Showing posts with label Brent Stop the War. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brent Stop the War. Show all posts

Saturday 26 October 2019

Brent Stop the War will join Kashmir protest outside Downing Street on Sunday

Brent Stop the War has issued the following clarification regarding Sunday's Kashmir demonstration:

A well-attended 14th October meeting on PEACE & JUSTICE FOR KASHMIR in the Community Hall at the Cricklewood Mosque, was co-sponsored by Brent Mosque and Brent Stop the War. It was supported by Brent Central Labour Party and Brent & Harrow Palestine Solidarity Campaign. 

We agreed to have the Brent Stop the War banner on the demonstration in support of Kashmir on this Sunday (October 27th) assembling outside Downing St from 12.00 noon. There has been some public controversy over this demonstration, its purpose and its destination.

Our meeting heard how the Modi government in India had withdrawn the (limited) autonomy of Kashmir and violently repressed the opposition, ignoring longstanding UN resolutions. It was also made clear that this is neither a Pakistan vs India dispute nor a Hindu/Muslim one, but the right of Kashmiris to self-determination and for a just and peaceful solution to the dispute.

Kashmiris have long protested on October 27th, the date the Indian military entered Kashmir in 1947. In the UK, this is marked with a protest each year outside the Indian High Commission.

With the Hindu festival of Diwali falling on Sunday 27th, some have expressed the view that it would be inappropriate to hold the demonstration. Other claims that the demonstration will cause communal conflict because it coincides with Diwali 2019, could be seen as promoting a view of the Indian High Commission as a Hindu institution, when in fact the Diwali religious festival is not exclusive to India and the country defines itself as secular.

Although It is perfectly normal in a democratic society to protest outside the embassy of a government which breaks international law, out of respect for the celebration of Diwali we will not be going on to the High Commission. 

We will join the protest outside 10 Downing St, which has raised no criticism of the actions of the Modi Government.

Sunday 10 March 2019

No Coup or War in Venezuela! Meeting on Monday March 11th Brent Trades Hall




Video: Jeff Webber speaking about the situation in Venezuela at a recent meeting with Hugo Blanco

Topical as always Brent Stop the War will be discussing what is happening in Venezuela at their meeting on Monday:


The next meeting of BRENT STOP the WAR will take place on Monday, March 11th at 7.30pm at Brent Trades Hall (London Apollo Club) 375 High Rd, Willesden, NW10 2JR [It’s very close to Willesden Bus Garage, buses 6,52,98,226,260,266,302,460, and just five minutes’ walk from Dollis Hill Jubilee Line station]
 
Speaker: Calvin Tucker [Morning Star campaigns manager and international election observer to the May 2018 Venezuelan presidential elections] will be talking about the situation in Venezuela.


-->

Tuesday 12 February 2019

Video: Ex-soldiers speak out on the cost of war and how their experience made them peace activists






Brent Stop the War has held meetings and demonstrations about the cost of war in terms of victims' deaths, infrastructure destruction, environmental disaster and creation of refugees as well as the financial cost to the economy. Last night's meeting was rather different as we heard first-hand from ex-soldiers whose experience of war has made them into peace activists.

Both speakers are members of Veterans for Peace (UK) but made it clear that they were not speaking on behalf of the organisation but as individual members. VfP (UK) are not a pacifist organisation although some members may be. They believe the country has to be defended but object to counter-productive, dehumanising foreign wars.

The first speaker is Julio Torres, a New Yorker who was in the US army for eleven years including a year in Iraq.  Ben Griffin, the second speaker and founder of Veterans for Peace (UK) served in Northern Ireland, Macedonia, Afghanistan  and Iraq. He was released from the British army after refusing to serve under American command.

Both speakers were open and honest in a meeting which at times became very emotional creating a great bond between the speakers and the audience.


Monday 28 January 2019

Wars: The Effect on Soldiers - First hand accounts: Monday February 11th



Monday, February 11th 7.30 – 9.15.

Brent MENCAP, 379-381 High Rd, London NW10 2JR

Speakers: Julio Torres, Veterans for Peace (UK) [New York born Torres was a member of the U.S. Army for eleven years 2005-2016, including a year in Iraq, with the rank of Staff Sergeant]
Ben Griffin, ex-Paratrooper, SAS soldier and founder of Veterans for Peace UK, served in Northern Ireland, Macedonia, Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2005 he was released from Army service after refusing to continue serving under American command in Iraq. Ben served as national coordinator of VfP until 2018 and remains an active member.
The financial costs of US and British wars in the Middle East since the beginning of this century have been well documented.
The personal costs to the soldiers who took part and to their families, friends and neighbours are often less noticed.
This is an opportunity to hear and talk to war veterans about their experiences and how we might learn to fight for peace.
 Organised by Brent Stop the War




