PDA Report: London International Peace Conference15 December 2005
PDA Report on International Peace Conference in
LondonBy David Swanson
London, England,
December 10, 2005--Fellow PDA National Board Member Steve
Cobble and I participated in an historic international peace
conference in London on December 10 and in various related
events the same week. We met with several Members of
Parliament and will be working to facilitate teamwork and
future events with them and members of the US Congressional
Progressive Caucus.
The conference, hosted by the Stop the
War Coalition, was a great success. About 1,500 people
packed into a large hall at the Royal Horticultural Society,
with more in an overflow hall and still more turned away in
the days before the conference began. Delegates attended
from all around the UK, and from Iraq, the US, Iran,
Pakistan, India, the Philippines, Canada, Poland, Greece,
Italy, Spain and many other European countries.
The
British government refused to allow entry to al Sadr
representative Hassan al Zargani, but Iraqis who attended
and spoke included Sheikh al Khalisi from the Iraqi
Foundation Congress, Hanna Ibrahim from the Women's Will
Organization, and Hassan Jumaa from the Iraqi Oil Workers'
Union. Speakers from the US included PDA National Board
Member Cindy Sheehan, Judith le Blanc from United for Peace
and Justice, and Phyllis Bennis. Also, the conference heard
by telephone from Anas al Tikriti, who has been in Iraq
trying to obtain the release of kidnapped peace
activists.
The conference passed a statement calling
for the release of the hostages, and a statement calling for
more international coordination, an international weekend of
action on March 18/19, 2006, and continued campaigning
around other issues. The March 18-19 events will mark the
third anniversary of the war.
The week of events included
a reception with the Mayor of London, who is strongly
opposed to the war and willing to say so in no uncertain
terms. (See report and photos.) For one whole day,
Cindy Sheehan and Andrew Burgin (the organizer of the
conference) and I went to Scotland and met with Members of
Parliament and with anti-war activists. This was quite an
encouraging series of meetings. I spoke with Alex Salmond, a
Member of Parliament working hard for the impeachment of
Prime Minister Tony Blair. (See report and photos.)
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The conference
included panels with many outstanding speakers. (Democracy
Rising has a good summary.) Of greatest interest to many
of us were the speakers from Iraq, several of whom stressed
that the claim that Iraq will become a greater disaster
should the US pull out its troops is as big a lie as were
the lies that launched the war.
The US peace movement was
well represented by Phyllis Bennis, Kevin Zeese, Kelly
Dougherty, Medea Benjamin, Cindy Sheehan, Ann Wright, Judith
LaBlanc, myself, and many delegates who did not speak from
the stage.
One panel featured military family members from
the US and the UK. Rose Gentle, Ann Lawrence, John Stockton,
Reg Keys, and Cindy Sheehan spoke movingly of the losses to
their families. Two veterans spoke as well, Ben Griffin and
Kelly Dougherty. Kelly helped form Iraq Veterans Against the
War in the US. She spoke powerfully of the crimes being
committed by the occupation.
I spoke on a panel titled
"Bringing Bush and Blair to Account," that also featured
Tariq Ali, the noted novelist and historian; Hassan Juma,
the courageous leader of the oil workers union who visited
the US this year with other Iraqi labor leaders; Hanna
Abrahim; Ann Wright, the former US military and State
Department official who resigned over the war and who
coordinated Camp Casey in Crawford, Texas; Paul Ingram of
the British Green Party; John Rees of the Stop the War
Coalition; Billy Hayes, head of the Communications Workers
Union; and Walter Wolfgang. In my remarks, which are posted
here, I discussed the work of the After
Downing Street Coalition, the ways in which activists in the
US and Britain have been able to work together to drive
stories into the media, and the ways in which we can work
together to impeach Blair and President George Bush.
Two
Members of Parliament, Jeremy Corbin and George Galloway,
spoke in the final panel on Saturday. Corbin lamented
"global inequality - global corporations that fund the U.S.
military in order to get the resources from weaker and
poorer countries. Only rational sharing and fair use of
resources will lead to peace." Galloway received huge
applause and credited the antiwar movement with having been
right about the war. He said, "The reason my visit to the
U.S. Senate on May 17 was so popular was because I got up
close to the killers and crooks and told them the truth."
(See more photos.)
On Sunday, the day
following the conference, Steve took part in a strategy
meeting at the Stop the War Coalition offices, while I
joined Cindy Sheehan and many others in paying a visit to
Blair's residence at 10 Downing Street. (Report and photos
here.)
In the course of this trip, we
made many connections, helping to build solidarity in an
international movement. Our task now is to make March 18,
2006, bigger and even more successful than was February 15,
2003.
Source: scoop
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