Hackney Stop the War Public Meeting CRISIS IN THE 'WAR ON TERROR': home and abroad

1) Please come to our next public meeting (which is also our AGM).

The new year brings a worsening of the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan as a result of increased military intervention in that area. Iran is under renewed threat and the Yemen is now under attack. Most people want the troops brought home. The government is desperately attempting to regain the initiative by banging on about the threat of terrorism.

That means that our next public meeting will be a chance to discuss the situation and debate what we do.

Public Meeting

CRISIS IN THE 'WAR ON TERROR': home and abroad

Speaker: Andrew Murray, chair of Stop the War Coalition

Tuesday 23 February @ 7.30pm

Round Chapel, Powerscroft Road, E5, Lower Clapton

Buses: 38, 48, 55, 106, 242, 253, 254, 425, 488.

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This meeting is open to everyone even though it is our AGM.

2) Please see attachment. This is a petition asking for donations to help Ibrahim Avcil's legal defence. The charge against Ibrahim relates to our protests against the Army Show Room in Dalston. If you are free, please come and support Ibrahim when he appears in court this Wed 10 February. Meet at 9.30am, Bow Magistrates Court, Bow Road, near Bow Road tube station.

Gareth Jenkins
Hackney Stop The War

SUPPORT IBRAHIM AVCIL

STOP POLICE HARASSMENT

DEFEND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Ibrahim Avcil, chair of Refugee Workers Cultural Association, faces serious charges following an incident involving security guards in Kingsland Shopping Centre last June. His arrest by the police is an attempt to intimidate Stop the War protests against the Army Showroom in Dalston.

Please help defend Ibrahim by donating to his legal costs.

NAME	ADDRESS	DONATION	SIGNATURE

To Shoot An Elephant screening in Hackney tomorrow

Mon 21 Dec: join military families handing in petition to Downing Street

Please come to these two protests, next Monday and the Sunday after Xmas.

** Join Military Families against the war when they hand in petition to bring troops home from Afghanistan at Downing St at 5pm Mon 21 Dec. (Details below.)

** Gaza protest one year on outside Israeli embassy, 3-5pm Sun 28 Dec. (Details below.)

1) DECEMBER 21 MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER
2) GAZA PROTEST AT THE ISRAELI EMBASSY 27 DECEMBER

3) Thanks to everyone who supported the protest outside Kingsland Shopping Centre 12 Dec.

4) Activity in the New Year

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1) DECEMBER 21 MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER

With another two soldiers killed, bringing the total in 2009
to 102, the delivering of our Bring the Troops Home petition
to Downing Street on Monday 21 December, 5pm, could not be
more timely.

Military families are coming from around the country, with
their supporters, to take the petition to Gordon Brown's door.
They will be joined by former soldiers.

The families have asked for as much support as possible.

Hackney Stop the War banner will be present.

Stop the War thanks everyone for their efforts in collecting signatures for the
petition. It doesn't yet have a total figure because petition
sheets are still coming into the office, but tens of thousands
of signatures have been collected.

MILITARY FAMILIES DELIVER PETITION TO GORDON BROWN
BRING THE TROOPS HOME
MONDAY 21 DECEMBER, 5PM
DOWNING STREET, WHITEHALL, SW1A 2AA
PLEASE SUPPORT IF YOU CAN
For more information see: http://bit.ly/4Z3eCR

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2) GAZA PROTEST AT THE ISRAELI EMBASSY 27 DECEMBER

Sunday 28 December will be exactly one year since the start of
Israel's attack on Gaza and there will be worldwide protest
marking the anniversary.

The UK protest will be at the Israeli Embassy in London from
3-5pm. It has been called by Palestine Solidarity Campaign,
Stop the War Coalition, British Muslim Initiative, Campaign
for Nuclear Disarmament and many other organisations and
campaigns (For full list here:and details of Remember Gaza
events around the UK, go to http://bit.ly/5bxUAn )

With a British Court having issued a summons for the arrest of
Tzipi Livni (see http://bit.ly/8b11ul) - one of the three
Israeli ministers who led the Gaza onslaught - the issue of
war crimes, the need for Israel to be brought to account for
war crimes now documented by the UN's Goldstone report, is as
urgent as ever.

The protest at the Israeli embassy will also be calling for an
end to the Gaza siege, through which Israel is strangling all
aspects of civil life for one million Palestinians.

Please publicise the protest as widely as possible.

REMEMBER GAZA: END THE SIEGE
SUNDAY 27 DECEMBER 2009 3-5PM
HIGH STREET KENSINGTON LONDON W8
(High St Kensington tube station)

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3) Thanks to everyone who came to the 40 strong protest outside the Army Show Room at the Kingsland Shopping Centre on Sat 12 Dec.

We collected signatures to bring the troops home and got people to sign a xmas card for Joe Glenton, the soldier who courageously refuses to fight in Afghanistan and who faces the prospect of up to 10 years in prison.

We also remembered the 100 British soldiers killed this year, together with the many Afghan civilians who have lost their lives in this pointless war, and demanded the Army Show Room be shut down.

We got a very good response.

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Finally....

4) Tony Blair is likely to appear at the Iraq Inquiry in January
and Stop the War's officers are discussing plans for how best
to give him a warm reception.

On 28 January, Gordon Brown's international conference on
Afghanistan, which will be attended by Hamid Karzai, president
of Afghanistan in name but not legitimacy. Stop the War will
of course be organising protests and other events, details of
which will be published soon.

It may not have been called, but the general election campaign
has effectively started, with suggestions the date may be as
early as March. Stop the War intends to ensure that the wars
in Afghanistan and Iraq are central issues in the election.

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Hackney Stop The War sends best wishes to all our members and supporters for the New Year.

