Stop the War

Medea Benjamin talks to Counterfire about the prospects of American foreign policy, the anti-war sentiment in the US, and the Black Lives Matter movement

Counterfire's new free sheet edition 002, June 2015

Western governments try to justify their failure to secure the Middle East militarily by blaming the Muslim community as a whole

We can all help to build Jeremy Corbyn's campaign, to see a strong alternative voice to war and austerity gets the hearing it deserves

Protest isn’t a spectator sport. It is an example of grassroots political organising that should strengthen and embolden those who turn out on the day argues Lindsey German

As the 20 June demo approaches, it’s worth remembering that mass marches have been crucial to all the most important struggles - Chris Nineham looks at ten of them

A great virtue of the film is how it shows the impact 15 February 2003 had on movements that followed and even now is shaping politics

Stop the War has organised an international anti-war conference 'Confronting a World at War' - a crucial chance to discuss how to respond to an increasingly aggressive regime

Stop the War Coalition presents seven reasons to join the 20 June national demonstration against austerity

The call is already being made for David Cameron's new government to 'restore Britain's global power' in its foreign policy

We must end a foreign policy that is causing mayhem and misery across vast swathes of the globe

The Stop the War Coalition condemns the British government’s support for the Saudi-led attack on Yemen.  This war is a further destabilising act of aggression in the Middle East, which risks embroiling the region and its peoples in a still wider war.

A Saudi-led coalition of ten states has launched a military campaign against one of the world's poorest nations. Muna Othman looks at the background

Chris Nineham reviews Frontline Ukraine: Crisis in the Borderlands by Richard Sakwa

Islamophobia has become an institutional norm - we need to stand shoulder to shoulder with Muslim communites and oppose military interventions and wars argues Chris Nineham

As Israel goes to the polls Elliot Murphy looks at the ongoing cost of last year's assault on Gaza

As anti-Muslim racism spreads and intensifies, here's ten reasons why we must stand up to Islamophobia and break the cycle of endless war

Pegida's attempt to launch an anti-muslim movement in the UK by holding a protest in Newcastle was massively outnumbered by a counter-mobilisation by Newcastle Unites. Alex Snowdon reflects on the lessons

A range of campaign groups, including organisations responsible for some major forthcoming demonstrations in London, have announced that they would not be paying for traffic management for their protests. This follows the recent announcement that the Metropolitan Police intend to withdraw from this role, which they have carried out in the past

John Rees reflects on the 'Jihadi John' story and the role of the secret services in the fight against terrorism

The anti-war movement's prediction that western interventions would set the Middle East on fire, have proved tragically true, but that will not stop politicians fanning the flames

Muslims are caught in a 'clash of civilisations' narrative in which they are seen as backward while Western civilisation is portrayed as the saviour

The convenor of the Stop the War Coalition, Lindsey German on what she would do if she was Prime Minister

By 2020 Britain's Afghan operation will have cost over £40 billion according to figures compiled by journalist Frank Ledwidge in his book Investment in Blood, yet it is widely regarded as a strategic disaster

The farce continues, as yet another delay means we still don't know if war criminals like Tony Blair will be incriminated by the Iraq war inquiry

Opposition to war, Islamophobia and attacks on civil liberties are all connected, says Lindsey German, and we have to campaign against all three

Not for the first time, the BBC's Panorama has been an outrider for the Islamophobia that is now so ingrained in the British establishment argues Chris Nineham

If you read the western media reporting on the Paris attack, says Lindsey German, it is as if the wars waged by the western powers in Muslim countries aren't happening

The latest attack will lead to a greater backlash and greater levels of Islamophobia. But it is not Muslims who are the problem but the foreign policies that have helped create terrorism

MPs from eight parties say it is absolutely unacceptable that an innocent man who has suffered many of forms of torture can continue to be held in Guantánamo Bay

We the undersigned oppose the plans by the British government to open a new military base in Bahrain, the first British base “east of Suez” since 1971. Rather than increasing military deployment in the Middle East we should be ending our disastrous interventions in the region.

