Opponents of Afghan conflict to demonstrate in city next month

VETERAN politician Tony Benn is backing a rally opposing the conflict in Afghanistan as hundreds of anti-war demonstrators are expected to travel from across the North of England for the event in York next month.

The York Against The War campaign group is organising the rally to call for the withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan amid growing concerns over the number of fatalities and casualties the conflict is causing.

Mr Benn, who is the president of the Stop The War Coalition, has given his support to the rally which is due to be staged in York on September 4.

A message from the former Labour MP will be read out to the campaigners who are expected to travel from as far afield as Tyneside, Bolton and Middlesbrough for the event in King’s Square.

Speakers at the rally will include poet Andy Croft and Peter Brierley, who famously refused to shake Tony Blair’s hand in October last year, saying the former Prime Minister had blood on it.

His son, Lt Cpl Shaun Brierley, 28, from Batley in West Yorkshire, died in an accident in Kuwait in March 2003 when the vehicle he was in crashed during the first days of the Iraq War.

Jayne Venables, who is helping organise the rally, said: “An awful lot of people are very unhappy about Britain’s involvement in Afghanistan, not just from the loss of our own members of the Armed Forces but also for the civilian casualties and fatalities of the Afghan people.

“We are hoping to create an event which reaches out further than just the normal peace campaign groups. We want to involve the wider public who may feel that they are powerless to do anything to stop the conflict in Afghanistan.”

The event will include a sunflower rally, with a plant held aloft to represent each of the fallen soldiers from Britain’s Armed Forces who have been killed in the conflict. The seedheads of the sunflowers will represent the thousands of Afghan civilians who have died in the war.

Mr Benn was at York Minster in March when he launched the Plant For Peace Campaign, which involved planting the sunflowers to highlight the opposition to the war in Afghanistan.

The rally will be staged in King’s Square in York on Saturday, September 4, from 2pm until 4pm.

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