Labour and Momentum activists sign letter calling on Corbyn to help Syrians stop the war
Jeremy Corbyn must ‘speak out on Syria’ and condemn Russia’s bombing of civilians, say Labour and Momentum activists in an open letter to the Labour leader and anti-war campaigner.
The letter’s signatories, who are supporters of Corbyn’s leadership, say they share his ‘opposition to militarism’ but reject the ‘false’ choice between backing war and doing nothing.
Corbyn has said he supports a negotiated settlement in Syria to end the war, but Syrian activists say he should condemn war crimes by the Assad regime and its ally Russia, and back humanitarian efforts.
The letter comes after Corbyn was heckled by protesters at a Stop the War Coalition event in London on Saturday.
It reads:
‘We ask that you condemn, clearly and specifically, the actions of Assad and Russia in Syria, which have caused the overwhelming majority of civilian deaths and which present the biggest obstacle to any workable solution to the Syrian crisis.’
It also urges Corbyn to ‘lend your wholehearted support to practical measures to support civilians and pressure the regime to end its attacks, such as airdrops of aid to besieged civilians by British military forces’.
The letter adds:
”Food not bombs’ should be the rallying cry, not ‘Hands off Syria’, which only gives the Assad regime and Russia carte blanche to continue with their slaughter.’
It was published under the name ‘Speak Out On Syria’ and shared by Syria Solidarity UK, and is signed by Labour Party members, Momentum activists, trade unionists and socialists.
You can read the full letter and list of signatories below:
….
JEREMY CORBYN: SPEAK OUT ON SYRIA!
An open letter to the Leader of the Labour Party from concerned Labour Party members, Momentum activists and socialists.
To add your name, please email speakoutonsyria@gmail.com
Dear Jeremy,
We write as members of the Labour Party and Momentum, as socialist activists, or as other supporters of your leadership of the Labour Party.
We agree wholeheartedly with your opposition to militarism and nuclear weapons, and your call for an end to British arms exports to countries such as Saudi Arabia.
Yet we are concerned by your silence – thus far – on the ongoing slaughter of civilians by Russian and Assad-regime forces in Syria.
We share your scepticism about kneejerk military responses to the situation in Syria, such as the bombing campaign against ISIS proposed by David Cameron last autumn.
We are not asking you to back Western interventions of this kind, but simply to say clearly and unequivocally that the actions of Assad and Russia in Syria are barbaric war crimes, and that you will seek to end them, and to hold their perpetrators to account.
We applaud your efforts, over decades, to end the crimes of brutal regimes supported by Western powers. But we do not believe that this exhausts the duties of anti-imperialists, socialists and peace activists in Western countries.
The fact that Assad is supported not by the USA or Britain, but by Russia and Iran, does not make his crimes any less horrific, or the political future he represents for the people of Syria any less dismal. Nor does it mean that Western political leaders are powerless in acting to oppose these crimes.
We know only too well that there are those in the anti-war movement who will denounce any move critical of Russia, Iran, or Assad as tantamount to support for Western imperialist intervention.
We also know that there are those on the right of British politics who will claim any such move as a concession to their policy of militaristic grandstanding.
The debate on Syria has been polarised between these two positions – scrupulous ‘non-intervention’ in the face of massive carnage enabled by Russian intervention, versus support for bombing campaigns as part of a Western ‘war on terror’. We have all been asked to take up a position in these terms. But the terms are false.
We appreciate your concern not to lend support to right-wing calls for fruitless bombing campaigns. But in the face of the horrors being perpetrated across Syria, with impunity, and above all by Russian and Assad-regime forces, we believe socialists and anti-war activists cannot simply look on in silence.
We ask that you condemn, clearly and specifically, the actions of Assad and Russia in Syria, which have caused the overwhelming majority of civilian deaths and which present the biggest obstacle to any workable solution to the Syrian crisis.
