Here are videos from the London demonstration against war on Iran.
From the Huffington Post:
Stop The War Protests Against Iran And Syria Intervention
28/01/2012 16:35 Updated: 28/01/2012 16:54
Hundreds of anti-war protesters gathered in central London today at a demonstration against Western intervention in Iran and Syria.
The rally, organised by the Stop the War Coalition, took place outside the US embassy in Grosvenor Square with a number of speakers addressing the 200-strong crowd.
Protesters waved banners bearing the words “Don’t attack Iran” and “Hands off Iran and Syria“, while the crowd joined together in chanting: “One, two, three, four, we don’t want another war. Five, six, seven, eight, stop the killing, stop the hate.”
The coalition opposes all military intervention from the West in Iran as concern that the Middle Eastern country is developing nuclear weapons grows.
The group says there is “absolutely no justification” for Western countries to become involved.
Stop the War Coalition activist John Rees said the uprising that ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak a year ago proved that oppressed people in the Middle East could fight for themselves.
He said: “Here is a people who without the bombers and the bullets, the tanks and the soldiers, or the United States, or Britain, or any of the Western powers, pulled down a dictatorship on their own.
“Even after a year’s still further struggle, there is not one single Egyptian revolutionary who will ask for support from the United States or military assistance from the United States, and it is because of this: they are still being shot down in the streets by Egyptian soldiers who are using American weapons and American bullets, so why would they ask for help from their killers?”
Rees said that history showed that foreign intervention led to the future of these countries not being controlled by their own people.
He told protesters: “After they are finished, the resources of these countries will not be in the hands of the country’s people, they will not be democratically controlled by the people of these countries, they will be controlled by the masters of the people who will be working in this building (the US embassy).”
He added: “Ordinary people have the capacity to deal with the dictatorships.
“They have the capacity to go on fighting week after week, month after month, to get democracy, to control their societies, to abolish poverty, and they will not stop fighting until they get it.
“Our business, the business of people who live in this country, is to make sure that they have the space and the freedom to do it.
“Our business is the business of keeping our Government off the back of people in the Middle East and giving them their chance to achieve freedom and democracy for themselves.”
Iranian activist Shirin Shafaie said the West had shown “double standards” in previous conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
She said: “Double standards are the worst enemy of justice and injustice is the worst enemy of peace.
“We must make sure history doesn’t repeat itself.
“We are here to make sure there is not another war anywhere in the world, which is led by America or European countries.”
See also here.
Opposition supporters in Bahrain have expressed concern that escalating tensions between Iran and the West may further stifle their calls for democratic reform in the Persian Gulf kingdom: here.
US military preparations for war on Iran: here.
Americans Oppose War: But Does The Government Care? Here.
The New York Times and the drive to war against Iran: here.
Dear Friend,
The Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta, has stated twice already this year that Iran is not pursuing a nuclear weapon. So why are so many voices clamoring for war?
If you’re like us, you feel an eerie parallel between the lies about Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction” and the warmongering about Iran. As President Bush once reminded us, we can’t get fooled again.
We’ve put together a simple White House petition calling on President Obama to keep us out of a war with Iran. Will you sign it?
Then, please share our video with your friends to remind them that we’ve heard this before.
Sincerely,
Derrick Crowe, Robert Greenwald
and the Brave New Foundation team
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1) “Friends of Syria”?
2) Egyptian leader Qandil: Call for foreign intervention serves Assad
***
“Friends of Syria”?
National Coordination Body leaves conference in Tunis for it is directed
by Western interests
We observe attempts [at the Tunis conference] to leave the military window
open, both in relation to militarizing the opposition and for foreign
intervention.
This is in direct conflict with the interests of the Syrian people, their
borders, unity, and their fight for dignity, democracy and justice – which
is the essence of the Syrian revolution.
The NCB delegation has come to the conclusion that its participation in
the Conference would be detrimental, therefore it refuses to participate.
http://www.antiimperialista.org/node/7242
***
2) Foreign intervention destroys revolution
Why the US may prefer a weakened Assad in place
by Abdelhalim Qandil*
The US is not concerned about tens of thousands of people injured or
martyred. They may even prefer the situation as it is: the Arab Syrian
army worn out in a bloody war against the people. And the Syrian regime
challenged and undermined, but not overthrown, because the West does not
know exactly where Syria would be going after Bashar.
The first to benefit from the demand for a foreign intervention is
Bashar’s regime itself. An intervention harms the cause of the revolution
and stains the reputation of its supporters.
* Demanding an intervention facilitates the regime’s agenda of accusing
them of treason and being agents of foreign powers.
* Demanding an intervention helps the regime to paint a fraudulent image
of the events in Syria, and casts dark shadows on the overwhelming popular
desire to end an oppressive regime that has been robbing its own people.
* Demanding an intervention helps the regime to portray the revolution as
if it were a colonial conspiracy against the very patriotic regime.
* Demanding an intervention pleases the regime and helps it to rally
supporters who originally hesitated to join the revolutionary marsh.
The solution is in Syria herself. The solution is in true loyalty to the
blood of the scores of thousands of the revolution’s martyrs and injured.
The solution is in carrying the spark of the revolution from the uprising
at the margins into the heart of Syria.
The conscience among the troops is increasingly splitting the army, and is
playing a role that is more influential than we might think. The apparent
coherence of the regime and the apparent absence of major splits in its
closed structure are not going to last much longer. The oppressive
security apparatus of the regime is continually exhausted in the fields of
blood.
http://www.antiimperialista.org/kandil_syria
* Qandil is a senior Egyptian journalist and political leader of the
opposition. As editor in chief of the Nasserist newspaper Al Arabi he was
one of the most prominent critics of Mubarak’s regime. In 2004 he was
kidnapped by goons, beaten up and left naked in the desert outskirts of
Cairo. His brave reaction sparked of the Kifaya (“Enough”) opposition
movement from 2005 onwards of which he was a leading figure. After the
fall of Mubarak he is again editor of a leftist nationalist news outlet
and target of the SCAF’s censorship.
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