17.10.2001

East London

Rally against the war

The London Borough of Newham last week launched its campaign against the war in Afghanistan. ?Newham: No to War? (Nowar) is a joint initiative of the Newham Monitoring Project (NMP - a local campaigning and support organisation for black people who have suffered racist violence and harassment by police) and the Socialist Workers Party. Around 200 people attended the public meeting.

The audience heard speakers from two members of the SWP, the NMP, a Palestinian activist and a representative from the Newham Muslim Association. Lindsey German (and her SWP colleague, Marian Shaff from the NUT), while failing to echo the condemnation of the attacks on New York and Washington by other platform speakers, spoke of the hypocrisy of the USA in its war drive and correctly raised the question of needing to look at the root cause of terrorism. The military solution was no solution, she said, and put forward the need for the immediate withdrawal of sanctions against Iraq and the demand for a democratic, secular Palestinian state as a step towards ending ?terrorism?.

Probably the best speech of the evening was given by leading Socialist Alliance activist Mike Marqusee. Although not introduced as a member of the SA (and the comrade made no mention of the role of the SA in the campaign against the imperialist war), he publicly voiced his criticism of the Taliban and criticised the west?s move to impose a government in Afghanistan. He highlighted the need for food, time and resources to be made available to the Afghan people in order for them to build their society and deal with the Taliban in the way that they chose. This would enable ?the people of that country to exercise their right to genuine self-determination?.

What was introduced as a public meeting actually turned out to be more of a rally, as by the time the speeches were finished it was already late and a number of people had begun to leave. So only a few individuals were called to speak from the floor and their interventions tended to lean towards activity and not politics. No mention was therefore made of broader slogans in the fight against imperialist war and no discussion took place on the role of the SA in the campaign.

Bob Paul