much less of a gap
Dermeen the situation in Britain and the US.
A common problem is the resolutions
War «Even after the war started, we still had a quarter of a million people on the streets of New York"
ism. It was only the revolutionary left that stood out whereas now it is seen as legitilion people on the streets of New York. have an anti-war majority. The other big figure out all kinds of things you can do a whole different thing.