Ad-Hoc Hands Off the Middle East Committee

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The Ad-Hoc Hands Off the Middle East Committee was a short lived grouping created by the Revolutionary Communist Party in 1990 which opposed Western intervention in the Gulf following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. It was dominated by the RCP and its front groups including Workers Against Racism and the Irish Freedom Movement, though the erstwhile enemies of the RCP, the Revolutionary Communist Group did join the grouping. It later became the Campaign Against Militarism.

Naturally the RCP tried to present this as the authentic voice of the anti war movement. After calling a demonstration on 8 September 1990 in London , organisers' spokesman Keith Tompson said: "It went quite well considering it was organised so quickly. I think we will be viewed as a cranky minority at the moment but it's the price we pay for being the first to say we disagree." However, this was not the first indication of opposition to the war. Some two weeks earlier a meeting organised by Tony Benn and others was held in Friends' House in London. We know that the RCP was aware of and indeed present at that meeting according to the Guardian, which reported

At 6.30pm only Tony Benn and a handful of Socialist Society supporters were inside Friends House, the Quaker headquarters in London. By 7.30pm they had to organise two overspill rooms and newspaper sellers for Workers' Power and The Next Step were doing business.

At the meeting, the Guardian reported:

Carol Turner, for Labour CND, reported the creation at the behest of CND's Bruce Kent of a Committee to Stop the War.

Later this committee - the Committee to Stop War in the Gulf to give it is full name - argued over the collective position it should take.

Activities

• 8 September 1990 - 'Hundreds of people today marched past the United States Embassy in London in protest against western military intervention in the Gulf. Demonstrators chanted "Britain, US, UN, out out out" as they filed past Westminster and on to a rally in Hyde Park. The protest, which police said passed off peacefully, was at-tended by about 800 people. The Ad-Hoc Hands Off the Middle East Committee, which organised the event, claimed the support of a dozen groups including the Revolutionary Communist Party, the Irish Freedom Movement, the Student Committee to Defend Arab Rights and Holy Places, and Workers Against Racism. Organisers' spokesman Keith Tompson said: "It went quite well considering it was organised so quickly. I think we will be viewed as a cranky minority at the moment but it's the price we pay for being the first to say we disagree."
• 10 October 1990 - 'Hundreds of protesters tonight called for the withdrawal of British and US troops from the Gulf. They marched through central London past the US Embassy to an indoor rally at Red Lion Square to hear speakers denounce the "imperalist forces in the Gulf". Organised by the Ad Hoc Hands off the Middle East Committee - an umbrella grouping of left-wing organisations - the torch-lit march attracted about 400 people, police said. Organiser Keith Tompson said the aim of the march was to provide a focus for those opposed to Western interference in the Gulf.'