The following articles were published in "The Guardian", newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, 29 January 2003.
Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. Sydney. 2010 Australia. Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795. CPA Central Committee: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> "The Guardian": <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Webpage: http://www.cpa.org.au> Subscription rates on request. ****************************** Bring the troops home While George Bush, Colin Powell, Tony Blair, John Howard and Alexander Downer continue to beat the war drums, millions around the world are demonstrating for peace and against any war on Iraq. In warmongering statements over the weekend, Colin Powell (the alleged "dove" of the US administration) said, "We continue to reserve our sovereign right to take military action against Iraq alone or in a coalition of the willing". A Pentagon official revealed a plan to rain as many as 800 cruise missiles on Iraq in two days. "There will not be a safe place in Baghdad", said the official. "The sheer size of this has never been seen before, never contemplated before". It would wipe out water and power supplies in the city and would kill tens of thousands of civilians. The architect of the plan, a military strategist from the National Defence University in Washington, cold-bloodedly described the desired outcome: to achieve the same affect as another US crime against humanity -- "the nuclear weapons at Hiroshima - not taking days or weeks but minutes." In an interview with Kerry O'Brien on the ABC's 7.30 Report (27-1-03), Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer continued to deny any decision had been made about Australia's involvement in a US-led war. But when pressed by Kerry O'Brien conceded that the Australian Government is prepared to join a military strike on Iraq without the UN Security Council's endorsement. Australia's forces are not only over there, they have been written into the US's battle plans for Iraq. The US communications facility at Pine Gap plays a key role in the US's planned war and the preparations for it. The base should be closed and the troops brought home now. There is no public support nor justification for war on Iraq. Across the world, rallies, marches, meetings, leafleting, paste-ups, street actions, petitions, letter-writing, pickets, new peace groups, information sharing on the internet and many other actions are swelling the unparalleled global anti-war movement. People from every walk of life imaginable swamp the talkback radio stations and letters' columns. Peace activists, environmentalists, workers and their trade unions, governments, churches, community groups, scientists, doctors, other professionals, students, Gulf War and Vietnam War veterans, military personnel and millions of other individuals voice their opposition to war. The calls for "No War on Iraq" become louder by the day as more and more people come to understand the dangers posed by such a war and the longer-term agenda of the US (see editorial page 2). In Australia, preparations are well under way for big national actions over the weekend of February 15-16 (see details page 5). Peace groups in Australia have condemned war on Iraq - with or without UN approval. On Friday last week, a group of parliamentarians, church and trade union leaders put on hard hats to join construction site workers on the top of the World Square Project in Sydney's CBD as they hoisted a 20-metre purple ribbon on a giant crane. People are urged to wear purple ribbons to show opposition to war with Iraq. Protestors also delivered the anti-war message as Prime Minister John Howard fare welled HMAS Kanimbla with Australian troops bound for the Gulf. "We absolutely condemn the dispatch of Australian military forces to the Gulf in the face of massive public opposition, and without any parliamentary debate", said former Senator Bruce Childs, a spokesperson for Sydney's Walk Against The War Coalition. Care was taken to direct the protest against the Howard Government's policies, not the troops who were following orders. A statement issued by the Federal ALP Left declared: "The Left opposes Australia's involvement in a war irrespective of whether it is endorsed by the United Nations Security Council or not". In Adelaide last Thursday (January 23) a procession of about 100 cars made its way through the city streets with their headlights on, and carrying placards drawing the public's attention to the forthcoming "Don't Attack Iraq" rally. Then on Saturday, a group chalked slogans and projections of casualties in any invasion of Iraq around the outlines of bodies on the pavement of Adelaide's Gawler Place. Loudhailers and leaflets promoted the rally in the busy shopping precinct. Peace activists head to Iraq During the week, the media carried the news that Adelaide residents Ruth Russell and Edward Cranswick were preparing to go to Iraq to serve as human shields. "I'm squeamish about blood but if US President George W. Bush wants to start a war he's going to have to bomb innocent Australians", Mr Cranswick told The Advertiser. The two Adelaide protestors will join other courageous volunteers from around the world as part of a human shield in the hope that their presence in that country would prevent bombing by the United States and its allies. "We will run the risk of being maimed or killed, but it is simply the same risk that innocent Iraqis will themselves face", human shield organiser Ken O'Keefe was quoted as saying in an online interview. Mr O'Keefe is a former US Marine who served in the Gulf War in 1991. "I would rather die in defence of justice and peace than 'prosper' in complicity with mass murder and war", he said. A group of about 60 volunteers from Britain, the US, Spain, Brazil, Australia and Israel left London last week. Others will join them as they cross Europe by bus. In Britain, a group of train drivers refused to move a freight train carrying ammunition believed to be intended for British forces in the Gulf. In Geilenkirchen, Germany, peace activists blocked the entrance of a NATO base where Airborne Warning and Control Systems airplanes are stationed. They carried signs with slogans such as; "No Blood for Oil" and "War is Murder". In Davos, making the link between big business and war, about 1000 protestors demonstrated against the World Economic Forum. Their banners carried such slogans as; "No Business over Dead Bodies" and "Leave Iraq in peace, stop the Bush warriors". **************************************************************************** -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
