FRFI supporters have been active up and down the country as well as in Scotland in support of the Iraqi and Palestinian resistance.
In Scotland, there have been regular pickets of Marks and Spencer in Dundee and Glasgow. We have also supported the Justice for Gordon Gentle Campaign. This is a campaign for immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq begun by the family and friends of Gordon Gentle, a 19-year-old Highland Fusilier killed by a roadside bomb in Basra in June. Other families have joined together to form Military Families against the War. Following the deployment of the Black Watch to cover the US onslaught on Fallujah, Justice for Gordon Gentle Campaign organised a demonstration on 30 October in Pollock, an overwhelmingly working class community from where a large number of ordinary soldiers are recruited and where their families live. This was reflected in the make up of the protest. We sold FRFI on the march and at the rally where relatives of soldiers who had died in Iraq denounced the war and called for the withdrawal of troops. Sisters and wives of serving soldiers approached us to buy FRFI and at no point in the event did we experience any hostility to our anti-imperialist message. Below is the text of our leaflet.
Troops out now! No to imperialist War!
To the youth When this bloody war began the schools emptied as thousands of young people marched out to protest. You were right and the war-making politicians were wrong. We say now: Don’t join up! Talk to your friends, argue them out of going. Explain to them that this war is wrong because it is a war for the millionaires. It is a war to thieve Iraq’s oil for the British and US multinationals.
To the relatives The tens of thousands of Iraqi men, women and children who have already died, share your grief and anger. This war for oil and power has set working class people, poor people against each other while the wealthy sit back and enjoy the profits. It is never the rich, or their sons and daughters who die in these wars. If Blair and Bush want a war so bad, stick a uniform on them and send them out there.
To the working class The British Army is made up of working class people but it is there to do the job for the wealthy ruling class as muscle for the millionaires. Their TV channels, newspapers and politicians dress up this war as a battle against terrorism, a battle for freedom and democracy. It’s all lies! This is a war to make the rich even richer and those with power even more powerful.
In 1916, John Maclean from Pollockshaws was sentenced to three years in jail for appealing to the working class to oppose imperialist war and for soldiers to refuse to fight wars for the wealthy. Maclean declared war against the war-makers. His courageous example must begin to be followed today.
The British army is clearly having problems with morale. One Black Watch trooper described Blair as a liar in response to a journalist’s question about whether he believed his regiment would be home for Christmas. Such a public comment by a serving soldier is quite unprecedented. 17-year-old David McBride from Glasgow, who had refused to fight in Iraq and had gone Absent Without Leave, was quietly taken off the AWOL list in case others follow his example.
In England, activists inspired by the Victory to the Intifada campaign have started new pickets of Marks and Spencer in Brighton, Nottingham, Stratford-upon-Avon and York. This is in addition to those in Canterbury, London and Manchester (see separate report). In London, an attempt by Student Union organisers at the LSE to get us to take down a banner with the slogan Victory to the Intifada failed. LSE FRFI society had put the banner up with a stall in Houghton Street, when after 40 minutes, a Student Union representative told us there had been a complaint about it. Shortly afterwards, LSE security chief Bernie Taffs and a couple of security heavies told us to take it down. We refused, and a lecturer in human rights who is writing about the illegal Zionist occupation of Palestinian territories backed us up. Apart from anything else, we were on a public highway where no university or Student Union representative had any jurisdiction. We have returned weekly since to make the point that we will not be silenced. The secretary of the student union has told us that it will be investigating the complaint with advice from the local police and the LSE itself. We have not heard anything, and we certainly won’t be silenced!
Events
CANTERBURY
Saturday 15 January:
Picket of M&S, The Parade,
12-2pm.
For information about other events,
phone: 07821 175 397
DURHAM
For information about pickets of
M&S in Silver Street and other
events call: 07813 073 846
LONDON
Every Thursday:
Picket of M&S, Oxford Street
(Marble Arch End), 6-8pm
Street stalls every Saturday,
12-3pm
For details email:
[email protected] or
call: 020 7837 1688
Wednesday 12 January:
LSE FRFI Society meeting 7.30pm
46 years on – Young people lead the Revolution in Cuba,
Room G1, London School of Economics,
20 Kingsway WC2 (Holborn Tube)
To contact LSE FRFI society email:
[email protected]
MANCHESTER
Every Saturday:
Picket of M&S, Market Street
Manchester City Centre, 12-3pm
For more information email:
[email protected]
Sunday 16 January:
FRFI anti-imperialist forum, 2pm
Cross Street Chapel, Cross Street
For more information email:
manchesterfrfi@
revolutionarycommunist.com
Every Monday:
Salford University FRFI society
Stall and discussion
To contact the society, email:
[email protected]
MIDLANDS
For information on activities email:
[email protected]
SCOTLAND
Glasgow
Saturday 18 December and
Sunday 19 December:
Protest against the slaughter
in Iraq Donald Dewer Statue, Buchanan Street, 12-3pm
For further details contact of this
and other FRFI activities in Scotland
phone: 07779 785 529 or email:
[email protected].
FRFI 182 December 2004 / January 2005
