13.03.2003

No illusions in the UN

The People's Assembly took a healthy position on the United Nations. The TUC statement - distributed to delegates - is riddled with illusions in the UN. However, the assembly deleted all implicit references to the UN from the original draft 'Declaration of the People's Assembly for Peace'. The TUC general council statement was the only non-STWC literature included with the agenda. It argues that "the emphasis should be on a multilateral approach, working through, and only with, the explicit authority of the UN security council "¦ The general council are concerned at the damaging consequences of action taken without the sanction of the security council for multilateral institutions, such as the UN and Nato "¦ The general council believe that the monitoring and inspection process should be given the time required and be ongoing until the security council decide otherwise. The adoption now of a further security council resolution "¦ would only undermine the unanimity reached over UNSCR 1441." Fortunately, the anti-war party did not share this uncritical attitude towards the UN. The original draft 'Declaration' stated at the end of the first bullet point that "the assembly "¦ holds that it is possible to resolve the present international crisis by exclusively peaceful means, in line with proposals made by many states and eminent personalities around the world." Speakers from the CPGB, International Socialist Group and Workers Power presented amendments to this bullet point, while the Socialist Party wanted the whole declaration remitted to the steering comittee. Tina Becker for the CPGB argued that "we should not rely on the 'den of thieves' and tin pot dictatorships that is the United Nations. Instead, we must rely on the democratic impulse of the people of Iraq to deal with their dictator by whatever means they see fit - just as we will deal with our own undemocratic regime in Britain." The CPGB called on the whole paragraph to be deleted, others for more minor 'surgery'. In the end, the ISG's proposal to delete the last half-sentence was backed by the SWP's Lindsey German and voted through by an overwhelming majority. Later on in the day, the assembly made its opposition to a UN war even more explicit. It unanimously voted for a motion presented by the Socialist Party's Jim Horton: "This meeting of the People's Assembly states its opposition to war on Iraq, whether by the US and Britain or in the name of the UN." It looks like even those on the STWC steering committee who proposed the inclusion of the original phrase in the first place must have had their minds changed by the enthusiasm and clear will of the delegates.