Anti-war – Page 4 – Mike Marqusee

Oct 30, 2005

Empire of denial

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 30 October DURING the heyday of British, French, Belgian or Portuguese colonialism, if you asked the citizens of London, Paris, Brussels or Lisbon whether their countries were the seats of great transcontinental empires, they would have answered “yes”, unhesitatingly, and most would have taken pride in the fact. But stop… Read more

Oct 2, 2005

Blair sidesteps reality – with BBC help

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 2 October TONY BLAIR has dismissed opposition to his Iraq policy as the province of “urban intellectuals”. A strange comment from the Prime Minister of one of the most urbanised societies on earth. But then he also managed to ignore the latest opinion poll showing that 57 per cent of… Read more

Sep 4, 2005

Outside agitators

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 4 September Throughout the 1960s, volunteers who joined the struggle for African-American civil rights in the US southland were denounced as “outside agitators”. The white establishment accused them of stirring up the local blacks, who of course would otherwise have remained content with their lot. Despite its dubious history, the… Read more

Aug 7, 2005

Who’s making excuses now?

Level Playing Field The Hindu, 7 August “The Bombers Are Among Us!” the hoardings across London screamed. It’s the kind of headline that generates heat but not light. And it’s typical of the obstacles Londoners have to negotiate as they struggle to make sense of recent events. The rapid sequence of fearful happenings has bewildered… Read more

Jul 24, 2005

Atrocity and introspection

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 24 July The mid-afternoon queue in my high street bank is long and sluggish. It’s a hot day, by London standards, and everyone looks a little sleepy. There’s a woman in hijab and full length dark cloak, who seems cooler than most of us, standing in front of a middle… Read more

Jul 7, 2005

Message from London

A rapid response to this morning’s events This morning, the suffering, grief and terror that have visited so many innocents in recent years came to London. We have not paid the kind of price that people have paid in Fallujah, Najaf or Jenin, but it is a steep price nonetheless. And its root causes are… Read more

Jul 1, 2005

Guinness Book of Politics

Red Pepper, July 2005 Book Review Stop the War: The Story of Britain’s Biggest Mass Movement by Andrew Murray and Lindsey German (Bookmarks) The strengths of this publication are Noel Douglas’s vibrant design and its generous helpings of fiery, stylish anti-war visuals – including montages by Peter Kennard and Leon Kuhn, photos by Jess Hurd… Read more

Jun 14, 2005

So what’s wrong with the USA?

Level Playing Field The Hindu, 12 June, 2005 It’s been an interesting experience, being an American abroad, especially since 9/11. Whether in Europe or south Asia, people gape with disbelief at what appears to be an unchained American empire, contemptuous of the rules that apply to others, murderously indifferent to the value of non-American life…. Read more

Nov 1, 2004

Steve Earle: rockin’ more than the vote

Red Pepper, November 2004 From movie theatres to music arenas, popular culture is proving a major battleground in the presidential election. Bruce Springsteen, the Dixie Chicks and Pearl Jam have been touring the swing states and ‘rockin’ the vote’. The gigs are packed but there’s a debate about just what effect any of it has…. Read more

Sep 20, 2004

Building an effective movement against occupation

Mike Marqusee looks at the challenge facing the British anti-war movement. Labour Left Briefing, October 2004 Of the many lies we were told about this war, perhaps the biggest was that it came to an end in the spring of 2003. As predicted, the wages of occupation have been death and destruction, mounting by the… Read more