International Campaign against Zionist and US Occupation
Cairo Conference – Cairo Forum for Liberation
March 2008
The success of the 6th Cairo Conference and the Cairo Forum for Liberation 2008, despite all the challenges and difficulties, is, by all measures, an important achievement.
The objective of the two events was and continues to be linking between three struggles: the resistance movements in Palestine, Iraq and Lebanon; the political groups, foremost the Islamic, Arab Nationalist and socialist, struggling against colonialism, hegemony and despotism in the Arab world; and the antiwar and anti globalization movements worldwide.
The previous year has witnessed major challenges on each of the three fronts.
The Palestinian people and resistance face a frightening siege imposed by the Zionist occupation, with a total US support to puppet Arab regimes and against a background of massacres and starvation policies committed by the Zionist army. Despite all, the Palestinian resistance continues and the Palestinian people continues to subvert and defeat all plans and attempts seeking its liquidation and the liquidation of its cause.
The Iraqi resistance is facing insistent attempts by US colonialism and its allies to divert its path from national independence towards a sectarian war, which will only benefit the occupiers. However, despite the attempts at its liquidation and fragmentation, the Iraqi resistance continues to cause the occupying US arms and its allies major losses every day. The brutal aggression committed by the Iraqi army, supported by the occupation forces, against the Mahdi army in the South is further evidence that this is not a sectarian war between Sunnis and Shiites, but a war between agents of the US occupation and those who refuse that occupation.
The Lebanese resistance has achieved a historical victory against the Zionist enemy during the summer of 2006 and has disrupted all US and Zionist plans for the region. Still the Lebanese resistance continues to face major challenges represented by the Zionist preparation for a new war, of which the assassination of militant martyr Emad Moghneyya was but the beginning, in addition to the attempts by some Lebanese political forces and Arab regimes to disarm the resistance and besiege and isolate Hezbollah, which has shown that the more the sacrifices it has to pay and the tighter the siege, the more its determination, commitment and strength in facing its enemies, both inside and outside Lebanon.
As for political forces and groups struggling against despotism, colonialism and Zionism in Arab countries, they are facing repeated campaigns of oppression and violence by the Arab regimes, foremost the Egyptian regime, whose prisons are overflowing with honorable, militant detainees. The real forces of opposition have been prevented from participation in local council elections, already rigged in favor of the ruling party. We have witnessed the rise of new working class and social movements, which expressed themselves through strikes, sit-ins and demonstrations and which have enforced themselves on the Egyptian political map through their struggle against policies of oppression and impoverishment exercised by the Egyptian regime under the name of “economic reform” in favor of a corrupt alliance between the political authority and big businessmen. This struggle cannot be seen in isolation from that against despotism, colonialism and Zionism. It is the beating heart and the force of life, which will settle the outcome of that struggle.
The rise of that movement has left its mark on the form and content of the Cairo conference and forum. The halls and the forums were full, not only with students, activists and intellectualism, but also with hundreds of workers, peasants and civil servants, in a clear demonstration of the link between the suffering of the Egyptian people by the hands of the ruling regime and the suffering of the Palestinian, Lebanese and Iraqi people by the hands of colonialism and Zionism.
As for the global antiwar movement, which managed to organize massive demonstrations and continues to play a central role in the exposure of the barbaric nature of the war and colonialism, to pressure for bringing to an end the US occupation of Iraq, as well as lifting the Zionist siege on Gaza and to mobilize against a new war against Iran or Syria, it also faces the challenge of the media and propaganda campaign inciting world public opinion against Muslims as a pretext for war and US hegemony.
The success of our conference, which is by far the largest in terms of number of participants and the most diverse in its activities, once again reinforces our conviction that solidarity is our means to support the liberation of Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon, the liberation of Arab peoples from despotism, corruption and exploitation and the liberation of the whole world from war, globalization and capitalism. This solidarity and this movement will not retreat; it will continue to expand and gain in depth and strength until we attain our victory.
