{"id":10814,"date":"2022-03-01T07:03:09","date_gmt":"2022-03-01T07:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war"},"modified":"2022-03-01T08:22:40","modified_gmt":"2022-03-01T08:22:40","slug":"who-can-stop-the-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war","title":{"rendered":"who can stop the war ?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>As Russian missiles fall on Ukraine, an organisation named \u2018Stop the War\u2019 has become a focal point of controversy in the febrile world of the British left.<\/p>\n

Stop the War are either \u2018na\u00efve\u2019, wrote Labour leader Keir Starmer recently, or \u2018they actively give succour to authoritarian leaders who directly threaten democracies.<\/p>\n

\u2019 The organisation\u2019s vice chair (and former adviser to Labour\u2019s previous leader Jeremy Corbyn) Andrew Murray, fired back, accusing Starmer of supporting \u2018warmongering\u2019.<\/p>\n

Corbyn himself \u2013 still suspended from the party whip \u2013 is deputy president of Stop the War and promotes it through his own \u2018Peace & Justice\u2019 organisation.<\/p>\n

On the surface, this was a policy dispute over the UK\u2019s diplomatic and military response to the emerging Russian-Ukrainian crisis. In the build up to Russia\u2019s invasion, the government took a tough rhetorical stance against Putin and imposed sanctions.<\/p>\n

Starmer, joining other critics here and abroad of Johnson\u2019s government, demanded a much stronger response. Stop the War, in contrast, accused the British government of pouring \u2018oil on the fire\u2019.<\/p>\n

As of last week, they wanted the UK to encourage diplomacy between Ukraine and Russia through the Minsk-2 agreements. They cited last-ditch French and German diplomatic efforts as examples to follow.<\/p>\n

Also contentious was the role of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). Stop the War blamed the current crisis on NATO\u2019s eastward expansion after the collapse of the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n

They called for NATO to rule out Ukrainian membership. Yet, Stop the War\u2019s argument has been blindsided by Putin\u2019s aggression. All this week, Russia has ripped up the Minsk Protocol.<\/p>\n

Germany and France, hitherto Stop the War\u2019s suggested models, have imposed meaty sanctions. Most importantly, NATO is not the root of Putin\u2019s grievances.<\/p>\n

Rather, it is his imperialist view of Ukraine as part of a \u2018greater Russian space\u2019 and thus in Russia\u2019s sphere of influence, whatever the views of its democratically elected government.<\/p>\n

Despite that, Stop the War doubled down. On Tuesday night, they reiterated that this conflict is \u2018not \u2026 the responsibility of Russian or Ukrainian governments alone\u2019.<\/p>\n

The UK and NATO, they claim, also bear significant blame, due to the \u2018expansion of NATO and US hegemony\u2019. This spat is thus a proxy for other more entrenched divides. In part, it\u2019s a parochial battle of political positioning.<\/p>\n

Starmer is consciously distancing himself from Corbyn \u2013 who, multiple accounts agree, damaged his electoral chances through his inept response to Russia\u2019s 2018 poisoning attack in Salisbury.<\/p>\n

Murray has one eye on Labour\u2019s internal critics of Starmer. The clash is also overlaid with contested histories of British foreign policy over the twentieth century. It is important, for instance, that NATO was a Cold War creation, an alliance against the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n

Labour\u2019s leadership has traditionally been staunchly anti-communist: as Starmer stressed, it was Clement Attlee\u2019s 1945-51 government that helped found NATO (he passed over Attlee\u2019s murkier Cold War entanglements, like the bloody Malayan \u2018Emergency\u2019).<\/p>\n

Other post-war British socialists, however, chafed at Cold War binaries. Anti-nuclear and peace activists, some of whom are involved in Stop the War today, attacked NATO\u2019s participation in the arms race, and American Cold War interventions in Vietnam and South and Central America.<\/p>\n

Further on the British left, others were more openly sympathetic to the Soviet Union. Back in the 1980s, Stop the War\u2019s Murray was part of the \u2018Straight Left\u2019 faction of the Communist Party of Great Britain and battled with the \u2018Eurocommunists\u2019 over how far it should should break from the Soviets.<\/p>\n

This helps explain his current sparring with the journalist and former Trotskyist Paul Mason, a prominent critic of \u2018tankies\u2019 (an allusion to Soviet tanks crushing dissent in Hungary (1956) and Prague (1968)).<\/p>\n

Arcane splits in the British 1980s far left still echo in contemporary socialist politics. Also crucial is the fraught legacy of former Labour prime minister, Tony Blair (1997-2007). Indeed, Stop the War was founded in 2001 and peaked during the mass opposition to the disastrous 2003 invasion of Iraq.<\/p>\n

