Stop the War Annual Conference in London
Joseph Healy, a London European Parliamentary Candidate for the Green Party, gave a speech to the annual conference in London of Stop the War Coalition, 25th April 2009:
Dr Healy, who is also the Green Party's delegate on the Stop the War Coalition's Steering Group, was re-elected to Stop the War's Steering Group.
In his speech, Joseph focused on the forthcoming European elections and on some of the anti-war and human rights work being carried out by the Green Party's MEPs in Europe. He conveyed the greetings of the two MEPs, Jean Lambert and Caroline Lucas, to the conference and told how both had been supporting the freezing of the upgrading of the EU-Israel Trade Agreement until such time as Palestinian rights were assured and Israel began negotiations for a just settlement.
He also told how they had gone to the Israeli embassy with a large demand for the return of EU taxpayers' money, caused by the massive damage to infrastructure in Gaza by the Israeli military - facilities such as schools and sewage systems which had been funded by the EU.
Joseph said that his involvement in the anti-NATO demonstration in Strasbourg, three weeks ago, had demonstrated how the EU could suddenly abandon all its much vaunted freedom of movement, in order to suspend the Schengen Agreement and stop the free movement of protestors between Germany and France. He had been shocked by the fortification of Strasbourg and the way that NATO leaders had agreed to remove the right of citizens there to even leave their own homes.
He paid tribute to Stop the War as Europe's largest anti-war movement and congratulated them on forming strong links with the pan-European peace movement. This was essential in order to block the developments around NATO (missile sites, etc), and that it was necessary to observe the way in which the neutral states in the EU were under pressure to reach agreement with NATO on various military issues.
Joseph stated that STWC needed to build links with the student movement, who were to be congratulated for their occupation of colleges demanding rights for Palestinians, and the trade union movement - particularly groups such as the Visteon workers who were trying to move from the production of outdated, polluting products, to new green and sustainable ones. This was an example of what should be happening with the arms manufacturing industry.
He also warned of further limitations on the right to protest, such as the possibility of banning protests against military parades.
Joseph called on those present to vote in the European elections on June 4th and warned that the prospect of a low turnout could see the BNP in the European Parliament and the danger of a larger nationalist and Fascist block in the new parliament. He finished by wishing STWC success in the coming year and hoped that the anti-war movement would go from strength to strength.
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