Afghanistan: Vital October Dates for your Diary

Hackney Stop the War Public Meeting

Afghanistan: Why are we there?
Speakers:Seumas Milne, Guardian columnist

Clare Glenton, wife of soldier refusing to serve in Afghanistan

John Rees, Stop the War Coalition

Thursday 22 October @ 7.30pmRound ChapelPowerscroft Road E5Lower Clapton
Buses: 38, 48, 55, 106, 242, 253, 254, 425, 488

The government finds it more and more difficult to sustain the case for keeping the troops in Afghanistan. The death toll of soldiers continues to spiral - and for what? We are told this is a war for democracy. Yet the recent elections have revealed how corrupt the government is. We are told this is a war to protect women's rights. Yet the parliament has passed vicious anti-women legislation with the government's support. And we are told this is a war to prevent terrorism. Yet the longer Nato troops stay the greater the threat of terrorism.
Opinion poll after opinion poll in Britain shows that people are not taken in by government propaganda. A majority want the troops home either immediately or by the end of the year.
Come and hear the speakers at our public meeting and join in the discussion.

Also make sure that you, your friends, neighbours and workmates come to the national demonstration to get the troops out of Afghanistan, organised by Stop the War, CND and the British Muslim Initiative.

Saturday 24 OctoberCentral London*****************************************************************************
We need your help.
We need help publicising the meeting and the demonstration. We shall be having stalls in different parts of the borough on Saturdays in October. If you can help please let me know as soon as possible.
3 October, 1.30pm, Kingsland Shopping Centre (opposite Dalston Kingsland Station).(This will also be a protest against the continuing presence of the Army Showroom.)
10 October, 10.30pm, Stoke Newington Church Street (outside William Patten School/Farmers Market).
17 October, !.30pm, Narrow Way, top of Mare Street (outside Marks and Spencer).

Gareth JenkinsSec. Hackney Stop The War

Shut Down the Dalston Army Showroom - Protest on Sat 25 July

The deaths of eight soldiers in Afghanistan in as many days brings home the
urgency of our campaign to bring the troops home from Afghanistan and to
shut down the Army showroom in Dalston.

The media may try to ignore us or spin the figures. But the fact remains
that a majority of people in Britain want the troops in Afghanistan
withdrawn by the end of the year. They do not believe this is a 'good war'.
In reality Nato forces are protecting a corrupt regime under President
Karzai and an undemocratic bunch of drug-running warlords. It is a state
where the position of women is worse than it was under the Taliban.

The government claims that the war must go on to prevent terrorism on the
streets of Britain. But the longer the occupation continues the greater the
likelihood of terrorist outrages occurring.

If politicians really want to save the lives of soldiers (and the lives of
Afghan civilians, who are now dying at double last year's rate), they should
recognise that this is a pointless, unwinnable war and bring the troops home
now.

And we must get the army showroom in Dalston shut down. Youth unemployment
is now at a sixteen year high. We don't want young people in Hackney being
conned by glitzy images into an army career, with the prospect of death,
injury or mental trauma as a result of the Afghan war.

Join the protest at 1.30pm on Saturday 25 July
at the Kingsland Shopping Centre, Dalston, opposite Dalston Kingsland
station.

We shall be leafleting, petitioning and distributing postcards. Any help you
can give would be much appreciated.

Protest: 6.15pm on Tuesday 14 July at the Petchey Academy Shacklewell Lane E8 2EY

The Army Presentation Team is holding an evening for invitees only at 6.15pm on Tuesday 14 July at the Petchey Academy Shacklewell Lane E8 2EY. This seems to be part of the attempt we have seen in respect of the Showroom in the Kingsland Shopping Centre to promote the Army but conceal the reality what is happening to soldiers and civilians in places like Afghanistan.

Hackney Stop the War will gather outside the Academy at 5.45pm to distribute material to those going to the meeting, urging the shut down of the Army Showroom in the Kingsland Shopping Centre, Dalston.
Please join us. Contact me for further details.

Gareth JenkinsSec.

Hackney Stop The War

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.

Protest: Shut Down the Army Showroom in Dalston, Sat 20 June. Defend the right to protest

Shut Down the Army Showroom in Dalston

Join the protest

Another British soldier has just been killed in Afghanistan. It's time all British troops were withdrawn - for the sake of the Afghan people and the servicemen and women sent to defend a corrupt and unpopular regime.

And it's time the Army Showroom in the Kingsland Shopping Centre, Dalston, was shut down. We don't want any more young people, faced with unemployment, falling for the glossy video images and being sent to kill or die or be maimed in Afghanistan.

We also need to defend the right to protest in the face of the outrageous arrest of one of our supporters, who was assaulted and racially abused, as he was walking to work through the shopping centre.

Join the protest at 1.30pm on Saturday 20 June

at the Kingsland Shopping Centre, Dalston

(opposite Dalston Kingsland train station).

Keep up the pressure!

Public Meeting: Shut down the Army Showroom in Dalston

Thursday 18th June
7.30 pm, Round Chapel
Powerscroft Road, E5
Lower Clapton

Speakers
Lindsey German, Convenor of Stop the War Coalition
Jenny Sutton, College of North East London
George Solomou, Military Families Against the War
Cllr Angus Mulready-Jones

More than 170 British soldiers have been killed in Iraq and more than 150 in Afghanistan. Young ex-servicement are three times more likely to commit suicide than their civilians counterparts. Shelter estimates that over a quarter of homeless people are ex-servicemen and women. Servicemen and women have no employment protection rights. There is a well documented history of bullying and racism in the army. Hundreds of young army recruits go absent without leave every year. 14000 servicemen and women leave the army every year.

CREATE REAL JOBS IN HACKNEY. BRING THE TROOPS HOME.