Walter Wolfgang: 'We have been lied to about the war. I dared to speak the truth

[Guest guest]

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article316115.ece

 

 

Walter Wolfgang: 'We have been lied to about the war. I dared to

speak the truth'

By Walter Wolfgang

Published: 30 September 2005

 

 

 

My case is not important. But what happened to me when I was ejected

from the Labour conference - simply for a one-word protest during Jack

Straw's speech this week - tells us there is something deeply wrong

with the culture of our Government under Tony Blair.

 

We have been lied to about the war. But not only that. The party has

been manipulated so that it has not been allowed to discuss the issue

properly.

 

Indeed, the Labour leaders have got so nervous of criticism that when

I shouted the single word " nonsense " - when the Foreign Secretary

sought to paper over the issue with smooth words - party officials

sent the bouncers in. Even one word of criticism, it seems, was too much.

 

I had not intended to heckle, much less to make myself the centre of

national attention and a debate about whether free speech still exists

in the modern Labour Party. But Jack Straw spoke such nonsense - about

Iraq, and about Kosovo - that it pushed me over the edge.

 

I could have said a lot more than that one word. I could have said

that we should not have marched into Iraq at all. I could have said we

were lied to about the war. But one word was enough. Even so I could

not believe that stewards were bearing down on me just because I dared

to speak the truth.

 

Tony Blair is the worst leader the Labour Party has ever had, Ramsay

Macdonald included. Mr Blair's instincts are basically those of a

Tory. He picked up this cause from the Americans without even

analysing it. I suspect that he is too theatrical even to realise that

he is lying.

 

There was no justification for the conflict in Iraq. It isn't only

that there were no weapons of mass destruction. The war was simply

unnecessary. It was done in support of the United States.

 

It has brought us to a turning point in history. When I was a child

living in Germany in the late 1930s, with relatives who died in the

concentration camps, things were very frightening. But the policy of

the American government today frightens me too. And so does the

attitude of the British Government.

 

Power corrupts, it is said, and absolute power tends to corrupt

absolutely. This is increasingly clear in our post-Cold War era. There

is today only one superpower and therefore that superpower has to be

restrained by the good advice of its allies. But what Tony Blair has

done is the opposite. He has confirmed the prejudices of George Bush,

making it much harder for a superpower to get out of its bad habits.

We made a mistake by invading Iraq and we should recognise that. Now

we have got to leave. Our continued presence in Iraq is part of the

problem. It cannot be part of the solution. What has happened in Basra

illustrates the mess we have got ourselves in. The situation is

difficult enough without us making it more so. The best thing is to

confine troops to barracks and having done so bring them home as soon

as possible.

 

The hard truth is that the British people know that. The public - and

the Labour Party in particular - are becoming increasingly convinced

that we made a mistake going to war against Iraq. And that we are

making an even bigger mistake in staying there. That is why some

people at the conference this week lost their cool with my single word

of criticism.

 

The party chairman Ian McCartney apologised to me afterwards. He

invited me and Steve Forrest - the chap who was also thrown out for

telling the bouncers to leave me alone - for a meal with him at the

House of Commons some time. That was kind of him and I am happy to

draw a line under the incident so far as I am personally concerned.

 

But the issue for the party is far from resolved. It was foolish to

have a foreign policy session at a conference in which the most

important issues we face - Iraq and whether we are going to have more

nuclear weapons - were barely discussed.

 

Party leaders have increasingly controlled conference over the last

few years. We used to have a very inclusive culture in the party. But

New Labour has damaged that. We must reclaim it before it is too late.

 

Walter Wolfgang: The peace campaigner

 

The man who was shaped by living in shadow of the Nazis

 

From Hitler's persecution of his race to the Vietnam War, from the

atom bomb to the invasion of Iraq, Walter Wolfgang has spent seven

decades opposing every threat he sees to civilised society.

 

Unsurprisingly, the pensioner, who as a Jewish teenager returned twice

to Nazi Germany from the safety of Britain, was yesterday in no mood

to be cowed by the " toughies " who dragged him yesterday from the

Labour Party conference.

 

Friends of the 82-year-old retired accountant described him as a

painstakingly polite man who nonetheless has " fire in his belly " when

he perceives injustice, cruelty or just plain political stupidity.

 

He is a founding member of Britain's anti-nuclear movement and a

veteran of five decades of anti-war protests, including a Sixties

demonstration outside the American embassy in London when he was arrested.

 

John Cox, the vice-chairman of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament,

who has known Mr Wolfgang for almost 50 years, said: " Walter is not

the sort who would want to be on the podium - he is an activist rather

than a leader. But he has passionately held and defended the same

principles all the time I've known him and he will speak up when he

sees something that is wrong. "

 

It is a steadfastness that has its roots in the Holocaust. Between

1937 and 1939, Mr Wolfgang returned to Frankfurt after his parents,

Hermann and Erna, had sent him to London to flee the threat of Hitler.

 

It was only when his father was interned by the Nazis and he was

himself briefly detained, that he and his family fled to the safety -

and liberty - of Britain.

 

The family settled in Richmond and in 1943 moved to the flat where has

lived ever since. But other relatives fell foul of the Holocaust. An

aunt died in Auschwitz. He said: " I went back against the advice of a

lot of people. I went there on holiday several times. When I went back

there in 1938, I was held there for just a few hours and nearly did

not get out again. "

 

Cahal Milmo, Ben Russell and Terri Judd