Salma Yaqoob - Friends in the Green Party

Yesterday I went to Birmingham for the Green Left meeting and we helped Salma Yaqoob's parliamentary campaign in Sparkhill, a predominantly Asian suburb of the city. We were made very welcome and afterwards Salma addressed our meeting and answered questions. She is a truly inspirational politician and I am very glad that we could assist her election campaign. She is also calling for progresive activists to assist Caroline Lucas's election campaign in Brighton. Salma wrote the following on her blog. The photo is of  Green Left and Respect activists with Salma out on the streets.

http://www.salmayaqoob.com/2010/01/friends-in-green-party.html

Friends in the Green Party

“This weekend I met with members of the Green Left – a grouping within the Green Party.

They were having one of their regular meetings in Birmingham and they had offered to help with some campaigning beforehand. I was grateful for their support - we need all the help we can get!

On a very cold but fresh Saturday morning we all set off distributing leaflets and door knocking in the Springfield ward. The issue we are campaigning around at the moment is the threat to plans to re-open Sparkhill swimming baths, the local community pool.

After a couple of hours of traipsing the streets we reconvened for discussion, chat and some food at Birmingham’s Metropolitan Community Church, which is around the corner from the charming Friends of the Earth Warehouse Café.

Inevitably our discussion focused on how national politics could be levered in a progressive direction.

Someone asked whether a new national left-green coalition could be set up. My answer was that we don’t have to belong to one party to work together. Right now the priority should be turning words of solidarity and co-operation into real localised bottom-up examples.

That is why during the recent European elections I backed the Green European candidate Felicity Norman. Felicity was campaigning openly on a very principled stance of opposition to racism and the BNP and she was the candidate best placed to advance a progressive agenda for the West Midlands. I was proud to support her.

We are developing new ways of working and I have been very encouraged by recent developments in Birmingham Green Party.

They have elected a new committee, staffed with a talented bunch of young, enthusiastic, idealistic and tactically astute members. They don’t just talk about unity, they practice it. It was their initiative to campaign among their members not to stand a candidate in Hall Green constituency in order to enhance my chances of winning. It is the kind of sensible, but very rare, co-operation between people of different parties on the left that makes me optimistic for the future.

By working together in the city, my hope is that we can illustrate in practice how collaborative working can strengthen progressive politics.

All in all it was a very encouraging day. Thanks again to my new friends in the Green Party for making it so.”

The smiling villain - Tony Blair

 I spent several hours yesterday outside the Iraq War Inquiry where Blair was testifying with the demonstrators. One of those who read the names of the dead in Iraq was the actor, Sam West, he also quoted these lines from Hamlet, which he slightly altered for the occasion. They say it all really, as only Shakespeare can.

O most pernicious man!

O villain, villain, smiling, damnèd villain!

My tables—meet it is I set it down

That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain—

At least I am sure it may be so in Britain.

Hamlet Act 1, scene 5, 105–109

Protesting at the Afghanistan conference

Councillor Romayne Phoenix of Lewisham and I demonstrating outside St James' Palace yesterday at the international conference on the war in Afghanistan. We missed Hilary Clinton's motorcade as she decided to go around the other way to avoid the demo. Today it will be Tony Blair's turn to face the music. If Iraq was Blair and Bush's war, Afghanistan is Brown's and Obama's. I also liked the agitprop of the guy with the   suitcase demonstrating where our taxes are going. I met some students from Middlesex University who interviewed me for their tv and media section and Romayne was interviewed for TV3 from New Zealand.

Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing

Below is the leader from the New Statesman magazine on the war in Afghanistan. Tomorrow morning I will be with many others demonstrating against this farce of a conference and the attendance of President Karzai, who is NATO's puppet in Kabul. Blood, taxes and weapons continue to flow towards Afghanistan, yet every serious commentator, whether military or political, accepts that the war is unwinnable. The latest strategy is to try and bribe members of the Taliban.

