TODAY the Stop the War Coalition fringe at Labour conference asks, how can we end 20 years of the war on terror?

The summer saw the fall of Kabul and the chaotic retreat of the United States and its allies from Afghanistan after a two-decade occupation. What are the lessons?

“It’s worth saying first of all that this is a big defeat for the Americans,” Stop the War convener Lindsey German tells the Morning Star.

“It was never meant to happen like this. They accepted a few years ago that the Taliban were going to end up playing a role but they didn’t want it to take over the whole government — and to do so so rapidly.

“And I think that shows that the occupation was extremely unpopular with most Afghans, not because they like the Taliban, but because of the way they suffered, especially because of the air strikes.

“And I think it shows the whole notion of the war on terror — that it was a war to eradicate terrorism — was totally misconceived. The idea that you could bring about democracy, peace, women’s rights or any of these things on the basis of military intervention has been shown to be completely false, as even [US President Joe] Biden has now acknowledged.”

Labour leader Keir Starmer among others has claimed that the war in Afghanistan was a security success because no terrorist attacks on Western countries have been planned from the country since 2001.

“This claim that there have been no terror attacks from Afganistan is totally disingenuous. 

“Because actually if you look at the number of people who’ve made terror attacks in Britain, including, for example, the people who killed Lee Rigby, they cited Afghanistan as one of the reasons.

“The consequence of the war in Afghanistan — and the wars in Iraq and Libya — has been to increase the number of terror attacks.

“This narrative that the war was right and the reversals the result of a series of unrelated mistakes is a complete abdication of responsibility by the military and politicians for the disaster they caused.”

Stop the War marks its 20th anniversary this year and its most famous achievement was probably the biggest march in British history, that against war in Iraq on February 15 2003, that brought two million people onto the streets of London.

But the war went ahead — was it futile?

“The march was a massive show of strength and it changed lots of people’s minds about the war.

“We’ve built and maintained strong anti-war opinion in this country ever since. At the same time it is a matter of great regret that we didn’t stop the war. And that was because Tony Blair decided to ignore us, itself a massive denial of democracy.

“He doubled down and went ahead and it was as disastrous as we had warned it would be. I think after a march like that the only thing that could have stopped it was industrial action, strikes, people saying we’re not going to drive buses or manufacture cars or weapons unless this is stopped — but that of course is a huge ask.

“We saw it in a small way, there were two Aslef train drivers who refused to move goods going for the war, and there were people who walked out of work and the school student strikes, but obviously it didn’t involve the kind of forces you would have needed to stop it.

“But we did see a long-term shift in people’s attitudes and if you think to the way intervention in Syria was blocked in 2013, that was down to the way public opinion had changed.”

That influence was the result of Stop the War bringing together a movement from very different traditions and communities.

“The Muslim community and people from south Asia were very exercised about Afghanistan and we began to make links with them.

“In fact at our first demonstration over Afghanistan it was in Ramadan and we got an imam to come and say a prayer at the time when the fast was broken — so in the middle of all the speeches there was a prayer and people started handing out dates and it was very moving. 

“Now for us on the left we’d never done anything like this. We were quite nervous because we were mostly not religious — but people from the Muslim community said this will really help build support, and it did. 

“You could have had three different peace or anti-war movements, a Muslim movement, a pacifist movement, a socialist and trade unionist movement, but we brought everyone together.

“I think if you compare that, for example, to France, where with honourable exceptions the Muslim community are not involved in the wider left, I think it is great that we managed to do that.”

Does she think this movement played a role in the later rise of Jeremy Corbyn and the revival of the socialist left?

“Well, people were surprised when Jeremy was elected leader — I was surprised, it’s not something you’d have predicted a few months earlier, but of course it was part of the reason he was very well known [his association with Stop the War].

“He was known to be involved in anti-war campaigning and CND and Liberation which campaigned around decolonisation, with the Chagos Islanders and the Mau Mau campaigns for compensation for torture and all sorts, Jeremy was involved in it all and I think people underestimate how important that is.

“So, yes, I think the peace movement played a big role. But it was also partly why he was treated so badly later. It was absolute anathema to the Labour right to have any challenge to imperialist policy, and his foreign policy approach was something they found particularly difficult to stand.”

Is the war on terror over — and is it being succeeded, as a New York Times headline had it last month, by the war on China?

“In a way it isn’t over as we are living with the legacy of the wars launched by the US and Britain over the last 20 years which mean there are still many simmering conflicts and flashpoints in the Middle East. 

“I think the direct wars for regime change probably are over for the time being but we know imperialism never acknowledges its mistakes and doesn’t tend to pack up and go home.

“What we’re seeing now with the Aukus agreement to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines, cruise missiles and so on, it’s a confrontational and provocative move against China.

“It’s an escalation, a militarisation with the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier on its way to the South China Sea, and China is arming too, and it’s incredibly dangerous.”

What’s her message to Labour delegates today?

“That we need a different foreign policy. We need to stop the militarism and the aggression. We need to get rid of nuclear weapons and spend the money we are spending on the military on solving real problems — addressing climate change, poverty, the pandemic.”