The carve up of the Arctic - a new Cold War?

I am going to a meeting tomorrow of the Green Party's international committee. Apart from issues concerning Europe, international motions going to the party conference - one of which I have proposed asking for support for the Global Greens Congress in Senegal next year - the other issue I have asked to be put on the agenda is the situation in the Arctic with drilling for oil etc and the real danger of a major resource war there.

Already we can see that NATO, the US, Russia and others are getting ready to carve out their interests in the region on the assumption that as the ice retreats a new El Dorado will open up for them in terms of minerals and fossil fuels. This is an appalling vista and made worse by the real prospect of war and conflict there. Recent report on a conference on the future of the Arctic and on some of the wikileaks on the issue are a real cause for concern.

Also today Kumi Naidoo, the Executive Director of Greenpeace is joining other brave activists to protest about oil drilling off Greenland. Kumi, already a veteran of the anti-apartheid movement, makes the very salient point that apart from the damage to nature, which could be enormous, that these developments will also impact hugely on the developing world and lead to massive damage and a rise in global sea levels.

This is going to be one of the issues of this century and we betteer wake up to its real dangers before it is too late. I intend to liaise with the Danish Green movement and others about this and with our sister party in Denmark. I am also hoping to organise a fringe on it at the party's autumn conference.

Stop the War Coalition Conference on Afghanistan last Saturday

Last Saturday I attended an excellent conference organised by Stop the War Coalition with first class speakers from various backgrounds. It was noticeable that there were 300 people present and a many new young activists. I particularly found the speeches of Tariq Ali, Dave Swanson and John Hillary of War on Want, which have produced a first class booklet on the war in Afghanistan. I also met Greg Muttit, who has written a book on Iraq entitled 'Fuel on the Fire. Oil and Politics in Occupied Iraq.' Tariq Ali's quote from Churchill's book on his early career as a British imperialist officer in Afghanistan was masterly. As Tariq said, at least Churchill was an honest imperialist whereas the current crew dress up their interventions in Afghanistan and Libya in the language of human rights and democracy when their aims are the same old imperialist ones. Tariq's claims about the attack on the naval base in Karachi are also startling and a real wake up call about what is happening in Pakistan. As many said at the conference we are being drip fed propaganda from the war party and not hearing a lot about the underlying facts, such as the real situation in Pakistan. Even Al Jazeera, with its ownership by Quatari interests, cannot be trusted to report fairly about what is happening in Libya.




Greg Muttit said that he would be very interested in speaking at the Green Party conference comparing the interventions in Libya and Afghanistan.

John Hillary drew the connections between the war in Afghanistan and poverty and geostrategic exploitation.



The poems by the young Yemeni poet, Sanasino, were also very powerful.


The session I chaired on Parliamentary Campaigning had Jeremy Corbyn MP and Carol Turner, Coordinator of the Afghanistan Withdrawal Group, whose Co-Chair is Caroline Lucas. Carol pointed out that sending postcards and emails to MPs is important. Other members of the Afghanistan Withdrawal Group are a Lib Dem MP who is Vice Chair and Jeremy Corbyn is the other Vice Chair. Daniel Poulter, a Tory MP is also a member as is the leader of Plaid Cymru. They hold open public meetings in parliament and the next one is due on June 28th.

Jeremy Corbyn pointed out how Orders in Council were used by the Prime Minister to bypass parliament and that he and other MPs were trying to ensure that all wars required a full vote in parliament beforehand. He said that the only reason why Blair had allowed a vote on the Iraq war was because he believed that he would imprison Labour MPs in the war by binding them to the decision. He also pointed out that there were more backbench days now and that an effective method of lobbying was to get an MP  to put down an Early Day Motion - this was indicative of the external lobby. He himself received 1000s of emails per week lobbying him on various issues. His volume of correspondence had increased substantially. In the 80s he had received on average 200 letters per day. He also, quite interestingly, said that mass email campaigns irritate MPs considerably but that they are effective. It was best if such emails emanated from constituents.

Jeremy also said that the Foreign Office Briefing on Libya was highly informative and well worth reading. He also recommended Library Briefings on the parliamentary website - google House of Commons Library and notes on various issues could be found there. Many of these were free of the propaganda element and far more informative.

There was a suggestion from the floor about organising a conference on an alternative foreign policy for the UK and Jeremy thought that this was well overdue. The anti-war movement was often too reactive whereas a new vision for a foreign policy was required. He also sent his best wishes to Brian Haw to mark a decade of his protest at Parliament Square.

I came away from the conference feeling inspired and much better informed and more convinced than ever that the anti-war movement is vital in this country.

Tactical Questioning - Scenes from the Baha Mousa Inquiry

Not much blogging last week due to a confluence of domestic turmoil and political activity. Firstly, I am having a new combination boiler installed and the kitchen is like a building site at present, the kitchen is also being completely redone so with fitters and others coming and going there is not a moment's rest. I was also quite tied up with various internal activities around the Green Party and also attended the Steering Committee of the Coalition of Resistance on Friday as well as preparing the papers for the London Ambulance Service Patients Forum meeting happening tonight at Lambeth PCT in Lower Marsh.

