Stop the War coalition Newsletter 9.1.26
Posted: 9th January 2026
Newsletter 09/01/26
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Trump on the War Path
On Saturday (tomorrow) there will be demonstrations taking place in London, Edinburgh and Birmingham demanding de-escalation and calling on our government to condemn Trump’s reckless acts of aggression.
London - outside Downing Street – Saturday 10 Jan – 1pm
Edinburgh - outside US Consulate – Saturday 10 Jan – 11am
Birmingham - Chamberlain Sq – Saturday 10 Jan – 11:30am
The new year brought with it the prospect of new wars across the globe as Donald Trump threatened one country after another. His brazen attack on Venezuela and the audacious kidnapping of the Venezuelan president set the tone. Since then he has seized a Russian flagged oil tanker just outside British waters, threatened other Latin American countries and reasserted his desire to own Greenland.
We began the year with an emergency rally which you can watch here, as well as protests up and down the country against Trump’s dangerous war mongering.
Trump is out of control. Gone is the pretence of humanitarian interventions – instead the new ‘Donroe’ era sees a return to the gun-boat imperialism of old, where the strong take all. As part of this Trump has called for a dramatic 50% increase in US military spending, from $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion dollars.
Disgracefully our Prime Minister is lending full support. Not only by his refusal to condemn the illegal abduction of a head of state but by going even further and providing British ‘enabling support’, British armed forces and the use of British bases for the act of piracy conducted in the North Atlantic on Wednesday, when the US military boarded and confiscated a Russian-flagged oil tanker. Starmer gave no thought that such action might cause the UK to be in Russia’s sights for retaliation. Now Defence Secretary John Healey has confirmed the UK would happily ‘step up further’.
Stop the War is in the process of organising a series of meetings around the country on Trump’s wars. Do what you can to get involved with your local group and keep an eye on our events page for details.
As Jeremy Corbyn, StW’s Deputy President, said in a recent article:
“Is there anything the United States could do that would warrant condemnation from our government?” 
As Trump’s gangsterism causes reverberations around the world the European Peace Conference on 20 June has become even more important.
This week Starmer has been building his ‘Coalition of the Willing’ and promising to send British troops to Ukraine as part of a ‘reassurance’ force following any ceasefire. Military analysts claim that for such a force to have any legs a huge army recruitment drive would be required. The government ‘gap year’ scheme for the military is part of this. Conscription, mandatory and voluntary, is rapidly spreading across Europe as the continent is preparing for war. It may soon be on the horizon here.
We are hurtling towards more wars and greater global instability at an alarming rate. Europe is responding with a massive rearmament programme which comes with an eye watering price tag. The latest estimate suggests the UK government will need to find an additional £800bn of funding between now and 2040, £28bn over the next four years. Money that will starve much needed health, education and welfare budgets.
It’s up to us to do what we can to resist. With that in mind we need to build the peace conference. Please do what you can and download our model resolution to submit to your union branch to support the conference.
National march for Palestine
While the world’s attention has moved on to Latin America and Europe is distracted by Trump’s threats towards Greenland, Palestinians are being routinely killed and Israel is severely restricting aid into Gaza. 2026 is set to be a bleak year for Palestine – bleaker if the world’s media and public turn the other way.
The government’s refusal to engage with the Palestine hunger strikers – two Palestine activists are now close to death – is symptomatic of their distain for any opposition to the Israeli genocide.
We must show the Palestinians they are not forgotten, and show the government that we demand an end to their support and complicity in genocide. Join us for the next national demonstration.
Saturday 31 January
12:00 noon
Central London
Arrange your transport, bring your family, friends and colleagues, organise leafletting sessions and let us know if you are able to help with StW’s intervention or on our stall on the day.
Workplace Day of Action for Palestine – 12 February
The next Workplace Day of Action for Palestine will be with us soon. We must get organised for 12 February. Don’t let Gaza and justice for Palestine disappear from the conversation. We need to mobilise the labour movement – take the message into your workplace, school or college.
Stop the War’s Annual Conference 2026
Our annual conference Time to Stop Militarism, War and Islamophobia will be held on 14 March and will address the alarming global situation. We will be joined by key figures and experts from across the movement.
To help shape StW’s response to this increasingly unstable world you must be a member of StW by the end of January 2026, or a delegate from an affiliated organisation. So join our movement now and register for conference.
For January only you can take out a year’s subscription at the reduced rate of £25.
The Stop the War Winter Appeal is almost there – but we need to raise £8,000 more to meet our target and be ready for the challenges we face. It’s more important than ever for the British anti-war movement to be as strong and resilient as possible. Please do give generously.
This week’s anti-war briefing
