Brize Norton demo, 2nd Dec 2006

Simon | 02.12.2006 20:28 | Anti-militarism | Oxford

Around seven hundred people today joined a protest in Carterton, Oxfordshire, to say end the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, bring the troops home now.

The front of the assembling march

Regime change begins at home

Illegal war, illegal orders

Samba

No more blood for oil

Depleted Uranium shells

Plane coming in to land

If war is the answer it must be a very stupid question

Marching up to the gates of RAF Brize Norton

Panorama just before the rally started

Starting just outside the village of Brize Norton, the protestors marched past RAF Brize Norton, the UK’s largest air force base and transport hub for the soldiers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, and some laid flowers at the gates whilst the names of the dead (both British and Iraqi) were read out.

Continuing down Brize Norton Road, the march then stopped in the centre of Carterton for a two-minute silence, which was observed by protestors and locals alike, before assembling in the recreation ground for a rally addressed by Lindsey German and Andrew Murray of STWC, Kate Hudson of CND, Gulf War 1 veteran Tony Flint, journalist Felicity Arbuthnot, Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn, Scottish Socialist Party MSP Colin Fox, Green MEP Caroline Lucas and a speaker from At Ease.

The protest was organised by local peace groups from Bristol, Oxford, Swindon and Faringdon, but was attended by people from as far away as Nottingham.

Here are some photos. Audio of the speeches to follow, and maybe some video.

Simon

Additions

Lindsey German of Stop the War Coalition

03.12.2006 14:37

Lindsey German - 4 min 15 sec - mp3 498K

Lindsey German

Lindsey pointed out that everything the government told us five years ago was lies. They told us they’d make the world a safer place, that they’d combat terrorism, that they’d bring peace and democracy to the Iraqi people, but they have done the exact opposite. The reason we are calling for the troops to be brought home, she said, is that they are not helping the situation, they are making it worse, by exacerbating the number of people killed. The parliament imposed on the Iraqi people is based on sectarian division, and they have death squads based on sectarian division. This, she said, is the legacy of the Americans and British for the Iraqi people. It’s a legacy which they have also imposed on Afghanistan, and which they also want to impose on the people of Iran and Syria.

Highlighting the government’s double standards in the middle east, she said that when this week Hezbollah supporters hold an anti-government demonstration in Lebanon, John Bolton tells us it is an attempted coup, but when the cedar revolution happened last year, we were told it was the authentic voice of democracy. The difference, she said, is that one supports the opposition to the Americans and the other supports the Americans.

Lindsey recalled the Lancet’s recent estimate of 650 thousand Iraqi deaths due to the war, and pointed out that this was more than all the British civilian casualties during the whole of the second world war, and more than all the American civilian and military casualties during that same war.

She announced that there would be a demonstration outside parliament on 20th March, saying that George Bush wants “one last push” in Iraq, and that we want “one last push” to bring the troops home.

Simon

Tony Flint, Gulf war 1 veteran

03.12.2006 14:39

Tony Flint - 2 min 33 s - mp3 300K

Tony Flint

Tony served in the first Gulf war, and is completely opposed to the second Gulf war because of what it did to him and thousands of other servicemen and their families. He has depleted uranium in his kidney. The average death rate amongst the Gulf war 1 veterans, he said, was just under two per week.

Iraq didn’t have weapons of mass destruction, he said, instead it was us using weapons of mass destruction. He showed the rally two pictures of a 30mm bullet, one live and one spent. The bit which was missing from the spent round, he said, was 250 grams of depleted uranium. He held up a bag of containing 250 grams of flour to illustrate the point, and as he waved it around some of the flour spilled out. It’s going all over your clothes and my clothes, and we’re breathing it in, he said. But all you need to cause cancers and liver damage, he said, is one hundredth of a gram.

Simon

Kate Hudson of CND

03.12.2006 14:40

Kate Hudson - 4 min 44 sec - mp3 556K

Kate Hudson

Kate mentioned some of the reports which indicate how the situation in Iraq is deteriorating. One report she cited from the World Health Organisation, saying that 90% of hospitals did not have the necessary medications and equipment to treat their patients. Another report she cited said that the majority of Iraq’s oil resources were to be put under the control of multinational corporations. We must make a clear demand that warmongering countries should not be allowed to profiteer in the ruins of Iraq, she said.

Recalling Tony Flint’s speech, she said that the use of depleted uranium would be a legacy for many generations, not only for the British servicemen but also for the people of Iraq. She also said we must not forget the consequences of the use of cluster bombs and white phosphorous. The use of those types of weapons, she said, constitutes war crimes.