Still we all have to work towards the translation of our slogans into concrete action plans, capable of impacting the world and achieving our objectives. We believe that central to our missions in the coming few months is an effort to achieve the following objectives:
1- Lifting the siege off Gaza and activation of boycott campaigns of the Zionist state and its institutions, world wide, as well as the US, in addition to complete support for the use of all available means of resistance of that brutal enemy. This can range from raising legal cases against Zionist and US officials to the legitimate armed resistance against foreign occupation and racist regimes, as well as rejection of all settlement plans which violate the basic rights of the Palestinian people.
2- Challenging all forms of US colonialism with different means and support of the resistance until liberation of Iraq.
3- Exposure and challenge of US plans to expand the war to Iran, Syria and Sudan.
4- Solidarity with the Lebanese resistance against any new Zionist aggression and against all attempts at its disarmament.
5- Immediate release of all political detainees in Egypt, foremost organizing committee members engineer Ali Abdel Fattah and Dr. Ahmed Ramy and putting an end to the farce of military trials of the Moslem Brotherhood.
6- Undertaking solidarity actions with the workers and social movement in Egypt and supporting the struggle of the Egyptian people against exploitation and despotism.
The following annex involves the main recommendations made at the different meetings and gatherings at the conference and the forum.
Annex: Recommendations of the Cairo Forum for Liberation, 2008
I. Palestine
The issue of Palestine was addressed in three main sessions in addition to 14 working groups throughout the conference. Participants agreed to the following conclusions:
I. Political Framework
• Palestine is all land between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean sea. Its international borders with Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt are those of the British mandate in 1922.
• The Zionist occupation of Palestinian land which started in the beginning of the 20th century and continues until today is illegitimate.
• The Zionist entity, the so-called state of Israel – is illegitimate. The same applies to all foundations and international decisions on which this entity is based, starting from the Belford بوعد and the British mandate صك released by the UN in 1922, division resolution number 181 issued by the UN up to resolution 242, the Egyptian Israeli peace treaty, the Camp David agreement, the Wadi Araba agreement between Jordan and Israel, as well as agreements signed by the PLO and Israel starting from the Oslo agreement in 1993 up to the Annapolis resolutions in 2007.
• Any political settlement of the Palestinian issue which includes a recognition of the legitimacy of the Zionist occupation of any part of Palestinian land is equally illegitimate.
• Legitimate is the liberation of all occupied Palestinian land.
• Resistance in all its forms is the true road to liberation.
II. Goals and objectives
Based on the above, the goals and objectives of the international campaign are the following:
1- Struggle for the annulment of all legal foundations of the state of Israel as well as all settlement projects mentioned above. This calls for complete support to the resistance movement targeting the liberation of the occupied land.
2- Call for a complete. Arab and international boycott of the Zionist entity called the State of Israel.
3- Lifting all forms of blockade enforced on the Palestinian people whether in Gaza or the West Bank or the remainder of occupied Palestinian territories as well as the blockade on Palestinian refugees depriving them of their right to return.
III. Suggested Actions
(for this year and as a basis for coming years)
1- Urgent action:
Organization of a wide media and political campaign against the Zionist entity on the occasion of 60 years since the occupation of Palestine and the establishment of the so called Israeli state. This includes the organization of mass demonstrations in all countries of the world on the 15th of May 2008; calling upon trade and professional unions in the Arab world and globally to agree on a unified time for the demonstration; participation in the demonstrations for return, which will begin in the neighboring countries (Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon) and which will march towards the borders on the 15th of May 2008, calling for liberation and return.
2- Actions against the legitimacy of the State of Israel and agasint political settlements
• Organization of an international political campaign to clarify and explain the truth about the Palestinian issue, its history and foundations as opposed to the Zionist vision.
• Organization of an international and Arab legal campaign in collaboration with organizations such as the Arab lawyers Union and legal organizations worldwide to annul the UN resolution of division issued on the 19th of November 1948.
• Organization of an Arab mass campaign against resolution 242 with a view to reject it as a base for a political settlement.
• Organization of a mass campaign in Egypt to annul the Camp David agreement.
