------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Jan. 9, 2003 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
CAIRO CONFERENCE BACKS JAN. 18 PROTESTS: CALLS FOR SOLIDARITY WITH IRAQ AND PALESTINE By Sara Flounders An international conference of over 400 representatives of popular organizations from 20 countries met in Cairo, Egypt, from Dec. 18-19 and resolved to take action in solidarity with the people of Iraq against threatened U.S. aggression and in solidarity with the Pales tinian movement for self-determination. The conference, called the Inter national Campaign Against U.S. Aggres sion on Iraq (ICAA), created a steering committee whose first order of business is to mobilize worldwide for mass demonstrations against U.S. war plans on Jan. 18. This action is simultaneous with national anti-war demonstrations already underway in the United States in Washington and San Francisco and with many other actions already scheduled in at least 12 countries. The committee will also promote actions for Feb. 15, 2003, a day chosen for demonstrations in Europe. The Cairo Conference is one of a number of international gatherings and massive mobilizations in many parts of the world. What makes it so important is that it took place in the center of the Arab world in the face of Egyptian government efforts to stop it. It took place in a region where powerful mass movements in the last century shook off colonial bonds, and where just last year millions of people marching in the streets for Palestine forced the Pentagon to put its war plans for Iraq on hold. U.S. plans for aggression are creating waves of outrage and opposition in every corner of the world. Because of advances in mass communication, those under attack everywhere are now able to see the broader picture of a global empire. They can more easily identify with others who share their conditions of life. This new technology lays a stronger basis for solidarity and common action. The pervasive sentiment at the conference was that far more than Iraq is under attack, and that Washington has explicitly targeted every country attempting an independent course. All the speakers predicted that a U.S. aggressive war is imminent, even though Iraq has allowed "unconditional inspections" by the UN. Some speakers said that the Bush administration wants to make an example of Iraq to further terrify the world into compliance and to divert attention from a collapsing global economy. Many described the coming war as a war for oil. Some connected it to the struggle for unfettered control of global markets. The continuations committee of the conference undertook the challenge of mobilizing in Egypt on Jan. 18. Its first action immediately followed the conference on Dec. 20, when it mobilized 1,000 people for a public protest of U.S. war plans, despite the threatening presence of hundreds of Cairo police. Until the last minute the Egyptian government tried to stop the conference from taking place. After political forces mobilized, the regime backtracked and permitted the assembly. Then the Sheraton corporation, part of a U.S.-owned hotel chain, canceled contracted space at two of its hotels in an effort to sabotage the conference. The conference was finally moved to the Conrad Hotel. The general feeling was that the U.S. State Department was behind efforts to stop this international anti-war gathering. The challenge of calling the conference and confronting the efforts to halt it was undertaken by the Egyptian Popular Campaign to Confront U.S. Aggression, a broad coalition including political leaders identified with the movement started by the Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser and also both secular left and Islamic forces. Among the prestigious world figures attending the conference were Ahmed Ben Bella, leader of Algeria's struggle for independence from France and first president of Algeria; Saad K. Hammoundy, Iraq's ambassador to the Arab League; former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, Denis Halliday of Ireland, who was the United Nations Assistant Secretary-General heading the Oil-for-Food program in Iraq up through 1998; UN director of the Oil-for-Food program Dr. Hans Von Sponeck, and George Galloway, Labor member of Parliament in Britain. The 86-year-old Ben Bella presided over the conference. Coordinators of anti-war groups attending included John Rees of the Stop the War Coalition in Britain, Christof Agiton of Attac in France, along with delegates from Cuba, Canada, Russia, Germany, Italy and more than 50 distinguished guests from Arab countries. The U.S. delegation included Sara Flounders of the International Action Center, Elias Rashmawi and Fadia Rafeedi of the Free Palestine Alliance and the ANSWER Coalition, Peter Phillips of Project Censored and Gary Leupp. BEN BELLA SETS DIRECTION President Ben Bella gave direction to the conference, predicting that a U.S. attack on Iraq, should it take place, would be only the first of a succession of wars by the U.S against Arab and other lands of the Middle East. He was firm in wanting to mobilize the people of all Arab lands against U.S. plans to dominate the world, and called for a demonstration of 2 million. Ben Bella also said it was up to the people of the United States to fight against its policies and that the struggle within the U.S. was vital. Ramsey Clark, the only former high-ranking U.S. official to publicly oppose Washington's military