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AFRICAN
CONTINGENT MARCHES AMONG 2 MILLION PEOPLE IN LONDON TO WARN
BUSH AND BLAIR AGAINST IMPERIALIST WARS Explo Nani-Kofi On Saturday 15th February, a contingent of Africans and friends of Africa marched in London, as part of 2 million people, who are opposed to the threat by Bush and Blair to attack Iraq. General slogans on the demonstration by 2 million people included "No War For Oil", "Regime Change Begins At Home", "Don't Attack Iraq", "Freedom For Palestine", "USA Is No. 1 Rogue State" and "War Is Not The Answer". African contingent, marching under a big banner with the pictures of Kwame Nkrumah and Patrice Lumumba had their additional slogans like "Genocide In Congo, Ivory Coast, Uganda and Sudan Because Of Imperialist Greed", "5,000,000 Died In Congo! Tony Blair Don't You Care?", "Africans United Shall Never Be Defeated". The African contingent was organised by the campaign group, Stop All Imperialist Wars Against Africans Now, which is affiliated to the Stop The War Coalition in Britain. The demands of our campaign, "Stop All Imperialist Wars Against African People Now" are:- (1) We want to end all unjust wars imposed on our people in order to steal our resources or as a genocidal tool to maintain the oppression and exploitation of Africa, which mainly benefit Europe and North America; (2) We want to end all illegitimate Black governments whose main function is to implement imperialist policies; (3) We want a liberated and united Africa under a single African Socialist state; (4) We want a consolidated African nationality for all African people wherever we are oppressed and exploited throughout the world due to machinations of imperialism; (5) We want a unification of all fronts of the 500 year old African Liberation Movement to complete the International Black Revolution throughout the world; (6) We want reparations and social justice in our life time! Despite the fact that an intimidating atmosphere had been created in London just before the demonstration it it didn't succeed in disrupting the mobilisation for the demonstration in any way. A week to the demonstrations, the government came up with allegations of a terrorist threat to London, and placed a thousand armed policemen and hundreds of soldiers with tanks at the main airport - Heathrow. There were also raids on homes with arrests supposed to be of suspected terrorists. In spite of this two million people converged on London to march against Bush and Blair going to war against Iraq. The propaganda efforts of Bush and Blair have been so discredited as the UN weapons inspector, Hans Blix, questioned some of so-called intelligence report that the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, had submitted to the UN. Blair's intelligence turned out to be equally a sham as it was exposed that parts were copied from somebody's post- graduate work without even correcting typograph! ical errors. During debates within the African community in London, where some alleged that the contingent was marching to support an Arab dictator, Andy Kwawukume, African contingent, pointed out that we were rather smart people, who have seized on appropriate opportunity to bring Africa's issues to the attention of the public. Nobody can ignore the impact of the march as it has being the main news item and occupying the front pages of the british newspapers. It has been acknowledged as the biggest march in Britain of all time. In addition to this, hundred thousand people demonstrated in Glasgow at the same time, when Blair went to address the Labour Party conference. Blair and the Labour Party leadership said that it is necessary to listen to the genuine concerns of the demonstrators but that there is a moral duty to end the oppression of the Iraqi people by Saddam Hussein. John Rees, the vice-president of the International Coalition Against US Aggression, that the removal of Saddam Hussein has to be done by the Iraqi people themselves. Jesse Jackson said on a BBC programme on Sunday 16th February that it was the western powers who armed Saddam with the weapons of mass destruction. A former army officer, who was on the demonstration, said that it was during the period that Saddam was using the weapons of mass destruction against the Iraqi population that the western governments supported him and they only want him removed now because he is no longer obeying them. There were also Iraqi exiles on the march opposing the attack on Iraq. This showed that it is not the whole of the Iraqi opposition that has been bought off by the CIA. An Iraqi exile granted an interview to the newspaper - Socialist Worker - about this. The Worker-Communist Party of Iraq had a visible stall at the London Temple tube station entrance just behind the meeting point of the African contingent. Another person is an Iraqi professor who is actively involved in a group called Anti-Imperialist Action. He said that he is an Iraqi and also a kurd and that Saddam has killed thousands of his own people, the kurds. He said that the western powers installed Saddam first to kill communists then later the kurds. He said what to do now is to unite all the forces against US imperialism. 75% of the british population is against the war and even Tony Blair, himself, has admitted publicly that he knows that he is not having the majority of the british population with him on the issue of war against Iraq. As Britain and USA are isolated on the UN security ouncil, with other members with veto powers - France, Russia, China, opposed to Britain and USA, Jesse Jackson feels what USA and Britain will be doing is that they will bribe some of the third world countries to support their war plans. The African contingent is highly impressed that 10 cities in Africa including Johannesburg, Durban, Kigali, Lusaka, Harare organised demonstrations against the Britain and USA threat to war on 15th February after the international demonstration in Cairo in December 2002. Present on the contingent of Africans and friends of Africa were the All African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP), African Liberation Support Campaign (ALISC), African People's Liberation Organisa! tion (APLO), African People's Socialist Party (APSP), Black And Ethnic Minority Group of the RMT Trade Union, Hackney Black People's Association, International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement (IPDUM), Moyo Wa Taifa Pan-African Women's Network and The Land Is Ours. There were also individual pan-Africanists. There were many other Africans on the march as part of other social, political and labour contingents and others marched as individuals or in company of friends. The African contingent had a solidarity message from the Anti-War Coalition in South Africa which noted that the action of the African contingent was part of the general struggle against imperialism. In a corresponding solidarity statement to the Anti-War Coalition in South Africa, the "Stop All Imperialist wars Against African People Now" stated that "We are highly impressed that progressive organisations in Azania (South Africa), which were hitherto not working together, have come together in an anti-war and anti-imperialist platform. We hope that this will remain a permanent coalition for the mobilisation of our people in the struggle against imperialism. We also hope that this type of coalition will spread continent-wide so that we in the diaspora could link up as a revolutionary Pan-African force in the struggle against imperialism." The statement concluded that "We have also followed the activities of the anti-privatisation activists in Azania and have supported them through the periodic pickets/demonstrations organised by the African Liberation Support Campaign (ALISC) in front of the South African high commission in London. We are also impressed by the organisation of the African Social Forum in Bamako (Mali) and later in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) with its secretariat in Senegal. In response to the request by the African Social Forum for activities to be organised simultaneously on the African Liberation Day (25th May), we can inform you that in London each year during African Liberation Day ALISC organises a demonstration in front of the World Bank offices. "Stop All Imperialist Wars Against Africans Now" is committed to this programme this year. Considering the central role IMF and World Bank play in the exploitation of our people we call for similar actions throughout the African world on African Liberation Day." Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] |
