Vote No To War – 2019 General Election Stop the War Coalition Statement

03/11/2019

Stop the War urges all voters to consider the significance of this election for our foreign policy

30 October 2019

Stop the War urges all voters to consider the significance of this election for our foreign policy and the increasingly dangerous international situation.

The wars that recent British governments have participated in in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and elsewhere have killed and displaced millions, destabilised whole regions of the globe and wasted an unimaginable amount of resources.

Britain has long been the US’s main supporter in the West. Recently our government has broadly backed Trump’s confrontational stance over Iran. It has armed and given full political and military support to Saudi Arabia while it creates the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe in its war on Yemen. It has co-operated in ongoing operations in Syria and Iraq.

Meanwhile Britain has backed the US’s increasingly aggressive stance towards Russia and China, raising the prospect of big power confrontation for the first time in generations.

The belligerent foreign policy that comes with the special relationship is making the world a more and more frightening and dangerous place. It has been one of the drivers of racism and Islamophobia and it has led to attacks on civil liberties at home.

Trump has already been welcomed twice to Britain by the Tories. Boris Johnson will be greeting him once again at the NATO summit in Britain on 3 December. Stop the War will be protesting at the summit.

We urge people to use their vote to help break the cycle of violence and instability caused by the West’s wars of the last two decades. A fundamental change of course is needed.