Subject: URGENT ACTION APPEAL: 02 Direct Action to Stop The War or
03 MP Lobbying + A N Other Demo?

Calling All Anti-War Activists and Campaigners, Protesters and
Peaceniks,

The Stop The War Coalition (STWC) national steering committee
believes bombing Iraq may most likely begin in Jan 03. In Oct 02 it
declared:
"We now have to move from words to deeds. We have to move from
demonstrations direct action"
(DayOfAction.pdf, 02 Oct 02)

Unfortunately, they have now retreated and back-tracked on both
counts.

* From deeds to words: organising a national STW conference to be
held on
Sat 7 Dec in London.

* From direct action to the safety of more state-sanctioned rituals
of disapproval:
* Supporting a lobby of parliament called by CND and No War On
Iraq
on Tue 21 Jan 03
* Organising another conventional A to B march on Sat 15 Feb 03
in London.

When presented with a well designed and thought through proposal for
a national mass direct action in central London on Sat 21 Dec 02 - ie
BEFORE the war begins - targetted at breaking the bond between Blair
and Bush, the steering committee declined to back it (while still
complementing it as a 'good idea').

Personally, I feel betrayed that the great promise of our DON'T
ATTACK IRAQ Day Of Action on Thu 31 Oct 02, when thousands of us
moved "from demonstrations to direct action", is now to be squandered
in lobbying a warmongering parliament and trudging along yet another
Met Police sanctioned route march - most likely AFTER the slaughter
of our Iraqi sisters and brothers has begun. If you do too, read on,
and most importantly sign the online petition for Direct Action to
Stop The War at www.petitiononline.com/DA2STW/petition.html.

Yes, I do appreciate the darkly humourous irony inherrent in signing
a petition in favour of creating a mass direct action. And yet we can
but make best use of the tools of mass direct democracy available to
us to win the resources of the Stop The War Coalition for our best
possible anti-war action. Any other ideas on how we achieve this
would be welcome.


How Did We Come To This?
------------------------

FIRST we had the magnificent turnout of up to 400,000 people on our
DON'T ATTACK IRAQ - FREEDOM FOR PALESTINE Demonstration on Sat 28 Sep
02. The widest variety of ethnicities, ages and groups ever seen on a
political protest combined in the most massive anti-war demonstration
the UK has ever seen. At the subsequent rally in Hyde Park, Tony Benn
said, "I've never said this before. Non-violent resistance to the
government will show they cannot claim to do this in our name. We
should stop the buses, stop the trains, stop the schools."

SECOND we had the Stop The War national steering committee calling
for direct action on a DON'T ATTACK IRAQ Day Of Action on Thu 31 Oct
02. As the flyer for the day so correctly said:
"We now have to move from words to deeds. We have to move from
demonstrations to direct action.

If the hundreds of thousands of people who demonstrated in London
on
28 September go back and organise direct action in their
localities we
can build a movement the government cannot ignore.

We have to make our numbers count.

In the evening join us for a central protest in the town where you
live.
Bring banners, sit down and block traffic.

Make Thursday 31 October the day we stop your city or town to stop
the war."

Building on my prior experience of direct action, I applied my best
strategic thinking to designing a mass direct action in central
London, aimed at creating a short, sharp gridlock shock from the City
of London to the West End. From an initial suggestion at the STW
South London Organising Group on 7 Oct 02, through presentation and
discusion at...
* SOAS/UCL STW Teach-In, Sat 12 Oct
* London-wide Student STW Rally at SOAS, Wed 16 Oct
* Goldsmiths STW Teach-In, Wed 23 Oct
* London Anarchist Forum at Conway Hall, Fri 25 Oct
* Disobedients Network Open Assembly on Direct Action at
London Action Resource Centre, Sun's 27 Oct and 3 Nov
...the proposed BREAK THE BOND action assimilated the collective,
constructive criticism of scores of experienced direct action
organisers and protesters. And it soon became clear that the short
lead time to Thu 31 Oct was insufficient to organise such an
ambitious action effectively.

THIRD we had the inspirational DON'T ATTACK IRAQ Day Of Action on Thu
31 Oct 02. From initial reports (see www.stopwar.org.uk/doa.asp),
around 12,500 protesters participated in banner drops, critical mass
cycle rides, occupations of colleges and the Welsh Assembly,
territorial army base blockades, and lots of traffic-blocking sit-
downs. Involving so many thousands of people in moving beyond state-
sanctioned rituals of disapproval into collectively empowering direct
action really is a great step forward - very well done the lot of
you! And congratulations too on the wealth of local media coverage we
achieved. But we must also face unpleasant facts: that is only around
3% of the people on the 28 Sep demonstration; and as far as national
and international impact goes, while our massive national protest
march echoed around the world, the Telegraph and BBC London only
included our Day of Action in their 'News in Brief' sections on the
following day.

FINALLY we had a STW national steering committee meeting on Mon 4 Nov
02, at which we heard that our best intelligence indicates the most
likely opening of major new hostilites against Iraq will be 60 days
and nights of bombing, beginning around mid-Jan 03. At the invitation
of a committee member, I attended and was invited to present the
BREAK THE BOND direct action proposal for Sat 21 Dec 02. Try as I
might to emphasise the urgency of organising a nationally mobilised,
centrally focussed, anti-war Direct Action to Stop The War, the
meeting was content to rubber-stamp what its officers told it would
happen: a STW national conference in Dec 02, lobbying Parliament in
late Jan 03, and another state-sanctioned A to B peace march in mid-
Feb 03.


