People in the UK, US and Iran are demonstrating against war and military aggression.

In the UK, there have been protests against possible war between the US and Iran, and particularly against the idea that the UK government might back Donald Trump and send British troops to fight alongside US troops.

The US has also seen widespread protests against Trump’s aggressive militarism, while Iranians have been demonstrating on the streets of Tehran over the shooting down of a civilian aircraft by Iranian troops. There have also been anti-war demonstrations elsewhere in the world.

War Resisters' International (WRI), which unites pacifists and anti-militarists around the world, has helped to unite the campaigns against war in various countries.

The Peace Pledge Union (British section of War Resisters' International) challenged the hypocrisy of British ministers in condemning human rights abuses in Iran while tolerating human rights abuse by regimes that they support, such as Saudi Arabia and Israel.

The PPU insisted that the people of the UK, the US and Iran have more in common with each other than with those who would wage war in their name.

“Only arms dealers and grandstanding politicians would benefit from war between Iran and the USA,” said Symon Hill, PPU Campaigns Manager. “Whatever the governments of the US, Iran and the UK do, the people of all these countries can take a stand against their governments and speak out against war.”

The Peace Pledge Union is in conversation with Iranian exiles in Britain, who oppose both the Iranian government and the US war drive.

The peace movement in Britain is constantly being accused of supporting the Iranian regime. But the PPU pointed out that the same principles that lead them to support human rights campaigners in Iran also lead them to oppose Trump’s aggression. 

The PPU’s Symon Hill said, “Pacifists are consistent in opposing war and militarism in all forms. It is the militarists who are inconsistent: condemning the human rights abuses of their enemies while excusing the human rights abuses of their allies.”

In the US, the War Resisters’ League (a sibling organisation of the PPU) is working with the Iranian and Iraqi diaspora to challenge the drive to war. 

The War Resisters’ League described Iranian general Qassem Soleimani as a war criminal but condemned his extra-judicial killing by Trump’s forces as “an act of imperial power and disregard for international law”. 

They added, “True justice would have been putting war criminals, including Assad, Soleimani, Muhandis and Trump on trial.”