Spend on welfare, not war

From Manchester Evening News, 2 February 2011

I very much welcome the M.E.N.’s decision to back opposition of cuts to vital services in vulnerable communities and highlight the need to seek alternative solutions. (‘Stand up for a fair share: We back councils’ petition to fight unfair budget cuts’, M.E.N., January 31). Pamela Welsh rightly highlights the disparities between the impact on spending by our local councils in Greater Manchester and the relatively small impact on more prosperous authorities in the south of England.However, there are other solutions to this crisis that go beyond the more equal geographical distribution of pain and suffering. For example, the supposed need for cuts could be massively reduced by closing the many tax loopholes exploited by rich and by imposing a ‘Robin Hood’ tax on the banks. The government could, also, save billions each year by spending less on war and nothing on weapons of mass destruction. Instead of forcing local authorities to close day centres, the government could, alternatively, stop spending £5bn per year on sending our young people to kill and be killed in Afghanistan. Instead of cutting EMA, the government could stop spending £2bn each year on maintaining the unnecessary and dangerous Trident nuclear weapons system. We need welfare, not war. We need treatment, not Trident.

Philip Gilligan, Littleborough

Inhumane Treatment of WikiLeaks Soldier Bradley Manning - TAKE ACTION

Join Amnesty International in calling for an end to the punitive detention of Bradley Manning - SEE http://blog.amnestyusa.org/waronterror/inhumane-treatment-of-wikileaks-soldier-bradley-manning/

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group welcomes the fact that Amnesty International has written an open letter to the US Secretary of Defense, expressing concern about the conditions under which Private First Class Bradley Manning is detained at the Quantico Marine Corps Base in Virginia (see http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR51/006/2011/en/df463159-5ba2-416a-8b98-d52df0dc817a/amr510062011en.pdf ). This follows a resolution proposed by the Peace Group and unanimously passed at the AGM of Greater Manchester and District CND, last week which declared our support for the imprisoned US soldier and called for Amnesty to adopt him as a ‘prisoner of conscience’.

Bradley Manning was detained in May 2010 by US authorities in Iraq and charged in July 2010 "transferring classified data onto his personal computer and adding unauthorized software to a classified computer system in connection with the leaking of a video of a helicopter attack in Iraq in 2007". He was moved on 29 July 2010 to the military jail in Quantico, Virginia, where he is classified as a "Maximum Custody Detainee". He his held in solitary confinement 23 hours a day; not allowed to exercise in his cell; has been denied a pillow and sheets; is under constant surveillance; and allowed no contact, even indirectly, with the media. He faces a potential jail sentence of 52 years.

Meanwhile, if Wikileaks had not published the video of the helicopter attack in Iraq in 2007, we would never have seen the evidence of the indiscriminate slaying by the US military of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad. The dead included two Reuters news staff and Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-sight, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded. The very distressing video is available on youtube (search for 'Collateral Murder - Wikileaks - Iraq').

We need to declare our support for whistleblowers like Bradley Manning and demand his release. We also need to demand the whole truth about the war in Iraq. In our own country, the government pretends to support the Chilcot Inquiry, but will not allow it to tell us the contents of notes and conversations between Blair and Bush when they were planning their illegal and immoral invasion. The then attorney general expresses his 'discomfort' at Blair's behaviour, but it seems that we shall always be reliant on people like Bradley Manning to know the facts.

Palestine campaigners call on Rochdale to boycott Israeli goods

Members and supporters of the Rochdale branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) gathered on Yorkshire Street on Saturday 22 January 2011 to commemorate the deaths of 1500 Palestinian civilians killed two years ago during Israel's attacks on Gaza. They urged people in Rochdale to join them in pressing for an end to Israel's ongoing siege of Gaza and for shoppers to boycott all Israeli produced goods, until Israel respects human rights and international law.

Rochdale PSC coordinator, Jenny Turner said,

“Many hundreds of children were killed in the Israeli onslaught on there homes in Gaza in early 2009. We recall these unnecessary deaths with deep sadness and a sense of shame that governments, including our own, did so little to stop them. Two years later Israel continues to besiege the people of Gaza and to perpetrate crimes such as building illegal settlements and demolishing Palestinian homes throughout the Occupied Territories. Six decades of resolutions passed at the United Nations have not resulted in any progress for Palestinian refugees or for people living under occupation. Governments are doing too little to help Palestinians. It is time for ordinary people to act and to stand up for justice for and against oppression. We can all do this every time we go shopping. We urge people to join the boycott campaign. Check the label; don't buy goods labelled 'Israel' or 'West Bank'. Complain to and challenge shops and supermarkets and supermarkets that try to sell you oranges, avocados and dates grown by illegal settlers on stolen Palestinian land. Ask them for genuine Palestinian products. Together we can make a difference.”

NEWSLETTER January 2011

Peace message travels from Littleborough to Lisbon

Pat Sanchez and Rae Street set off from a cold Littleborough railway station on the evening of Wednesday 17 November 2010 and travelled to Lisbon by rail through the following night via France and Spain.

