| Stop the rush to war - action planned across the UK In the past few days the prospect of even greater war in the Middle East has come closer, as Turkey escalates its attacks on the Kurdish community, under the pretext of the war against ISIS. The deal between the US and Turkey allows US use of an airbase close to its ISIS bombing targets in Syria while giving a green light to Turkey to bomb not just ISIS but the Kurds in the PKK. Any Nato support for Turkey will further deepen the war in Syria, and will not deal with ISIS. The bombing which has already gone on for a year has not been effective in dealing with it, but has simply led to greater bloodshed and dislocation in Syria. The British government, too, is contributing to this process. David Cameron is campaigning for a further Commons vote to allow the bombing of Syria, which is likely to be scheduled for mid September shortly after the results of the Labour leadership election. The anti war movement must do everything it can to defeat this move. We are asking all our groups and members to organise protests, petition and lobby MPs throughout the summer to make sure they are aware of the issues and ready to vote against war in September. There is a real possibility of defeating Cameron, given the widespread support for Jeremy Corbyn in the leadership campaign and the substantial bloc of SNP MPs, alongside dissent within the Tory party. There is also the threat of further intervention in Libya, where Cameron is intending to put in military 'advisers', and more distantly, in Eastern Europe, where the US and Britain are carrying out military manoeuvres in Ukraine this week. We need to send a strong message that we are against intervention in Syria or anywhere else. |