• Organization of a political and legal campaign against the Oslo agreements (1993) and all its implications including the acknowledgement of the legitimacy of the Zionist entity, the deprivation of Palestinians in Gaza and the West bank of any sovereignty over the land, the notion that resistance is equal to terrorism and the aim towards its liquidation, which is the main, and almost the only objective of the Oslo agreements.
• Call upon the Palestinian authority to withdraw from negotiations with Israel, to withdraw its recognition of the State of Israel and to return to the camp of resistance.
• Call for the unity of the Palestinian front on the ground of resistance.
3- The boycott and challenge of Israel
• Organization of political and media camapgns calling for the boycott of Israel.
• Ensure the sustainability of the boycott movement. The fluctuations in that movement depending on the ongoing events is a major factor behind its weakness.
• Expansion of the circle of boycott to include the USA, which since the end of WW2 has been the main alliance and leader of the Zionist entity.
• Formation of boycott committees all over the world.
• Establishment of a boycott information center to provide a data base of the different Israeli institutions, both governmental and private, political, economic, scientific, academic, cultural or otherwise as well as information regarding institutions, companies, and pubic figures involved in such relations with Israel.
• Boycott of all companies and bodies that normalize relations with Israel and including them in a black list.
• Study and support of the academic boycott movement initiated in England and its replication in other universities all over the world.
• Development of simple and clear means to expand mass participation in the boycott campaign, such as organization of message campaigns as a means of pressure against bodies, which normalize relations with Israel.
• Raising legal cases in Europe in front of the European court for human rights against countries which have military, scientific or economic relations with Israel in accordance with international human rights law which imposes punishments on occupying countries according to the four Geneva conventions (the Italian experience).
• Organization of a legal campaign to reclaim the national and historical rights of each and every Palestinian whose home or land has been seized. In that regard, we could consider:
o Establishment of an information center to collect information regarding confiscated land and property, preferably with documents supporting ownership.
o Recruitment of lawyers and specialized legal organizations to file complaints and persecute violators, both as individuals and institutions.
• Organization of an ongoing campaign against Israeli settlements and the continuous violation of Palestinian lands, stressing that there is no difference between recent and old settlements.
• Struggle against the Israeli expansion of its authority over Palestinian land and exposure of Zionist policies, legislations and laws issued in that direction.
• Struggle against the enforcement of a Jewish identity over the city of Jerusalem, including the network of tunnels underneath the old city of Jerusalem.
• Establishment of a center for the documentation of acts of murder, terrorism, genocide, forced displacement, detentions, land confiscation, house demolitions and destruction of agricultural land carried out by the Zionist movement over the past 100 years.
• Organization of political and media campaigns against Zionist terrorism and the terrorist state of Israel.
• Persecution of Zionist war criminals and bringing them to justice (the British experience).
• Organization of movements and groups with the only objective to struggle against Zionism.
• Struggle against the Jewish migration to the occupied territories in the countries of origin, studying its mechanism, supporting and financing institutions and undertaking social studies of the nature and characteristics of sectors which seek migration, with a view to reach a better understanding of the phenomenon. At the same time encouragement of a movement of reversed migration.
• Establishment of a data base of Zionist groups, organizations, and individuals worldwide.
• Organization of campaigns in solidarity with the Palestinian refugees’ right to return and against the Israeli return legislation which grants every Jew in the world to migrate to Palestine.
• Organization of ongoing campaigns against all forms of racial discrimination within the Zionist entity, foremost the Wall.
• Organization of several ongoing campaigns for the release of Palestinian prisoners of war in Israeli prisons.
• Organization of campaigns against any military support to Israel from any country of the world and pressuring for its endorsement of the agreement of nuclear disarmament.
• Any further suggestions!
3- Supporting the Palestinian people and lifting the imposed blockade
• Formation of the largest possible number of popular committees in solidarity with the Palestinian people and their cause.
• Provision of continuous support to the Palestinian people, both financial and in kind, including food and medical supplies.
