International Conference Against War resonates with Pope Leo's words

More than 3,000 people from across Britain, and around the world, attended the 'International Conference Against War at Methodist Central Hall in Westminster last Saturday.

High profile speakers' messages against militarism, the 'blood money' of the bloated weapons industry, aggressive extractivism and neo-colonialism chimed with Pope Leo's recent strong words denouncing 'tyrants' who spend billions on wars while millions go hungry, his revision of just war theory in this time of drone and AI warfare, and his warning that war is a defeat and that God does not hear prayers for war.

Dockers who refused to ship Israeli arms, Black Lives and anti-racist campaigners, trades unionists and activists from across Europe packed into the main hall and overflowed into a second chamber in response to this most urgent matter.

Jeremy Corbyn MP, leader of Your Party, said: "We have to stop the blood money the arms companies make out of war." He denounced the "theft" of natural resources, not least in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, where mining companies funded militias to take wealth out of the soil while above ground people lived in desperation and poverty.

He slammed the Labour Government's complicity in "knowingly supplying weapons to Israel after the ICJ ruling on genocide."

"Last year, 2.7 trillion dollars on arms were not spent on health, welfare, environmental reparation, or on problems of global inequality," added Mr Corbyn. "Recognising our common humanity, not least with victims of war, we must fight to come together for the survival of this planet and humanity as a whole."

Peter Leary, the Vice-Chair of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, noted the UK government's recent authorisation of "the sale of stolen Palestinian land on illegally occupied territory to take place in London."

He admonished the 'moral bankruptcy' of those governments who have supported Israel's crimes and whose warmongering was now 'driving us all towards disaster.'

'From Venezuela, to Cuba, to Lebanon, to Iran, the US is increasingly trying to use military might to prop up and maintain its declining economic position. This is what it means to live in a world of impunity.'

Richard Burgon, the Catholic-born and educated Labour MP for Leeds East, concurred, saying: "Trump's security strategy is a new form of US gangster politics.' He noted the ripping up of international rules which had been established after the Second World War and Trump's desire for far-right parties in power in Europe while his 'billionaire allies push hatred online."

Mr Burgon said that one region was in Trump's cross-hairs more than any other: Latin America. Venezuela was just the start and Cuba was next. Urging solidarity with the blockaded island, he added: "While Washington sends bombs around the world, Cuba sends doctors; where the USA backs genocide, Cuba helped defeat apartheid in South Africa." As part of a humanitarian delegation to Cuba a few months ago, he said the hardship and "Trump's cruelty" was plain to see.

Mr Burgon said that Trump's Latin-American politics replicated those of the USA in the 1970s and 1980s when it backed military dictatorships and armed death squads. Standing with Cuba and Palestine meant standing for the future of the humanity of sovereign self-development the world over.

Medea Benjamin of the US group Code Pink also denounced the "demonic, psychotic policy of depriving the people of Cuba of oil, food and medicine" and seeing their mortality rate double. She added that the war in Iran was the most unpopular in modern American history and that the majority of Americans were "against war, period." She condemned the 1.5 trillion dollars spent on war rather than on society and welfare but hailed the election of pro-Palestine candidates to Congress.

Amara Enyia of the Movement for Black Lives from the US demanded a different future of 'sustained humanitarianism', building systems that 'affirm our inter-connectedness as human beings.' She added, 'We cannot have an anti-war agenda without an explicit anti-imperialist and anti-colonial agenda.'

She condemned the "erasure of culture and the rejection of historical fact" as "systemic warfare" and said: "These 'isms' - capitalism, imperialism, colonialism and racism - create the conditions for war. They deny our humanity, sovereignty and ability to be self-determining."

She concluded: "We must stand with the Palestinian people and all people who struggle to exercise their human right to exist. Our vision is life. The alternative is death."

Over a thousand of those attending came from at least 27 countries outside the UK. This was the second conference of a movement that was initiated at a huge gathering at the Dôme de Paris last October. It was organised by the Stop The War Coalition.

Members of parliaments and trade union leaders were joined by anti-war and pro-Palestine activists from the USA to Iran and Bahrain, including Mustafa Barghouti from the Palestinian National Initiative whose speech received a rapturous reception. The conference was also addressed by Ukrainian and Russian activists.

The conference adopted the following statement that had been prepared at a delegate meeting on Friday. As well as summarising the key issues confronting society, the statement called for three international days of demonstration and action.

The first, a joint international day of demonstrations in support of a free Palestine on 10 October. The second, a day of action proposed by dockworkers in Italy, France and Greece whose date will be agreed shortly. The third, an international weekend of demonstrations against militarism, the drive to war and conscription on 21st and 22nd November.

The atmosphere throughout mingled gravity with determination. As they left, attendees burst into the Internationale in many different languages.

Chris Nineham from the Stop the War Coalition said: "It is vital that everywhere the movement builds on the great success of this conference. We call on anti-war activists to start organising now to get trade unions to adopt the statement at national regional and branch level, to publicise the days of action and to widen the movement for welfare and against warfare in every way possible."

LINKS

Watch a video on the conference: www.youtube.com/live/YOVqOJ1iU58

Conference Statement: No to militarisation and conscription Welfare not warfare