Bahrain is a repressive, undemocratic regime that brutally crushed the movement for democracy in 2011. Britain should not be showing complicity with the actions of the Bahraini monarchy.

Lindsey German looks at twelve features of last year that will shape politics in the year ahead

Britain seems to have gone truce-mad. But this extraordinary moment in World War One is interpreted in very different ways. Nick Megoran explains why it matters

Captain Ska couldn't wait any longer for the Chilcot enquiry to be released, so he's published his own verdict

The parallels between the politics of the invasion of Iraq and the dismantling of the NHS could not be more blatant writes Iain Wilson

Far from weakening the Islamic State there is evidence that US led airstrikes are actually having the reverse effect argues Elliot Murphy

John Rees takes a look behind the propaganda at the facts about terrorism

Should Save the Children charity have given Tony Blair its Global Legacy Award? Chris Nineham debates with Matthew Doyle - a former advisor to Tony Blair - on Five Live

Lindsey German: Muslims in Britain could be forgiven for thinking that even when they do the right thing, it’s wrong

Lindsey German explains why she won't be intimidated by the mania which sees wearing a red poppy as a test of loyalty, a definition of Britishness

How could the litany of failure in Afghanistan possibly have been worth the deaths of hundreds of British and uncounted thousands of Afghan lives?

People buy the red poppy to support soldiers returning from war, but the best way to protect their interests is to stop sending them into these disastrous conflicts

The sectarian legacy of the US occupation means Obama's strategy of air strikes in support of the Iraqi military cannot defeat the Islamic State argues Ady Cousins

This latest phase of terrorism is a product of the west's disastrous foreign policies, endless wars and backing of barbaric regimes in the Middle East

John Rees of Stop the War Coalition says the Kurds could defeat IS if Turkey allowed the PKK fighters to cross the border with Syria and join the defence of Kobane

The governments of the US, Turkey, Britain, Israel and the rest of the alliance for Iraq War III are no real defenders of Kurdish rights

Turkish and Kurdish organisation Day-Mer have released the following statement condemning imperialist military intervention and calling for solidarity with the Kurdish people

Chris Nineham outlines why Parliament should reject Cameron's call for a third Iraq war

Letter to The Guardian from John McDonnell MP, Tariq Ali, Len McCluskey, Ken Loach, Brian Eno, Diane Abbott MP, Michael Rosen, Mohammed Kozbar, Kate Hudson, Caryl Churchill, George Galloway MP, Lindsey German, many more

Despite the ceasefire the crisis in Ukraine is far from resolved. Feyzi Ismail talks to Russian Marxist and dissident Boris Kagarlitsky about the background to the current situation

Lindsey German: as these masters of war meet again, we will make our voices heard to prevent further bloodshed and atrocities in Ukraine and Iraq

Images, videos and tweets from the mobilisation against Nato's war summit in Newport, Wales

Video from a Stop the War Coalition rally on the eve of protests in Newport against the Nato summit, with Boris Kagarlitsky, Sami Ramadani and Lindsey German

Lindsey German: this week Nato's political and military elite will descend on Newport to plan more military intervention - creating the greatest threat of another major war since 1945

The US is now bombing Isis, an organization that it once helped to fight Assad, in a new war that may well require Assad’s assistance

Lindsey German: Muslims have been subjected to racist accusations and demands that they desist from extremism - but most Muslims in this country do not support Isis or anything like it

The deranged expansionist policies of Nato are implicated in the wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Iraq argues Chris Nineham

Lindsey German on a BBC TV panel show making the case against intervention in Iraq by the United States and Britain

Lindsey German: What we are seeing in Iraq now is blowback on a major scale, yet many of those responsible are now saying more military intervention will work

In 2011 Barack Obama said the war with Iraq was over. So what's he doing back there bombing again in 2014? Larry the Llama explains