• Organization of ongoing humanitarian relief convoys.
• Organization of ongoing donation campaigns, not restricted to periods of crisis.
• Breaking the humanitarian blockade through the organization of popular delegations in solidarity with the Palestinian people; use of Palestinian and not Israeli visas and rejection of the current agreements regulating crossing at the passages.
• Ongoing solidarity and support to Palestinians blocked at the passages, a phenomenon that is increasingly acquiring a chronic nature.
• Organizing a mass campaign in Egypt to pressure the Egyptian government to lift the blockade over Gaza through the signing of an independent Egyptian Palestinian agreement with no interference of any third party, be it Israel, the US or the EU.
• Organization of similar campaign in countries of the EU to pressure government into an impartial position regarding the current Palestinian Israeli agreement over the passages. Europe should stop acting as an Israeli proxy policeman at the crossings. (Please refer to the Israeli-Palestinian-European agreements in that regard signed in 2005).
• Organize popular pressure towards economic liberation of the West bank and Gaza through their disengagement from the Zionist entity.
• Development of flexible mechanisms to address emergency situations like the recent massacre in Gaza, on the 1st of March 2008, through the provision of political, media and material support to the Palestinian people.
• Organization of mass campaigns with donor countries with a view to:
o Expose the major difference between the support provided to the Palestinians and that provided to Israel.
o Ensure that support reaches the whole of the Palestinian people, with no discrimination between the people in Gaza and the West Bank.
o Ensure that donations are not used as a tool of pressure for political settlement or the recognition of the State of Israel.
• Organization of mass political conferences in solidarity of the Palestinian cause in all countries of the world, at a rate of at least one conference per year (this year’s conference will be held in India).
• Call for a third Palestinian Intifada to attract the attention of the world to the Palestinian issue.
• Organization of political and media campaigns against terminology used by the US and Israel such as “terrorism instead of resistance”, “peace referring to Israel’s security”, etc.
• Exercise of the right to return after failure of the UN for 60 years to implement resolution 194. this can be achieved through the organization of refugee demonstrations marching towards the borders, supported by international solidarity groups.
• 5000 writers and artists in Indonesia have decided that 2008 will be the year for writing about Palestine. The income will be donated in solidarity with the Palestinian people. (Can be replicated in other countries).
• Naming streets, squares and civil society organizations after Palestinian martyrs in all Arab countries.
• Development of alternative world maps where Palestine replaces Israel and organizing campaigns to mainstream those maps.
• Call for the organization of a “hammer” demonstration by the Palestinian people against the Wall. Demonstrators would symbolically knock down the Wall with their small hammers surrounded by international support and strong media coverage.
• Development of a data base of relevant and important dates in the history of Palestine and celebration of those events.
• Call for the establishment of a people’s Arab League to replace the official Arab League. The people’s organization undertakes the coordination of support of Arab causes away from the failure and complicity of regional Arab regimes.
• Call for the unity of resistance against the US and Israel in Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq.
• Any further suggestions.
4- Organizational recommendations
• Wide distribution of these recommendations.
• Development of a website for the campaign in several languages.
Development of a network of communication between participants in the international campaign and with other bodies and organizations committed to the same struggle with a view to coordinate efforts and exchange of information.
II. Iraq
1- Mobilization of all peoples of the free world and civil society organizations to lobby their governments to end the occupation of Iraq and support the Iraqi resistance.
2- Call for a strengthening of the movement of boycott of American, Zionist and British products.
3- Condemnation of the physical liquidation and intimidation of journalists in Iraq by occupation forces to hide the truth about the massacres it commits in Iraq.
4- Call for demonstrations expressing solidarity with the Iraqi resistance, condemnation of the US and British aggression against the Iraq people and demanding an end to the occupation.
We also call upon Iraqi factions to adopt the following principles:
1- The resistance and end of the occupation by all means is a duty and right.
2- Condemnation of all forms of sectarian conflicts incited by the occupation to divide the Iraqi people and call for unity against the occupation.
