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Challenging
Blair on Home Territory
How the British
Public Viewed the War
Despite
my being a conspiracy theorist and having demonstrated against US
hegemony since its war on Vietnam, I never would have foreseen this
horror. Today after seeing front page news photo of Razzaq Kazam al-Khafag
who lost 15 family members… I took a pile of leaflets and posters
and went to my local tube station and just stood there shouting
“Stop the war”… I have to do something everyday or feel I am
going mad.
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Frankie Green, London activist
You may have been wondering what British people were thinking when
they saw the news from “our boys on the frontline.” For sure
there were many people who supported the war, but the participation
of British forces in the assault on Iraq produced opposition and
questions back home never previously seen in times of war. Isabelle
Humphries reports from the UK on the unprecedented reaction towards
Tony Blair’s involvement in the attack on Iraq.
Tony
Blair – No Longer the Suave Smiling Sophisticate
“What
is Tony Blair doing? What is any professed ‘Christian’ doing?”
asks Lia Young, a mother in her 40s. “I can imagine how the
current American administration arrived at a decision to throw
caution to the winds and indulge their predilection for displays of
untrammeled force – they are neither subtle nor sophisticated. How
did they co-opt Tony Blair? He looks, and sounds, intelligent, and
sincere.” Lia voices the shock of many of the British electorate,
who had assumed that in Tony Blair, they had a leader with a head
for wise judgment. “It is inconceivable to me that he can possibly
believe that what he is supporting the Americans in doing can in any
way improve the lot of the Iraqi people or anyone else.”
“He has
betrayed the Labour movement and the British people.” |
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“I
was already disillusioned with Blair and Labour, now I don’t even
have words to express my disgust,” said David Newton, an MA
student from the northern city of Bradford. “Blair seems to have
forgotten what democracy means. Even worse, he continues to lie to
us… He has betrayed the Labour movement and the British people.”
Steve Dawe, chair of the Ashford Peace Group in Kent, expressed the
views of many on the left; “a conservative Labourism is
ideologically indistinguishable from the Conservatives.”
Tony
Blair was elected on a wave of dissatisfaction with the failings of
the Conservative governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major.
New Labour promised to bring a new more “caring” domestic and
foreign policy, and many invested their hopes in Blair. Chris
Wright, a university administrator in his 50s from Cambridge, voted
Labour for the first time in his life in “high hopes for real
change and ethical government.” Yet his hopes “had already faded
before all this began” and he will not be voting Labour again,
until there is “a total change of leader and policy on this and
other issues.”
While
anti-war protestors are concerned at our future relations with the
Arab and Muslim world, many on all sides are concerned about the
implications of Blair’s policy for the British relationship with
Europe. Hellen Flewker, 22, a British woman teaching English in
Berlin, told of a real antagonism towards her from those Germans who
know that she is British. For a younger British generation becoming
increasingly integrated with Europe and working across the EU,
Blair’s stance is bound to be a step backwards. The anti-French
sentiments expressed across British media and political spheres in
the light of Chirac’s veto, hark back to old divides between
Britain and its close neighbor.
Media:
Get Behind “Our Boys”?
With more sons
on the front, it was more reason to campaign against the
war. |
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“I
really hate the way the war becomes a kind of soap opera
entertainment” my mother wrote to me. Zoe, 49, has been an active
campaigner for human rights in Palestine and now Iraq, since she
visited Palestine some two years ago. She, like others, was
disgusted by the dominant media images demanding loyalty from the
British public, particularly now that “our boys” are out there.
“Now that British soldiers are actually fighting doesn’t mean I
suddenly have to support the war, but even more reason to campaign
to stop it” she said. “Even if people survive war, they become
psychologically scarred, so that is yet another reason to wish that
all soldiers involved stop the killing and return home.”
The
tabloid Daily Express was marketing its coverage under the title
“Crusading for a safer world,” and like other newspapers and
news channels, fills its pages with their own brand of
“coverage” of the war. David Newton describes his disgust at the
hypocrisy and double standards of the British media. He cites the
example or reports that Iraqi soldiers are pretending to be
civilians “without considering… what we would do if our country
were invaded.” What about Afghanistan he asks, where US soldiers
posed as “aid” workers whilst seeking to gather intelligence?
