Stop the War Coalition
Advocacy group
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Stop the War Coalition (StWC; informally Stop the War) is a British group established on 21 September 2001, shortly after the September 11 attacks, to campaign against unjust wars.
War on Terror
StWC has campaigned against the wars that are part of the so-called War on Terror of the United States and its allies: the war in Afghanistan, the Iraq War, the NATO bombing of Libya and Britain's bombing in Syria. The demonstration against the Iraq War on 15 February 2003, organised with Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), has been claimed to be the largest public demonstration in British history.[1]
Statement on Ukraine
On 15 February 2022, the Russian Duma voted to appeal to President Putin to recognise Ukraine's two breakaway states: Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People's Republic (LPR).[2]
On 21 February 2022, President Putin signed decrees recognising the independence of #Donetsk People's Republic and #Lugansk People's Republic, as well as treaties on friendship and cooperation between #Russia and DPR and LPR.[3]
On 22 February 2022, StWC issued the following statement on the situation in Ukraine:
Stop the War condemns the movement of Russian forces into eastern Ukraine and urges that they immediately withdraw, alongside the resumption of diplomatic negotiations to resolve the crisis.
This dispute could and should be resolved peacefully, and that remains the only basis for a lasting settlement, rather than the imposition of military solutions. That it has not been resolved is not, however, the responsibility of the Russian or Ukrainian governments alone.
The conflict is the product of thirty years of failed policies, including the expansion of NATO and US hegemony at the expense of other countries as well as major wars of aggression by the USA, Britain and other NATO powers which have undermined international law and the United Nations.
The British government has played a provocative role in the present crisis, talking up war, decrying diplomacy as appeasement and escalating arms supplies and military deployments to Eastern Europe.
If there is to be a return to diplomacy, as there should be, the British government should pledge to oppose any further eastward expansion of NATO and should encourage a return to the Minsk-2 agreement, already signed by both sides, by all parties as a basis for ending the crisis in relations between Ukraine and Russia.
Beyond that, there now needs to be a unified effort to develop pan-European security arrangements which meet the needs of all states, something that should have been done when the Warsaw Pact was wound up at the end of the Cold War. The alternative is endless great power conflict with all the attendant waste of resources and danger of bloodshed and destruction.
We send our solidarity to all those campaigning for an end to the war, often under very difficult conditions, in Russia and Ukraine. Stop the War can best support them by demanding a change in Britain’s own policy, which can be seen to have failed.[4]
Notable members
- Tariq Ali, StWC Vice-President, writer and activist
- Tony Benn, StWC President (2001-2014), former Labour MP and Cabinet Minister
- Andrew Burgin, StWC press officer
- Louise Christian, StWC Vice-President, Campaigning lawyer
- Katy Clark, former Labour Party MP
- Anna Chen, former press officer
- Jeremy Corbyn, former StWC officer and chair (2011–15), Labour Party MP and party leader[5]
- Tam Dalyell, StWC Vice President, former Labour Party MP
- George Galloway, StWC Vice-President, former Labour and Respect Party MP
- Lindsey German, StWC convenor, former Socialist Workers Party (SWP) Central Committee member, Respect candidate in the 2004 London mayoral election
- Kate Hudson, StWC officer, chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), former member of the Communist Party of Great Britain.
- Caroline Lucas, former StWC Vice-President, Green Party MP (resigned as patron, December 2015)[6]
- Alice Mahon, StWC Vice President, former Labour MP
- Kamal Majid, StWC vice president, founder member of the Stalin Society
- Andrew Murray, StWC chair, Chief of Staff of Unite the union, Communist Party of Great Britain member
- Chris Nineham, StWC officer, former SWP Central Committee member
- John Rees, StWC officer, former SWP Central Committee member, Respect National Secretary
- Mark Rylance, Stop the War Patron and actor
- Keith Sonnet, StWC Vice-President, Deputy General Secretary of UNISON
- Walter Wolfgang, StWC member, Vice-chair Labour CND, Vice-president CND and member of the Labour Party's National Executive Committee
- Salma Yaqoob, Birmingham City Councilor, Respect co-founder
References
- ↑ "'Million' march against Iraq war"
- ↑ "Russian Parliament Votes To Give Sovereign Recognition To Donbas"
- ↑ "President Putin signed decrees recognising independence of DPR and LPR"
- ↑ "STOP THE WAR STATEMENT ON UKRAINE 22/02/22"
- ↑ "Jeremy Corbyn: Why I'm standing down as Chair of Stop the War Coalition"
- ↑ "Caroline Lucas resigns from Stop the War, after finding herself unable to support group's 'recent positions'"