3- Adoption of a national project based on the liberation of Iraq and its unity, rejection of sectarianism, and just distribution of its wealth.
III. Against all forms of Racism
1- All people are equal irrespective of their color, language, race, ethnicity or religion.
2- Exposure of power centers serving imperialist interests through discrimination between people on the basis of color, religion, gender, race or ethnicity.
3- Exposure of the role of the Zionist lobby in the discrimination against Muslims in the West and their misrepresentation as well as their religion in the interest of the Zionist American project.
IV. The threat to extend the war to Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Sudan
1- Strengthening relations between anti war movements in all countries.
2- Coordination of efforts between the three antiwar conferences in Cairo, London and Beirut.
3- Opposition to the threat of extend the war to Syria, Lebanon, Sudan and Iran.
4- Supporting the right of Iran to develop its own peaceful nuclear project.
5- Organization of international events to prevent European countries from sending their armies to war.
6- Mobilization if international support to proceed with the conclusions of the court of conscience in Brussels.
7- The US administration and Israel are the basis for world terrorism.
8- Organization of world wide demonstrations on the day the US or Israel start a war against Iran, Syria, Lebanon or Sudan.
9- UNIFEL forces in the South of Lebanon can be used as an umbrella for occupation forces. Lobbying governments contributing to the UNIFEL forces to withdraw their troops.
V. Academic boycott
1- Solidarity with the Palestinian Academic Boycott Campaign against Israel (PACBI) as well as integrating that campaign within the broader context of the boycott movement; calling for sanctions and withdrawal of investments against the apartheid regime in Israel as recommended by Palestinian civil society organizations in their statement released in July 2005.
2- Call for the establishment of an international and Arab network of communication and networking between committees and organizations involved in the boycott movement, as well as for the formation of boycott committees in Arab universities and cultural institutions.
3- Appeal to all academics and intellectuals in Egypt and the rest of the Arab countries not to submit to the pressures, temptations and twisted ways for normalization such as the Euro Mediterranean cooperation projects, which insist on the participation of Israel in all activities as a precondition for their support; as well as to oppose the participation of Israel in international scientific conferences organized in Arab countries. A special call to the collective of Arab geographers to boycott the international geography conference to be organized in Tunisia 12 – 15 August 2008, which will include Israeli researchers.
4- Fraternal celebration of British, French and Canadian academics and university professors who are organizing an academic boycott of Israel. We call upon academics worldwide as well as scientific and professional associations to join the boycott movement as an effective means of resistance against the criminal policies of apartheid and oppression committed by Israel on a daily basis against the Palestinian people. We stress our rejection of any collaboration with the apartheid regime in Israel, whose academic institutions are closely linked to its security and military institutions.
5- The boycott of Israel has to be paralleled by a movement of support to Palestinian universities and cultural institutions. We call upon universities and cultural institutions worldwide to build bridges of institutional collaboration with the Palestinian people who is deprived of the basic academic rights and liberties.
VI. Against Dictatorship
1- Building a wide political and popular alliance between all political groups, mass and social protest organizations in Egypt to resist the dictatorship.
2- Dictatorship is closely linked to despotism, corruption, foreign hegemony and dependence. It is therefore important that this alliance coordinate its efforts on all fronts in its struggle for democracy, social justice, transparency as well as national independence.
3- In their joint struggle against despotism, political and social groups have to work directly with the masses, the main force in that struggle.
4- Strengthening of leftist political parties which have to re-establish themselves on democratic principles to ensure an effective impact of their struggle.
5- Our target should be clear: To replace the authoritarian regime with a democracy based on a democratic constitution and corresponding legislation.
VII. Against Torture
1- Campaigning for a legislative change in accordance with the international definition of torture.
2- Using legal measures to bring torturers to justice.
3- Campaigning for a life of the emergency state.
4- Legal persecution of torturers and non submission to the terror exercised by Ministry of Interior officials.
5- Organization of protests in front of police stations on the 26th of June, the international day against torture.
6- Mobilization of mass media to mainstream coverage of torture crimes.