The Israeli government appears to have gone beyond its previous policy of keeping Gaza on the brink of collapse and adopted a policy aimed at unmaking Palestinian society in Gaza

Lindsey German explains why people are on the streets over Gaza. There is a deep and longstanding movement in solidarity with the Palestinians, and anger over the British government's complicity with Israeli crimes

Des Freedman on the outrageous advertisement run by the Guardian accusing Palestinian resistance fighters of 'sacrificing children'

Farsi translation of 'The rise and rise of the Islamic State' by Sami Ramadani

The Guardian has published a wildly inaccurate and inflammatory advert from supporters of the Israeli state branding the Palestinian resistance as 'child killers'. Activists respond

Images, video and tweets from the ongoing protests against Israel's Gaza onslaught

The rapid advance across Iraq by militant fighters from the Islamic State, widely known as Isis, has thrown the country into chaos

Lindsey German: the Gaza protests, BDS boycotts, the campaign to break the UK government's links with Israel and the anti Nato protests are all connected - we need a joined up opposition

Marienna Pope-Weidemann reviews Amir Amirani’s ‘We are many’, a documentary about the biggest anti-war demonstration in history

Despite the enormous cost in Palestinian lives, the Israeli state is losing in every dimension of its struggle to crush Gaza argues John Rees

Growing disquiet is emerging amongst Britain's political elite over Israel's actions. We can change our government's policy - but we need the largest ever UK demonstration for Gaza

John Rees speaks on making next weekend's London Protest for Gaza the largest protest for Palestine ever. Video by Shahrzad Shemirani‎

A ceasefire is not enough - we need to step up the boycott, end the siege and fight for a free Palestine argues Lindsey German in today’s Morning Star

Israeli MPs and European supporters of Israel claim that pro-Palestinian marches are rife with anti-Semitism. But is it true?

We ask now that the BBC produce a televised, public debate to discuss how to redress the deficiencies in its coverage to offer a better account of the sources of this conflict and therefore how it might be resolved.

John Rees argues that the key to ending Israel's war against the Palestinians lies in forcing their backers in Washington and London to stop funding, arming and supporting the apartheid state

The solution to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine is simple argues Charles B. Anthony

The downing of Flight MH17 has fuelled the dangerous dynamic of global conflict that is leading the world towards the violent chaos we witnessed one hundred years ago writes Matt Carr

To see the extent of David Cameron's hypocrisy, contrast his call for action on the plane shot down in Ukraine to his government's complicity in Israel's brutal assault on Gaza

The politicians and the media may look the other way as Israel commits its atrocities, but there is now a huge global movement against Israeli aggression says Chris Nineham

The BBC was blockaded by thousands of protestors tonight - part of a mass popular upsurge against the Israeli onslaught on the Palestinians and Britain's support for it argues Chris Nineham

The Palestinians are always put in the position of being to blame for someone else occupying their land, and for then having the temerity to fight back writes Lindsey German

An emergency demonstration against Israel's illegal war on Gaza saw the streets outside the embassy blocked by 10,000 angry protestors. A national demonstration has been called for 19 July

Chris Nineham of Stop the War speaking on a protest outside the Israeli embassy in London calls for a massive turnout on Saturday 19 July to protest against the illegal war on Gaza

The new aircraft carriers are designed for large scale war - with Britain acting as the junior partner of the US argues Alastair Stephens

As Western policy unravels across the Middle East, it is more important than ever to expose media complicity in interventions such as in Afghanistan, argues Helen Redmond

Wales could see its biggest protests in a generation as 60 world leaders meet at the Celtic Manor in Newport for the Nato summit on 4-5 September to plan their war on the world

All out war between Russia and the US is still not on the cards. But a proxy war is, says Lindsey German, and gets closer by the day

New major Islamophobic attacks demand a response from the anti-war movement, the left and anti-racists says John Rees

Tony Blair forgot to mention a few things in his latest warmongering speech write Lindsey German and Robin Beste

The Iraq war is rightly seen as a defining low point in Blair's career, but the damage he did does not stop there.

