Stop the War Coalition

The Stop the War Coalition (StWC), informally known simply as Stop the War, is a British group that campaigns against the United Kingdom's involvement in military conflicts.

It was established on 21 September 2001 to campaign against the impending war in Afghanistan. It then campaigned against the impending invasion of Iraq; the 15 February 2003 protest organised by the Coalition along with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), was the largest public demonstration in British history.

Since then, the Coalition has campaigned against the 2011 military intervention in Libya and opposed UK involvement in the War against the Islamic State, stating that airstrikes would only fuel extremism. It opposed sending military aid to Ukraine during the Russian invasion, stating that it risks starting a war between NATO and Russia, a position which drew criticism from Andrew Fisher. It has called for ceasefires in the Russo-Ukrainian War and in the Gaza war.

The group has been criticised for allegedly excusing military aggression by enemies of the US and UK, and critics accuse it of being "more anti-West than anti-war".

The impetus to form the Stop the War Coalition came following the September 11 attacks in the United States. The Coalition was launched at a public meeting of 2,000 people at Friends House on Euston Road in London, on 21 September which was chaired by Lindsey German, then active in the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). "The Stop the War Coalition has been formed to encourage and mobilise the largest possible movement against the war", said the founding statement. "Its aim is simple-to draw together everyone who wants to stop this madness, and to present the anti-war arguments which are squeezed out of the media." Among the sponsors of the Coalition were the former Labour Party MP Tony Benn, and the Labour MPs George Galloway, Tam Dalyell and Jeremy Corbyn, in addition to Tariq Ali, Harold Pinter, Suresh Grover and Andrew Murray.

German became Convenor of the Coalition and a meeting on 28 October settled the Coalition's official aims. This meeting also elected a steering committee which consisted of representatives of Labour Left Briefing and the Communist Party of Britain. Representatives of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee) and the Alliance for Workers' Liberty failed to get elected, although both became members of the Coalition and participated in its activities. At this time, it was alleged that the SWP dominated the organisation, although German, John Rees and Chris Nineham would leave the SWP in 2009. The Conservative MP Julian Lewis,in a letter to The Daily Telegraph in 2003, referring to Andrew Murray's involvement in the Communist Party of Britain, wrote that he "had thought" his "days of unearthing totalitarians at the heart of 'peace movements'" had ended when the Soviet Union collapsed, but Murray was now in a "key position, being quoted by the anti-war media as if he were a representative of democratic politics".

In this early period, Stop the War had a broad base. Ann Treneman wrote in The Times in January 2003 that the "two most obvious strands" of StWC support consisted of "the Establishment and the grassroots. This makes for some very strange bedfellows, who include retired generals, old peaceniks, former ambassadors, anti-globalisation protesters, Labour activists, trade unions, [and] the Muslim community". By the time of the February 2003 march in London, Greenpeace, the Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party (SNP) were among the 450 organisations which had affiliated to the coalition, and the coalition's website listed 321 peace groups.

At their initial meeting the Coalition also adopted the slogan "Against the racist backlash", stating that a war against Afghanistan would be perceived as an attack on Islam and that Muslims, or those perceived as being Muslim, would face racist attacks in the United Kingdom if the government joined the war. The Coalition worked closely with the Muslim Association of Britain in organising its demonstrations.