20 years of Stop the War
It’s the 20th anniversary of the Stop the War Coalition. Derided perpetually by right-wing critics and those who like wars as either pacificists or supporters of terrorism (its quite difficult to be both) like any social movement it has its ups and downs in support. It is however still here and holds a 20th anniversary event at Conway Hall in London on 18th September.
You might be forgiven for not noticing. While the recent withdrawal from Afghanistan marked the end of a 20 year strategy by the US, the UK and others, those who said 20 years ago that it would all end in tears (and for many much worse than that) have not featured much in media coverage.
This tells you unsurprising things about the British media of course, points about its narrowness of focus that have been made many times.
The forces that came together to form the Stop the War Coalition*- CND, the Muslim Association of Britain and a spectrum of the left, perhaps primarily the Labour left and the SWP held a meeting full to overflowing shortly after the war with Afghanistan started in late September 2001. The first demonstration took place in London on Saturday October 13th 2001. I was at both.
With the invasion of Iraq pending the STWC organised what remains the biggest demonstration in British history in central London on 15th February 2003. I was of course there with my national union banner.
So it went on and goes on, protesting against Western military interventions, not always without controversy, on the left but still often ignored by the media for whom the basic message of opposition to war was often an inconvenient one
There is an exhibition finishing on Sunday at Bow Arts featuring a lot of the art work associated with Stop the War down the years and particularly perhaps the early years. The visual aspect of the protest was key and ground breaking.
Its interesting to remember and review for those who were there but as important for those who were not often because 20 years on they were too young. A 10 year old in 2001 is 30 now.
And the need for Stop the War is not going away
Bow Arts 20 years exhibition
https://bowarts.org/nunnery/20-years-of-stop-the-war
*the first demonstration organised by the Stop the War Coalition was in November 2001(thanks to Andrew Burgin)
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