Break the cycle of war

Unite EC member Ivan Monckton spoke on behalf of the union at the Labour party conference on Wednesday (September 30) proposing an emergency motion on Syria.

“It is likely that very soon David Cameron will ask Parliament to authorise Britain to take military action in Syria,” he said.

Monckton reminded Conference that Cameron had previously proposed taking action in Syria before Ed Miliband forced him to back down.

“And let’s remember – had Cameron won that vote, ISIL – the very people he now proposes to attack, would be even stronger today than they are,” he noted.

“The Prime Minister is making it up as he goes along,” Monckton added, arguing that the Labour Party “must take a more measured view”.

He spoke of the refugee crisis as thousands upon thousands flee their homes in the Middle East and Northern Africa escaping conflict.

“The perilous journey made by tens of thousands of traumatised refugees, and the horror of the conflict in Syria, has become represented by the heart rending image of a small boy’s body washed ashore,” he said.

“There was an outpouring of sympathy and action to help from ordinary people across the country. It shamed Cameron into action, little and late as it is.”

But Monckton emphasised that we cannot allow this wave of human solidarity shown during the refugee crisis to “be misused to drag the country into another Middle East war”.

“The Sun had the audacity to carry a front page calling for military action with the headline ‘For Aylan’,” he said.

“It seems that there is no disaster in the Arab and Muslim world for which Rupert Murdoch’s answer is not to drop bombs.”

Monckton noted that British interventions at the behest of the US have only caused further destabilisation to the targeted regions, created more refugees and “uncounted civilian deaths.”

He said it was time to “break the cycle of war”, adding that “ISIS has no better recruiting sergeant than western intervention in the Middle East.”

“Now is not the time to blunder into a new war – another illegal war – with untold human casualties, more death, destruction and chaos creating more refugees,” Monckton went on to say.

“It is time to get behind diplomacy to end the Syrian civil war and empower the people of the region to confront ISIS and its allies.”

Watch Ivan’s full speech in the video below: