M ore than 1000 activists gathered
for an upbeat and positive discussion at the Second People's Assembly in London on Saturday 30 August, called by the Stop the War Coalition.
The high turnout and high quality of contributions testified to the strength and depth of the British anti-war movement. As veteran campaigner Tony Benn put it, "We re building up a movement that cannot be
Labour MP Alice Mahon drew attention to the over 6,000 Iraqi deaths so far. She also highlighted the lack of trust that the British people currently have in their government, with only 10% currently saying that they trust the government and its
Mahon stated the position of the Labour left and their wish to turn the Labour Party into the party for peace, rather than Blair's party for war, "watch this space for our conference because we really are fighting back."
Launching the Declaration of the 2nd People's Assembly, Salma Yaqoob, Chair of Birmingham Stop the War Coalition, asked why the death of one British scientist warrants an inquiry but not the deaths of thousands of civilians in Iraq. She argued that the families of British service personnel should also have the opportunity to call Blair to account.
Tony Blair, she said, should be put in the dock for:
Causing mass murder
Wilfully misleading the British people
Bringing contempt on the United Nations • Tony Benn, "Blair took us to war because President Bush told him to take us to war." Tony Benn, "If you ring No 10 you're put through to a call centre in the White House." Salma Yaqoob, "A poor person's life is not equal to a rich person's life...a black person's life is not worth as much as a white person's life" Salma Yaqoob, "A Labour government with Tory policies is just as unpalatable as a Tory government". Hans von Sponeck, "The truth is on our side John Rees, "What's happening in Iraq is colonialism pure and simple" Louise Christian, "Our government is just as much complicit in the unlawfulness of Guantanamo Bay as the US government". Lindsay German, "Tony Blair is a dead man walking" John Pilger, "if they didn't fear us, they wouldn't lie so much" .....
Causing grievous bodily harm to the notion of democracy in Britain.
The Blair government had not only consistently been unethical in its foreign policy but also in its domestic policy, with a widening poverty gap, tuition fees, foundation hospitals, a failing transport system and shrinking pension provision.
Communication Workers Union General Secretary, Billy Hayes, was unable to attend the Assembly to formally second the Declaration but sent a message of support from his union.
Hans Von Sponeck, former UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Iraq, thanked the
.. Stop the War Coalition for its leadership of the anti-war movement, identifying February 15 as the birth of the European anti-war movement and of a global alliance for peace and justice.
Von Sponeck highlighted the travesty of the oil for food programme under which $47 billion were made available for humanitarian supplies over a 6 year period. Of these, he said, only $28 billion of supplies ever arrived, just over 50%. This $28 billion supplied 23 million people - just 183 dollars per person per year, supposedly to cover medicine, food, electricity, water and education - amounting to just 50 cents per person per day.