As you hopefully may have guessed, this is a report not about a meeting supporting war and the Ukraine war, but looking at broader issues involved and how we can look towards, firstly, peaceful solutions, and then maintaining peaceful states through radically new orientations.
The meeting took place in Stroud on 15th March, 2023, hosted by the Stroud Freedom Group, structured as an open conversation. For those not at the meeting, the descriptions may offer some inspiration as well as new perspectives for consideration in your own circles. This report is presented by Marcus Blackett.
There will be a follow-up meeting on Wednesday, 19th April at 7pm, at the Centre for Science and Art, Lansdown, Stroud. (see also our page https://independentviewpoints.net/regional/freedom-events-in-stroud/)
The Report
There was a meeting last week at the Centre for Science and Art talking about the Ukraine war. Isn’t there enough about the Ukraine war on our TVs, radios and in Parliament, I hear you ask? This meeting was not just to talk about the war in Ukraine, but about war(s) in general. As Frankie Goes to Hollywood said: “War (huh) – what is it good for? Absolutely nothing….” Or did they mean: “Who is it good for? Absolutely!…”
After introductory remarks from the chair and from two members of the Stroud Freedom Group, the floor was opened up to everyone. The first speaker was pro-war echoing the media narrative: Putin is the Hitler-esque aggressor, the evil dictator. He read a letter that his wife wrote before the Iraq War about setting up a Ministry for Peace with a cross-party section of MPs in Parliament. At that time the Hitler-esque aggressor in question was Saddam Hussein, a dictator who, we were told, had weapons of mass destruction that could wipe us out in forty-five minutes. On the back of that the then Prime Minister Tony Blair called it a just war. The fighting in the Middle East is still going on today. Millions of lives have been lost. The speaker’s wife’s letter concluded with a question: do we think this (Ukraine) is a just war? I was a little surprised she did not express more empathy with those who call for peace today. After all, haven’t we seen it all before? This time the media have managed to avert the public’s gaze and subsequently the anti-war movement, which was so vociferous in 2003, is almost silent today. Those of us still wishing to get information are forced to go to alternative sources. No one else from the 50 or so audience called this a just war.
The next person to speak was a Russian woman now living and married over here, who spoke very movingly from direct personal experience. She reminded us that the people of Donbas have been defending their sovereign right to self-determination since 2014. This war did not start in 2020 as we have been led to believe. She said there is an indistinguishable difference between Ukrainian and Russian blood, and but for politics, this tragedy would not have happened. We were grateful to be reminded of the human element to this war.
A question was asked: why do we have to choose sides? There is so much lost when we forget about the middle. This is essentially a conflict between Russia in the East and the USA in the West. Europe, a continent with a rich history of art and culture, is geographically in the middle, yet it has been forced to choose sides. The media and Parliament have lost the middle ground. As George Bush said: “You’re either with us or against us”, and our leaders echo the same simplistically polarised sentiments today.
We were reminded that dictators are afraid of the artist. When two or more people come together from the heart space, it’s amazing what can happen. In Estonia, the government was brought down by the people singing a song! The Stroud Info Hug wishes to facilitate a liminal space of uncertainty and not-yet-knowing where everything can be freely discussed in a heartfelt way. Young people are suffering an explosion of mental health problems and are missing the role models for conflict resolution in the world today.
And so we come back to the question: War – who is it good for? It seems to be good for corporations to make a lot of money, for a start. It’s also a well-established fact that war distracts us from previous failed policies (in this case, pandemic preparedness). As trends forecaster Gerald Celente puts it, “When all else fails, they take you to war!” (I’m not taking sides here, the same goes for all sides). It creates tribalism and division in the country between those that don’t support the war and those that eagerly rally behind it as if they were supporting a football team at the World Cup. Politicians give the optics of running the country when really they are just salesmen working on behalf of those who dictate things behind the scenes. Divide and rule has always been the way of elite hegemonic power.
There has been almost no debate about this war in the mainstream media, and voices of dissent have not been given air time. All the while weapons and money have been sent ahead without an opposing voice in Parliament. Money and weapons flow into Ukraine seemingly without limit. Objections can only be expressed in open conversations such as the ones facilitated in this public meeting. The Stroud Freedom Group wish to have regular discussions about this war and to explore wider questions not mentioned in the establishment news – for instance, who is it good for?
At one point in the evening, a cry of desperation went up from the pro-war supporter: “Don’t you all watch your televisions?” I looked around the room and counted that at least half the people probably don’t have televisions and the other half are wary of the propaganda this medium is capable of churning out, at least since 2001, if not before.
The next meeting is on Wednesday 19 April at 7 pm in the same place – the Centre for Science and Art, Lansdown, Stroud.
Markus Blackett