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A tireless voice for peace
To mark Jeremy Corbyn’s 40 years as an MP, LINDSEY GERMAN of Stop the War looks at his remarkable history of anti-war activism – and warns we need more such voices today
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WHEN the attacks on the Twin Towers on September 11 happened we were told it was impossible to build an anti-war movement.
The horror at those events in 2001 meant that war was inevitable and that those speaking out against it would be totally marginal.
But when some of us involved in campaigning against war and globalisation decided to organise a meeting regardless, Jeremy Corbyn was one of the first people we phoned.
And of course he agreed to speak, at what turned into one of the biggest meetings ever against the war in Friends House London, and threw himself into campaigning alongside the Stop the War Coalition.
The rest, as they say, is history — but it’s a history with Jeremy Corbyn at its centre. He already had a long record of CND campaigning and organising against previous wars, but now he marched, spoke at hundreds of meetings, opposed the war in Parliament, attended conferences, went on TV and radio, spoke at the biggest demo in British history against the war in Iraq in February 2003.
He linked it, as many of us did, with another cause he was close to, that of the Palestinian people. But he also brought in experience of conflicts across the world, from the displacement of the Chagos islanders, to the appalling treatment of the Kenyan Mau Mau, to the US interventions in Latin America.
He has fought for the rights of refugees, many of them victims of war, and against Islamophobia which has been exacerbated by the failed “war on terror.”
He is almost alone in the British Parliament in calling for peace in Ukraine today, rather than the escalation of war and militarism which is going on at a pace not seen since the second world war. It is a great shame that more Labour MPs do not follow his example.
I always believed that his election as Labour leader was in large part because of his involvement in these and other campaigns.
And what frightened the British ruling class and Establishment most about his leadership was its commitment to a very different foreign policy from that dictated by British and US imperialism.
They were terrified that his advances in the 2017 election would lead to further success. They hated his apology for the Iraq war, which was one of his proudest days as leader.
The smearing of Corbyn over anti-semitism was and remains an injustice which has done real damage to left politics.
Keir Starmer’s role in all this has been treacherous and duplicitous. His removal of the whip and now the refusal to allow him to stand in a constituency he has served far better than most MPs for 40 years is a travesty and a denial of democracy.
As we are now seeing, it is of a piece with Starmer’s attack on any left representative who dares to stand up to our rulers.
Our campaign office is in Islington North and I have seen myself just how well liked and respected Corbyn is in the constituency. He should continue as our MP.
He is principled and honest, committed to standing up to the rich and powerful while helping those in most need. Those are qualities that don’t get you very far in the Mother of Parliaments but they do in the working-class movement.
We are facing one of the most dangerous times in my lifetime, where war on two fronts is threatened, in both Europe and the Pacific. We have to do everything to fight against our government, which is the most belligerent of any of the major Nato powers, and to end the war in Ukraine.
We know in this battle we have Jeremy Corbyn on our side.
Lindsey German is convener of the Stop the War Coalition.
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