So What Are We Going To Do Now?
-------------------------------

I think the optimistic, confident and positive answer goes something
like this:

* We've suceeded in giving thousands of people a taste of the
dynamic, imaginative and effective impact that taking direct
action
can unleash on DON'T ATTACK IRAQ DAY.

* We know our biggest impact comes from a national mobilisation
for a
single, focussed, central London protest on a Saturday.

* We know that if we're serious about our desire to BREAK THE BOND
between Blair and Bush, to impede imperialism's war drive to the
best
of our ability, then we have to act BEFORE we think large scale
hostilities will begin.

* We can go beyond symbolic and tokenistic gestures by having a
significant economic impact on retail capitalism on the busiest
shopping day of the year if we can create a short, sharp
gridlock
shock from the City of London to the West End - by making
Sat 21 Dec 02 BREAK THE BOND DAY.

While the pesimistic, cynical and negative answer goes:

* That's more than enough protest action for now, thank you very
much.

* CND and the No War on Iraq group of MP's are calling for a
lobbying
of Parliament in mid-Jan 02 - let's just go along with that.

* That last demo took about three months to organise, so let's
just
do the same old thing all over again in mid-Feb 03.

* Oh, and let's congratulate ourselves on our sterling work so
far,
and elect a new national steering committee, at a conference in
early Dec 02.

If you're complascently content with this pesimistic status quo, then
you don't have to lift a finger. On the other hand, if you agree that
any Stop The War Coalition worthy of the name should be taking
urgent, mass direct action against the warmongers to Stop The War
BEFORE it begins, then please consider doing one, some or all of the
following actions.

1. Forward this email to all your anti-war contacts - friends,
relatives,
peace campaigners and relevant email lists alike - with a brief
note from
you about how you support Direct Action to Stop The War.
To: [Your email address]
BCC: international_plus@..., [all your anti-war
contacts]
Subject: Fwd: URGENT ACTION APPEAL: 02 Direct Action to Stop
The War or
03 MP Lobbying + A N Other Demo?

2. Sign the Direct Action to Stop The War petition at:
www.petitiononline.com/DA2STW/petition.html.

3. Compose a brief email declaring your personal support for Direct
Action
to Stop The War (and mentioning the online petition) and send it
out
(I would suggest) as follows:
To: office@...
BCC: international_plus@..., [all your anti-war
contacts]
Subject: FAO STW Officers - Direct Action to Stop The War
You might like to address it to both Andrew Murray, chair of the
national steering committee, and the convenor, Lindsey German.

4. Call the office and leave a message for Andrew Murray and/or
Lindsey German,
saying that you support Direct Action to Stop The War: 07 951 235
915 or
020 7053 2155/6

5. Call Lindsey German to tell her you support Direct Action to Stop
The War:
07 810 540 584

6. Declare your support for Direct Action to Stop The War in writing
to
Andrew Murray and/or Lindsey German at:
Stop the War Coalition,
PO Box 3739,
London E5 8EJ

7. If you are in a local, regional or national group that campaigns
for
peace (STW, CND, Pledge of Resistance, trade union,
left/green/anarchist
group, mosque or church, etc) then please raise this issue as soon
as possible.
A. Contact your fellow members in advance by email/phone/post
to let
them know that you support Direct Action to Stop The War,
and get
the issue on the agenda of your next meeting.
B. At the next meeting, get the online petition Direct Action
to
Stop The War passed as a resolution of your group.
C. Contact Andrew Murray and/or Lindsey German by email to tell
them
that your whole group supports Direct Action to Stop The War
(I would suggest) as follows.
To: office@...
BCC: international_plus@..., [all your
anti-war contacts]
Subject: FAO STW Officers - [Your Group's Name] supports
Direct Action to Stop The War

8. If you are the webmeister of a web site, please put two links on
your
home page, or elsewhere if you feel that would be more appropriate.
Direct Action to Stop The War Petition:
www.petitiononline.com/DA2STW/petition.html
BREAK THE BOND Direct Action Prososal:
www.internationalism.plus.com/BREAK_THE_BOND_index.html
Icon graphics available at:
www.internationalism.plus.com/DAtSTW_B100W.gif
www.internationalism.plus.com/BTB_100W.jpg
Please send a message to international_plus@... with
the
URL of the page that contains the links.

9. If you are in a STW local group and would like to see the STW
Coalition
become a body that sees direct action as our tactic of first
resort,
then please seek and win one of your group's four nominations as
delegate
to the national STW delegate conference on Sat 7 Dec 02. With a
sufficient
groundswell of support for Direct Action to Stop The War, the
election of
the new national steering committee at that conference could
produce
a organisation that lives up to its promise to "move from words to
deeds,
... to move from demonstrations to direct action, ... [to] build a
movement the government cannot ignore."

With the national resources and good will of the STW Coalition, we
may be able to make BREAK THE BOND DAY on Sat 21 Dec 02 the most well-
publicised, hard-hitting and effective direct anti-war action the UK
has ever seen. But that won't happen unless thousands of grass roots
peace campaigners throughout the country make it so - I hope you'll
begin playing your part right now.


Thank you very much indeed for your time and attention. And thanks in
advance for your efforts to make BREAK THE BOND DAY a world-changing
reality.

By concerted, collective, direct action, we stand our best chance to
Stop The War - let's make it so.

Peace & Love,

Internationalist Plus
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"Rise like Lions after slumber / In unvanquishable number /
Shake your chains to earth like dew / Which in sleep had fallen on
you /
Ye are many - they are few." Percy Shelley
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