SCOTTISH VOTERS will go to the polls on 1 May against the background of widespread opposition to the war and deep bitterness against New Labour's failure to help working people. Both factors are boosting the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP). The SSP's manifesto, launched last week, contains a clear denunciation of the war. "This is a war for control over the Middle East and its resources by American big business interests," it says.
IN ENGLAND the Socialist Alliance is providing an alternative for all those who can no longer stomach voting for Blair's Labour Party. Over 160 Socialist Alliance Against the War candidates are standing in the local council elections. They are also campaigning against privatisation, student tuition fees and the witch-hunt of asylum seekers.
"WE ARE going to keep up our campaigning against the Nazis and continue hounding them whenever they show their face," says Mary Black from Burnley in Lancashire. "The BNP managed to get three councillors in Burnley in last year's elections. But large numbers of people were always against the BNP. Now the anti-Nazis are growing in confidence. We will be harnessing that to oppose the Nazis standing in the elections."
TONY BLAIR and his media henchman, Alastair Campbell, are going into overdrive to peddle lies to justify the war. The Independent reported on Monday, "The government's chief spin doctor, Alastair Campbell, is said to have ordered the Whitehall press machine to counter individual stories from the field with the wider overview of the Ministry of Defence."
THE ANTI-war movement is everywhere, hundreds of millions strong worldwide. It has changed the face of politics. What yesterday seemed impossible is today commonplace. Just look at Britain. During the last six weeks we have been part of the biggest demonstration ever, followed by the largest demonstration during a war. The Labour Party is in its deepest crisis for over 70 years.
THE US and Britain claim they are fighting in Iraq to liberate people like the Kurds. The leaders of the two factions that rule the Kurdish area in northern Iraq are cooperating with the US. But the whole history of the Middle East is one of great powers promising the Kurds liberation, and then betraying them.
THE LAND that is today Iraq is home to some of the greatest achievements of human civilisation. The south of modern Iraq is littered with magnificent ruins of the first real cities in human history - places like Uruk, Lagash, Nippur, Kish and Ur (from which the biblical Abraham supposedly came).
THE TURMOIL inside the Labour Party over the war was on display at last Saturday's conference of Labour Against the War. Around 300 anti-war Labour Party members gathered to discuss how to stop the war and what to do about the leadership. Every speaker was bitterly critical of Blair and the war. George Galloway MP posed some stark questions.
'We want to minimise the suffering of ordinary Iraqi people. This is a war not of conquest but liberation' Blair, 24 March
A FANATICAL group of men in and around the White House use the 11 September attacks to launch a war they have wanted for over a decade. Conquering Iraq is merely one step in their plan for ongoing military operations against other states, leaving the world in awe of US power. The aim? Global domination. France, Germany, Russia, China and other major states are all to come under the thumb of the US state and the interests of its multinationals.
MANY PEOPLE have been shocked and outraged that it is a Labour government which has cravenly supported George Bush and launched a bloody attack against Iraq. Throughout its history, many ordinary members of the Labour Party have been committed to peace. But at every key moment the party leadership has supported imperialism and war.
'WE ARE coming as liberators not as conquerors," proclaim Bush, Blair and their generals. It is an appeal Iraqis have heard before. In 1914 British forces first landed in what is now Iraq. They too talked of liberation. They too ruthlessly pursued their own imperial interests.
