STOP THE WAR COALITION
15 January 2009
Email office@stopwar.org.uk
T: 020 7278 6694
Web: http://www.stopwar.org.uk

Following Israel's attack on Gaza, and the two large
demonstrations that Stop the War helped organise over the past
two weeks, our national office has received a number of
requests for information about how to set up a local Stop the
War group. This is very encouraging, as our network of local
groups across the country is the life blood of Stop the War.
This handbook gives advice and suggestions on how to organise
a local group in your area.

HOW TO BUILD A LOCAL STOP THE WAR GROUP

There is a tremendous new mood of activism in the anti-war
movement in response to the Israeli attack on Gaza. Many
people, including many young people, who have never been
involved with the Stop the War Coalition are now building
demos and protests, organising meetings and booking coaches.

We need all of them to be active members of the Stop the War
Coalition if this momentum is to be sustained over the Gaza
protests and flow on into G20 protests next April.

The best way to do this is to encourage activists to build a
Stop the War group. This can be a local group where they live,
a group in their workplace or trade union organisation, a
group in their college, mosque or church or other religous
group.

Its really simple to start a group. Here are some ideas.

Call a meeting. Book a room in a community centre, mosque,
church, pub, library. Get a national STWC coalition speaker
(this is very important so that local groups establish a link
with the national organisation, get news of what the national
organisation is planning, feed in local actions and so on).
Add some local speakers from unions, community and religous
groups etc. Produce leaflets, email, text Facebook and phone
to advertise the meeting. Ask sympathetic organisations to
help publicise the meetings.

Call a protest. Same process as above. Pick a good focus: a

local MP's surgery (if they are not in favour of our camapign
aims), local media if its biased (and it usually is!). Or just
call it in a local town square or market place. Do invite
speakers so that they can shape the response of the crowd.

Use the media: The local paper, radio and TV may not be
sympathetic (though often individual journalists and National
Union of Journalists members will be) but they are hungry for
news and controversy. The STWC is a nationally recognised
organisation with a strong media profile that you can use to
get articles and letters into the papers and news items and
interviews on radio and TV. Don't forget the free sheets~its
easy to get into them and they go out very widely.

Always collect money. Both locally and nationally we always
need money to fund the campaign. Make sure there are always
collection buckets around and that someone does a dedicated
(but short) fund raising speech.

Set up a local committee. Invite people who have been active
in the campaign and who support you locally to help organise
activity. Make sure the committee includes as wide ranging
interests as possible represented on the committee. Trade
unionists, Labour Party members, Greens, socialists, CND
supporters, Muslim, Iraqi, Afghan, Palestinian, Lebanese
groups and many more are all part of the STWC throughout the
country. They proably won't all be active in your area but try
and get as broad a spectrum as possible involved.

Mobilise for national STWC events. It always helps to build a
local group if it participates in the bigger national marches,
meetings and conferences. It costs to get to these events but
its worth the money: it gives local activists confidence,
ideas and allows them to feed their experiece into the
national organisation.

Get in touch with us: Always let us know what you are doing.
We may have contacts in your area. We always want to help and
send speakers when we can. We can help publicise your meeting,
protest, coach on the website and in the news letter.

Phone us on: 02072786694

email: office@stopwar.org.uk

Even if you aren't able to build a group please send us the
emails of all your local contacts so that they can be sent our
Newsletters directly.

STWC affliates:

The STWC works with CND and the British Muslim Intiative in
most of our national mobilisations. We have also worked in
partnership with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign to mobilise
the recent Gaza demonstrations. Many Labour Party MPs and
councillors, the Green Party and a range of socialist
organisations are also affiliated to STWC.Below is a selection
of other organisations who are affiliated to STWC. We include
these just to give an idea of the range of organisations that
might assist you in building a STWC in your area.

UNITE branches in London, Tyneside and Coventry
Ashfield Unison
Barnet College
Bristol West Branch MSF
Brixton Hill STW
Calerdale Against the War
Churches Together in Britain & Ireland
Ealing Teachers Association
Ealing Trades Council
FBU
Finchley & Barnet STW
Greenwich Unison
HSE Civil Servants Against the War
Ipswich District TUC
Jewish Socialist Group
Kingston Peace Council / CND
Leeds Finance Workers Broad Left
Lewisham Teachers Association
Liberation
London (North) CLAE UNISON SHOP
London (Nth) Tottenham/Haringey Union Council
London (Sth) MSF London Computer Staffs Branch
London Left Unity (PSC)
Media Transcription Service
Movement for Compassionate Living
UCU Barnet College
UCU Barnsley College
UCU Basildon College Branch
UCU Westminster Kingsway
National Union of Journalists - South Yorkshire Branch
Northhampton STWC
NUT Coventry
NUT Croydon
NUT Ealing
NUT East London
NUT Hackney
NUT Islington
NUT Kensington & Chelsea
NUT Leicestershire
NUT Waltham Forest Association
Prospect Union-Tate Branch
Refugee Worker's Cultural Association
RMT London Transport Regional Council
RMT Waterloo Branch
Sheffield TUC
SOAS STWC
Southend-on-Sea Bourough Council UNISON
Stockport MSF Branch
Stroud Green Against the War
TGWU 1/460 Ipswich Branch
TGWU Branch 1/1700
TGWU/ACTS 1/524 East London Branch
Transport Salaried Staffs Association
TUC Battersea & Wandsworth
UNISON Ashford Local Government
UNISON Cambridge County Council
UNISON Cambridge United Left
UNISON Camden
UNISON Dorset Heath
UNISON Enfield Branch
UNISON Goldsmiths
UNISON Hammersmith
UNISON Housing Assoc Branch
UNISON Islington Branch
UNISON Kings College London
UNISON Knowsley
UNISON Local Authority Associations Branch
UNISON London (Greater)
UNISON London (Sth) Community Health
UNISON London Fire Authority
UNISON London Metropolitan
UNISON Manchester University
UNISON Oxford
UNISON Rochdale
UNISON Sheffield Hallam Uni
UNISON Somerset County Branch
UNISON South London & Maudsley Branch
UNISON Southwark
UNISON Tower Hamlets
UNISON UCL
UNISON UCLH
UNISON Waltham Forest
UNISON Westminster
UNISON Wirral
UNISON Wolverhampton
Waltham Forest Council Workers Against the War
Watford Trades Council