Shahrar Ali, Green party deputy leader, is among the speakers at this conference. He will speak on migration and war.
Confronting a World at War conference
TUC • Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3LS
hahrar Ali, Deputy Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, is to speak at the Stop the War Coalition’s Conference ‘Confronting a World at War’ on Saturday 6 June.
The conference brings together writers, activists and politicians from around the world to analyse recent conflicts and current foreign policy approaches.
Shahrar Ali said:
“The Green Party will contribute to this important debate about conflict resolution with an analysis of unjust war as a major cause of displacement of peoples. Too often governments fail to recognise the long-term impact of foreign policy disasters on the lives of untold families, forced to flee from persecution or from the destructive power of arms these governments have sold abroad or used themselves.
“The UK must not add to the suffering of those fleeing from war with the imposition of arbitrary restrictions on movement, which often have inhumane consequences. We must hold to our collective obligations as a common humanity and take joint responsibility for instability we have directly caused or are implicated in.
“We have clear policies on dialogue, peace, diplomacy and international cooperation which aim to tackle forced migration at source, to grant communities both the capability to live in peace and also the right of return.”
The Green Party has opposed recent UK interventions in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan, and holds that the UK needs to rethink its current defence policy. In particular, the Green Party advocates the abolition of Trident.
Meet the speakers
· Mustafa Barghouti is an activist and the General Secretary of the Palestine National Initiative. He has been a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and was Minister of Information in the Palestinian unity government.
· Medea Benjamin is a leading US peace activist. She is the co-founder of Code Pink and one of the best-known progressive figures in the United States.
· Tariq Ali is a noted writer and filmmaker. A veteran of the movement against the war in Vietnam, he has for decades been one of the most prominent critics of Western militarism and imperialism.
· Lindsey German is the convenor of the Stop the War Coalition and one of its founders. She is the author of a number of books, including How a Century of War Changed the Lives of Women (2013). She regularly appears in the media.
· David Edgar is one of Britain’s most prominent writers and playwrights. He is the President of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, as well as a Professor of Playwriting Studies.
· Richard Sakwa is a Professor of Russian and European Politics at the University of Kent and an Associate Fellow at Chatham House. His book Frontline Ukraine (December 2014) offers a powerful critique of Western propaganda surrounding the crisis in Ukraine.
· Victoria Brittain is a prominent author and journalist. She is a former associate foreign editor of the Guardian. She wrote a play about the Guantanamo Bay concentration camp and has co-authored Moazzam Begg’s book Enemy Combatant. She is on the Council of the Institute of Race Relations and is a Patron of Palestine Solidarity.
· Seumas Milne is a distinguished journalist and writer. He is a columnist and associate editor at The Guardian and the author of the best-selling book The Enemy Within: The Secret War Against the Miners.
· Mark Weisbrot is a writer for peace and social justice. He is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. He has written for publications such as New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian etc. He is the co-writer of the screenplay for Oliver Stone’s film South of the Border.
· Jeremy Corbyn is a Labour MP and a leading British campaigner for peace and social justice. He is the chair of the Stop the War Coalition.
· Andrew Murray is the Chief-of-Staff at UNITE the Union. He is the former chair of the Stop the War Coalition and is now its Deputy President. He is co-author of the book Stop the War: The Story of Britain’s Biggest Mass Movement (2005).
· Chris Nineham is the vice chair and founding member of the Stop the War Coalition. He is the author of a number of books including People vs. Tony Blair: Politics, the media and the anti-war movement (2013).
· John Rees is a national officer and a founding member of the Stop the War Coalition. He is the author of a number of books including Imperialism and Resistance (2010) and A People’s History of London (2012).
· Explo Nani-Kofi is a Ghanaian-born social researcher and a campaigner for social justice. He coordinates the Campaign against Proxy War in Africa and is the Director of the Kilombo Centre for Civil Society and African Self-Determination.
· Kate Hudson is the General Secretary of CND and an officer of the Stop the War Coalition. She was Head of Social and Policy Studies at London South Bank University and is now a Visiting Research Fellow.
