Iraq Follow

AROUND 350 people crowded into the friendship centre in Burnley on Thursday of last week to protest against an attack on Iraq and for freedom for Palestine. They heard George Galloway MP, Dr Siddiqui from the Muslim Parliament, John Rees from the Stop the War Coalition, Norma Wilson from CND, and Asad Rehman from the Newham Monitoring Project.

"The US is hell bent on attacking Iraq to impose regime change. On 28 September I will be proud to demonstrate against war. The whole trade union movement should be there." Mick Rix, Aslef rail workers' union leader

GEORGE BUSH is still driving towards war, despite Iraq saying it would bow to demands to allow weapons inspectors into the country. His undersecretary of state for arms control says the US wants "a regime change in Baghdad, and that policy will not be altered whether inspectors go in or not".

THE TIMES splashed a front page story on Monday claiming it had definitive evidence that Iraq was within months of acquiring nuclear weapons. Its source was Khidir Hamza, a defector who it claimed was "at the heart of the Iraq regime".

A SECRET blueprint for US global domination reveals that Bush and his key advisers were planning war on Iraq to secure "regime change" even before he took office in January 2001. It talks of a war against Iraq as the "immediate justification" for wider US aims to dominate the Middle East.

IRAQ'S OFFER on arms inspections wrong-footed the US state at the start of this week. This means we can expect a torrent of lies to blunt opposition to a murderous attack on Iraq. The goalposts have already been shifted. We were told a few weeks ago that Iraq is a nuclear-armed state on the brink of invading its neighbours. But a study last week found that Saddam Hussein does not have nuclear weapons. None of the six states that border Iraq fear invasion. So now we are told Saddam Hussein is a bad man who could possibly get nuclear weapons in the future if someone gave him the technology possessed by only a handful of states.

Bush and Blair claim war on Iraq is about stopping Saddam Hussein developing weapons of mass destruction. But who is the real threat in the world? And who has, and has used, weapons of mass destruction? "The people who do most of the shouting about weapons of mass destruction have those weapons themselves," says Nigel Chamberlain from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

IN THE run-up to next week's anti-war demonstration big meetings have been held in many parts of Britain. Bristol Stop the War Coalition organised a showing of the Not In My Name film on 11 September. Over 160 people turned up to hear Mike Marqusee introduce the discussion. This meant that a second showing had to be put on while Mike Marqusee spoke to the overflow crowd outside the cinema. Both the film and the discussion received an excellent response. One person said, "It's great to come to an event like this on a day like today when you see George Bush and Tony Blair using the deaths on 11 September to build support for an attack on Iraq." A Stop the War Coalition activist

Over 50 delegates from universities around the country attended a meeting in Manchester last Saturday of student supporters of Socialist Worker. Most universities start back this week, at a time of mass opposition to Blair's plans for war with Iraq. Last academic year saw the biggest anti-war movement in the universities since the Vietnam War.

TONY BLAIR is marching towards the deepest crisis he has yet faced. He is caught in the jaws of mounting opposition on two fronts. Delegates at the TUC conference this week ripped into his craven support for Bush's war against Iraq, and into the heart of New Labour - profit before people. They backed the firefighters, who are heading for national strikes next month against low pay. Those union leaders who spoke out echoed the clear majority of people in Britain.

THE CURRENT state of British politics is weird. Successive governments have enjoyed majority support for the wars they have waged over the past 20 years, from the Falklands onwards. But now we find public opinion lined up overwhelmingly against the war that George W Bush and Tony Blair are determined to prosecute against Iraq. The opposition stretches right across the political spectrum.

THE POLITICAL temperature has rocketed in recent weeks. There is the potential for the coming together of mass opposition to the war on Iraq and a very important industrial battle in the fire service. A senior Labour MP said last week, "I don't know about regime change in Iraq, but we certainly need regime change in Downing Street."