12 December (Part 3) - Stop the War!
I emerged from Abbey Wood station around 6:15 last Saturday so frozen that my legs didn’t want to take me home in a
straight line, let alone divert to Abbey Wood Road to see what
the anti-war rally was all about.
My natural inclination is to be against terrorist organisations - Hamas is in effect the government in Palestine - and in favour of democratically elected
Parliaments - Israel is the only Middle Eastern government of the type Western civilisations might recognise.
(For how much longer will I be able to say that with Sunak in charge?)
Fortunately I didn’t need to go to St. Michael and All Angels Church to be
able to report on events there because the following from one of the organisers covers it well enough.
I don’t know the names of the placard carriers pictured below but I have bumped into the
bearded gentleman a few times. He is a retired Union official who, at meetings I attended, always exerted
a steadying and rational influence on any of his colleagues who might be
straying deeper into left wing territory. A long winded way of saying he seemed
like a decent bloke to me with views that were difficult to disagree with.
Not being in favour of war is another of them. The following text from Bexley Labour Left has been reformatted but not edited…
Seven
police officers initially stationed outside the Erith and Thamesmead
Constituency Labour Party’s AGM on late afternoon Saturday reflects how local politics is changing.
Such a step was previously unheard of and wouldn’t even have been fleetingly
considered by the CLP in years gone by.
As the constituency MP and a number of councillors were among the
40-odd people who attended the meeting at St. Michael
and All Angels Church in Abbey Wood, it seems clear where the request for police
officers to be present came from.
Set against a national backdrop of two MPs being murdered over the past
decade and the increasingly strained nature of todayְ’s politics, some
nervousness is perhaps understandable.
But Bexley Labour Left (BLL) would like to unequivocally state that no such
threat comes from or will ever come from this group or anybody connected to it.
Its members are only interested in intellectual debate and policies to
create a better society, and not intimidation of any kind or acts of
violence.
Leaflets, with a proposed motion printed on them calling for a permanent
ceasefire in Gaza, Israel and the West Bank to stop mass death, suffering and
destruction, were handed to party members as they made their way into the church.
For the most part, they were well received with a bit of conversation in
some cases in what was a jovial atmosphere.
BLL learned that despite one particularly principled and praiseworthy plea from
the floor, the newly-elected chair at the meeting dismissed any suggestion of
hearing the motion on an emergency basis with limited overt support from others.
His reasoning was the motion is complex and would take too long to discuss,
and AGMs are traditionally only to elect officers.
But there is a recognition by some party members, privately at least, that
the conflict in the Middle East is an urgent matter that needs to be
debated, and the motion will now hopefully work its way to the CLP via one
or more of its branches.
The motion and the preamble to it that was widely circulated prior to the
meeting is reproduced below.…
Residents of the boroughs of Bexley and Greenwich will be outside the Erith and
Thamesmead Constituency Labour Party’s AGM to call for a permanent ceasefire in Israel.
They will carry placards and distribute leaflets at least half-an-hour
before the meeting is due to start at 4.30 p.m. on Saturday, December 9th, at
St. Michael and All Angels Church in Abbey Wood (Abbey Wood Road, London SE2 9DZ).
We would welcome your newspaper/website sending a representative to cover
the event. Spokespersons will be on hand to fully set out the aims of residents.
Over 1,000 Israeli civilians were killed in southern Israel on October 7th
by Hamas with hundreds taken hostage, while Israeli military forces have
subsequently killed more than 15,000 Palestinian civilians in Gaza alone.
Only a total ceasefire, to enable a political solution to be negotiated,
will bring an end to the bloodshed, destruction and mass deaths of innocent men, women and children.
The Erith and Thamesmead CLP (and its branches) should pass the motion below
at the earliest possible opportunity.
MOTION
This CLP calls for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, Israel and the West Bank
as the only way to stop the deaths of more innocent men, women and children
further to the thousands of Israeli and Palestinian civilians who’ve already lost their lives.
The current conflict is also leaving many more people injured or maimed,
laying waste to whole neighbourhoods and has displaced over a million people.
No matter how long it takes or hard it is to achieve, only a negotiated
political settlement can provide any kind of solution.
This CLP also notes:
•No military solution is possible in this conflict.
•Escalating levels of violence will not achieve a lasting peace.
•The sanctity of all human life should be recognised and respected.
•Humanitarian pauses will only possibly provide temporary respite, and
cannot, by definition, bring a permanent end to the killing.
•Unless the fighting stops, many civilians will be unable to access food,
water, medical supplies and fuel - or adequate levels of such.
•War crimes and breaches of international law, as a matter of legal
principle, do not justify greater breaches of international law and war crimes.
•Families, particularly with young children, left homeless by the conflict
have no prospect of rebuilding their lives while it continues.
•Calling for a ceasefire is an important first step in ending the horrifying
scale of bloodshed. Politicians, political parties and governments cannot
ignore overwhelming public calls for a cessation in hostilities. And the
countries who are the diplomatic, economic and military backers or enablers
of the warring parties, have the power to make them stop immediately.
•All hostages and political prisoners should be released.
Note: Not being well versed in left wing politics I was not sure who “it seems clear where the request
for police officers to be present came from” was alluding to. I sought clarification
but there was no clear answer as to who might have thought that the usual bunch
of old-timers who organise and attend such events was
likely to breach the peace. My money would be on our MP but BLL is far
more diplomatic than I am. Seven coppers? Not quite the 25 sent to arrest and
pepper spray a man sitting quietly in a cafe but maybe almost as ill-judged.