Stop the War\u2019s supporters point out that NATO has itself invaded and bombed other countries, particularly Libya (2011), and they point to the failed intervention in Afghanistan (2001-2021).<\/p>\n

Some in Stop the War, like the chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament Kate Hudson, also attack NATO\u2019s intervention in Yugoslavia (1999), blaming the country\u2019s collapse on the West.<\/p>\n

Those who mention NATO\u2019s intervention in the Kosovan War are, however, more likely to be supporters of institutions like NATO and the UK\u2019s \u2018responsibility to protect\u2019, such as Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting, as they highlight its role in stopping genocidal ethnic conflict.<\/p>\n

These histories are, in turn, underpinned by clashes over the true meaning of an \u2018ethical\u2019 or \u2018moral\u2019 foreign policy \u2013 an ideal that, Charlotte Lydia Riley stresses, is crucial for Labour\u2019s self-image.<\/p>\n

Does it involve economic sanctions (that have civilian victims) and the sending of weapons to a warzone, coordinated through an inherited Atlantic alliance that has its own murky history? Or does it consist simply of pleas for peace and nothing else, even as a sovereign, democratic government calls for support while threatened by an oppressive dictator?<\/p>\n

In Labour, it\u2019s an old question. Attlee became Labour leader in 1935 after his ally Ernest Bevin publicly savaged Attlee\u2019s predecessor, George Lansbury, for \u2018hawking his conscience\u2019 by refusing to impose sanctions on the Italian fascist Mussolini after his invasion of Ethiopia.<\/p>\n

Putin\u2019s own invasion makes it burningly relevant today. With Labour ahead in the polls, it is not inconceivable that it could shape British foreign policy.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. As Russian missiles fall on Ukraine, an organisation named \u2018Stop the War\u2019 has become a focal point of controversy in the febrile world of the British left. Stop the War are either \u2018na\u00efve\u2019, wrote Labour leader Keir Starmer recently, or \u2018they actively give succour to authoritarian leaders who directly threaten democracies. \u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":10813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,9,16],"tags":[233,246,1590,245,1589],"class_list":["post-10814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-miscellaneous","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-british","tag-lesotho","tag-russian"],"yoast_head":"\nwho can stop the war ? - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As Russian missiles fall on Ukraine, an organisation named \u2018Stop the War\u2019 has become a focal point of controversy in the ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"who can stop the war ?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As Russian missiles fall on Ukraine, an organisation named \u2018Stop the War\u2019 has become a focal point of controversy in the ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-03-01T07:03:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-01T08:22:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/03\/img.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"540\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"who can stop the war ?\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-03-01T07:03:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-01T08:22:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war\"},\"wordCount\":946,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/03\/img.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"British\",\"Lesotho\",\"Russian\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"miscellaneous\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war\",\"name\":\"who can stop the war ? - Lesotho\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/03\/img.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-03-01T07:03:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-01T08:22:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"As Russian missiles fall on Ukraine, an organisation named \u2018Stop the War\u2019 has become a focal point of controversy in the ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/03\/img.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/03\/img.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":540,\"caption\":\"who can stop the war ?\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"who can stop the war ?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\",\"name\":\"Lesotho\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"who can stop the war ? - Lesotho","description":"As Russian missiles fall on Ukraine, an organisation named \u2018Stop the War\u2019 has become a focal point of controversy in the ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"who can stop the war ?","og_description":"As Russian missiles fall on Ukraine, an organisation named \u2018Stop the War\u2019 has become a focal point of controversy in the ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war","og_site_name":"Lesotho","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2022-03-01T07:03:09+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-03-01T08:22:40+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":540,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/03\/img.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"who can stop the war ?","datePublished":"2022-03-01T07:03:09+00:00","dateModified":"2022-03-01T08:22:40+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war"},"wordCount":946,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/03\/img.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Lesotho","British","Lesotho","Russian"],"articleSection":["all news","homepage-english","miscellaneous","twitter"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war","name":"who can stop the war ? - Lesotho","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/03\/img.jpg","datePublished":"2022-03-01T07:03:09+00:00","dateModified":"2022-03-01T08:22:40+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"As Russian missiles fall on Ukraine, an organisation named \u2018Stop the War\u2019 has become a focal point of controversy in the ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/03\/img.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/03\/img.jpg","width":1000,"height":540,"caption":"who can stop the war ?"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-can-stop-the-war#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"who can stop the war ?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/","name":"Lesotho","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}