Stop the War and its Critics
by Andrew Murray
(Manifesto Press, £4.95)

CHILCOT has spoken and the standpoints voiced for 14 years by the Stop the War Coalition (StWC) are vindicated. But where are the StWC representatives in the mass media?

Apart from its erstwhile president Jeremy Corbyn — and he could scarcely be ignored — the organisation that mobilised Britain’s biggest ever political demonstration and has focused a critical eye on British imperialism’s overseas wars has been ignored by TV, radio and printed media.

This makes the publication of StWC former chairman Andrew Murray’s short book on the organisation and its critics so timely.

Britain’s ruling class has been rattled in recent years by the capacity of the broader anti-war movement, including the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Muslim organisations and other groups, to mobilise public opinion and influence MPs.

Regular red-scare stories about the StWC, citing past and present political affiliations, have, however, failed to slow the juggernaut, necessitating the opening of a second front from the “left.”

Cue an array of commentators, explaining why StWC has disregarded the human rights of people in Iraq, Libya and Syria who were to be liberated by “humanitarian” bombing.

StWC leaders are berated for their “anti-imperialism” as though this is an outdated position. Modern anti-anti-imperialism has turned into an apologia for new concepts such as “Islamofascism.”

Adding the religious prefix in a way never applied to other faiths enables users of this term to dispense with the need to explain why those described are indeed fascist, thus reducing it to the lazy option adopted historically by some on the left to mean someone we don’t like. Murray refuses to slide into this morass of political flaccidity, taking on those who wield feminism, gay rights and liberal values as weapons in service of imperialist war.

Peter Tatchell has campaigned bravely and consistently for gay rights in Britain but he has long been a member of the “we must do something” tendency that has an uncanny ability to transmute into military action.

This tendency has a modus operandi of affecting to oppose war while insisting that anti-war activists offer an alternative strategy to guarantee human rights or be seen as “lining up with unspeakable dictators.”

And its logical conclusion is that military action in one form or another is inevitable and essential.

Murray takes aim too at Guardian journalist Rafael Behr, Economist columnist Jeremy Cliffe and a mighty trio sponsored by the same journal — James Bloodworth, Martyn Hudson and Alan Johnson, all Labour-bound refugees from the pro-imperialist Alliance for Workers’ Liberty — exposing the reality behind their supposed commitment to internationalism as he does so.

He points out that this internationalism translates into “support for Britain’s cold war foreign policy alignments — membership of Nato and support for US-led interventions above all.”

Murray’s adversaries aren’t household names, possibly not even in their own households, and they could be viewed as easy targets especially for someone who derives pleasure from applying the banjo of correction to these cows’ backsides of misinformation.

But his project is much more serious. It is to clarify and defend Marxist analysis of modern-day imperialism, which is at the heart of StWC politics.

This relatively modest book packs a wealth of value and is a must-read for all activists and students of international affairs.