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Part Five - Stop the War Coalition Rehab: A 7-Step Programme
In writing these essays, I’ve been asked by others if I’m really so surprised that there are so many extremists within the Stop the War Coalition. Such protest movements invariably have a cadre of inflexible and dogmatic ideologues at its core. What did I expect?
While it’s true that the takeover of Stop the War Coalition by extremists was depressingly predictable, it’s also true that something has to be done about it if protest is ever to be meaningful in Britain. A look at the list of names on the Stop the War Coalition’s steering committee gives an idea of the scale of the takeover. The chair is a man who thinks that people shouldn’t whinge about Stalin’s careless slaughter of 20 million people (Andrew Murray). The convenor is a member of the Socialist Workers Party, an organisation that advocates the overthrow of democracy and its replacement with a dictatorship of the proletariat (Lindsey German). Of the Vice-Presidents, one is a man who thinks that the indiscriminate murder of Iraqi civilians can be likened to the French resistance in World War Two (Tariq Ali). Another spent the 1990s condemning Saddam’s regime when he was in London and sucking up to it with a nauseating sycophancy when in Baghdad (George Galloway MP).
It really doesn’t make for an inspiring bunch of people. It’s time to say goodbye to these ideologues and form new alternatives. In doing so, I’d like to present the reader with an 7-Step programme of rehab from the Stop the War Coalition. It can be followed either as an individual or as a group. Simply take these 7 steps.
1. Communism is obsolete. Get over it.
This one seems so obvious that it’s embarrassing to have to say it, but when we still have organisations such as the CPB and the SWP still touting a revolutionary left philosophy in the early years of the 21st Century, sometimes one has to state the obvious. Looking back on the 20th Century, one can only view Communism as a noble idea that turned out to have appalling consequences in practice, as attempts to build socialist utopias have on virtually every occasion degenerated into a particularly vicious form of state capitalism. It’s estimated that 100 million people have died worldwide over the last 100 years as a result of Communist regimes. Time to try something else? Of course, none of this invalidates democratic socialism, but we’ve seen the path revolutionary socialism takes us, and it ain’t pretty.
2. Follow universal values
Instead of cheap partisanship and outdated revolutionary ideals, one should follow humanistic principles based on democracy, tolerance, respect for human rights and concern for one’s fellow human beings. The key is the principle of democracy. Be wary of anything that smacks of condoning violence. There’s nothing more dangerous than an idealist with a gun.
3. Apply the same rules to everyone
This is important, because it’s necessary to be consistent in the application of one’s values. Opposing the brutalities of the Israeli occupation of the Occupied Territories does not mean ignoring the indiscriminate slaughter of the Palestinian suicide bombers. Likewise, it’s perfectly possible to condemn racism against Muslims while also criticising the narrow-minded religious bigots of the Muslim Association of Britain and condemning the theocratic fascism of al Qaeda, the Taliban and the Iranian ayatollahs.
4. The enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend
This point is simply an extension of the previous one. Just because a certain group of people oppose the same people you do doesn’t necessarily mean that they should be seen as “on your side.” The alliance of revolutionary socialists and right-wing Islamists under the banner of the Stop the War Coalition (and subsequently in the Respect Unity Coalition that has emerged out of the post-war milieu) has to be one of the most bizarre pairings in political history, and has already caused some clashes over issues such as gay rights and women’s rights, where the two movements are at clear loggerheads. Watching SWP activists wrangle over whether they can trade away their commitments to feminism and gay rights in order to keep the MAB onside may be amusing, but more disturbing are the attitudes by otherwise highly intelligent individuals over the Iraqi guerrillas. As another bomb goes off, slaughtering a few more Iraqi policemen or another crowd of Shia pilgrims, there’s something very distressing about people like Tariq Ali and John Pilger actually welcoming this. When such figures suggest that these brutal and indiscriminate killings may lead to “democracy and social justice”, as Tariq Ali has (1), then one is left wondering whether to laugh or cry. You might as well hope that the BNP will take over the Equal Opportunities Commission and set about improving race relations.
5. Read the Iraqi bloggers and Iraqi opinion polls
All too often, people on both sides of the pro- and anti-war debate have been guilty of putting words into the mouths of the Iraqi people. With Saddam’s regime gone and the growth of free speech in Iraq there’s simply no need for this. Find out what most Iraqi people actually think. A list of recent opinion polls held in Iraq can be found here.
As well as this, an online community of Iraqi web diarists (“bloggers”) has now sprung up. Read what they have to say. The most famous, and still one of the best, is the diary of Salam Pax. His diary makes wonderful reading, not just for the insights into Iraqi life, but also for the author’s fantastic sense of humour. Also worth reading are Baghdad Burning, which gives a woman’s perspective, and Healing Iraq, written by an Iraqi dentist with an unapologetically pro-war and pro-American outlook. A Family in Iraq gives a view of Iraqi family life.
6. Support reconstruction and democracy in Iraq
It’s amazing how many people are willing to pay 15 quid to pay for a coach ticket to London to spend a day shouting meaningless slogans like “end the occupation”, but so rarely seem to getting around to offering any support to those organisations trying to supply clean drinking water to impoverished Iraqis. The following organisations are involved in humanitarian aid for Iraq. Give them a donation. Do some fundraising for them.
Christian Aid
Iraqi Refugee Aid Council
Oxfam
Save the Children
War Child
7. Apply strict principles of critical rigour and intellectual honesty to yourself, and associate yourself with those who do the same.
There are credible alternatives to the hopelessly biased ideologues of the Stop the War Coalition. Those alternatives lie with NGOs like Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, Greenpeace, Actionaid and Oxfam. Organisations that combine effective campaigning with well-researched, balanced and analytically rigorous reports on world issues. The credibility of their campaigning is reflected in the esteem with which they are held by the media and politicians. When Amnesty speaks on Israeli/Palestinian violence or Oxfam speaks on unfair trade agreements, the world sits up and listens. When the Socialist Workers Party speaks on the same issues, the world rolls its eyes.
It’s my experience that there are social as well as intellectual bonuses to associating yourself with these NGOs. Spend an afternoon campaigning with Oxfam, Amnesty or Actionaid and you generally find yourself working in a well-organised group of intelligent, motivated, broad-minded people. Go to a meeting of the Stop the War Coalition or the SWP instead and you’ll be stuck with a bunch of clapped-out Stalinists, paranoid Trotskyists, mediocre academics, tofu-brained hippies and borderline lunatics. Guess which group is more fun to hang out with? If you really insist on working with a group that follows a socialist agenda, the Alliance for Workers Liberty argues its ideas with a level of intellectual honesty that is unusual among the hard left.
If there’s one thing I hope has come across over the course of these essays, it’s that what I’m pleading for is intellectual honesty to triumph over ideology. Before one can be honest with others, you have to be honest with yourself. I hope that these writings will steer a few people towards the path of intellectual honesty, and away from the posturing of ideologues. Then, hopefully more people will take a path of protest that actually has a hope of making a positive difference to the world.
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Notes
1. Ali T. 3rd November 2003. Resistance is the first step towards Iraqi independence http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1076480,00.html 1 |
