Public Meeting: Shut down the Army Showroom in Dalston Thursday 18 June

Public meeting

Shut Down the Army Showroom in Dalston

7.30pm, Thursday 18 June

Round Chapel, Powerscroft Road, E5, Lower Clapton

Speakers:

Councillor Angus Mulready-Jones

Jenny Sutton, College of North East London

George Solomou, Military Families Against the War

Lindsey German, Convenor Stop the War Coalition

Twelve soldiers were killed in Afghanistan in May this year. The death rate is now higher than at any time since the invasion in 2001.

And, at around a thousand major casualties a year, every British soldier in Afghanistan has a one in eight chance of being seriously injured or contracting a serious illness.

Why doesn’t the army tell visitors to its showroom in Dalston about these horrific statistics instead of presenting war as a video game?

Our petitioning shows that people are also concerned at the Army’s attempt to exploit youth unemployment in a poor borough like Hackney.

The war in Afghanistan is getting uglier by the week. British pilots are firing an increasing number of “enhanced blast” thermobaric weapons, designed to kill everyone in buildings they strike. The violence will get worse, warns Lieutenant General Jim Dutton, Nato deputy commander in Afghanistan.

Everyone should ask themselves: is this what we want for the people of Afghanistan or for young people here to become involved in?

Youngsters in Hackney deserve better. The choice shouldn’t be between rotting on the dole or facing death or maiming in Afghanistan. Money should be poured into education, not chopped from college budgets.