Current issue of Kingston Peace News
Secretary's Report - April 2004
The first flush of angry letters fill the Guardian's correspondence following
Ariel Sharon's historic bamboozling of the American President this week.
Too, too easy. Not fair. Poor George is a simple lad and not up to resisting
this ruthless determination. So Israel will continue to manipulate, steal,
propagandise and deceive, most of the poor bloody Palestinians will remain
out in the cold, and those whose anger overwhelms them will find renewed
destructive energy. Israelis will, I say with confidence, not find much
positive outcome. I am offering a small but valuable prize to anyone who
can come up with one single good aspect of this sorry story. It's legally
outrageous, ethically outrageous and the sheer bloody nerve of it inspires
shock and awe. "We will give you back a chunk of the land we have
occupied illegally for 37 years, but in return we are going to hang on
to a another much larger piece of the land we have occupied illegally
for 37 years". Chutzpah, I think the term is.
Well, something more cheerful ...... there is a degree of interest in
the situation in Iraq, a bit like watching extreme sports, perhaps? You
watch, fascinated, convinced that the intrepid athlete is going to encounter
something relatively immovable, and hard. The Coalition of the Willing
seems to be in a similar position though the image that comes to mind
is more like a small boy poking a wasps nest with a stick. But goodness
only knows how many more thousands of Iraqis will fall victim to the bloody
encounter between the pig headed obstinacy of the Coalition generals,
the equal stubborn insistence of Iraqis that they are not going to be
told what to do and the greed of a bunch of corporate carpet-baggers and
arms salesmen. You know that good old crack about "three little words
that save a marriage - 'I was wrong'?". Here's a new version to be
directed at our glorious leaders: - "Three little words that state
a position - we were right". But what's the consolation in that?
A small but sincere group of our members took part in the Aldermaston
March over Easter weekend. I was one of the cop-outs, shame faced confession.
But there was lots of exposure and news coverage even though the numbers
seem to have been smaller than might have been hoped. Surrey Comet notices
us this week thanks to our dedicated publicity team. It sounds as though
it was rather a jolly occasion and the contrast of marching through countryside
rather than a townscape was mentioned with approval by participants. I
do wonder just how our government really views squares Aldermaston with
this country's membership of the Non Proliferation Treaty - I can't see
much sign that we have a dedicated interest in getting rid of our nukes.
Don't forget about the Embassies walk in 24th May, an amble round the
outposts in London of countries that do retain their nukes as well as
the handful that have taken a positive position. Hope they stop by at
the Ministry of Defence, ho ho.
Look, here's something more positive. The last jumble sale made a profit
of £410 the 2nd best ever, and we look forward to ploughing it back into
positive campaigning work of one kind and another such as a presence at
several fairs over the summer including the Green Fair, Monday 31st May,
New Malden Fair 10th July and Sutton Fair Monday 30th August. Helpers
wanted, pretty please. Also we are brewing plans for a public meeting
in the autumn about the self evident benefits of militarism in promoting
peace in the Middle East and the possibility that other options might
be more effective. I hope that we will also lure down a speaker from Peace
Direct to explain their ideas about how to influence policy makers effectively.
That would be worth doing. There's a talk on 5th May (see Diary) on this
in relation to nuclear policy makers.
Also on a positive note, we finally have the copies of for Wobbly Rebels'
CD of anti war songs, we expect imminently, any time now, really really
soon to have the art work done and then will flog them from the stall
and other sources at the amazingly reasonable price of £5 a copy. You
can buy one now if you don't insist on the flash cover. Many thanks to
the various artists who donated their talents and time!
In the words of the cartoons, that's all, folks. I'm off to watch the
news and find out whether the wasp's nest of Iraq has erupted into still
more senseless brutality on both sides.