Raised
Awareness of the Link With Palestine
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British
march against the occupation of Iraq |
Lia
Young, like the average British citizen, came from “an initial
standpoint of strong sympathy with the Israeli people,” yet recent
events have questioned such assumptions. “I have been following
the situation in Palestine for some time now, and am appalled. I
strongly suspect collusion between the American/international loci
of power [media, military, industrial, financial] and the Israeli
government… Collusion in genocide, if only by default.” Like
others, she does not see the issue of Iraq or Palestine in
isolation, but part of a wider policy; “I suspect the same kind of
agenda behind the invasion of Iraq” and added her alarm by reports
of Americans taking lessons from Israelis in “fighting
terrorism.”
Famous
journalists such as Robert Fisk continue to defy media limits on
reporting to bring out the truth behind government propaganda (only
last week coming head to head with the British Defense Secretary
Geoff Hoon), but the growing communication medium of the Internet
have given the public a greater access to other alternative accounts
of the war. And for the first time, a British tabloid is openly
against government patriotism in its condemnation of the war.
Britain’s Daily Mirror has promoted the work of investigative
journalist Peter Arnett in its very public appeal against the war. It
immediately hired the US TV journalist fired for speaking on
“enemy” TV. Links with Israeli and American policy in other
parts of the region are clearly presented for people to read and
discuss. The growth of alternative voices must be seen as an
encouraging sign amidst the multitude of “you are either with us
or against us” style propaganda.
“I suspect
the same kind of agenda behind the invasion of Iraq.” |
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Palestinian
Jamal Saeed has just begun a new life in London with his British
wife Georgie. The couple met while Georgie was working in the
Bethlehem area, as Jamal’s family home is in Dheisheh refugee
camp. While Jamal faces the adjustment of living away from
Palestine, he has the added difficulty of moving as an Arab to the
British capital in the time of war against an Arab nation. He told
IslamOnline of his surprise at the number of British people opposing
the war; but also that Arab groups (specifically Arab not just
Muslim) in the UK were not uniting to campaign against the war.
“It is good to see such a big group of people opposing it… but
there is no clear direction against the war which could bring
change. I am really shocked by the Arabs though. I am shocked that I
don’t hear more from them. All of those who do protest that I have
met have been students. It hurts not to see Arab groups protesting,
not trying to put pressure through the political level to make
change.”
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Peter Arnett
was fired for speaking on “enemy” TV |
Campaigning
against the war has had a side effect of working towards overcoming
inequalities and racial and religious tensions within the British
community. David Newton reports that in Bradford, a city with a
large Asian population, campaigning has brought significant parts of
the white and Asian communities to work together as they had not
done previously. Another example; St. Chad’s College in Durham,
organized a solidarity visit to a mosque in neighboring Newcastle.
For many of the 25 students it was their first visit to a mosque.
The aim of the visit was to promote understanding and to try to make
a stand against racism directed against British Muslims in the
current situation.
This
feature has focused on some of the varied perspectives questioning
the war, but of course there was also much support for Blair and the
war amongst some sectors of the British public. “My views are not
necessarily shared by many of my co-workers or friends,” Jon
Wright (26), working for local government in Cambridge, told
IslamOnline, “Although some of them may have concerns about the
conflict and, under duress, claim to not support the war, many are
fairly indifferent and almost by default will support our boys.”
British
protest and skepticism must, of course, be seen in the context of
wider support for the war, but dissent was clearly greater than in
any previous British military assault. People were questioning
government policy from all angles. The Firefighters Union was
demanding an end to the war, asking why Britain had the money to set
someone else’s country on fire, when it refused to increase the
low pay of those who risk their lives firefighting back home.
Children were going on strike, both from government and private
fee-paying schools, to demonstrate on the streets and outside
parliament. Church leaders, traditionally expected to support
government policy, were outspoken against the aggression. Even
people who would not in principle be opposed to war against Iraq
were not convinced of the need or motivation of British involvement.
What will happen in Iraq or to Blair at the next election, nobody
can predict for sure. What is certain is that the war on Iraq
engaged the British electorate in questioning government policy like
never before.
Isabelle
Humphries is a British freelance journalist and Development Director
at Sawt Al Amel (Laborer’s Voice), an organization supporting
Palestinian workers inside Israel. She has an MA in Middle East
Politics and is also a freelance writer for the Cairo Times. You can
reach her at innazareth@yahoo.co.uk
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