Pro-war Left

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Please improve this article if you can. (October 2007)

The Pro-War Left (PWL for short, also called the Pro-Liberation Left and the Decent Left, both by its members and somewhat sarcastically, by its opponents) is a grouping of British left wing journalists and bloggers who disagree with some of the tenets they claim are held by the majority British left. The main point of disagreement is in their support for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, at variance with the rest of the British left which opposed it.

1 Beliefs
2 Numbers and Impact
3 Main figures
- 3.1 Blogs
4 References

[edit] Beliefs

The main belief of the PWL that sets it apart from the rest of the British left is, as mentioned above, that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was justified. Subsidiary positions (most of which are connected to this) include:

The belief that most of the British left is engaged in a “devil’s alliance” by supporting reactionary Islamic groups.
The belief that the British left is riddled with anti-Semitism of some form of another.
Connected to both of the above, the belief that the British left is supportive of the destruction of Israel.^{[citation needed]}

The PWL is a British phenomenon, but they have some similarity with US Liberal Hawks.

The Euston Manifesto is the closest the PWL has come to a statement of its principles. ^[1]

[edit] Numbers and Impact

The Pro-War Left can be seen as mainly a phenomenon of the blogosphere. Most of its supporters contribute to or run blogs, Harry's Place being the most well known and influential of these. Some, however – Nick Cohen and David Aaronovitch in particular – have written books or write for newspapers.

As to how many supporters there are of the Pro-War Left, it is hard to say. As a primarily online phenomenon, it is hard to gauge. On October 7, 2007, a counter-demonstration^[2] to the Al-Quds march was organised by Harry’s Place to which all the PWL were invited. The organisers estimate that 100 people turned up over the course of the day. However, it was a first demonstration and it was also a counter-demonstration, both of which would lower numbers.

The Euston Manifesto, the closest thing the PWL has to a unifying document, currently (October 2007) has 2,929 signatories. However, not all of these are likely to be supporters of all the PWL values as the manifesto does not contain all the PWL values (crucially, it is ambivalent about supporting the invasion of Iraq, stating that its members disagreed over this, whereas supporting the invasion of Iraq is the main unifying factor amongst the PWL.)

Given both the above, it seems not unreasonable to say that the PWL has c. 1-2,000 supporters in the UK.

[edit] Main figures

Nick Cohen - journalist for the Observer
David Aaronovitch - journalist for the Times
Oliver Kamm - journalist for the Times
Norman Geras - Retired Professor of Philosophy, Politics and Economics
Christopher Hitchens - journalist and writer
Johan Hari - journalist for the Independent (although he later went back on his support)