Stop the War with a Saucepan -
a one minute recipe

“It may seem futile to challenge the world’s misery and ignorance, injustice and violence, but it is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope; and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression.”

Robert Kennedy
(South Africa 1966,
in the most repressive days of apartheid,
at the University of Cape Town)

Lets start to be creative and make a noise that can spread like wildfire that will take politicians and the media by surprise.  Wars can win elections and sell news, but we are not powerless to turn this situation around. It can be done: the people of Chile ousted Pinochet; the impossibility of a South Africa free from Apartheid was achieved. Lets get noisy – now!

But how can I stop a war with a saucepan?!

1. Americans support for George Bush’s war depends on its credibility overseas, this means that without Tony Blair’s support Bush can’t push ahead.
2. Blair will stop if he fears for his election ratings: if the silent majority refuse to remain silent.
3. “But what can one person do?” think millions of concerned, ‘powerless’ people throughout the land.      
4. We can do at least two simple things:

   The Poster: Put a ‘Zero tolerance of violence’ poster in your window.  Maybe Photocopy and enlarge it onto four A4 pages to make it bigger.  If you received this by email, forward it through your mailing list.   Print or copy this leaflet and the posters and distribute them to your street and beyond. Bang yer pans! Across the world, from Chile and Argentina to Eastern Europe, banging saucepans together has become a symbol for people who are insistent on bringing a stubborn government into line.  At 6 pm daily for just one minute – alone, or with family or friends – from a window or out on the street in front of your house, bang saucepans to raise the alarm, to voice your protest, to begin to build a visible, audible refusal to tolerate violence (a ‘musical’ rhythm may feel more sociable to your neighbours!).  Make it a party, a sacred act – whatever works for you – but please join in – this could be the beginning of the end for the use of violence as an ‘answer’ to our problems.

   download posters and leaflets

What is this war about?

Is it for human rights and democracy?

Saddam’s record is atrocious, but he was supported and armed by American power. The US & UK turned a blind eye to his massacres until he threatened US/UK oil interests. If this was about democracy the US would not be talking about ‘regime change’ (replacing a troublesome dictator with a business friendly compliant one) but about supporting democracy and human rights in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Chechnya, etc.

Is it about the war on terror?

The 9/11 terrorists were not from Iraq, were mostly from Saudi Arabia – an America supported dictatorship – and it was the US who funded, trained and armed Bin Laden and the Taliban to take Afghanistan from a non-business friendly government. Sanctions stopped Iraqi people from trading abroad, and consolidated Saddam’s power so that 70% of Iraqis depend on government food handouts. The UN estimates that a war would lead to 5.6 million Iraqi refugees – yet there are no plans in place to respond to this. Iraq is pathetically weak militarily: Bush would have an easy victory to control the oil and fuel his global warming economy and re-election.

Is it to eliminate weapons of mass destruction?

If it was, then the US would have signed the treaty to ban chemical weapons, and would have begun dismantling its own weapons of mass destruction once the Cold War was over. The US would have stopped profiting from exporting them to war torn continents and oppressive business-friendly governments.

This seems to be:

• a US war to control oil and to ensure the re-election of the oil clique.
• a lesson to a misbehaving bully from those who put the bullies in power.
• a distraction from the real issues: India and Pakistan at nuclear loggerheads; 40 million in Africa facing starvation; million in Congo dying as others fight over their rich resources; Israel’s nuclear weapons, its brutal occupation of Palestine, and refusal to comply with UN resolutions; global warming and pollution…

Terror is no antidote to terror. So long as injustice, exploitation and oppression are the experience of many people in many countries genuine despair will lead to hatred of the super powers and more terrorism.  A war on Iraq will merely serve to fuel this hatred.

What do we need instead of war?

1. We need to be realistic, long-term, and build an international community. We need to stop shortsighted policies which decade after decade bring us Pinochets, Saddams, Mobutus and Talibans.
2. We need governments that will stand up to big business and it’s damaging of the earth’s resources and impoverishment of the Third world. We need to address the real issues of global injustice and domination that create the conditions for terrorism.
3. We need governments that will tackle the real environmental and social problems of the world; that will work for equality and human rights; that will have the vision to build a peaceful world peacefully.

22nd January 2003.
Portobello, Edinburgh, Scotland
bewildfire@yahoo.co.uk