Oct 13, 2016
Let’s remember the “Stop the War Coalition” and Kobane.
(Or why we shouldn’t defend Stop the War.)
In late 2014, the Kurds and their allies in Kobane were in serious threat of being overrun by Isis. For many years previously, it had been very easy for the “anti-imperialist” Left (e.g. Corbyn, StWC etc) to back the Kurds as they had been oppressed by fellow Nato member Turkey.
Now, it was a new ball game. The Kurds were calling on the US to protect them by providing arms and attacking Isis with airstrikes. The US was in a quandary. They couldn’t fall out too much with Nato ally Turkey but, at the same time, they didn’t want Isis to take Kobane. So, the US did attack Isis and formed a short term pact with the Kurds to defeat Isis but not so far (e.g. provide heavy weapons) that there would be an irrevocable political crisis with Turkey. Kobane was saved.
What was the position of the Stop the War Coalition?
They opposed the American air strikes against Isis. Their leader, John Rees, did join a Kurdish Solidarity march in Oct 2014 where he called for the Kurds to be armed against Isis and asked for the ANC, Hamas and Venezuela to provide the arms.
The poet Dante once said, “the hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crises maintain their neutrality”. I think a similar place should be reserved for those who exhibit the kind of despicable political cynicism that John Rees did here.
Did John Rees even spend five minutes sending an email to the ANC, Hamas or the Venezuelan Govt asking for arms for the Kurds? I doubt it very much. It was just a cheap “anti-imperialist” demand where he could show his “solidarity” with the Kurds, pat himself on the back and keep up his anti-Nato, anti-US credentials. His “arm the Kurds” demand was completely worthless.
More realistically, in August 2014, in Denmark, even the Trotskyists involved in the Red Green Alliance, voted in Parliament in favour of Danish military aid to the Kurds as they realised their desperate need.
So, to sum up, the leadership of StWC are not “anti war’ but for the defeat of Western Imperialism, no matter the consequences to the Kurds etc.. If Kobane had been overrun by Isis, no doubt John Rees, Jeremy Corbyn, Seumas Milne et al would have flooded Islington High St with their crocodile tears while the Kurds were slaughtered and enslaved. We would have seen copious articles in the Guardian explaining how it was really all the fault of the west (i.e. Nato, Turkey and, of course, the Iraq War) that the Kurds were defeated. Remember, if, somehow, the StWC and their American allies had managed to stop American air strikes against Isis, this is exactly the scenario that would have happened.
Luckily, the Kurds survived and some leftists, such as the Red-Green Alliance saw what was necessary.
Support for military intervention depends on the situation. The Kurds needed help from the US, got it and survived. When the vote in December 2015 came for the UK air strikes against Isis (note, not against the Syrian Govt), then, I believe, Labour MPs such as Hilary Benn were quite right to support them against Isis as they have helped the Kurds and their allies.
So, I’m afraid, I believe there is no “defence” of StWC. They have nothing positive to offer and, when they try, they produce solutions (see John Rees above) which are cynical, self-serving and provide “solidarity” of the worthless kind.
A word of thanks.
P.S. I am very grateful to Andrew Coates and his fantastic website “Tendance Coatesy” for much of the information on the Kurdish struggle against Isis. Google “ Kurds Tendance Coatesy” and you’ll see what I mean. It doesn’t mean, of course, that he would necessarily agree with any of what I have written but he deserves full credit for his hard work on providing much needed information in his blog.
