Why did we withdraw?

A statement by Moayed Ahmad and Dashti Jamal, previous members of StWC Interim Steering Committee, 28 October 2001

At the Stop the War Coalition (StWC) conference held in London on 28-10-2001, we presented our own aims and objectives as an alternative to those of the StWC.

However, our platform did not get enough votes to win in that conference. Consequently, the StWC platform remained almost the same old one i.e stop the war, no to racism and civil liberties restrictions with the addition of a formal condemnation of the terrorist attack of 11th Sept. on New York. Hence the StWC chose not to say anything against Islamic terrorism, adopting a platform devoid of any condemnation of political Islam, its states and organizations as a pole in the ongoing bloody conflict between the two poles of international terrorism.

The political practices that this view leads to are: first, the abandonment of the plight of hundreds of millions of people in the Middle East and the Islam-ridden countries under the yoke of political Islam. Second, the disengagement with the on-going struggle for freedom, equality and well-being by the working class, the communists, the women, the socialists, the radical and secular people and freedom lovers in those countries. Finally, lining up with the savage Talibans and the likes of Political Islam in their lackstruggle for power in those countries and on the international level.

We made clear during the conference that we would not accept that, and that any silence about Islamic terrorism and political Islam in the current conflict is practically taking sides with political Islam. Therefore, we decided to withdraw from the Interim Steering Committee of the StWC and to campaign for our views and to work on organising a more principled and ambitious movement.

We believe that a principled and ambitious move for freedom, equality, justice and well-fare is possible and that growing opposition against both poles of state and non-state terrorism is what millions of people in the west and the rest of the world would like to see. One important step in the way towards mobilizing the masses and a real broad based campaign of the freedom lovers and the working class, the women and the progressive people especially in the west is to draw clear lines between ourselves and the backward populist ideas and views that the Intellectual left in the west has already adopted and propagated for. The views that politically suggest allying with political Islam.

In fact, there is no consistent political argument by the left as to why not condemn political Islam and the atrocities of this pole of terrorism. The anti-imperialist thesis is a major excuse in this regard. However, this thesis has become a tool in the hands of the intellectual left for defending the slaughter and the appalling status qua of the masses, in particular the working class and the women, in the Middle East and the Islam-ridden countries. The left tells us that adopting a radical view towards Islamism enhances racism in the west, but this is a backward view of the worst kind. It advocates enslaving generations in Asian and Middle-Eastern communities under the yoke of Islam and denies them the right to have secularism and universal human values and rights. As a matter of fact this originates from the great setback in the socialist views of the left rather than their concerns about racism.