John Rees looks at who is driving prime minister David Cameron's decision to order a security inquiry into the Muslim Brotherhood

Lindsey German: Tony Benn's legacy will be his undying commitment to fight injustice and campaign for an equal society, and to oppose the endless war and militarism that are such a blight on today's world

Anti-war activists in Britain should oppose the war policies and preparations for war of our US aligned government argues Lindsey German

Is international law for all, except for Britain and the USA? Andrew Murray replies to the Economist article, Britain and Ukraine: Fisking Stop the War

The situation in Ukraine and the Crimea and the rivalry between the West and Russia threatens to explode into a much larger war than has been seen for many years says Lindsey German

Moazzam Begg's arrest smacks of politically-motivated vengeance and repression, and is likely to convince many British Muslims that they are under siege

Former UK governnment minister for the Middle East thinks it was bad for Britain that MPs stopped David Cameron going to war with Syria

With the impending withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, the time has come to talk – despite the horrific wave of bombings

As Blair attempts to make religious ideology the culprit for the 'war on terror', he aims to write out of history the horrific consequences of his actions

Lindsey German, Stop the War convenor, looks at the state of play in 2014 between the war-makers and those who give voice to the majority opinion that opposes their war policies

Even the Daily Express, hardly a friend of the anti-war movement, says David Cameron's declaration of 'mission accomplished' does not stand up to scrutiny

David Cameron is blocking publication of the Iraq Inquiry report because it confirms a secret conspiracy by Bush and Blair to take the US and Britain into an illegal war

The atrocity in a Kenyan shopping mall is further evidence of the damaging futility of Western military intervention in the region writes Lindsey German

Mounting anti war sentiment needs to be mobilised to stop a fourth disastrous war in 12 years, writes Lindsey German

Anti-war protests must be stepped up to send a message to Washington that the world will not stand by and let the US plunge the Middle East into a wider war

Western intervention in Syria, or anywhere else in the Middle East, would cause greater displacement and war

Obama's rebrand of the 'war on terror' has been not just an abject failure but deeply counter-productive and brutal

If Tony Blair's suggestion of no-fly zones in Syria become a reality, it would almost certainly presage a war throughout the Middle East and perhaps beyond

Whoever is behind the tragic Boston bombings, such carnage is routine in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East, argues Lindsey German

Margaret Thatcher laid the basis for policies that wrecked the lives of many in Britain. But she should also be remembered as a warmonger

Those of us who protested ten years ago were right to do so and the world would be a much better place if instead of being vilified we had we been listened to

Lindsey German: With Israel's attack on Syria, a key Iranian ally and the West's growing intervention in North Africa, the geographical reach of war is widening dangerously

Decades of continued military intervention across the globe - David Cameron's determination to repeat the failed policies that breed terrorism is nothing short of insanity argues Lindsey German

William Hague and his government know full well that the successive wars engaged in by Britain have increased terrorism across the Middle East and south Asia

In Mali, the West is more a part of the problem than the solution - the present situation is itself is a product of decades of western interference writes Explo Nani-Kof

Britain is speeding up withdrawal from the failed Afghanistan war to support new interventions in Syria and Iran argues Robin Beste

Thousands came to show solidarity with Gaza on Saturday's march from Downing Street to the Israeli embassy in Kensington, Lindsey German reports

Palestinians are celebrating on the streets as Israel is forced to declare a ceasefire - further evidence that the Arab revolutions have drastically changed the political landscape argues John Rees

As bombs rain down on the people of Gaza the BBC has once again transformed itself into a platform for Israeli government spokespeople and apologists

The Israeli government cynically launches military attacks as elections approach, safe in the knowledge that it always gets away with just a caution, at worst, from the 'international community'

Sherard Cowper-Coles is an unrepentant, twenty-first century imperialist who longs for the days of the British Raj. His new book reveals his inability to accomplish anything in Afghanistan except help the US reestablish its hegemony in the region.