We also urge you to lend your wholehearted support to practical measures to support civilians and pressure the regime to end its attacks, such as airdrops of aid to besieged civilians by British military forces.
Guaranteeing delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians is not only a way to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of people at risk of disease and starvation.
It is also a non-violent and humanitarian way to pressure the regime into a negotiated political solution to the conflict, by undermining a key part of its strategy: the ‘kneel or starve’ campaigns deployed against opposition areas since 2013.
‘Food not bombs’ should be the rallying cry, not ‘Hands off Syria’, which only gives the Assad regime and Russia carte blanche to continue with their slaughter.
Failure to act on this issue now threatens to undermine practically and politically much of the work done over many years by the anti-war movement. The legacy of yourself and the anti-war movement over Syria must not be one of silence and inaction in the face of such momentous atrocities.
Yours fraternally,
Peter Hill, Oxford University UCU Hon. Secretary (personal capacity), Oxford and District Labour Party and Momentum
Mark Boothroyd, Unite Health National Industrial Sector Committee (personal capacity), Camberwell and Peckham CLP
James Nowlan, Labour Party and Momentum member
Luke Cooper, academic and campaigner
Andy Forse, Oxford Labour Party, Momentum National Committee
Roland Rance, Jews Against Zionism, founder member of Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Mike Rowley, Labour City Councillor for Barton, Sandhills and North-East Headington (Oxford)
Adam Ramsay, co-founder, Bright Green
Chris Fox, Wimbledon CLP, Thee Faction member
Christopher Roche, Bath UCU Vice President (personal capacity), Bath Trades Union Council President (personal capacity), Bristol West CLP
Becky Boumelha, Labour Campaign Against Prevent
Ashley Inglis, member of the Labour Party and Stop the War Coalition
Mark Price, Labour Party member, Momentum member (Welsh Labour Grassroots) and Community Councillor for Croesyceiliog
Chris Strafford, Communications Officer, University of Manchester UNISON
Vijay Jackson, Hastings and Rye CLP, Scottish Labour Young Socialists, Treasurer, Momentum Edinburgh, BAME Officer, Edinburgh Labour Students
William R Rolfe, Labour and Momentum member, Branch Secretary PCS Revenue and Customs South East Valuation Branch
Bill MacKeith, member of Labour Party, Momentum, National Union of Journalists
Liz Peretz, Labour Party and Momentum member, Oxford
Padraic Finn, Brent Stop the War
Lisa Dempster, Unison Knowsley branch and National disabled members committee, Momentum member
Patrick Murphy, NUT Executive member for West Yorkshire
Merlin Gable, Monmouth CLP
Andy Wilson, Hackney CLP
Steven Ellis, Streatham CLP
Alison Lord, Walthamstow CLP
Tony Aldis, Labour Party and Momentum member
Kris Stewart, Socialist activist
Neil Rogall, member of rs21 and UCU
Brian Parkin, member of rs21 and UCU, University of Leeds
Tom Cutterham, Labour Party, Momentum and UCU member, University of Birmingham
Miriyam Aouragh, academic and campaigner
Bethan Jones, Labour Party and Momentum member
Max Leak, Labour and Momentum member
Gary Budgen, Walthamstow CLP
Tom Travers, Labour Party member
Sam Doherty, Manchester Momentum
Kat Burdon-Manley, rs21 member, Unison
Emily McDonagh, Unite
Ed McNally
Barnaby Raine
Christopher Ford, Walthamstow Constituency Labour Party
Edd Mustill, Liverpool Riverside CLP and Momentum member
Tom Harris, Lewisham West and Penge CLP, Lewisham Young Labour
Christian Hill, Socialist Activist
Jaskiran Kaur Chohan, Labour Party and Momentum Member
Lynton North, Torridge & West Devon CLP / Momentum
Hannah Fox, Labour Party member
Omar Raii, Hornsey & Wood Green CLP
Tom Dale, Labour Party member, Hackney South & Shoreditch
