An appeal to the antiwar movement

I spent much of the summer trying to raise the question of the looming Iran confrontation mainly through interventions at antiwar meetings. And I must say it has been an utter failure. Once again the antiwar movement is behaving enigmatically and the issue of Iran seems to have become a taboo. This despite the gallant efforts of Tony Benn to warn us all of the impending danger. Reported in The Big Issue, not an organ of the anti-war movement,I may add, Benn warned that Bush

" is planning an atomic attack with a release of radioactivity and consequences that would make previous wars shrink into insignificance."

He also expects Britain to go along with this venture.

One would have thought that The Stop the War coalition, of which Benn is president, would take this as a cue for an immediate and vigorous response. But no: at public meeting after public meeting I have heard platforms stashed with anti-war personalities simply ignore the issue.
The other major figure of the antiwar movement, George Galloway, speaking about the coming Iran attack on Alex Jones Radio Show, referred to

“some kind of provocation being staged by those elements who want to propel the US into an even more disastrous invasion”

At a recent meeting in Glasgow he reaffirmed his belief that an attack on Iran will come.

But this it would appear is still not sufficient to put this issue on the agenda. When I raised it at an activists meeting everyone seemed to agree that there was a serious threat: but still nothing happens. One leading SWP member explained that when they raise the question of Iraq it is understood that Iran is also included.

So we have not just a "don't talk about the Iran war" tendency but the entire anti-war movement in denial about the most serious danger we face , perhaps the most serious danger humanity has ever faced. This perplexing ommision could not have been made more graphic than by the appearance of an editorial in the Daily Mirror warning against the Iran attack- just the kind of stuff you would hope to find in Socialist Worker. The Mirror has noticed Blair's preparatory machinations - after all its only two or three years since we saw the same piece of theatre being used to set up Iraq - and been able to arrive at the fairly obvious conclusion that something dangerous and crazy is brewing.

" the voices Mr Bush needs to listen to are not the from the heavens but from the people of the world begging him not to start another, even more terrible, war."

So as in the early momths of 2003, the Mirror is placing itself in the vanguard of the opposition to the war: the capitalist press as the tribune of the people railing against the madness of this "capitalist war", as the left would have it. Meanwhile the left is finally beginning to stir over the Iraq War whilst ignoring its most important aspect just as it is becoming terrifyingly clear : I refer to the danger that it will escalate into a greater Middle East, if not global, war.

This is all very worrying and , above all , enigmatic but, unfortunately, it is not at all uncharacteristic. The left's response to the whole war crisis has been grossly inadequate and I won't enter into the litany of failure that it has represented. Nor will I try to speculate about the motives which have lead the left to spurn the long awaited opportunity which this war provides them to emerge from obscurity to leadership. I would simply appeal to the antiwar movement in its entirety, the Stop the War Coalition, CND,Respect , the church organizations and all individuals who have played a role in mobilising against the war to take cognisance of the gravity of this situation and to understand that more than ever their experience and dedication is required. One can only view our current actions by envisaging how future generations, if there are to be any, look back on how we have acquitted ourselves in this, the moment of truth. So far, it looks as if they will remember us, if at all, as being blinded by dogma and complacency .