She highlighted the hypocrisy of our government over weapons, saying that the white paper on the future of the Trident nuclear weapons system will be published on Monday. We have been committed for over thirty years under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to decommission our nuclear weapons, but have made no progress towards that end, and at the same time go attacking Iraq under the possible suspicion that they might have been developing weapons of mass destruction.

Simon

Felicity Arbuthnot

03.12.2006 14:42

Felicity Arbuthnot - 2 min 59 sec - mp3 351K

Felicity Arbuthnot

Felicity spoke about the situation in Iraq, mentioning the soaring rate of cancer, particularly childhood cancer, due to the use of depleted uranium weapons. She said that Iraq had the most traumatised childhood population on Earth.

She told a story from when Iraq was being bombed in 1998. She had spoken to a doctor in Iraq who had a large house, who took in all the children in his street during the bombing for mutual support. “When the bombing stops”, he told her, “we are left in the dark, surrounded by the urine and the faeces from the terror of the children”.

She then spoke of a boy she had met in a hospital in Basra, who had written a poem for her. Having sought his permission to use his poem in one of her articles, she sent the article to him, only to discover that by then he was dead, and never got to see his poem in print. That poem is reproduced here.

The name is love
The class is mindless
The school is suffering
The government is sadness
The city is sighing
The street is misery
And the home number is one thousand sighs.

Simon

Gwyn Gwyntopher of At Ease

03.12.2006 14:43

Gwyn Gwyntopher - 3 min 2 sec - mp3 392K

Gwyn Gwyntopher

Gwyn spoke on behalf of an organisation called At Ease, which provides advice to members of the armed forces. Given the location of this demonstration, it is worth reproducing her speech in full.

===

I’m speaking on behalf of At Ease, it’s in the London phone book and we run a helpline on Sundays.

I just want to share with you some facts because there’s a lot of misunderstanding about the conditions in the armed forces. I’m not commenting on whether there’s a right or wrong.

There is a belief that the coalition forces are all either conscript forces or voluntary forces. The belief is that if we don’t have conscription then we have voluntary forces. This is not the case in the United Kingdom. Members of the armed forces, if they sign on at the age of sixteen, they lose their voluntary status six months after the date they first report for service. If they join at the age of eighteen, they lose their voluntary status twelve weeks after signing on. After that, they are held under compulsion, enforceable by imprisonment. The system is correctly termed “bonded servitude”. Bonded servitude is not slavery, it is not conscription, but neither is it voluntary service.

The other factual error that is very common is the situation regarding conscientious objectors. Conscientious objectors in the UK have a de jure right to an honourable discharge on the grounds of conscience. I say “de jure” because the MoD is failing in its duty to implement its own regulations, and is failing to implement contractual obligations. There is a belief that you have to be an opponent to all wars, that you have to be a total pacifist. This is not so. In evidence that has been given in the European Community debates on human relations by the UK representatives, the UK recognises objection to specific campaigns.

You do not have to be a pacifist to have a conscience. I gather that’s all I’m allowed to say. If you want anything more, please ring us up on a Sunday.

Simon

Andrew Murray of Stop the War Coalition

03.12.2006 14:44

Andrew Murray - 3 min 52 sec - mp3 455K

Andrew Murray

Andrew congratulated the anti-war movement in Swindon, Bristol, Oxford and Faringdon for organising this demonstration, and said that it is important that as well as demonstrating in London and the other big cities, that we also demonstrate at the military bases, because these bases are symbols of the policies which are causing such carnage and bloodshed across the world.

This base at Brize Norton, he said, is a symbol of Israel’s war of aggression on Lebanon earlier in the year, and it is also a symbol of the more than 120 British soldiers who have died in Iraq. It is also a symbol of the 650 thousand civilian victims in Iraq of the policies being imposed on the world by George Bush and Tony Blair.

The good news, he said, is that the tide has turned completely, and it is now almost impossible to get an argument anywhere with anyone who things that the attack on Iraq was a good idea. The bad news is that the message still isn’t getting completely through to those who are in charge of the war on terror.

George Bush is talking about “staying the course”, he said, presumably meaning continuing the occupation until the last Iraqi is dead, or has fled like the 2 million Iraqi refugees around the middle east.

He said that he agreed with George Bush about one thing, that the US was not going to make a graceful exit from Iraq. He’s right, said Andrew, they’re going to make a disgraceful exit from Iraq, and whenever it comes it can’t come too soon.

He slammed Jack Straw for wanting a national debate on what a few women choose to wear, but no inquiry into 650 thousand deaths cause by a war for which he is criminally responsible.

“Troops out of Iraq, George Bush’s wars out of Oxfordshire, and Tony Blair out of Downing Street”, he concluded.