They arrived in the relative warmth and sunshine of the Portuguese capital at about the same time as NATO leaders laid out their plans to continue the war in Afghanistan until at least 2015.

In Lisbon, they joined other international delegates and protesters, including Jeremy Corbyn MP and CND national chair, Dave Webb in condemning NATO's decision to continue with its military occupation of Afghanistan, its policy of 'first use' of nuclear weapons and plans to spend tens of £billions on developing a so-called 'missile defence system'. They called for an immediate end to NATO's war in Afghanistan, an end to NATO expansion and for British withdrawal from the military alliance.

Pat Sanchez said: "We attended an inspiring conference that offered us a vision of the peaceful future we are all working for. People from many nations are working together against NATO's policies and were horrified by the latest the communiqué about that organisation's New Strategic Concept. Its contents made us more aware than ever that NATO's policies are no way to peace, but will bring greater dangers to the world.

“We are outraged that NATO is doing nothing further Obama's claimed vision of a nuclear free world, while their announcements lead us to suspect that the real plan is to develop new nuclear weapons and to share these amongst the previously nuclear-free states that have joined NATO in recent years.

“The US are now trying to include even Russia in their 'Star Wars' plans. Through NATO, they are trying to disguise attempts to gain even greater military dominance over the world, but we are confident that the peoples of the world will see through this subterfuge. We know that a 'Star Wars' missile system will not bring peace. We know that nuclear weapons will not bring peace. And we shall continue to resist the immoral squandering of tens of £billions on preparations for war.

“This is money that needs instead to be invested in education, in health and in alleviating poverty in Rochdale, in Britain and across the world.”

Afghanistan: Time to Go. Cut War Not Welfare. No to NATO

Rochdale peace campaigners joined national and international protests in London and Lisbon on Saturday (20 November 2010) calling for an immediate end to NATO's war in Afghanistan. The distinctive Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group banner was prominent in the crowds on the national 'Afghanistan: Time to Go' march from Hyde Park, while Pat Sanchez and Rae Street took their 'No to NATO' message all the way to the NATO summit in Portugal.

Philip Gilligan held a placard with the message 'Rochdale says Support our troops. BRING THEM HOME!!' in Trafalgar Square, while listening to speeches from former soldier Joe Glenton imprisoned earlier this year for refusing to return to fight in Afghanistan; other members of Military Families Against the War, whose sons, daughters and partners have been killed or are still serving there and from speakers highlighting the fact that the war in Afghanistan costs the country £5billion per year.

Philip Gilligan said,

"NATO's disastrous war is destroying lives and costing money. During the last few days, we have heard of the death of the 100th British soldier to die during 2010 and have, again, heard military experts tell us that this war is unwinnable. The governments of Blair, Brown, Cameron and Clegg have been sending our young men and women to be killed and to kill in Afghanistan for nine years, but nothing has been achieved beyond propping-up a notoriously corrupt regime in Kabul.

At a time when health services are being withdrawn from our town, when our council is planning to cut £50million from services and put 900 people at risk of losing their jobs and when many young people are to be priced-out of a university education because of increased tuition fees, it seems that the government can still find £5billion a year to spend on a futile war they know cannot be won and know is opposed by the overwhelming majority of the British public.

David Cameron meeting with other NATO leaders in Lisbon, now, tells us that the plan is for British troops to continue to be sent to Afghanistan to kill and be killed, there, at least until 2015. He is expecting us to accept another four years of pointless deaths, destruction and injuries, simply to save him and others from needing to admit that it was a mistake to invade Afghanistan in the first place. This disaster has already gone on for far too long. It needs to be stopped now. Our troops need to be brought home in 2010; not at some date in the distant future, by which time many more Afghan civilians and many more NATO troops will have died needlessly, just so the politicians responsible can save face."

Peace Group says 'Bring Them Home!'

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group called for British troops to be brought home from Afghanistan and for an end to NATO's war when they leafleted in Rochdale town centre on Saturday, 13 November 2010. They urged people to join them on the forthcoming 'Afghanistan: Time to Go' demonstration called by the Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the British Muslim Initiative to demand an end to NATO's occupation.

They collected signatures on a petition which notes the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, and the destabilisation of Pakistan resulting from NATO's military intervention in the region and states that only the Afghan people can generate a political solution to their country's problems

Philip Gilligan on behalf of the group said,

"NATO's disastrous war costs lives and money, but achieves nothing. More British troops have already died in 2010 than in any previous year, while tens of thousands of Afghan civilians and more than two thousand NATO troops have been killed since 2001. While Rochdale is losing its hospital services and the Council is sacking essential staff, this war is costing the country £5billion every year. This is enough to offset the full cost of the government's cuts to Child and Housing Benefits and to still leave more than £2billion to spend on essential services.

Almost every day we hear of the deaths of British troops. 1,499 have been wounded. We need to bring our troops home. The killing in Afghanistan must stop."