Friday, 18 December 2015

Give Peace A Chance?

The 'Stop The War Coalition' (described by the BBC as an 'anti-war group' .... are any of us described as 'pro-war'?), which until recently was chaired by one J Corbyn MP (now leader of Her Majesties Loyal Opposition), has recently been called a "disreputable organisation" by Labour MP Tristram Hunt. He added that they had used social media and other platforms to make "ugly comments" to some Labour MP's since the parliamentary vote on Syrian air strikes, and that they had been "very irresponsible with their language and activities".

Stop The War Coalition .... Fronted By Well Meaning People

His party leader has publicly disagreed, and although no longer chairing the coalition, he still backs its aims by attending fund raisers, and says that "People in the country that oppose wars and want to see a peaceful future shouldn't be condemned or denigrated. They should be recognised as people who are giving up a large proportion of their lives in a totally peaceful and democratic way to bring about a different form of foreign policy in our country. That's surely a good thing in an open and participative liberal democracy?"

The group itself denies any charges, and defends its right to stage a number of protests in the constituencies of any Labour MPs who backed action in Syria (including shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn) .... saying that Mr Hunts accusations were "unfounded and unjustified", and that it was entitled to engage in peaceful protests and would continue to do so.

Of course it’s how you define 'peaceful' that is the sticking point .... these protests are usually not silent witness events. No they are loud, noisy and ..... well, often end in some violence involving fighting the police.

As we have pointed out before, this descent into mob violence is often the case with 'peaceful protests' these days (especially left-wing peace protests) ..... to be fair its mostly the fringe attendees, who go along knowing that they can indulge in violence under some 'moral crusade' banner, but the organisers know full well that it’s likely to occur, and yet still protest their shock and horror when it inevitably breaks out at the end of the marches.

Peaceful Protest Often End in Violence Against The Police ....

But that aspect aside, its the availability of 'social media', that has opened up public figures to vitriolic streams of attack, by keyboard warriors such as Muslim convert Craig Wallace, (also known as Muhammad Mujahid Islam), that often cause the most victim distress. I suspect that it’s that aspect, which Mr Hunt is referring to when he said "very irresponsible with their language and activities". Many Labour MP's who voted for bombing raids on Syria, have in turn been bombarded by twitter trolls and other social media attacks .... some of these attacks have resulted in police arrests.

By all means 'campaign for peace', but not by using violence and threats to 'win the argument'.

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