We call upon all forces in support of a just peace to add their names and organisations to following call. Send your endorsement to: conference@iraqiresistance.info
It is the second attempt to hold an international conference on Iraq (and now also on Palestine) in Europe with important representatives of the popular opposition to the occupation as last year it was impeded by the Berlusconi government in Italy following the interference by the U.S. The new Italian government led by Prodi tries to appear as advocating peace. Despite the fact that they did not fully withdraw the Italian occupation troops many people still believe their claim. If their stick to their words the government must allow such a peace conference. See the open letter to the the Foreign Minister D’Alema.
Against the occupation, for the resistance
A just peace in Iraq and Palestine
For an International Conference to give voice to all those who fight for the freedom of the Iraqi people, for the political recognition of the resistance, to bring its representatives, as well as those of other fighting peoples in the Middle East, together with the forces of the anti-war and anti-globalisation movement.
The conference should give voice to the legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people and advocate the end of the embargo imposed by Israel, the U.S. and the European Union against the government elected in last January – an embargo which is starving the entire Palestinian people modelled after the embargo against Iraq after 1991.
More then 3 years have passed since the beginning of the aggression against Iraq. The occupation troops keep drowning the people in blood, bombing cities and villages, torturing prisoners, killing dissidents and anyone resisting but also an enormous numbers of innocent civilians (some sources speak already of about 250.000 victims).
These crimes are being committed to subdue and exploit a country within a well-defined American strategy aimed at controlling the entire Middle East as the cornerstone of the American empire. In Iraq, this imperialist design is facing an extraordinary popular resistance which is neither yielding to the brutality of the occupation nor to an international balance of forces, unfavourable as never before.
Today the resistance is confronting a new danger: faced with the failure of all their attempts at “normalization”, the U.S. is instigating a civil war by the classical means of the “dirty war” of which they are the senior expert. We are convinced that the resistance will be able to overcome this difficult obstacle too, because it is deeply rooted within the Iraqi people.
In the last years, the liberation struggle of the Iraqi people has been the vanguard of the resistance against the imperialist project in the Middle East. It is fresh blood for the struggle of the Palestinian people against the Zionist occupation, new hope for millions who still live in refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, and a new horizon for the Arab masses which fight to bring down their authoritarian regimes servile to the U.S.
The resistance of the Iraqis has become a symbol for whoever is fighting against oppression and injustice, not only in the Middle East but throughout the globe.
It is therefore grave and intolerable that this liberation force is still being denied the international political recognition it deserves.
About one year ago, the Italian government prevented the International Conference of Chianciano scheduled for October 1-2, 2005, by denying visas for the Iraqi exponents. This policy of complete and total alignment of the Italian government to the explicit interests of Washington even brought them as far as refusing entry to Haj Ali, the hooded prisoner of Abu Ghraib who became the symbol of torture by the U.S. occupation.
Therefore we have to fight against this Europe without principles, without dignity, servile to the U.S., to the point where it silences an entire people and even torture victims; a Europe which in words likes to present itself as the cradle of human rights, while in deeds it denies them in the most blatant way. Quite recently this could be seen when the decision was taken simply to starve the Palestinians by cutting the funds.
The time has come for the full political recognition of the Iraqi resistance. It comprises every current — regardless of existing political and religious differences — which intends to resist the occupation and to defy the tri-partition of the country as conceived in the constitution drafted and legitimised by the occupant.
Lending support to the resistance and obtaining its political recognition is the biggest contribution the anti-war movement in the West can give to the struggle against new wars and aggressions like the ones just being prepared. And it is also the best way to say no to the “clash of civilisations” into which the imperial project of the U.S. is dragging the world.
It is the moment to step up the support to the Palestinian cause, to end the Zionist terror and occupation, to defeat the Israeli colonialism which is the closest and most aggressive (not to speak of the nuclear arsenal which is tolerated by the West) ally of the U.S. in their permanent war in the Middle East.
We, the undersigned, responding also to the renewed interest expressed by different sectors of the Iraqi resistance, therefore convene the international conference again, for the beginning of autumn in Italy, the country which prevented it but which will have a new government soon. The task of the conference is to launch the movement against the war again, to affirm the idea of a peace based on the right to self-determination of the people, to give political support to whoever fights to liberate his country from foreign occupation.
Support and recognise the Iraqi resistance!
End the hunger embargo, support and recognise the Palestinian government!
For the unity of all forces fighting the occupation and for a free and united Iraq!
Against the U.S. and Israeli hegemony in the Middle East, for the victory of the Iraqi and Palestinian people!
Let’s unite the voices of the anti-war movement and the resistance in the liberation struggle from war and imperialist oppression!
Free Iraq Committees Italy
Free Iraq Committee Germany
Free Iraq Committee Norway
Free Iraq Committee Malmö Sweden
Iraqi Communist Party (al Kader)
Dr. Hisham Bustani, Anti-Normalization Movement, Jordan
Democratic Patriot Communist Current Iraq
Anti-imperialist Camp
Hungarian Left Front
Iraqi Patriotic Alliance
Free Thought Association Özgür-Der Turkey
Arab Palestine Club Vienna, Austria
Resistant Arab People’s Alliance
RAD-ATTAC, Tunisia
Communist Youth Union (KSM), Czech Republic
Communist Initiative (KI), Austria
KKE-ml, Greece
Klaus von Raussendorff, Vereinigung für Internationale Solidarität (VIS) e.V., Germany
Klaus Hartmann, Bundesvorsitzender des Deutschen Freidenker-Verbandes, Germany
Human Dignity and Rights HDR, Duisburg, Germany
Initiativ e.V. Duisburg, Germany
Left Radicals of Afghanistan
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)
Wilfred Dcosta, general secretary, Indian social action forum (INSAF)
Attac Mazowsze, Poland
Tunisian institute of the international relations, Paris
Loyalty to Man and Earth movement, Lebanon / Palestine
Irish Unity Committee, Huston, Texas, USA
Redaktion www.kommunisten-online.de
Daily Paper Arbejderen, Denmark
Communist Youth Austria (KJÖ)
Solidarity Commitee with Palestine Graz, Austria
Communist Workers-Peasant Party, Pakistan
Fatma Salah Uthman (spokeswoman) Makhmour Organization for Human Rights and Social Questions, Baghdad/Iraq
Communist Party of Iraq – People’s Union
Irish Political Status Committee (IPSC), London
People United Bangladesh
Communist Party of Peru /ML
Benjamin Merhav, Melbourne, Australia
Communist Workers Peasants Party Pakistan
Hana Al Bayaty – member of the BRussells Tribunal Executive Committee France/Iraq
Harsh Thakor, Mumbai, India
Albayaty Abdul Ilah, Iraq/France
Antiwar Network Egypt
Farman Ali, Islamabad Pakistan
Antiglobalist Resistance, Moscow
Afghanistan Socialist Association ASA
Khalid Mehboob, Lahore, Pakistan
Dr. Hussein Salari, USA
Communist Party of Denmark (DKP)
United Peoples www.unitedpeoples.net
