European Awakening: Mass London protest to mark 10th anniversary of Afghan war

A mass rally and protest march is being coordinated by Britain’s biggest peace group network this Saturday to mark the 10th anniversary of the Afghan war.
Stop the War Coalition (STWC) said that musicians, actors, filmmakers, artists, MPs, activists would perform and speak in a series of events at London’s Trafalgar Square before marching to a culminating rally outside Prime Minister David Cameron’s Office.

A STWC spokesman told IRNA that there were ten reasons to make it clear to the British government that they “must not continue this brutal and pointless war in defiance of the will of the people.”

The reasons included that Britons were told “the war was won at the end of 2001, but today the fighting, casualties and air strikes are all worse than ever.”

There were record numbers of Nato troops, including 100,000 Americans, who have “not brought security, but ever rising levels of death and destruction.”

Other concerns were that there were “three times as many air strikes on Afghanistan today compared to a year ago,” that the war was launched to capture Osama bin Laden who is dead and that life expectancy in Afghanistan is 43, the lowest in the world.

Afghanistan under occupation is one of the worst places in the world to be a woman or a child. Millions of Afghans have become refugees as a result of the war,” STWC said.

The war was also costing £5 billion a year, at a time welfare spending, housing and pensions are being cut, was another reason the war needed to be ended immediately.

Politicians were also found to talk of withdrawal, but have “no credible exit strategy,” while the British parliament was ignoring public opinion, which opposes the war.

The rally is being opened by Joe Glenton, the first British soldier to be jailed for refusing to be sent to Afghanistan, and Grace McCann, who in 2010 attempted a citizen’s arrest on former prime minister Tony Blair for alleged war crimes.

Throughout the five hour rally will be speeches, music, films and performances by artists and actors who are being joined by MPs, trade union leaders and a spectrum of peace activists.

There will also be meetings, stalls, displays, installations, and ‘open mic’ sessions, while a Naming the Dead Ceremony of all those killed in the war will be led by bereaved family members of soldiers, who have lost their lives.

The culminating march to Downing Street, led by ex-soldiers and their families, are to demand that “no more lives are wasted in Afghanistan.”