Make it welfare, not warfare, in 2021

AS THE WORLD heads into a new year, the Coronavirus pandemic is not the only threat to our health and wellbeing. In many countries across the world, war rages on – or, even if a war has officially ended, populations struggle to live with the consequences.

Much of this human suffering is funded by the UK taxpayer, who pays out for hostile actions ranging from small scale skirmishes to wholesale war. There’s more to come: this year UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced an increase in military spending.

As John Pilger said at the Stop the War Coalition’s Xmas fundraiser: “In the midst of the greatest health emergency in modern times, Johnson announced a record rise of £16 billion in so-called defence spending. But the £16 billion is not for defence. Britain has no enemies, other than those who betray its ordinary people: its nurses and doctors, its elderly and its carers, its vulnerable, its youth.”

There are serious military operations continuing in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, The Stop the War Coalition hopes to bring the injustice of these conflicts to public attention this year, not least so that UK taxpayers can see what our money is being spent on – and can protest.

The Coalition is already planning a Day of Action on Yemen on 25th January, and it wants to carry on, and broad, this work throughout 2021. It has appealed to supporters to make a donation to its Winter Appeal to help its work.

●For more information about the Stop the War Coalition, go to:
Stop the War Coalition

●To donate to the STWC Winter Appeal, go to:
Winter Appeal

●Read more stories from the Stop the War Coalition:
Stop the War Coalition