LOCAL CAMPAIGNERS JOIN
LONDON ANTI-IRAQ WAR PROTEST

22/3/05: A coachload of local anti-war campaigners left Lancaster early last Saturday (19 March) to join the 200,000 demonstrators marching past the US Embassy, where members of Military Families Against the War laid a coffin to remember all the dead caused by the war and a two minute silence was held, then on to rally in Trafalgar Square in protest against the Iraq war of occupation. The demonstration was called by the National Stop the War Coalition.
Showing impeccable spirit, the local contingent marched in the sunshine with the famous samba band Rhythms of Resistance. Jackie Skinner (who took the photo above) said: 'People were very obviously aware of our responsibility for the current situation in Iraq but were hopeful and determined to work towards a peaceful and constructive resolution. It was a very cheerful and good-hearted demo.' Billy Pye of the Lancaster & District Coalition Against the War added: 'It was well worth going and it showed that resistance to the war continues to be very strong.' Salma Yaqoob, from the Birmingham Stop the War Coalition, told the rally in Trafalgar Square, “I stand here with confidence because we have built the biggest movement which says that what unites us is more important than what divides us. “The ‘war on terror’ is a war of terror. There is the economic terrorism killing 30,000 children a day. Let’s continue our fight to make war and poverty history.

• Anti-war events calender

PEACE CAMPAIGNERS NAME THE DEAD AS THE US VOTES
2/11/04 Approximately 100 Lancastrians joined a nationwide chain of vigils remembering the civilian dead of the Iraq war. Less than a week ago the Lancet gave what it called a 'very conservative' estimate of 100,000 as the total of Iraqi civilians killed in the current conflict - excluding those killed during the present siege on Falluja.

Under the Geneva Convention, the US and the UK have a duty of care toward civilians and this includes accountability for civilian casualties and deaths. However both armies have ignored this duty and do not keep statistics or records of the innocent dead. So only about 3,000 names are known. There is a list of these people - their names, their ages and 2 or 3 words stating how they were killed at www.iraqbodycount.net/names.htm.

The purpose of the vigil was to name those who could be named and to try to put a human face on the statistics we hear. I heard, over and over and over again, the names of children aged 4, aged 2, aged 10 killed by shrapnel, by rocket attack, by bombing raid, by crawling on a cluster bomb. There are hundreds of children named among these dead. How many thousand more must lie maimed and injured, facing lives of terrible struggle in a country whose infrastructure is in ruins. A country whose hospitals and arms dumps were looted while invading US soldiers secured oil installations.

For over an hour we heard the names being read. And I could not see how those whose children, whose partners, whose parents had been suddenly ripped apart by ruthless violence, who had been reclassified from living, breathing, hopeful humans with full days and lives to 'collateral' could ever accept their killers as friends or colleagues. Entire streets of families killed by rockets. Honest, decent men and women have paid by their taxes for these careless murders. And every so often we heard a western name - a Terry, an Edward, who also bled out their lives on those sun-baked streets alongside the rest, whose mothers must also weep useless tears.

This war is a stupid, evil thing, perpetrated in greed by liars. There is no redemption in it. It breeds hatred and fear like a rotting carcass breeds maggots and these will pass from parent to child, still festering even after we who kept this vigil have joined the named.

How do we begin the healing? It needs a sincere effort and it costs money. The amount budgetted for the rebuilding of Iraq is a tiny fraction of that spent on either of the US presidential candidate's campaigns. Iraqi police recruits are being killed before they are trained - so why are they trained in danger zones? Because it's cheaper. More hospitals are needed, an infrastructure needs to be built and those building it need protection. It all costs money. Our governments destroyed all that because they thought it would get cheaper petrol to our pumps quicker. Oil protesters are a danger to governments. Because the oil lobby has campaigned for years against alternative, sustainable fuels and now our oil reserves are running out politicians are afraid of losing the oil race. But burning it all is destroying our environment. And the struggle to save it has been set back - maybe irretrievably.
Stupid and evil.

The US government started this war on a pretext, out of greed, on a pretext to loot a nation of its resources and our government supported them out of fear and greed. All those companies that stood to profit should be stripped of their assets and made to pay. All those politicians who supported this war should be sent to Iraq to work there until reconstruction is achieved. And we should never, ever vote for anyone who supports this war or is so stupid and cowardly as to deny the devastating mess it has been.
Read the lists. May they have peace and may we also come to know it.
satori

NB. The views expressed above are satori's personal views and do not necessarily represent those of all the Virtual-Lancaster volunteers.

GERALDINE SMITH MP:
Morecambe's MP voted for war against Iraq - she wasn't one of the No voting 'back bench rebels'. She said she 'trusted Tony Blair - but if she'd known then what she knows now...' That's how I feel about helping her campaign in the last election. Give her some advice on how to make up for the thousands of innocent civilians who suffered appalling injuries and death because she and her colleagues didn't have the guts to jeopardise their careers. Here's how....Morecambe office tel: 01524 411367, Morecambe office fax: 01524 411369, Commons tel: 0207 2195816
14/4/03 Read Lancaster MP Hilton Dawson's latest press release against the war.

FINANCES:
Obviously, the cost of producing so many leaflets is significant. Saying that, our finances are still OK but we will need an injection of hard cash soon. We are still looking into organising a benefit soon (ish) - if you can help out (ie if your band could play or you have any ideas), let us know asap.

Apologies if this site isn't always as up to date as we would like - it doesn't mean we're not here - it means we're so busy protesting we don't get around to updating the site! Click here for the anti-war events calender and you'll see what I mean!

- this address will send emails to Tony Blair's fax apparently - so if you'd like to let him know how you feel about this 'war'...

We are also working on the possibility of running an event based upon eyewitness accounts of events in IRAQ and PALESTINE. We are talking to a few people and are trying to pin down dates etc. Again, please keep your eyes open for
more details.