Published on 28 September 2002

This last week Washington and London’s coalition for war suffered two significant setbacks.

First, 20 September, the White House was finally forced to concede to the demand for a congressional inquiry into the ‘failures’ of the FBI and the CIA to identify and warn against the terrorist attacks on 11 September. Until now Bush had refused all demands for an inquiry saying it would distract government from its war against terrorism. But the victims terrorism, the relatives of those who were killed in New York and Washington, outraged by the growing number of revelations about warnings which were given but ignored, kept pressing their case until finally Bush was forced to concede. Now whatever professional incompetences such an investigation may or may not reveal it will, if it is pursued with any degree of diligence point inexorably to one conclusion: tat the failure to act upon warnings received was political more than professional. Washington needed spectacular proof of terrorism to launch a war which Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz had been planning even before Bush was elected.

The second setback, 22 September, was the re-election of Gerhard Schroeder in Germany. Schroeder staked all his chances upon his promise not to drag Germany into a war against Iraq and he electorate took him up on that promise. In the German election all other questions became subordinate to one big question, for or against the war? – and the majority voted against.

Today’s demonstration can be a third and ultimately even more effective blow for peace. But unlike the German people we in Britain will not be offered the opportunity to vote for or against the war. Blair knows perfectly well, if ever he stops to think about it, that the majority in Britain doesn’t want war with Iraq. Demonstrations however large and determined will only underline what he and everyone in his cabinet knows. They will not persuade him to alter the course to which he is already committed. Of all the big lies which Bush and Blair repeat daily, the biggest is the lie that “no decision has been taken.” All the decisions have been taken. The war has already begun. British and American aircraft are bombing Iraqi air defences daily. Troops and equipment are already in place, and more are being sent each day.

Accordingly we must make our decisions. And we must not allow ourselves to be carried away by our own rhetoric. This is not a struggle which will be won by numbers on the streets. Half a million marchers may persuade Blair to drop legislation against fox hunting. Twice that number will not deter him from going to war alongside Bush. This demonstration must therefore become the launch for a political campaign of civil disobedience, of non-cooperation, of industrial action which will paralyse this government’s war programme and free it either to quit the alliance with Bush or leave office.

Britain’s involvement is crucial in determining when and whether the invasion will be launched. With British support and participation Bush will launch the attack this autumn. Without it he will have to wait, at least until after the congressional election on 6 November, in which a 1% swing will give the Democrats control of both houses.

Never until now therefore has the Stop the War Coalition been presented with such a clear challenge and such a real chance of realising its purpose. A year ago when America and Britain attacked Afghanistan ‘Stop the War’ was a protest. Today it can and it must transcend that stage.

“Doing nothing about Saddam Hussein is not an option” – Blair’s favourite mantra – must be turned upside down. The options are perfectly clear. They are:

* Stop the bombing
* End the sanctions against Iraq, which have killed scores of thousands and made the Iraqi people wholly dependent upon the Baghdad regime.
* Invite an international team of inspectors to examine Britain’s nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Invite Israel, the US, Russia, China, France, India and Pakistan to follow suit, and to commence multilateral negotiations to eliminate these weapons.
* Trade unionists, religious leaders, public servants, media workers and community leaders! Organise days of action against the War!
* For a general strike against the war!
* for a regime change in London. For a government of peace.



The Marxist Party, 28 September 2002

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