The propaganda machine continues to grind on, as war propaganda always does and the tragic scenes in Wooton Bassett are used to fuel this. But the fact remains that the war is a furnace ever hungry for more resources and more lives - both Afghan and British. And the generals are the stokers at the furnace gates. The conference tomorrow will make pronouncements and issue press releases but it is all just empty rhetoric in the echoing halls of Lancaster House. As Shakespeare wrote: "Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

The Afghanistan war remains unwinnable. Britain should be making plans to withdraw

On 28 January, foreign ministers from around the world will gather in London for a conference on Afghanistan. The aim is to mobilise international efforts behind a plan for how to deploy military and civilian resources on the ground. The London conference will be chaired by the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband. Writing exclusively in the New Statesman this week (page 25) ahead of the conference, Mr Miliband stresses the importance of a “clear political strategy”, and says: “We will be looking to President Karzai’s government to show that its intentions on security and governance will be carried through into action.”

http://www.newstatesman.com/international-politics/2010/01/afghanistan-war-british-london

Call for Green and Black people to register to vote

An important appeal here by my colleague in Lambeth and Parliamentary Candidate for Dulwich and West Norwood, Shane Collins, calling on black people to register to vote in this year's general and local elections in London. Vauxhall also has a large black population and I hope that the leaders of the black community will encourge people to vote and not to allow this opportunity to pass.

Call for Green and Black people to register to vote

The Green Party's Parliamentary Candidate for Dulwich and West Norwood, Shane Collins, presented Reverend Al Sharpton with a Brixton Pound at the Operation Black Vote 'Register to Vote' meeting on Thursday 21st January at Friends Meeting House in Euston.



Shane Collins said: "The Reverend Sharpton comes from Harlem, the spiritual home of Marcus Garvey. His message of keeping economic power in the community is more relevant than ever today - with the corporate takeover of much of our lives. This message has been taken up by Transition Town, as exemplified by the Brixton Pound which I was proud to present to the Reverend Sharpton."


"Voter registration among the black community is only 45% in younger age groups, similar to the black youth unemployment rate. There is a connection. Black and green people have the power to change the results in the local and general elections but only if registered and voting.


"So remember Rosa Parks, honour Nelson Mandela, take heart from President Obama and register to vote by contacting your Town Hall or www.electoralcommission.org.uk. Remember racists register and racists vote."


For elections on 6th May the deadline to register is 20th April.

Quotes from Rev Sharpton speech

"How you define yourself is how you confine yourself. You have all this technology, Facebook, Twitter, Blackberry's. And you can't get ten black Britons to go and vote?

"At a time when we can elect Presidents, there is no excuse for us to be sitting down and not doing anything, and avoid recognising that it's a new time."

A war criminal comes to town on Friday

I will be there on Friday along with all of those who object to what this most dissembling and dishonest of British politicians has done. There should be no hiding place for such as him.

DEFEND THE RIGHT TO PROTEST ON BLAIR INQUIRY DAY

The police are aiming to keep protesters out of sight this Friday when Tony Blair appears at the Iraq Inquiry.

Today's newspapers say the police are considering a ring of steel and an exclusion zone round the QEII Conference Centre in Westminster, where the Inquiry is held. (See http://bit.ly/85Ba2Z )

This contradicts a statement by Scotland Yard yesterday that they aim to "facilitate the protest as best we can".

Stop the War has demanded the right to protest on the grass immediately outside the conference centre. The police are refusing to say whether they will allow this.

To which Lindsey German, National Convenor of Stop the War, has responded: "It would be outrageous if the police were used to keep the public away from Tony Blair. Our right to peaceful protest must not be curtailed for political purposes. We are asking for the biggest possible turn out on Friday to defend the right to protest and make it clear to the world that the majority here think Tony Blair is guilty of war crimes."

Among those attending the all-day protest are writers, musicians, Iraqi exiles, the families of soldiers killed in
Iraq, well known actors, human rights lawyers and ordinary citizens from across the country. (Events timetable here: http://bit.ly/8mKM0T)

Military families who lost loved ones in Iraq will be joining the protests and 23 of them have written a letter to Blair requesting a personal meeting after he has completed his evidence:

"Our loved ones died in the Iraq war. This Friday we will be attending the Inquiry led by Sir John Chilcot. Please would you extend us the courtesy of a short private meeting after you have given your evidence to the Inquiry. If you could permit us 15 minutes out of your busy schedule we would be very grateful. This would assist the families in bringing some form of closure to the whole sorry episode of the Iraq war."

They await Blair's reply. He has refused repeatedly over the past six years all requests to meet with the bereaved families.

Please try to join Stop the War, the military families, CND and other organisations on Friday and publicise the protest as widely as you can.