All welcome
Disabled access. Close to Dollis Hill tube (Jubilee line, Chaper Road access). Buses include 52, 260, 266, 302

Monday 27 August 2018

Shaka Lish speaks on 'War and the Environment' - September 10th


Brent Stop the War
The next meeting of Brent Stop the War will take place on 

 Monday,10th September at 7.30pm
At: Brent Trades Hall (London Apollo Club) 375 High Rd, Willesden, NW10 2JR

[It’s very close to Willesden Bus Garage, buses 6,52,98,226,260,266,302,460, and just five minutes’ walk from Dollis Hill Jubilee Line station]

                       War & the Environment    

Speaker: Shaka Lish, Activist, Brent Green Party and Green Party candidate.

Sunday 8 July 2018

Saying 'No' to Trump is not enough - we need alternatives





Shaka Lish of Brent Green Party and Greens of Colour, spoke yesterday at Brent Stands Up to Trump! a meeting called to publicise the demonstrations on July 13th and 14th. The meeting was supported by Brent Central Labour Party, Brent Stand Up to Racism and Brent Stop the War. After hearing from panelists those at the meeting organised leafleting throughout the borough to publicise the demonstrations.


Thursday 2 November 2017

Justice Now: Make it right for Palestine - March and Rally on Saturday

National March and Rally 
Saturday 4 November 2017 Justice Now: Make it right for Palestine


Assemble 12noon Grosvenor Square W1K 6LF London - March to Parliament Square

Members of Brent and Harrow Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Brent Stop the War and other local activists will be taking part in this march on Saturday marking the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration on November 2nd which built the path for the dispossession of Palestinian rights.

Speakers at the rally will include"

Dr Mustafa Barghouti / Ken Loach / Andy Slaughter MP / Mick Whelan
General Secretary ASLEF / Gail Cartmail TUC /  Matt Wrack
General Secretary FBU /  Margaret McKee  President Unison /
 John Pilger  / Senator Paul Gavan Sinn Fein / Leanne Mohamad / Hugh
Lanning PSC / Asad Rehman, War on Want / Reem Kelani / Philipa Harvey NEU-NUT
Section / Daoud Abdalah BMI / Ajmal Masrour Imam & broadcaster / Prof
Manuel Hassassian / Tariq Ali / Salma Yacoub / Dave Randall /  Hawiyya
Dance Company / John Nicolson SNP – And many more to be announced.



Organised by Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), Palestinian Forum in Britain (PFB), Friends of Al Aqsa (FOA), Stop the War Coalition (STW), Muslim Association of Britain (MAB).

Supported by Unite the Union, UNISON, National Education Union- NUT Section,GMB, ASLEF, RMT, FBU, UCU, PCS, CWU, Europal Forum, CND, Pax Christi, APCUK, Kairos UK, Friends of Sabeel UK, ICAHD UK, Amos Trust, APCUK.



The march is scheduled to set off at around 1:00pm from Grosvenor Square along the following route:
  • North Audley Street
  • Oxford Street 
  • New Bond Street
  • Clifford Street
  • Cork Street
  • Burlington Gardens
  • Old Bond Street
  • Piccadilly
  • Regent Street 
  • Pall Mall
  • Cockspur Street
  • Whitehall
  • Ending on Parliament Square

Wednesday 3 May 2017

'The United States and Britain – a dangerously special relationship' Meeting Monday May 8th


From Brent Stop the War

British Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson was recently told not to go to Russia by Donald Trump: even the normally pro-government Economist was enraged by this humiliation LINK.

Everyone can see that British Government foreign policy is being decided by a volatile and reckless Trump administration with untold consequences for the whole world. 

Speaker:  Stephen Bell, former head of policy at the Communication Workers Union and Treasurer of Stop the War
 Monday, May the 8th at 7.30pm

 Brent Trades Hall (London Apollo Club) 375 High Rd, Willesden, NW10 2JR
[Close to Willesden Bus Garage, buses 6,52,98,226,260,266,302,460, and just five minutes’ walk from Dollis Hill Jubilee Line station]

Wednesday 7 December 2016

We need to talk about SYRIA - come along on Monday


From Brent Stop the War

Speaker Dr Anne Alexander
Co-ordinator, Digital Humanities Network, Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH), University of Cambridge.

It is a hundred years since the Sykes-Picot agreement mapped out the extension of French and British control over areas of the Middle East which had, for hundreds of years, been part of the Ottoman Empire. The divisions that followed that agreement have influenced the subsequent history of the region culminating in the current complex situation of a war with multiple protagonists. Anne Alexander will give us an update on the tragic situation and its historical and political context.

