Severe paraphrasing / quotes of speeches given at meeting - reproduced to allow everyone to read roughly what was said:


>>>Bruce Kent (former chair CND):

I hope that the vigil on Saturday would be attended by as many people and more again, and that it would show the media that there really is opposition.

I have a real sense of dread and read with horror the things coming out of the right wing press in the US. People like us must not stop standing up and saying what we believe no matter what happens.

Let's not make this a one off crisis, this is a long running campaign. The National Peace Council went bankrupt recently, just when we need co-ordination most.

Nuclear weapons are a serious threat in this scenario.

We must have an education system that brings up children as real global citizens.

We are fighting for a just and peaceful world and its going to happen no matter what the Blairs and Bushes think.



>>>Will Self:

I am not as a rule a political activist. When I look at it I realise it's only ever been anti-war campaigns that have mobilised me.

What I really fear is that a lot of children are going to be killed on the other side of the world.

It is important that we do not present this campaign in a partisan way - we must speak to all the people.

It is also important to distinguish between the American people and the American government. It's easy to fall victim to knee-jerk anti-Americanism when faced with the televised and print nationalism coming out of the US.

Let's be honest, it seems to be an attack on the great god of money that rules the west.

Regarding the media and the reaction of many people, we must get off this moral high horse. Please help diffuse this rhetoric, this mass hysteria, it reminds me of the death of Diana - it is possible to talk people down on a one to one basis.



>>>Helen John:

I wish people had been in this receptive mood back in 1994 when the campaign around Menwith Hill and Star Wars began.

All these men of war who are speaking are being misleading and dreadful. I do not like the use of the word war in this context, if America retaliates it will be indiscriminate.

It's a bit odd speaking here as a representative on CND as I was only elected to Vice Chair last Saturday. that said CND is soon to publish a map of all the US bases in the UK and will be asking people to demonstrate at all of them. The Bases will be co-ordinated by US Space Command, the integral part of Star Wars. This makes the UK a target.

I am pleased to see so many people planning to attend the demonstration this Saturday. It makes me happier to announce that there will also be a demonstration on Sunday at Lakenheath, one of the most important bases for any US retaliation. We want to make it clear to the US servicemen and their families that there is real opposition here.

The prospect of military action is insane, it will not bring back a single loved one.

I saw an aid worker on television recently back from Afghanistan, saying that America should be sending planes over the country to drop aid, not bombs.

The US report 'Vision 20-20', which we have had since 1996 states clearly that the US is seeking to dominate space for their own ends.

This growing campaign needs to be wide and ongoing, and not just reactive. I carry a large banner each day when I protest outside US bases saying 'GW Bush - the godfather of ballistic missiles - the armed wing of globalisation'.

We have to get really active to prevent the build up of bases in the UK, we have to physically prevent the expansion of Menwith Hill. With US admirals calling for more Greenham Commons in this country we need deeds not words.

We will not allow the US to use this country as a springboard for murder.


>>> Liz Davies:

The starting point of building a movement is the common feeling of horror, humanity, suffering and pity and the recognition of the preciousness and interdependence of human life. If we can communicate this then we can mobilise people around the world.

The expected military action will not relieve any suffering. It will result in the immediate bloodshed of thousands of innocent people and increase the cycle of violence.

The so called logic that seems to be being applied is appalling.

They say Bin Laden must be brought to justice, which implies evidence must be presented. Just going on the say so from the CIA given its past record is not good enough.

The expressed intention of punishing countries that harbour terrorists is the same doctrine used to bomb Iraq and Belgrade where innocent people paid the price. It seems this doctrine allows whole populations to be punished.

It should be recognised that the US itself harbours people who other countries would call terrorists. Indeed maybe many countries around the world if following this doctrine would launch attacks against the US for harbouring Henry Kissinger!

Military action will not stop more attacks.

Afghanistan is one of the poorest most deprived countries in the world. The average life expectancy is 47, in the UK it is 77. Infant mortality is the highest in the world and their GDP is less than the Uk spends on arms in one year.

Violence begets violence. Bush and Blair will kill x number of Afghans which will just create more people who are grief stricken and have nothing to lose.

But some people will benefit. While all sorts of sports and other events were cancelled after the attacks in the US, the arms fair being held in London docklands went ahead (huge cheer here!). These people have a vested interest and are some of Bush and Blair's friends. RatheonXXXXXXX the 3rd largest arms manufacturer in the world made large contributions to new labour and to Bush. While the rest of the stock markets have been dropping their share prices have been rising.

We have a duty to speak out against the victimisation of people for racial or religious reasons.

We now face the most difficult task the left and peace movement has ever faced in my life time, and remember it is harder for those in the US.

We need industrial action and non violent civil disobedience. We will not be silent when innocent people are killed.

>>> Jeremy Corbyn:

There are almost 3000 people here in other rooms and outside in the gardens and on the pavements. At the next meeting we'll need to book the royal albert hall! I just hope the radio, tv and newspapers do cover this, but somehow I doubt it. Peace meetings are being organised all over the world, in the US, europe, in India.

The British press has been markedly less analytical than many abroad. We have a very big job on our hands. I also have to say I am deeply troubled that Bush is president at this moment.

