Lowkey’s Speech at the Afghanistan Troops Out Protest (video and transcript)
- November 21st, 2010
- Posted in Protest
- By djmutiny
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I went with my son down to the demonstration and rally yesterday (Saturday 20 November 2010), and can attest to the fact that Lowkey’s speech was hugely inspiring!
Here’s the video. The transcription is below.
We are here – all of us are here – because we believe in the equality of all and the supremacy of none.
All of us are here because we do not believe in British imperialism. What has British imperialism given to the world? British imperialism has carved up the Middle East. British imperialism has left its scar on Palestine. British imperialism is the reason that Obama is sending drones today to bomb what we call Pakistan.
What people need to realise is that those drones are dropping bombs on the Pashtuns, who don’t recognise the red line which was drawn by the British. They do not consider themselves Pakistani and they do not consider themselves to be from Afghanistan; they are Pashtuns. What is the root of that problem? The root of that problem is British imperialism.
There is a reason that they call Afghanistan the graveyard of empires. There’s a reason. But what we have to ask ourselves is this: if we expect people around the world to resist British imperialism, who are we not to oppose British imperialism *here*?
They have an occupation in Kabul, but we have an occupation down there, in the Houses of Parliament. How can we combat those who are fighting humanity around the world?
Two words: *direct action*.
They want us to condemn the Millbank protestors, but they want us to commend those who drop bombs on people we do not know and people we do not see. They are quick to show soldiers with missing limbs (who of course I sympathise with), but they do not show babies born with deformities because of the depleted uranium that has been dropped; they do not show the soldiers that have babies with deformities because they were exposed to depleted uranium in Iraq and in Afghanistan.
Why?
Because the narrative that they are pushing forward wants us to commend imperialism. We say: no, we condemn imperialism, and no, we don’t condemn the protestors – I *commend* those protestors.
So we must take away the lesson from today, with all of us gathered together – all of us who have humanity in our hearts and equality in our aim. The lesson we must take from this is: we are not speaking their language. Their language is: direct action.
Thank you.
Lowkey’s speech was good but it needs a programme to back it up.
However, for me, the real speech was the contrast between Phil Shiner’s speech and Terry Eagleton’s speech. I’ve got nothing against Eagleton, indeed I admire him for taking on Amis a couple of years ago but his speech was the usual anti-american blabber one expects from the liberal left. Some of it was not very accurate. Now, compare that with what Shiner was saying. Shiner rooted his opposition to torture in highlighting what Britain did in Malaya and Kenya and I think he also mentioned Aden. Shiner has to take his case to a court of law and not the pages of the Guardian. This contrast highlights what is the great mistake in StW from the very beginning – it focused on anti-Americanism and strongly insinuated that Britain was simply America’s poodle.