Mass action set for Sept. 27
Blair's Iraq lies spark protests
By John Catalinotto
All summer in Britain, political debate and
news coverage have been full of challenges to Prime Minister
Tony Blair's official brew of lies and exaggerations to justify
the U.S.-British assault on Iraq, a sovereign country. This has
helped spark support for the British anti-war movement's plans
for a major demonstration on Sept. 27.
The struggle sharpened after the mid-July death, allegedly a
suicide, of intelligence scientist Dr. David Kelly. The BBC had
named Kelly as the official who said the Blair government had
"sexed up" an intelligence report when it declared in February
that Iraq could launch biological weapons against Britain in 45
minutes.
On Sept. 14, the Observer again reported that "dramatic new
evidence from the intel ligence services casts fresh doubts
over Tony Blair's central claim that Iraq continued to produce
chemical and biological weapons until the outbreak of war."
The Sept. 27 anti-war call was issued by the Stop the War
Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Muslim
Association of Britain. The leaflet calls for "No more war, no
more lies, end the occupation of Iraq" and "Freedom for
Palestine."
On Sept. 12 Workers World spoke about these developments
with Lindsey Ge r man, a key organizer of the Stop the War
Coalition.
German confirmed that the controversy is definitely still
big news. "In fact," she added, "Blair was given intelligence
that terrorism would get worse if Britain goes to war. The
whole basis of going to war was a lie."
Asked if the Blair government might fall, Lindsey said:
"Blair's Communication Director Alistair Campbell already was
forced to resign. People are saying that Defense Secretary
Geoff Hoon will go. Headlines in the Daily Mirror say that Hoon
must go. But he is still hanging on.
"The big question is Blair," said German. "The Enquirer
reports he may step down in a month. Our demonstration on Sept.
27, right before the Labor Party convention, could make a
difference. One important development is that the union leaders
are turning against Blair."
The anti-war leader continued: "Last year a vote to stop the
war in the large Trade Unions Congress lost, getting 40 percent
of the vote. This year even the more right-leaning unions voted
for a resolution condemning occupation and the government."
Tony Woodley, of the Transport and General Workers' Union
and a leader of the TUC, said at the TUC's annual congress,
"It's outrageous that a Labor government should not stand up
and say: 'I was wrong and what I did was illegal, it was
unjustified and I apologize and I resign.'"
German said: "Now everyone knows that Bush wants $87 billion
from the U.S. Congress to finance the occupation. It's in all
the newspapers here. The papers vary in how they treat the
news. Some remain pro-war but they have no effective
argument."
Now they also report that $4 billion is needed from Britain.
This is all helping to build support for the demonstration,
German said.
Over 1 million people marched in demonstrations held in the
buildup to the war last winter. German discussed some obstacles
to such a huge turnout this time: "Our biggest obstacle has
been the feeling of many who demonstrated for their first time
last year that if all that protest was unable to stop the war,
then 'what's the point?'
"But there are still two weeks to reach the colleges and the
streets and show people we can still make a difference. In any
case, there will still be a demonstration of at least
100,000."
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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