Postscript on "Stop the War" - Peter Tatchell has seen through them too
Following Green MP Caroline Lucas's decision to resign from the Stop the War coalition, Peter Tatchell is one of a number of "previous strong supporters" of the group who signed a letter to The Guardian which accuses "Stop the War" of having "lost its moral compass and authority."
The signatories point out that the Stop the War coalition
" ... has failed to organise or support protests against the Assad dictatorship and the regime’s massacre of peaceful democracy protesters in 2011 – and since. Nor has it shown solidarity with the non-violent Syrian civil society movements for democracy and human rights and with the millions of innocent civilians killed, wounded and displaced by Assad’s barrel bombs and torture chambers."
and
StWC has repeatedly refused to have anti-Assad Syrian democrats and leftwingers on its platforms at events where Syria is being discussed; whereas it has offered a platform to pro-Assad speakers
and also accuse the Stop the War Coalition of
"systematically ignoring war crimes committed by the Assad regime."
For the avoidance of doubt, the signatories of the letter do not support the present military action by the West in Syria, they merely see the hypocrisy of one-sided opposition to Western action while ignoring military action or outright war crimes by the Assad regime or Vladimir Putin.
As the main remaining prominent supporter of the Stop the War Coalition of which he was chairman until a few weeks ago, that puts the leader of the Labour party in the position of being outflanked on the right by the Greens and Peter Tatchell.
Further postscript 12th December 2015
Caroline Lucas has written an article in The Independent called Why I really left the Stop the war coalition and why it doesn't matter in which she takes exception to her decision to step down being used to criticise Jeremy Corbyn.
She says she stepped down as a Patron of the organisation nearly a month ago because "when faced with some Stop the War positions with which I didn't agree, coupled with a lack of capacity to fully engage in their decision-making processes, standing down was the responsible thing to do."
The signatories point out that the Stop the War coalition
" ... has failed to organise or support protests against the Assad dictatorship and the regime’s massacre of peaceful democracy protesters in 2011 – and since. Nor has it shown solidarity with the non-violent Syrian civil society movements for democracy and human rights and with the millions of innocent civilians killed, wounded and displaced by Assad’s barrel bombs and torture chambers."
and
StWC has repeatedly refused to have anti-Assad Syrian democrats and leftwingers on its platforms at events where Syria is being discussed; whereas it has offered a platform to pro-Assad speakers
and also accuse the Stop the War Coalition of
"systematically ignoring war crimes committed by the Assad regime."
For the avoidance of doubt, the signatories of the letter do not support the present military action by the West in Syria, they merely see the hypocrisy of one-sided opposition to Western action while ignoring military action or outright war crimes by the Assad regime or Vladimir Putin.
As the main remaining prominent supporter of the Stop the War Coalition of which he was chairman until a few weeks ago, that puts the leader of the Labour party in the position of being outflanked on the right by the Greens and Peter Tatchell.
Further postscript 12th December 2015
Caroline Lucas has written an article in The Independent called Why I really left the Stop the war coalition and why it doesn't matter in which she takes exception to her decision to step down being used to criticise Jeremy Corbyn.
She says she stepped down as a Patron of the organisation nearly a month ago because "when faced with some Stop the War positions with which I didn't agree, coupled with a lack of capacity to fully engage in their decision-making processes, standing down was the responsible thing to do."
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