I spent the whole weekend on Stop the War Coalition business - attending the conference on Saturday on 'Afghanistan - Ten Years On' with an array  of really interesting speakers and I shall blog about this later. I also attended the Steering Committee meeting of Stop the War yesterday.

At the conference on Saturday, Jane Shallice, one of the STWC officers, referred to an excellent play being peformed at the Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn, North London. The play is about the investigation into the death  of Baha Mousa at the hands of British soldiers in Iraq. The very same theatre ran a series of plays on Afghanistan last year entitled 'The Great Game' which I went to see. Peformances of the play were later seen by members of the general staff and by Hilary Clinton and senior officials at the Pentagon when  it toured New York.

I think that it raises very serious issues and is a clear link also with the way that NATO and UK forces are treating civilians in Afghanistan and other theatres of war. War is a brutalising business for both occupiers and occupied and that is why I support the petition launched by Stop the War at the weekend for all UK forces to be withdrawn from Afghanistan by Xmas.

Day Conference on Saturday - Afghanistan and the War on Terror ten years on

I will be attending this conference on Saturday and going along to the Stop the War Coalition Steering Committee the following day. Never has there been more need to draw the links between the cost of war and military hardware and the cuts to our essential and frontline services.

June 11 Day Conference: Afghanistan and the war on terror ten years on .

National Events .. Saturday 11 June Day Conference: Afghanistan and the war on terror ten years on

Conway Hall Red Lion Square London WC1R 4RL. Registration 9.30 am • Tickets £5

Ten years ago the events of 9/11 triggered a series of events which changed the world profoundly. The war in Afghanistan marked the start of a decade of war which has resulted in death, injury and displacement for millions of people across south Asia and the Middle East. The latest of these wars has now been launched on Libya, while the first one that in Afghanistan is taking a growing human and economic toll in one of the poorest countries in the world.

Stop the War is holding an important conference on Afghanistan and the war on terror which aims to analyse and explain the war and its legacies. It will bring together different elements of the broad movement including journalists, activists, former soldiers and military families. The conference is important as an exchange of information and ideas. But it is also a means of organising future campaigns. Ten years on, we still have to build a mass movement to force the US and British governments to withdraw the troops and to stop future interventions.

Speakers include: Tariq Ali • author Pankaj Mishra • US anti war Campaigner David Swanson • Yasmin Khan War on Want • Lindsey German Stop the War Coalition • Tony Benn • Jemima Khan human rights activist • George Galloway • Greg Muttit, author of Fuel on the Fire: Oil and Politics in Occupied Iraq • artists Peter Kennard, Cat Phillips and David Gentleman • Faithless guitarist Dave Randall • poet Sanasino • Iraqi commentator Sami Ramadani • former soldier Joe Glenton who was jailed for refusing to fight in Afghanistan • Joan Humphries from Military Families against the War • Jeremy Corbyn MP

....

London Ambulance Service Patients Forum Joint Meeting with Sickle Cell Society

The article about my press release re Richard Barnbrook and diversity in the LAS appeared in the Irish Post last week in the column of Paul O'Donavan, I already posted the press release here two weeks ago but the column ended by stating:

"Good to see a member of one of London's largest ethnic minority communities (the Irish) standing up for diversity in London's ambulance service."

Thanks Paul. And next Monday sees a meeting of the Forum with a group who have been affected quite a lot by problems with the ambulance service - there is currently a case under investigation - people suffering from sickle cell illness. This illness is mainly found among the African and Caribbean communities and is particularly prevalent in areas such as Lambeth and Southwark. I will also be presenting my report on the LAS board meeting and I certainly hope that a good number of BME patients and users will attend.

Joint meeting with the Sickle Cell Society



Guest speaker:


Dr Fionna Moore, Medical Director, LAS


Emergency Care in a Sickle Cell Crisis


Monday June 13th 2011


5.30-7.30pm


Lambeth PCT, ROOM 407, 1 Lower Marsh, Waterloo, SE1


Forum’s Officers:

CHAIR: Dr Joseph Healy j-j@freezone.co.uk or PatientsForumLAS@aol.com

VICE CHAIR: Sister Josephine Udie Sisterjossi@hotmail.com

VICE CHAIR: Lynn Strother director.glf@pop3.poptel.org.uk

VICE CHAIR: Malcolm Alexander PatientsForumLAS@aol.com



BSL signers will be available

Nearest Tube: Waterloo British Rail: Waterloo Buses:1,4,26,77,68,168,171,172,176,188,507,243,341,381,507,521

PATIENTS’ FORUM AMBULANCE SERVICES (LONDON) LTD

The arrest of Mladic - A reminder of Srebenica

The arrest of Mladic brings back to Europe the shame of Srebenica and what happened in the former Yugoslaiva in the 1990s. It also, of course, accelerates the chances of Serbia joining the EU. Here is a first rate documentary made by the BBC about the massacre at Srebenica.

Protest at Irish Restaurant Awards by low paid migrant workers

Brilliant flashmob protest here by Irish restaurant workers in Dublin at the swanky Irish Restaurant Awards, where the employers have been lobbying to reduce the low pay they already receive. Organised by the trade union SIPTU - good on them!