· Bruce Kent is a famous peace activist. He was the General Secretary of CND from 1980 to 1985 and its chair from 1987 to 1990. He was also the President of the International Peace Bureau. He is a member of Pax Christi.
· Lee Jasper is an anti-racist activist and politician who served as Senior Policy Advisor on Equalities to the former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone.
· Jonathan Steele is a distinguished journalist and author. He was Foreign News Editor and Chief Foreign Correspondent for The Guardian. A recipient of several journalism awards, he is a broadcaster on the BBC and a writer for the London Review of Books.
· Sami Ramadani is a noted Iraqi dissident. He was an exile from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and founder of Iraqi Democrats against the Occupation. He was for many years a lecturer in sociology at London Metropolitan University. He is a member of the steering committee of the Stop the War Coalition.
· George Galloway was a most prominent campaigner against the Iraq War in 2003. He is famous for his appearance at the US Senate in defence of his anti war stance. He was Respect MP for Bradford West until May this year. He is also a broadcaster of the current affairs programme Sputnik on RT.
· Jenny Clegg is a lecturer in Asia Pacific Studies at the University of Central Lancashire. She is the author of several books, including China’s Global Strategy: Towards a Multipolar World (2009).
· Hamja Ahsan is a curator and human rights activist. He leads the Free Talha Ahsan campaign. His brother, Talha Ahsan is a British-born award-winning poet with Asperger’s syndrome who was extradited to the US.
· Chris Cole is a peace activist and the founder of Drone Wars UK. He is a former Director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and co-ordinator of Campaign Against the Arms Trade.
· Steve Bell is treasurer of the Stop the War Coalition and a campaigner for Palestine, and against racism and war.
· Ahmed Al-Ashaf is a political activist, Director Yemenis Culture Centre.
· Sabby Dhalu is a campaigner, the secretary of Unite Against Fascism and an organiser for Stand up to Racism.
· Malia Bouattia is the NUS Black Students’ Officer who has been at the forefront of opposing Islamophobia and the heavy-handed policing of British universities.
· Judith Orr is a writer and campaigner. She is the editor of the Socialist Worker and a national officer of the Stop the War Coalition.
· Carol Turner is a national officer of the Stop the War Coalition and a member of the national council of CND. She is author of a forthcoming book on Labour and foreign policy.
· Matt Willgress is a prominent anti-war and social justice campaigner. He is the national coordinator of the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign.
· Daniel Jakopovich is a writer and anti-war campaigner. He was a guest lecturer at the University of Cambridge and at several other universities, and is a member of the Council of the International Peace Bureau. His forthcoming book is entitled Essays in Defence of Human Dignity.
· Anas al Tikriti is from the British Muslim Initiative. He is of Iraqi origin, was one of the chairs on the demo on February 15th 2003 and is a well known campaigner and speaker against the war.
· Kevin Ovenden is a writer and campaigner around Palestine and the Middle East. He helped to found Viva Palestina.
· Sarah Colborne is the director of Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
· Erdelan Baran is a member of the foreign affairs committee of the Kurdish organisation, KNK.
· Shahrar Ali was elected deputy leader of the Green Party in 2014, becoming in the process the first BME deputy of a UK parliamentary party. He has been a vocal critic of successive government’s failed foreign policy and anti-terror legislation.
· Malia Bouattia is the NUS Black Students’ officer.
· Akinola Davies Jr is a London-born videographer and activist with the organization Nigerian Lives Matter.
· Barbara Ntumy is an anti-war, anti-racism and anti-austerity campaigner.
· Laura Avarez is a Mexican activist. She has been active in several NGOs in Mexico and in London, and has worked for the National Commission for Human Rights in Mexico.
· Rania Khan is an ex-councillor, teacher and anti-war activist.
· Kim Sharif is a human rights activist, solicitor, and Director of Yemeni Human Rights.
Confronting a World at War conference
TUC • Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3LS