National Demonstration in Rome scheduled Dec 13
On December 13 2003 a national demonstration – summoned by an ad hoc committee – will be held to show solidarity with the Iraqi resistance.
1) The idea of demonstrating in favour of the Iraqi resistance arose out of a widespread desire to guarantee the right of the Iraqi people (like that of all other occupied peoples, including the Palestinians) to resist against an Anglo-American occupation which is contrary to every internationally recognised law, and to show that not all Italians believe in the fairytale of “terrorism” (including “Syrian terrorism”). In other words, the promoters and those who will be demonstrating on December 13 (after a convention in a cinema in Rome) will be saying the most obvious thing in the word: there is an aggressor and there is a victim of the aggression.
In view of the direct involvement of Italy in the occupation of Iraq – a sovereign country which posed no danger to anyone, having been prostrated by a long embargo – the demonstrators will also be asking for the withdrawal of the Italian troops, although the pro-government media are trying to exploit the events of an-Nasiriyya (19 Italian casualties, including 17 military) in order to create a hypocritically consensus.
2) The demonstration will be non-partisan. This means that this initiative was not launched by any party or trade union. The easily expected result was that all political forces, right, centre and left, have been attacking this initiative through a wide range of initiatives: legal threats (on the right), talk of a terrible anti-Western conspiracy (on the centre) and defamation claiming that the idea of the initiative is in the hands of “Fascist infiltrators” (on the left).
The promoters and signatories – who have no TV or newspaper outlets – have answered, wherever they could, with arguments which are impossible to answer, and one can say that one important political result has been achieved: it has been shown that politicians and journalists, whatever minor clashes they may have, are all united in supporting a single pro-US regime which is actually in control in Italy. We can mention the case of the secretary of Rifondazione Comunista who has warned the members of his party to withdraw their support for the demonstration.
So, despite the concentrated attacks, the number of sponsors is increasing, and we can expect several thousand people to come to Rome. United not by any political ideology, but simply because they wish to emphasize the fact that “resisting”, in the manner the attacked deem best, is a basic right. Some of the sponsors are quite significant: some very well known scholars of the Arabic culture and language, Italy´s best known historian – paradoxically – of the Crusades, Professor Franco Cardini; and Angelo Del Boca, the most authoritative historian of Italian colonialism.
3) The demonstration will also be attended by some Iraqi representatives: the most prominent of them is Awni al-Kalemji, international spokesman for the Iraqi National Alliance (Patriotic opposition).
This clearly shows that the Iraqi Resistance does not accept being labelled as “terrorism”. And this is a reason to expect intimidation from a small group of Iraqi collaborationists of the Anglo-American occupiers – there have already been signs of this, and not just in the press, in recent weeks.
4) It should be stressed that the demonstration is open to all, Italians and non-Italians, whatever their political opinions or religious beliefs may be. It is open to all those who are offended by the limitless arrogance shown by the US government and its stooges. In this sense, it will also be an “anti-USA” demonstration, if being “anti-USA” today means, as the promoters and the demonstrators believe, being on the side of international law.
We should remember in fact that the Charter of the United Nations states that armed resistance is legitimate in case of invasion. This principle has been repeated in UN Resolution 1514, which states that “The subjection of peoples to alien subjugation, domination and exploitation constitutes a denial of fundamental human rights, is contrary to the Charter of the United Nations and is an impediment to the promotion of world peace and co-operation”; and in the Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Convention, which in 1977 referred to “armed conflicts in which peoples are fighting against colonial domination and alien occupation and against racist regimes in the exercise of their right of self-determination”.
For further information:
www.iraqlibero.net (in Italian)
www.antiimpieralista.org/en/ (in English)
www.antiimpieralista.org/ free-iraq
Call for Action
Committee of Italian University Scholars against the Occupation