Pete Radcliff, Broxtowe Momentum
Nathan Roberts, Lambeth Momentum
Sue Shaw, Labour and Momentum member, Henley CLP
Susan Pashkoff
Daniel Nichols, Romford CLP
Nick Hostettler, Streatham CLP, Lambeth Momentum
Phil Vellender, Hackney Labour Party, UCU HE member, Senior Lecturer
Tom Davies, Walthamstow CLP and NUJ member
Les Hearn, Holborn & St Pancras CLP, NUT member
Gabriel Pogrund
David Moynihan, Hackney Labour Party
Pete Firmin, Hampstead & Kilburn CLP and Momentum member
Jane Connor, Walthamstow West Labour Party
Sheen Gleeson, Hackney
Vivien Green
Mags Gainsborough
Tony Benson
Stephen Wood, Hayes & Harlington CLP, Hillingdon LG Unison
Nicholas Sebley, Labour Party member and Corbyn voter
Hannah Davies, Labour supporter
Mark Coulter, Hull, East Yorkshire
Damian Walenta
Andrew Spink, Labour Party member, West Yorkshire
Andy Morgan, Worcester
Javaad Alipoor, Theatre maker and activist
For more on Syrian activism visit Syria Solidarity UK
Adam Barnett is staff writer for Left Foot Forward. Follow him on Twitter @AdamBarnett13
See: Boris Johnson cheered for Assad’s troops in Syria. Now he’s foreign secretary
9 Responses to “Jeremy Corbyn must ‘break silence’ on Assad and Russian bombings”
raba
Yes Cobyn needs to comment on the carnage in Allepo, but please explain why Allepo alone is to be commented upon? Only last week the yemen city of Sanaa suffered a barbaric air raid that killed and maimed hundreds of civilians, why is there no concern from the ‘concerned’ and our politicioans. why no calls for that war to stop? are yemenis les human than Allepoans?
Stephan
Corbyn has no greater need to talk about Aleppo than he does about WHO our government is actually supporting alongside the US in Syria. These so called moderate rebels are terrorists one minute – but democracy loving friends the next. Isn’t it obvious that we – the UK and the US are as big a reason for the prolonged fight to return Syria to peace as anyone else? Why are we arming and training people who are known killers in both Syria and Yemen? Where are the calls from our media for our MP’s to talk about reality rather than half-truths, lies and spin from the likes of Kerry? Its time for Parliament to discuss a far broader spectrum than simply what the US (heavily biased) agenda dictates. Are we really just an American satellite? Are we simply there to legitimize their thirst for continued global domination? These are all legitimate issues both Corbyn and May need to address.
FlyByLiberators
‘We appreciate your concern not to lend support to right-wing calls for fruitless bombing campaigns. But in the face of the horrors being perpetrated across Syria, with impunity, and above all by Russian and Assad-regime forces, we believe socialists and anti-war activists cannot simply look on in silence.’
What a PATHETIC equation. In order to pretend you care about peace you have to pretend there is NOTHING more important than Corbyn BEING RUDE. What are sanctions for then? You don’t actually think they do anything they’re just a chance for Empire Decents to say EWW EWW NO TOUCH DIRTY EWWW – Such DECENCY!
Once again Corbyn says “I condemn all bombing” and the Decent snarl he ‘refuses’ to condemn the IRA. Terrific logic – if you think the UVF did nothing wrong.
Where is the actual proposal to help stop the war?
Translations from Decent:
‘all’ – Not all.
‘explicitly’ – exclusively.
‘help Syrians stop the war’ – make me feel better about supporting war.
Michael WALKER
frankly this is all rubbish.
What UK troops will we contribute to peacekeeping in Syria? None,
Actions not words required.
Let the Syrians kill each other as they don’t appear to want to stop. We can do nothing.. (And the US will do little either)..
Linkervleugel Labour roept Corbyn op stelling te nemen tegen Assad en Poetin | Krapuul
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