SATURDAY’S CONFERENCE POINTS THE WAY FORWARD

Last Saturday Stop the War organised a very successful conference on
Afghanistan and the war on terror. Over 300 people turned up on the day to
discuss the issue and to attend a number of sessions including on the
aftermath of the war in Iraq, the Middle East uprisings, working round
parliament, women and war, imperialism and art and war. The audience
represented the diversity of the anti war movement with an especially good
representation of young people. Discussions involved a wide range of speakers
from the Middle East, the studentmovement and the anti war and peace
movements.

One thing that stood out at the conference was the amount of artistic work
going on against the war. Artists, video makers, musicians and poets spoke,
showed and performed their work. Stop the War is planning a number of
culturalevents around the anniversary of the war.

The general feeling was that the movement needs to be reorganised around the
threats facing us today: the bombing of Libya and western intervention in the
Middle East, and the continuing war in Afghanistan. These wars - and the news
that the US is negotiating with Afghanistan to maintain bases there long after
any withdrawal - represent not a winding down of the war on terror but its
extension.

There was a recognition that we need to step up our campaigning locally and
nationally. A number of groups are planning meetings and activity over the
summer. We have produced two new pieces of material:

A new petition on Afghanistan calling for the troops to be home by Christmas,
which can be used in the run up to the tenth anniversary in October. Download
petition here http://www.stopwar.org.uk/index.php/resources/petitions

And a statement opposing the bombing and intervention in Libya, which we are
asking supporters to sign and get signatories of MPs, trade unionists,
campaigners and activists locally. download statement here
http://www.stopwar.org.uk/

Both of these are available from the office and we are asking all our
supporters to increase their activity round this issue. We are also asking
groups to hold public meetings on Afghanistan and Libya.