In Iraq again, not in my name

As the war drums continue over the situation in Iraq, and the predictable “experts” call for yet another military intervention, British media as usual are ignoring alternative voices, and alternative view points. It took a million people marching through London for the BBC to report on the anti war movement before the last invasion. It will take another million before the opposition to another military adventure is noticed. Seumus Milne in today’s Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/13/war-in-iraq-yazidis-aid-military-intervention  provides an excellent summation of the illogical nature of the arguments being made to justify further imperial escapades, and the politics behind the martial music being played so very loudly. Read it now and check http://www.stopwar.org.uk/  for local events that will allow your branch to participate in protest events .

Labour MPs should vote NO to Syria action

UNISONActive is urging Labour MPs to vote against any military intervention in the Syrian conflict. Whilst we roundly condemn the abhorrent use of chemical weapons the only outcome of Western military intervention will be the almost certain inflammation of attacks on Syrian citizens and the spread of the civil war into a regional, if not nuclear, conflict:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/27/attack-syria-chemical-weapon-escalate-backlash

Energy security, Energy diplomacy, Energy wars

'The truth behind the War on Terror is that it is part of Western powers' imperialistic quest to secure natural resource reserves for their corporations. We should all fear for the peoples of energy-rich regions as the global resource grab plummets new depths' writes Patrick Kane of War on Want in an excellent analysis of the link between Western commercial interests (corporations) and militarism in Africa:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/patrick-kane/mali-algeria-libya-energy-diplomacy_b_2687432.html

Cut war not welfare

Among the speakers at yesterday’s 5000 strong London protest to mark the 10th anniversary of war in Afghanistan was Billy Hayes, General Secretary of the CWU, who referred to this year's TUC Congress, and the overwhelming opposition to the war in Afghanistan and support for an end to the bombing of Libya. Billions of pounds had been spent ‘uselessly’ in Afghanistan and billions more would be wasted if the British withdrawal is delayed to 2014 as planned by the Con Dem government:http://www.cwu.org/billy-hayes/?p=376

Hiroshima Day - Get involved!

CND has published details of events taking place across Britain tomorrow to commemorate the 66th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima: http://www.cnduk.org/get-involved/events/item/1214-hiroshima-day

Libya - killing civilians to protect them?

'NATO is not a benign force for peace in the world but a coalition whose leaders take military action for their own political and strategic ends. We must challenge such imperialism, not legitimise it’ writes John Hilary in Red Pepper about hypocritical justifications for the escalating violence in Libya: http://www.redpepper.org.uk/here-we-go-again/

Iraq, oil, lies, theft and building a nation

‘Theft is carried out with a laptop and a legal agreement, a seminar and a treaty, as surely as it is carried out with a gun’, says Solomon Hughes reviewing Fuel on the Fire by Greg Muttitt in the Morning Star last week. http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/105171

Call to Account! by Vladimir Mayakovsky

The drum of war thunders and thunders.
It calls: thrust iron into the living.
From every country
slave after slave
are thrown onto bayonet steel.
For the sake of what?
The earth shivers
hungry
and stripped.

10,000 march in London against Afghanistan war‏

Yesterday thousands of protestors, including many trade unionists, marched in London calling for an end to the Afghanistan conflict. Guardian journalist Seamus Milne said: "in Lisbon the Nato leaders will try to make it appear that they are bringing an end to this war, a war that is now in its 10th year. This talk of an exit strategy is clearly a sham." John Hilary, the executive director of War on Want added "we want the £11bn that is being spent on the war in Afghanistan to go on things we need in this country. Bring home the troops and bring justice to the people of Afghanistan." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11803918

Lest We Forget…..

On Remembrance Sunday, the ceremonial often overshadows the real emotions that lie behind the reasons why we need to remember the past. The glorification of war had no place for past generations who had actually fought in them, who saw that a day of remembrance should be a day to consider the futility of conflicts where human sacrifice was used for the political expediency of the ruling classes.

National Demonstration • Afghanistan: Time to Go‏

Saturday 20 November • Assemble 12 Noon • Speakers' Corner Hyde Park • London • March to Trafalgar Square. Called by: Stop the War Coalition, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, British Muslim Initiative. Supported by: War on Want, Muslim Council of Britain, UNITE the Union, University and College Union, Pax Christi, Islamic Forum of Europe, The Cordoba Foundation and Friends of Al Aqsa http://stopwar.org.uk/content/view/2103/1/

Cuban trade unions - an urgent call to prevent a new holocaust‏

To all trade union organisations worldwide from the Cuban Workers Trade Union Central: In times in which mankind commemorates a new anniversary of the unjustified throwing of atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which caused the immediate death of more than two hundred thousand people, while many other died in the aftermath or suffered as well as their descendants the devastating sequels, serious threats of a new holocaust hangs over a large portion of the world.

9 August 1945 - Nagasaki remembered‏

Today, Japan and peace campaigners worldwide mark the 65th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on 9 August 1945. The horrendous attack by the USA killed more than 70,000 people and blighted the lives of many more. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-10914914

6 August 1945 - Hiroshima Remembered‏

The Japan Council against A- and H- Bombs is this week is holding two major international conferences, involving up to 10,000 people, in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to commemorate barbaric dropping of atomic bombs on Japan as the second world war drew to an end...

UNISONActive Analysis - The United States, Two Years Later‏

Guest post submitted by a US reader of UNISONActive
It was an inauspicious beginning for any U.S. President: Leadership over two wars, a global economic crisis already more than a year in the making, and a crumbling domestic infrastructure. Obama, however, also received a massive international welcome and almost universal pass by the global Left, even as he made aggressive commitments to a protracted AfPak war or noticeably backslid on his position regarding Palestine.

Hiroshima & Nagasaki Remembered - Events in London ‏ 2-11August

2nd August:
The Enduring Legacy of the Bomb
Chair of CND Kate Hudson and Quaker Caroyln Westgate will discuss the legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the development of the peace movement in the years following the bombings.
Friends House, Quaker Centre, 173-177 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ, 7pm–9pm

Hiroshima-Nagasaki A-Bomb Exhibition in London 2 to 12 August‏

Timed to coincide with the 65th anniversary of the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, ‘After the Bomb Dropped: How Hiroshima and Nagasaki Suffered’ is an exhibition that explores the destruction of the two cities by nuclear weapons through photographs and artefacts recovered from the wreckage. Transported from Japan and on display in London for the first time, this represents a unique opportunity to see firsthand the destructive capabilities of nuclear weapons.

A 2010 media manifesto‏

The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.