Yep — also in the case of Labour leader Corbyn today!!
○ Corbyn’s no anti-British traitor: the Tory press is playing a risky game
Fifteen years after Iraq war protests, peace is further away than ever | The Guardian Opinion |
On this day, 15 years ago, I joined about one million others in central London to march against the impending Iraq war. We were not just part of the biggest political demonstration in British history, but the largest simultaneous protest event in the world, with millions marching in every continent. We gathered in Hyde Park and heard many famous voices speaking out against the war, from Labour politician Tony Benn to playwright Harold Pinter.
On 15 February 2003, there was a coordinated day of protests across the world in which people in more than 600 cities expressed opposition to the imminent Iraq War. It was part of a series of protests and political events that had begun in 2002 and continued as the war took place. Social movement researchers have described the 15 February protest as “the largest protest event in human history”.
When Jeremy Corbyn took the stage, he too was a familiar face to all peace march veterans and Islington residents like myself, but less so to other members of the crowd. But his words stirred the souls of everyone present. He asked why we could afford to spend billions on a war nobody wanted while children around the world were dying of poverty and starvation. And he warned of the risks in invading Iraq: “It will set off a spiral of conflict, of hate, of misery and of desperation that will fuel the wars, the conflict, the terrorism, the depression and misery of future generations.”
…
And as party leader, his speech in the 2015 Syria debate – pilloried by the Tory government and Labour critics at the time – now reads like the cries of Cassandra. Corbyn warned that with no credible Syrian opposition forces, no long-term strategy and no plan for a political settlement, the refugee crisis and civilian casualties would only grow, and mission creep was inevitable. “Is it right,” he asked, “for us here in Westminster to see a problem, pass a motion and drop bombs, pretending we are doing something to solve it?
○ Freedom for Palestine and No War On Iraq – London Feb. 15, 2003
○ Protests against the Iraq War – USA
○ The World Says No to War
Diary inspired by comments to my previous diary – For the Grace of God.
A progressive blog has become a mockery of itself. How many events are needed to prove when someone is on the right side of history? Starting with Vietnam …
Are you arguing that Corbyn as the leader of Labour is in danger of execution because..something, something, something? A story like that would be all over the Guardian, and that’s a paper somewhat critical of Corbyn (perhaps these days more for failing to take a strongly anti-Brexit stance). Corbyn’s past as a leftist has always been thrown at him – somehow he has a successful career, and I daresay has been far more effective as a Labour leader than I had expected from a back-bencher known more for agitating than leading. I long ago took back my beliefs that he could not lead his way out of a paper bag. So far so good. And I am guessing he’ll survive the latest round of Tory mudslinging as well.
As for that last sentence – give it a rest already. There is nothing remotely progressive in enabling a commenter/diarist who has repeatedly hurled insults at others, advocated anti-progressive positions (he’ll never live down his advocacy of either Ron or Rand Paul, or his anti-Civil Rights Act remarks), and used this space as a means of drawing attention to himself. I am not aware of anyone threatening physical violence against him on this blog – and would not only zero out the threatening comment, but would be frantically emailing Booman if such a transgression occurred. I hope others would too. Dismissive comments about a blogger’s behavior when it has been deservedly awful hardly falls under the umbrella of execution nor is it fascist. Cut it out. Please.
Socrates. Hemlock.
I have no idea about Corbyn, but it seems quite possible that someone could be an eloquent speaker, 100% right on the issues – and be a communist spy, or have been one in the past. We went thru this stuff in the 30s-50s – see any bio of J Robert Oppenheimer for one example.
The meta stuff I don’t get. Seems like a waste of time but then, I don’t get it.