TONY BLAIR'S "JUDGEMENT DAY"

DEFEND THE RIGHT TO PROTEST

Friday 29 January from 8.00am onwards

Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre

Broad Sanctuary, London, SW1P 3EE

Nearest tube: Westminster

For a timetable of the day's events, please go to:

http://bit.ly/8mKM0T

US Greens call for support for Haiti

US Greens: Make peace, political self-determination, and economic self-sufficiency part of the US aid for post-earthquake Haiti

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES Press Release:

• Green Party leaders assert that aid to Haiti must not be delivered under the barrel of a US machine gun; Greens thank Obama for granting long overdue Temporary Protected Status to Haitians in the US

• Green Party Speakers Bureau: Greens available to speak on peace, human rights, foreign policy, and other related issues:

http://www.gp.org/speakers

Green Party Black Caucus contacts: http://www.gp.org/committees/black


WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders expressed sympathy and solidarity with the people of Haiti in the wake of Tuesday's catastrophic earthquake, and urged President Obama to make peace, political self-determination, and economic self-sufficiency part of US relief efforts for Haiti.

Party leaders also demanded that US forces not obstruct relief efforts, after a Doctors Without Borders cargo plane carrying medicine and other badly needed supplies was blocked from landing on Saturday (http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org//press/release.cfm?id=4165&cat=press-release

/ http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7017546193). Haiti air-space has been under US control since January 15.

Greens have joined the millions of other Americans who are sending contributions to Haiti, with an emphasis on charitable groups that are most effective in getting aid to Haiti and have a solid record of human rights advocacy and grassroots community development work in Haiti.

Former Green presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney visited Haiti in May and June, 2008, and spoke at the SOPUDEP School in Pétion-Ville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince (http://www.sopudep.org). The school provides free tuition to hundreds of poor children. Greens have learned that the school is still standing and will serve as a relief center, but there is still little news on students and staff (http://www.orilliapacket.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2264272).

"We hope President Obama sees this sad occasion as a chance to initiate a new era of relations with Haiti, one based on cooperation, respect, and non-intervention. It should begin with a massive and green rebuilding effort that promotes Haiti's political self-determination and economic self-sufficiency. If President Obama's post-earthquake aid plan for Haiti puts an end to a century of exploitation for cheap labor, brutal human rights abuses by US-backed regimes, colonial corruption and graft, and political bullying by the US, he'll be remembered for having helped the Haitian people emerge from two disasters -- the earthquake itself and Haiti's status as the poorest nation in the western hemisphere," said Rosa Clemente, 2008 Green nominee for Vice President of the United States (http://www.rosaclemente.com).

"The decision on Friday, January 15, to grant Temporary Protected Status to Haitians residing in the US before January 12 was long overdue. We're glad the Obama Administration announced that deportations of undocumented Haitians in the US will cease and that Haitians will be allowed access to employment opportunities so they can support their families," said Betty Davis, co-chair of the Green Party Black Caucus.

Until the announcement on Friday, the Obama Administration had maintained the US policy of denying Haitians Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which is available to people from federally designated countries suffering armed conflicts and natural disasters.

Green Party leaders have been alarmed about reports that US troops, including an entire Marine Expeditionary Force, FEMA, and an aircraft carrier, have been ordered to Haiti to "help restore order."

"The relief effort must not turn into a military invasion of Haiti," said Romi Elnagar, a member of the Green Party's International Committee. "The deployment of SOUTHCOM and NORTHCOM puts Haiti in danger of joining Iraq and Afghanistan as a country occupied by US troops, with similar miseries visited on the Haitian people. It'll be an opportunity to provide more desperately poor sweatshop workers for companies like Disney and land for biofuels for American consumption.

Greens and other Americans who care about the Haitian people demand a different future -- one based on peace, freedom, fair wages for Haitian workers and an economy that meets the needs of Haitians first, as well as safety from the mounting effects of global warming."

The Green Party of the United States issued a statement of support for Haitian democracy in 2005 (http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2005_02_07.html). Greens strongly criticized the US's role in former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's kidnapping and expulsion in 2004 and called for an independent investigation (http://www.gp.org/press/pr_03_02_04.html).

See also the interview with Randall Robinson, founder and former president of TransAfrica and author of "An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, from Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President," on Democracy Now!



http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/15/bush_was_responsible_for_destroying_haitian).