Sept 25 in Austria
On the occasion of the 4th anniversary of the Palestinian Intifada a coalition of Austrian, Arab and Turkish forces gathered in the centre of Vienna to protest against the occupation of Iraq and Palestine and to express support to the resistance.
The crowd was addressed by the Anti-imperialist Camp, several Arab organisations including the Arab Palestine Club and the Vice president of the Palestinian Community in Austria, the anti-imperialist opposition within the Communist Party and least but not least Turkish ILPS supporters and the DHKC – also from Turkey.
The speakers not only opposed the occupation but also lent support to the legitimate resistance both in Iraq and Palestine. There was also consensus about the need to stop the American pre-emptive war with the final aim to bring down the American empire driving this war against the peoples of the world struggling for their liberation.
An American flag was burned while the Lebanese singer Moufid Nehme sang a song where the protesters sing the refrain – muqawama (resistance). Then the demonstration marched to the US embassy.
The mobilisation took place in a very difficult political environment as the “civil society left” and the Muslim leadership linked to social democracy had split the mobilisation in order to exclude the anti-Zionist and anti-imperialist forces. This pro-state coalition refuses to support the resistance and indirectly backs the American global hegemony by linking the protest to the regime parties.
However, their attempt to isolate the anti-imperialists failed. The organisers regarded the anti-imperialist protests as a sign of the emerging of a revolutionary pole outside the perimeter of the American-type two party system being established also in Austria.
The Vienna mobilisation was part of the international day of action for the Iraqi resistance launched at the Mumbai Resistance (MR) anti-imperialist gathering in January 2004 in India.
