Mark Thomas at Parliament Square
At our last Voices for Peace rally on 16th April, poets, comedians and activists addressed the crowd in Parliament Square.
Longstanding peace campaigner Bruce Kent discussed the illegality of the war, and called for the US and UK governments to be held accountable for their crimes against humanity through the international court of justice.
Mark Thomas favoured his campaigner's hat over his comedy headgear. During his speech, Thomas discussed Iraq's £ billion plus debt to the UK, which Saddam Hussein's regime incurred by defaulting on loans. He said that unless the UK government cancels the debt, the people of Iraq (already one of the poorest nations on earth), will continue to suffer.
CND's Janet Bloomfield read anti-war poetry, and a member of Voices in the Wilderness passed on a recent dispatch from a peace volunteer in Iraq. The letter described the chaos caused by the looting of Baghdad's hospitals and schools.
Performance poet Mr Social Control took to the stage in the guise of Winston Churchill. As Churchill, he admitted that he in fact created the state of Iraq and was indeed the first to use chemical weapons in the region.
People in the crowd wrote messages to the MPs who voted for war on our Wall of Shame.
Law not war
The rally called for LAW NOT WAR. Greenpeace campaigned actively to prevent the war. We don't believe that war is an effective way of dealing with weapons of mass destruction.
We want coalition forces to be replaced by United Nations peace-keeping troops. In order for peace to be upheld, we are calling for:
- Coalition forces to immediately restore law and order and thus enable food, medicine, water and other humanitarian assistance to reach the people of Iraq
- A UN-sanctioned interim administration to run the country
- UN weapons inspectors to return to Iraq
- International cooperation and multilateralism to be restored and strengthened
- Disarmament by all nuclear states
Read the Greenpeace statement on post-war Iraq in full.
About Voices for Peace
The Voices for Peace rallies were organised by Greenpeace, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT), ARROW (Active Resistance to the Roots of War), and Voices in the Wilderness.
More information
- For details about Iraq's debt to the UK, visit Jubilee Iraq and the Mark Thomas Project
- To read anti-war poetry, go to Poets Against War
- The music played at the Voices for Peace rallies is from Peace Not War
