Stop the War coalition Newsletter, 28/03/25

Newsletter – 28/03/25

Welfare not Warfare

Could this government be any worse? Already a third of children were living in poverty before this week’s cuts were announced – that’s 4.4 million children. According to the government’s own assessment 250,000 more people, including 50,000 more children, will be plunged into poverty as a result of their cuts – campaigners say this is a gross underestimate. Over three million people will be hit by the changes to Personal Independence Payments (PIP). 

Yet the Ministry of Defence is to receive a further £2.2 billion increase in its budget this year – that’s on top of the £13.5 billion more per year Starmer previously pledged. Starmer’s Labour is prioritising the arms industry and City bankers over our children, the poor, the sick and disabled.

No wonder there was SOAS, WC1H OXG.

Stop the War groups around the country have also organised Welfare not Warfare public meetings: Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield, Canterbury. See our events page for details.

To help build our campaign we have set up a dedicated campaign webpage where you can find out what you can do to help. Please take a look and get involved – organise street stalls, get the petition into your college or place of work, encourage your TU to pass our Welfare not Warfare resolution.

Defend the Right to Protest 

The Palestine movement is coming up against increasing difficulties as a consequence of the Met Police imposing unprecedented restrictions. They are failing to grant routes on spurious grounds, placing ever more restrictive exclusion orders on our protests and are using the draconian Public Order Act in an attempt to intimidate us.

Ten of the movement’s organisers and high profile supporters have been charged or questioned under caution. Many other activists have been arrested, sometimes violently, and charged. Now the government is suggesting an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill to further restrict the right to protest. Read the Palestine Coalition’s statement below on home secretary Yvette Cooper’s plans.

Rest assured, we will not be intimidated. We have announced the next National Demonstration for Palestine on Nakba day, 17 May.

Before this we are calling on all our groups and supporters to organise for a National Day of Demonstrations on 12 April. Start organising marches and protests in your towns or city. 

StW’s public meeting in London on 1 April will also be addressing the urgent need for us to defend the right to protest. Register by clicking the button below.

We Demand Change – Tomorrow – Saturday 29 March

After this week’s bleak budget tomorrow’s (Saturday 29 March) We Demand Change conference is more important than ever. Together we can turn the tide on despair.

Actions for Palestine 

National Day of Demonstrations for Palestine – Saturday 12 April
We are asking all our groups and supporters to organise protests in cities, towns and villages up and down the country. Get organising locally and show how wide and deep our movement for Palestine is.

National Demonstration London – Saturday 17 May 
The next national demonstration for Palestine will be on Nakba day – the day of commemoration for the catastrophe in 1948 when Palestinians were expelled from their homes.

Get organising!

PARC Against DARC, the campaign to stop the US military from building a space wars radar station in Wales which could give Donald Trump the ability to dominate space, needs your help.

The campaign’s aim is to stop the planning application for DARC Radar in its tracks by creating such a high level of public opposition that the project becomes untenable and has to be scrapped by the UK government.

Find out how you can help here. Click on the link below for petitions, details of how to lobby your MP and more.

Save the date – 7 June – and join our Welfare not Warfare anti-war bloc on the No More Austerity march.

This week’s anti-war briefing