Simon

Jeremy Corbyn, rebellious Labour MP

03.12.2006 14:46

Jeremy Corbyn - 4 min 17 sec - mp3 503K

Jeremy Corbyn

We are here, said Jeremy, to grieve the deaths of soldiers – British, American and Iraqi, and to grieve the deaths of over 600 thousand Iraqi citizens, and those that will die from cluster bombs and depleted uranium.

As a member of parliament, he said he was disgusted that his fellow members of parliament are not prepared, apparently, to have a serious inquiry into the causes of the war and aftermath of the war.

When Tony Blair spoke in Afghanistan a few weeks ago, he made a blood-curdling, chilling and stupid speech, all at the same time, saying that the empire must win in Afghanistan. This, said Jeremy, was a very dangerous notion, that we need to win in Afghanistan in order to prevent the world falling into some kind of evil abyss in the future. For most people, in most places around the world, the threats they face are poverty, homelessness, hunger, AIDS, sanitation, life expectancy below forty, and environmental destruction.

And what alternative are we offering to those people around the world, he asked. Trident being replaced. Billions being spent on new weapons of indiscriminate mass destruction, as a lesson to the rest of the world. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Constant re-armament by the west to pursue more and more neo-colonial wars around the world. None of that, he said, will bring peace, none of that will bring justice, none of that will bring safety for our children and their children after them.

Let’s teach the world a lesson, that we have learned the lesson, and pull the troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq. End the nonsense of nuclear armaments and look to a world of peace and justice. Pull back, disarm, work for peace, he concluded.

Simon

Colin Fox, Scottish Socialist Party MSP

03.12.2006 14:47

Colin Fox - 4 min 43 sec - mp3 554K

Colin Fox

Whilst he was coming along the road to the rally, Colin saw one of the aircraft taking off, and he said it reminded him of the more than 120 British soldiers who took off from the base and never came back home alive. And that figure, he said, was dwarfed by the more than three thousand American soldiers that didn’t come home either. And that figure itself was dwarfed by the 660 thousand Iraqis who haven’t come home, who have been murdered by this illegal occupation.

We’ve been told, he said, that if we bring out the troops from Iraq, there’ll be civil war. The latest figures released by the UN, he said, indicate that by the end of this year there will be more than thirty six thousand five hundred people slaughtered in a sectarian civil war. We have a 9/11 happening virtually every month in Iraq, he said.

Regime change in Iraq, he said, is the sole and inviolable right of the Iraqi people themselves. We are watching the endgame of a catastrophic political failure at the hands of Bush and Blair. We are watching the endgame where Labour politicians who supported the war are recanting and openly begging our forgiveness.

What will Tony Blair be remembered for, asked Colin. Will he be remembered as the man who brought twenty years of the hated Tories to an end? Will he be remembered as the first Labour leader elected with a working majority? Will he be remembered as the first Labour prime minister to be elected three times? No he won’t. He’ll be remembered as a liar and the worst leader this country has ever had.

Simon

Caroline Lucas, Green MEP

03.12.2006 14:48

Caroline Lucas - 4 min 26 sec - mp3 520K

Caroline Lucas

We’re gathered here at Brize Norton, said Caroline, because it’s at the centre of our government’s terrible military operation that is causing such chaos and destruction in Iraq and Afghanistan. We’re also gathered to remember the thousands of people who are dying week in and week out in Iraq. Those deaths are now so commonplace, she said, that they are relegated to the end of our news bulletins and to the edges of our newspapers. We’re here to say that we remember them not as abstract figures, but as individual human beings, each of which has family and friends who still mourn them.

But let’s not forget our own troops, she said, because the last few months have seen terrible bloodshed for them as well. And what support do they get from their political leaders back home? They get an Armed Forces Bill which will punish soldiers who refuse to take part in a military occupation of a foreign country with life imprisonment. And what’s more just 18 people in the house of commons voted against that piece of legislation.

Our message, she said, is that it’s not soldiers who should be criminalised and imprisoned for refusing an illegal war, it’s our political leaders who should be indicted for war crimes.

It’s clear after 9/11, she said, that this new doctrine of unilateralism and pre-emptive democratisation has been a reckless adventure that has just done Osama bin Laden’s recruitment work for him. Blair and Bush claim that terrorists hate us for our freedoms. Do they really not think it’s because our respective governments support the Israelis who have massacred refugee columns, who fired into Red Crescent ambulances, and who slaughtered more than a thousand Lebanese civilians? Do they really believe it’s got nothing to do with the massacre at Fallujah, or the obscenities of Abu Grahib or Guantanamo Bay? Yes, there is an arc of extremism, she said, but the one she’s thinking of goes from Downing Street to the White House.

Simon