adventures all over the world, said that "an attack on Iraq is obviously unlawful, it is criminal. Through years of sanctions, the U.S. is already committing genocide against Iraq... Another strike now by the U.S. builds toward world domination and it has to be stopped. It is an urgent issue because it can happen in the next three months, because the Pentagon will want to move before the summer heat sets in." George Galloway mocked Washing ton's charge that Iraq holds weapons of mass destruction. "Every place visited by the inspectors so far has been completely empty," he said, calling Great Britain and the U.S. "imperial powers" who want to decide on "new kings, new countries, and new slave centers" in the oil-rich Middle East. Denis Halliday, who resigned in 1998 to protest the effect of sanctions against Baghdad, said that Washington has accused Baghdad of "material breaches" of the new UN resolution because it "plans to undermine the work of inspections and the work of the Iraqi government. The United States doesn't want a peaceful solution. They want an excuse to go to war, to conquer Iraq and control its oil," Halliday said. Hans Von Sponeck, who also resigned his UN post in protest, called the 150-percent increase in infant mortality in Iraq since 1990 "genocide by the United Nations." Ashraf el-Bayoumi, an Egyptian professor and one of the conference organizers, said Washington was preparing for "launching an attack on Iraq, occupying Iraq, usurping its natural resources, oil and otherwise, in order to continue being the solo superpower in the world." BUSH'S PROBLEM Sara Flounders said that Bush's big problem is the growing opposition to the war inside the United States, referring to the demonstrations of hundreds of thousands ANSWER called on Oct. 26 and its plans for Jan. 18, 2003. "The one power that the Pentagon today fears is the arousing anger of the millions of people, whose power is explosive when they are organized and mobilized. This is the one force that can stay the hand of the Pentagon," she said. Elias Rashmawi, a Palestinian Amer ican, focused on the need for a strong anti-war mobilization from the U.S. He stressed that there is now the potential to build a movement that can effectively fight against U.S. war plans. "Our international coordination in mobilizing for January 18 will strengthen solidarity and will send a signal to the Bush administration that the world is united against the continuation of conquest and war." John Rees referred to both the Sept. 28 demonstration of 400,000 in London against the war, and the almost million people who gathered in Florence, Italy, to demonstrate on Nov. 9 as part of the European Social Forum's anti-globalization actions. Saad K. Hammoundy from Iraq connected U.S. military aggression with the drive to impose capitalist globalization on the world. With U.S. capital invested around the world, it requires its military to secure its profits. Hammoundy drew attention to the U.S. seizure of Iraq's weapons declaration from the United Nations, saying Washington altered the declaration to create an excuse for an invasion. Mohamed Asad Kanaana, secretary general of the Abnaal El-Balad, People of the Homeland Movement within 1949 Palestine, described this as one of the most critical periods facing the Arab nation in its modern history. The U.S. is repartitioning the world, he said. Israel has decided that direct control--the return of colonialism--is the assured method to guard its interests. But the unipolar world of U.S. imperialism is not the destiny of humanity. People's movements will innovate new forms of struggle to confront imperialist arrogance. CAIRO DECLARATION The Cairo Declaration issued by this meeting declares: "We, the participants, reaffirm our resolve to stand in solidarity with the people of Iraq and Palestine, recognizing that war and aggression against them is but part of a U.S. project of global domination and subjugation. Solidarity with Iraq and Palestine is integral to the internationalist struggle against neo-liberal globalization. The Cairo meeting is not an isolated event, but an extension of a protracted international struggle against imperialism, from Seattle and Genoa to Lisbon and Florence, to Cordoba and Cairo." The statement goes on to "declare our total opposition to war on Iraq and our resolve to continue the struggle against U.S. policies of global domination. We strongly believe in the urgency of mobilizing against these policies." It condemns the "U.S. military presence on Arab land" and calls for "pressuring the Arab governments that allow U.S. military bases on their territory to close them down, and not to provide air, naval, or land facilities." There was great interest at the Cairo Conference in the potential of the new, young anti-war movement growing within the United States, where a movement of hundreds of thousands of people has been taking to the streets in organized opposition even before the war starts. Solidarity built at gatherings like the Cairo Conference is a force that can bring millions of people into the streets. In the face of a criminal aggression, the people of the world are not powerless. The same explosive power that has reshaped history, brought down empires and ended past colonial domination is the power that can mobilize to confront U.S. imperialism. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe wwnews- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
