03.10.2001
London
Pacifism rules the roost down south
Over 200 people crammed into Clublands Methodist hostel in Walworth for the launch of South London Stop the War.
The speeches from the platform were overwhelmingly pacifist in content. The Socialist Workers Party had attempted to keep class politics to an absolute minimum. First to speak was Monsignor Bruce Kent - figurehead of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Pointing to Nato?s war against Serbia, the troublesome priest condemned the destruction of bridges and the pollution of rivers. The rights of the Kosovars were ignored. But then, if your overwhelming concern is simply to halt war, irrespective of the politics or class forces involved, the status quo must prevail and the rights of people will come a poor second.
Next came Lindsey German of the SWP. The editor of the turgid Socialist Review expressed her ?sense of horror? at the ?terrible acts? of September 11. Unfortunately the comrade?s aversion was not sufficiently strong to cause her to condemn the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Warming to her role (in this forum) as liberal peacenik, comrade German could not resist quoting Mahatma Gandhi: ?An eye for an eye turns the whole world blind,? she told us.
Jim Brown, again of CND, was the next to speak. His contribution was remarkable only for the fact that he said nothing of note, but he did help to ensure that time for debate would be kept to a minimum.
Finally, in what was easily the best speech of the evening, Mike Marqusee addressed the meeting. Like comrade German he is a prominent member of the Socialist Alliance, but there was no question as to which of the two sounded more the part. The terrorists, said comrade Marqusee, had equated the American government with the American people, declaring a jihad against them all. George W Bush had, in turn, applied the same measure to the people of Afghanistan. The crimes of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden were to be visited on the Afghan peoples.
With some 45 minutes available, including a reply from each of the four panel members, the SWP chair allowed only half an hour for contributions from the floor. RMT militant and London Socialist Alliance secretary Greg Tucker reported that his union executive had passed a motion condemning the terror attacks, opposing the impending assault on civil liberties and imperialism?s ?war on terrorism?. A position which puts the RMT to the left of the SWP, on this question at least.
A further nine contribution were heard, with one speaker asking the panel if they thought there was such a thing as a good war. For Bruce Kent the question clearly had to be answered in the negative - in response he called for the strengthening of the courts and the police, to ensure that ?terrorism? is dealt with by ?rule of law?, as part of a more effective alternative.
Alan Thornett of the International Socialist Group argued that the ?scale of the humanitarian crisis? was ?something we should stress more?. Laudable. But whether this was liberal hand-wringing or a call to independent working class action was difficult to discern. I suspect it was the former.
Excited references to the anti-Vietnam war struggles of the 60s were made by SWPers, and the SWP is setting up the Student Network Against the War.
The last speaker from the floor was Nick Wrack, another prominent SA member. ?The left has nothing to apologise for,? he stated. ?We were against the Taliban 15 years ago?. To be entirely accurate, most of the left has nothing to apologise for. The SWP supported the mujahedin against the Soviet-backed government of Najibullah, and one leading Alliance for Workers? Liberty member once unforgetably declared medievalist bandit mujhadeeen to be ?my kind of people?.
Andrew Gunton