Monday 12th December 7.30pm
BRENT TRADES HALL
375 High Rd, Willesden
NW10 2JR

Very close to Willesden Bus Garage, buses 6,52,98,226,260,266,302,460, and just five minutes’ walk from Dollis Hill Jubilee Line station

Details of a play about war and surveillance in the UK by one of our Brent Stop the War supporters: ISIS at Elmwood Theatre Club, Elmwood Lawn Terrace Club, Holland Road, NW10 5AJ : the Brent dates are 15-17 December 7.30pm DETAILS

Monday 7 November 2016

Obama failed on Guantanamo - what next for the campaign to close it?

From Brent Stop the War



  Brent Trades Hall (London Apollo Club) 375 High Rd, Willesden, NW10 2JR
  Monday, November 14th at 7.30pm
Speaker: Noel Hamel (London Guantanamo Campaign) One of the campaign promises of Barack Obama, when he became President, was to close the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. He leaves office in January and the Camp remains open. Why? What can we do to close it?

Wednesday 5 October 2016

'Nothing About Us, Without Us' - Statement on Brent's Time to Talk 'Extremism' discussion



This is the statement that Monitoring Prevent in Brent distributed at Monday's Brent Council discussion on Extremism:

“Nothing about us, without us”

Tonight (3 October 2016) Brent Council is holding the second of its Time to Talk series of events.
The Council believes ‘it is time to talk’. But for two years now, An-Nisa Society and other local organisations have been trying to raise our concerns about the Prevent Strategy and, in particular, the Public Sector Duty, which makes public sector employees liable to prosecution if they don’t report signs of perceived ‘extremism’ or ‘radicalisation’. Almost all of those referred are Muslim, often children as young as 10. Frustrated by months of silence from the Council, we held a public meeting on 10 December 2015.

With the help of Cllr Harbi Farah, we finally met the Leader of Brent Council, Mohammed Butt. Promises made by Councillor Butt to continue the conversation and to take some positive actions have not been followed up. As a result, we released a public statement on Prevent. (http://monitoringprevent.blogspot.co.uk/ ).

Serious questions need to be asked about the purpose of Time to Talk meetings. At the first one in July - a slick, well orchestrated ‘information session’ - we were left feeling that rather than a ‘time to talk’ it was in fact a time to be ‘told’ and ‘to listen’. The purpose of the workshop in the afternoon was unclear: it was really a theoretical tick box exercise. There were more officers and councillors at the meeting than ‘community’ and there was no opportunity to really scrutinise and question.
We view with extreme caution the meeting on ‘Extremism’. The speakers are once again highly qualified individuals who appear to have very little relationship to Brent. The programme offers little or no opportunity for local organisations to raise their concerns freely – the council has requested sending in questions in advance via email before we even hear the speakers.

So, what is presented as ‘community engagement’ and ‘community consultation’ appears to be a public relations exercise by Brent Council designed to validate and implement policies that impact on all our communities without any input from those most affected.

We call on Brent Council to engage transparently with individuals and organisations in Brent affected by government policy on ‘Extremism.’

Statement by Monitoring Prevent in Brent

Members include: An-Nisa Society, Brent Against Racism Campaign, Brent Stop the War, Brent and Harrow Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Email: MonitoringPrevent@gmail.com Facebook: Monitoring Prevent in Brent

LINKS:

• An-Nisa Responds to Prevent, the PSD and outlines our anti-Prevent campaign http://bit.ly/2cXE6ek
• Brent Council meeting on 'extremism' leaves community voices off the platform http://wembleymatters.blogspot.co.uk/…/brent-council-meetin…
• Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) & Prevent: A Muslim response by An-Nisa Society, 2009 http://bit.ly/2cLQIXA
• Anti-extremism drive puts British values at risk, says Greater Manchester chief constable Sir Peter Fahy who says government strategy could alienate Muslims and damage free speech and religious freedom, The Guardian, 2015 http://bit.ly/2amvIqD
• Andy Burnham calls for 'toxic' Prevent strategy to be scrapped - Shadow home secretary says policy is today’s equivalent of internment in Northern Ireland, Guardian, 2016 http://bit.ly/1UprOqA
• Edinburgh College drops Prevent from its staff training, 2016 – SACC http://bit.ly/2dLG1lj
• Anti-radicalisation strategy lacks evidence base in science, Letters, The Guardian http://bit.ly/2d7ZJGx
• Anti-radicalisation strategy lacks evidence base in science, Joint letter by academics and practitioners, The Guardian Letters, September 2016 http://bit.ly/2dd8WyJ
• Alienation and extremism, 2016, Prevent has merely institutionalised the process, which creates alienation and separation said speaker Imran Khan at a Wadham College Human Rights Forum roundtable discussion. http://bit.ly/2dDwuMm