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Counter-arguments
to War
by Alan Simpson, MP, Chair of Labour
Against War and Dr. Glen Rangwala, lecturer
in politics at Cambridge
University.
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The
counter-dossier is a definitive statement against
going to war with Iraq. It was written as a formal
statement of the Labour Party 'rebels' to rebut Tony
Blair's arguments for joining the US in this war.
Tony Blair release his dossier in support of going
to war against Iraq on Sept 24th. He gave MPs precious
little time to consider it, debate started that very
day. The counter-dossier provides the foundation for
those in the Labour Party who oppose the war.
This
is a great document of historical significance. It
contains bold truth that has not been widely reported
in the media, such as the fact that the US and UK
blocked condemnation of Iraq's known chemical weapons
attacks at the UN Security Council. No resolution
was passed during the war that specifically criticised
Iraq's use of chemical weapons, despite the wishes
of the majority to condemn this use.
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Priestesses of the Revolution in Parliament Square |
I
spent the Sunday trying to recruit some companions for
my May Day excursion. Various people said they'd
like to come, and we'd arrange to meet at the railway
station.
"What time?" they'd ask.
"Well I reckon about 9 o'clock. The action starts
at 11 and I want to be sure I get there before they
close off the square."
No one said anything, but I could read it in their eyes.
In the end no one else came, and I went by myself |
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Mayday!
Mayday! |
MayDay
2000, or MD2K as some people preferred to call it,
using the telescopic style popular on the net, had all
the makings of a wild affair. There had already been
a J18 and an N30 (that's June the 18th, and November
the 30th to all those not familiar with the style),
the last one having hit the headlines in a spectacular
way when protesters in Seattle managed to close down
the so-called Millennium round of talks of the World
Trade Organisation. |
| War
in Yugoslavia |
You
don't put out a fire by pouring petrol on it. You
don't stop a war by throwing bombs at it. That seems
such a simple and obvious point to make that I'm surprised
that nobody seems to have made it yet. |
| Iggy |
Iggy's
supporters had already marched through Canterbury City
centre. 30-40 people from all over the country,
the usual raggle taggle band of dispossessed youngsters,
with their dreadlocks and noserings and general air
of enthusiastic display. They look like characters from
some medieval manuscript. They were chanting "Iggy
Iggy Iggy: OUT! OUT! OUT!" to the bemused populace,
most of whom had no idea who "Iggy" might
be. I overheard one spectator muttering to a passing
policeman: "You should lock them all up and throw
away the key." |
| Interview
with Ian Bone |
An exclusive interview with 52 year old Ian Bone,
the man behind Movement Against the Monarchy, MA'M.
Once labelled by the press as "The Most Evil Man
In Britain", Bone is most famous for Class War,
an anarchist parody of The Sun newspaper which, at its
height, had a circulation of 15,000. Bone left Class
War when the newspaper evolved into an organisation
and began to take itself seriously. |
|
Prague
Autumn |
I
travelled to Prague with the Bristol S26 group,
an alliance of anarchists, socialists, and anti-globalisation
protesters. It was a gruelling 28 hour coach journey,
made only temporarily more bearable by the antics of
the bad boys at the back. who were drinking vast amounts
of red wine and smoking cigarettes - despite the "No
Smoking, No Drinking" policy of the coach company
- while sticking bits of flesh-coloured rubber to their
faces in an effort to look like Zombies. |
| Political - Interview
with the SWP, 1994 |
The overall impression many people have of the SWP
is of an organisation bent on creating splits, of a
dark and secretive Central Committee, of a structure
whose sole aim seemed to be to sop up good will amongst
a gullible following while actually providing no clear
lead. |
Why Direct Action?
Written for a Schnews Annual, but never used.
|
Why Direct Action? It is simply true that wherever
there is a perceived injustice, wherever big companies
put profit before human or environmental need, there
will be activists to oppose them |
Interview with Noam Chomsky |
Chomsky
Interview - 'This flexible labour market
- I hate the term, but it's the one that's used
- is generally considered, it's considered the sort
of basis for the fact that unemployment figures
are lower in the United States than in Europe. But
that's a pretty misleading comparison. For one thing,
it's not strictly true, if you look over, say, a
ten year period. But for another it overlooks a
rather crucial fact. A substantial part of the American
workforce, especially the male workforce, is out
of the labour market'.
more>>
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| Noam
Chomsky describes himself as "an American
dissident." As Emeritus Professor of Linguistics
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology he was
already relatively famous in the 50s as the main proponent
of a particular model of the relationship between language
and the mind. |
The
lecture is typical Chomsky, combining his trademark
dense analytical skills with a scathing attack upon
the moral justifications that underline the current
war. Some of his views are startlingly at odds with
accepted ideology, as, for instance, his claim that
post-war US methods employ specific Nazi techniques
of population control, but it is an argument that gains
increasing credibility the closer you come to the facts.
more>> |
Unpublished
I thought, "who needs terrorists to make us scared
when we've got you doing it for them?" |
"Hard
Times"- These
are hard times, as I'm sure you are all aware. They
are desperate, dangerous, scary times. There's not much
left to laugh at is there? Nevertheless I managed to
laugh the other day. And it wasn't at a re run of Porridge,
or an ancient episode of Dad's Army either. It was the
news. The news actually made me laugh.
more>>
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| Anarchy
Inaction - Interview with Ian Bone the
creator and main contributor to one of Britain's most
controversial newspapers, Class War. |
It was some time later when I finally caught up with
Ian Bone. I'd not seen him for a couple of years,
not since his birthday, in fact, the day that Di and
Dodi had died. His new enterprise is called Movement
Against the Monarchy (MA'M), so his table was scattered
with suitably contentious material with all the usual
disparaging slogans. One of the posters said, "Queen
Mum, Hurry Up And Die!" |
| Iraq |
Saddam
Hussein was free to murder and terrorise and
torture, to bomb and gas his own people, as long as
he was a faithful client. As one Whitehouse spokesman
put it: "He's a son-of-a-bitch, but he's our son-of-a-bitch."
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| Tony
Benn Interview |
Tony
Benn: Well...
the establishment rewards you, don't they? Very, very richly. I mean if you take the four members
of the SDP - Jenkins, Owen, Williams and Rogers - they
all became members of the House of Lords. I mean, that
really is something isn't it? I mean if you're a trade
unionist who goes along with the government, you become
Lord Murray, Lord Chappell, and a lot more weighty.
Patronage is a very powerful force. |
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Policing And The Drug Laws - New Statesman
Let's clear up one specific myth: the
theory of "progression" or "escalation", the belief
that taking mild drugs leads to harder drugs. The
proof for this theory is that almost every heroin
user has also taken cannabis. It is also true that
every heroin user has also drunk tea, watched TV and
suckled from his Mother's breast. It seems clear then
-going on the logic of escalation theory- that Mothers
should immediately withdraw milk from their babies,
that breast-milk should be made illegal, and that
we should set up a "Milk-squad" in the police force
with the right to smash into people's houses to stop
the illicit use of Mother's milk behind closed doors.
more>>
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