The style, attitude and message of the reports being written is deeply dangerous at this moment. They unleash the forces of racism, xenophobia and nationalism. We need to stand shoulder to shoulder with the victims of racism.

What hypocrisy there is regarding the Afghan refugees on the boat in the last month. To cause these problems (referring to the US and CIA involvement in Afghanistan) and then to turn their backs on the people who are suffering.

The people in Iraq have not been helped by 10 years of bombing by the US and the UK.

But we have to understand why some people have strange views about these issues, it is the media coverage. Posh and Beck's wedding got more coverage than genocide in Rhiwanda.

The recent media reporting also failed to report that the London arms fair continued in the immediate aftermath of the attacks.

Back in 1963 / '64 there was not then widespread opposition to the US in Vietnam. I am so grateful that so many people are mobilising throughout the world now.

We must look at the causes of injustice. A quarter of the world in poverty, the march of global politics and global companies towards yet more globalisation. At this time people may just stop and think, and say it is time for a fairer and more just world.

Do everything you can to prevent Armageddon if we let slip the dogs of war, because this is what George Bush wants and we must not let it happen.


>>> George Monbiot:

It's an incredible atmosphere here. Outside this hall, the other rooms are full, the garden is full and the steps and street are full!

As I said in my recent Guardian article, dissent is being made even more difficult. There is a fierce right wing backlash in the press and by government, civil liberties and all that movements of opposition have achieved could be lost.

Bush and Blair talk about civilisation, but they seem to have forgotten what it is. Yes the perpetrators should be brought to justice, but justice is the word.

The taliban, a barbarous regime, are in fact saying innocent until proven guilty, while the rest of the civilised world is saying we can just get rid of such concepts as and when the need suits us.

Given that those that committed this crime are dead, the scary thing is this drive to now create an enemy big enough to attack, in order to satisfy the lust for revenge.

Looking at the evidence, it seems to be extremely ropy. A passport found at the centre of all that destruction? when steel was being vaporised? A car with an Arabic flight manual in it - either you know how to fly a plane or not. And a Koran also in the car when under law a Koran is not to be left alone.

So, giving the benefit of the doubt, if there is certain evidence linking Bin Laden, what would you do to bring him to trial? Would you go in with the military or would you adopt a more friendly tactic?

Afghanistan is now where Ethiopia was during the famine, attacking it with all the military might we have would just create even more hostile views of the west.

Better to have said to Afghanistan it is obvious you are in a huge humanitarian crisis, we can help. Offering love and kindness would have made it far more likely that they would have helped.

Then we in the west must also stop committing crimes against humanity. We must end the deadly sanctions against Iraq. We must stop supporting despotic and occupying powers in the middle east. We must stop the dirty war Bush is waging in Columbia. And we must end the institutional disparity where so many countries are in debt.

Justice for the whole world, not vengeance.

The best way to commemorate the people who died is to make the world a better place and not a worse one.


>>> John Rees:

After all of the TV coverage there was one immediate question that needed to be asked - why?

The simple and immediate answer was that tens of thousands of lost lives around the world were unmarked, un-mourned, there was no media circus following them, no mark of respect for Iraq, Palestine or Serbia - for those who in the last decade have died in their hundreds of thousands because of the policies of the US and her allies.

Half a million Iraqi children have been killed by sanctions in the last ten years. These crimes have also been perpetrated by the UK and the US against their own people. How can they spend over two billion on each stealth bomber when they cannot even guarantee healthcare for their people?

What will be served by a poor tiny impoverished country ravaged by war being ravaged by the worlds largest military force? The effect will be to destabilise the Russian states as well as Pakistan and India. The recession will be made worse.

Civil Liberties are already under attack - Jack Straw cannot wait to do things that 2 weeks ago he wouldn't have been able to. And now David Blunkett is tightening asylum laws today - is there anything more barbaric than that as we face a humanitarian crisis?

I remember apartheid. It was a terrible solution but I never believed the solution was to send planes to bomb South Africa.

This will be a human tragedy on a level we have not seen before which is why we must fight it.

Recently the TUC congress was cancelled and the labour party conference may be cancelled. If we stop opposing them they will walk all over us.

People who want an end to a world driven by money and military might are not a minority, but they need to feel part of a movement - this is our task.



>>> Tariq Ali:

Bush said you are either for us or you are for terrorism!

This is nothing less than an attempt to colonise the world in a new era of globalisation.

And it is beneath contempt that a labour party prime minister has gone so far down the road behind the United States.

We have a US government determined on revenge and blood lust. First they want to topple the taliban - not a bad idea - but it is the method which is wrong.

The irony of history is that the US created the taliban backed by Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. It was also the US that backed the bloody destruction of the oil unions in Iraq by financing a certain Saddam Hussain. The history points to hypocrisy - how can I believe the US when it now says these countries are offensive?

We have to build our own histories for our children, because histories portrayed in the media are at best partial and at worse false.

We also have to remove the causes of these acts. There are two running sores - the first demand of the peace movement is end the sanctions and the bombing of Iraq that has been going on for 11 years now. Second is to solve the problem of Palestine, which is an Israeli and western backed problem.

Tariq finished by reading a poem by a Syrian communist poet.