Peace Group mark John Bright's bicentenary by remembering a decade of killing in Afghanistan

Peace Group members marked the imminent bicentenary of John Bright’s birth in Rochdale on 16 November 1811 by gathering at Bright’s statue in Broadfield Park on Saturday 12 November 2011 to remember all those who have been killed in Afghanistan since the NATO invasion in 2001

Their placard recalled Bright’s speech from 1855, when, in opposing the war in Crimea, he famously, told parliament that “The angel of death has been abroad throughout the land; you may almost hear the beating of his wings. ... he takes his victims from the castle of the noble, the mansion of the wealthy, and the cottage of the poor and the lowly”. Peace group members read out the names of both the 37 British troops who have been killed in Afghanistan, since 1 January 2011 and the names of some of the many thousands of Afghan civilians killed since 2001.

Philip Gilligan said,

“Bright’s words resonate across 150 years and remind us that war is an indiscriminate killer. 385 British troops have been killed in NATO’s disastrous war in Afghanistan, since 2001, alongside many hundreds of other foreign troops and countless thousands of civilians, including many thousands of children. It is time to stop this slaughter.”

NOTES

For a full copy of Bright's 1855 speech, please see http://www.cobdencentre.org/2010/08/the-angel-of-death-has-been-abroad/

For the list of British troops killed in Afghanistan since 2001, please see http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/FactSheets/OperationsFactsheets/OperationsInAfghanistanBritishFatalities.htm

For a list of the civilians known to have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001, please see http://pubpages.unh.edu/~mwherold/listing.htm

There will be a showing of Nick Wilding's film 'John Bright and the Angel of Death' followed by a discussion at The Touchstones Heritage Centre, Rochdale, starting at 7.30pm on Wednesday 16 November 2011. (For more details, please see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l1coDOVcYw )

Peace Group congratulates International Campaign to Ban Uranium Weapons

At its meeting on Wednesday (9 November 2011) Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group congratulated local campaigners, Pat Sanchez and Rae Street, following their participation in a protest outside the Ministry of Defence on Tuesday (8 November 2011).

Pat and Rae from Littleborough joined other campaigners from the International Campaign to Ban Uranium Weapons (ICBUW) in dumping two buckets of imitation ‘depleted uranium (DU) dust’ on the Ministry of Defence’s doorstep to remind them of their responsibility for contaminating areas of Iraq and Kuwait, during the 1991 and 2003 conflicts.

ICBUW are demanding that the government take responsibility for contamination in the Gulf and cancel plans to extend the life of the UK’s last remaining DU round, known as CHARM3.

Rae delivered a letter to the new defence minister Philip Hammond, signed by eight organisations including the Campaign Against Depleted Uranium, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Pax Christi, and Campaign Against the Arms Trade. It condemns the use of Depleted Uranium and asks the Ministry of Defence to stop to the CHARM3 extension programme.

She explained that “When Depleted Uranium munitions hit hard targets an uncontrolled release of Depleted Uranium dust occurs. If inhaled or ingested, this dust has the potential to cause cancer. In areas where Depleted Uranium has been used, most notably in Iraq, doctors have reported a substantial increase in the rates of cancers and birth defects within the population. Internationally Depleted Uranium weapons have been condemned by four resolutions in the European Parliament, including a landslide resolution in 2008, which called for a global ban. It is totally unacceptable for the Ministry of Defence to extend the life of these weapons.”

Pat commented “In ICBUW and in the Peace Group, we are delighted that Jim Dobbin, MP has signed the Early Day Motion opposing CHARM 3 renewal. We call on other MPs to do the same.”