Ten years after the largest protest in British history in February 2003, activists examine Britain’s legacy in Iraq and the era of continuous warfare
Story Transcript
Hassan Ghani
February 15th 2003 saw the largest protest in British history. Like millions of others across the world, the British public said no to the invasion of Iraq. Their government ignored them.
So two million people marched on Britainâ€
Tariq Ali, Writer / Filmmaker
“It pains me when good people, especially in the United States, who were hostile to wars when Bush was waging them, become passive when Obama wages them.
Hassan Ghani
Today, in a more complex world, and with a so called war on terror that has spread to many more fronts, Britainâ€
Tariq Ali, Writer / Filmmaker
“Effectively what we noticed in the United States today is imperial continuity. More drone attacks on Pakistan and Afghanistan and Yemen and Somalia under Obama than there were under Bush. The President of the United States has now the power, legal power, to order the execution of any American citizen, leave alone citizens from the rest of the world. That is the world we live in.â€
Hassan Ghani
So despite boasting the support of millions, has the anti-war movement essentially failed in its objectives of stopping war, or even affecting change in foreign policy.
Jeremy Corbyn
“I think we did mobilize a lot of people who became very well educated as a result of it. I think we did probably do a lot to stop any direct attack taking place on Iran at that time, or indeed since that time. Of course we didnâ€
I canâ€
Hassan Ghani
It is true however, that while there is no public appetite for further wars abroad, and opposition to Britainâ€
Owen Jones, Journalist, The Independent
“There is certainly that opposition. The reality is that at the same time weâ€
Hassan Ghani
Perhaps one of the most effective tools going forward for the anti-war movement is to highlight the link between the cost of wars abroad and cuts in public spending at home, building ties with the UKâ€
Owen Jones, Journalist, The Independent
“The government can always afford to shell out money for wars in Afghanistan, but cuts here where they say these services are not affordable. It just shows that actually we should fighting, instead of waging war on other people we should actually be defending our services here instead.â€
John Rees, Counterfire / Stop the War Coalition
“As long as this system shows us the face of war and austerity, we will show in opposition an anti-war movement and an anti-austerity movement, which brings together, in unity, the only kind of forces that working people really have – their strength in numbers and their capacity to organise. That is what this movement has, in the end, always been about. The struggle for success in the working class movement is the struggle for unity. Without unity we cannot win. In unity we can take down the war mongers and the profiteers.â€
Hassan Ghani
There were also calls to do more to counter the increasing use of drone attacks, which often result in substantial civilian deaths, a tactic which anti-war campaigners argue is counter-productive, and will ultimately increase the risk of terrorism at home.
John Rees, Counterfire / Stop the War Coalition
“Letâ€
Victoria Brittain, Journalist / Writer
“What the Obama administration has done, worse than Bush, is sanitised killing. Thatâ€
Hassan Ghani
Successive British governments have denied that UK foreign policy is one of the root causes of terrorism, despite the 2005 London underground train bombers specifically citing it as their motivation.
Mohammad Sidique Khan, 7/7 Bomber
“Your democratically elected governments continuously perpetrate atrocities against my people all over the world, and your support of them makes you directly responsible.â€
Hassan Ghani
It later also emerged that intelligence officials had warned of blowback from Iraq prior to the invasion.
Also being discussed in London was the fresh push for consolidating western interests in Africa. Activist Explo Nani-Kofi for years oversaw the campaign against proxy wars in Africa, and says todayâ€
Explo Nani-Kofi, Kilombo Centre for Civil Society and African Self-Determination, Ghana
“Because China was also coming in and trying to give, what appeared to be, more favourable conditions to the African countries, it threatened the West. So the West has to go in to ensure that the control they have over these resources over the years, since the Berlin conference, is not lost.
We have to democratise our states, to strengthen the grassroots control on governments and direction of policy. And if we have grassroots organisation control, then we would be able to defend the state.â€
Hassan Ghani
There were several other issues also under the spotlight, but one central to many of them was the westâ€
Manuel Hassassian, Palestinian Authorityâ€
“We do understand that the crux of the problem in the Middle East today is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and all other problems are transient, theyâ€
Hassan Ghani
Looking back at Iraq and 2003, Sami Ramadani opposed the regime of Saddam Hussain. But he also opposed the invasion. Ten years on, he says the US and the UK have left a poisonous legacy behind. And looking forwards, he warns others seeking to overthrow despotic regimes not to allow their struggle to be hijacked by western interests.
Sami Ramadani, Senior Lecturer, London Metropolitan University
“I was an exile of Saddamâ€
So you have a choice, in a sense. You stay opposed to dictatorship, you stay with your people demanding democracy, but if you donâ€
Hassan Ghani, for the Real News, London.