VIII. Deterioration of Services and Privatization
a. Services and globalization:
1- Globalization is not a fate that cannot be escaped; people of the world can make use of some of the beneficial aspects of globalization.
2- The developments of globalization require that governments of the world consult more with their people, and improve their human rights records as well as follow principles of democracy, justice, equality and to combat corruption and abuse of power.
3- We are in need for an Arab project that addresses globalization. This calls for a democratic dialogue inside our different nations to develop our capacities for change and empower people of the region to manage and effectively organize their internal and economic affairs in an effective manner.
b. Strategies in the field of housing
1- Limit ownership of construction sites donated by the government to Egyptians only.
2- Lobbying for a balance between economic and luxurious housing projects.
3- Protection of the Egyptian Arab character of construction designs and development of housing styles that are appropriate to the Egyptian environment, and social and economic situation of the Egyptian people.
4- Use of locally made raw material and encouragement of universities and scientific research centers to develop methods of low cost construction.
5- Expansion in the local manufacture of construction material, and restriction of subsidy to material used in economic housing projects. Cost should be disengaged from global prices.
6- Construction material should not be exported before fulfillment of local needs.
7- Provision of training and rehabilitation opportunities to Egyptian construction laborers.
8- Amendment of unified labor law to prohibit arbitrary dismissal of construction workers or their coercion into early retirement.
9- Protection and provision of necessary support to local construction and advisory offices against multinational companies and international consultation firms.
10- Rejection of World Bank and IMF policies of privatization of construction companies.
c- Water and Sanitation
1- Campaigning legally and in the media for provision 27 of the constitution which forbids privatization of infrastructure.
2- Implementation of severe punitive measures against abuse of service provision.
3- Higher budget allocation to universities and research institutions.
4- Adopting low cost technology for water and sanitation services.
5- Adopting cooperative systems (article 28 – 29 of the constitution) in place of privatization policies.
6- Reconsideration of subsidy policies in the service sector.
7- Strengthening of role of civil society in monitoring performance in the water and sanitation sectors.
d- Health sector
1- Rejection of government plan to privatize health care institutions; call for networking between hospitals and clinics and the network of Ministry of health clinics and hospitals, foremost the 3000 rural health units and 600 poly clinics; development of a national insurance scheme for the provision of health care on all three levels; introducing a fourth level of service for disaster situations. Those institutions should function on a non profit basis.
2- Call for the establishment of a national health insurance fund that draws its resources from regular subscriptions as well as taxes.
3- The insurance system is managed by a general assembly and an elected board of specialists and economic and health experts.
4- Decentralization of the national health insurance system, training of personnel, identification of quality indicators and development of adequate monitoring mechanisms.
5- Development of a medicinal policy that targets the development of the national drug industry in collaboration with other industries in countries of the South; ensuring availability of medicines as well as access at an affordable price.
6- a. Outlining the role of the private health sector so as not to infiltrate the national health insurance company.
b. Specification of certain fields for private insurance companies and hospitals following the guidelines of the not-for- profit national health insurance scheme.
c. Collaboration with all insurance sectors seeking to organize on the basis of a standard level of social health care provision.
d. Collaboration with non urban national care institutions in provision of high quality health care; redistribution of population to new cities and in border geographical territories.
7- Development of the activities of political parties, unions and civil society organizations advocating the right to health against the governmental project which focuses on profit making health projects resulting in the fragmentation of health insurance schemes.
8- Development of an appropriate medical education scheme in national universities to respond to the health care needs of the Egyptian people.
e- Education
1- Education and scientific research should be among the priorities of a national agenda, with a higher allocation from the national budget and a strategic plan based on needs assessments.
2- Rejection of governmental policies dictated by international institutions targeting the privatization and commoditization of education.
3- Calling upon Egyptians, as individuals, groups, organizations to work towards the development and promotion of education, and defense of free education and independence of universities.
4- Increasing teachers wages and supporting university professors in their struggle for the independence of the universities.
5- Supporting students’ struggles and demands of a free education and their right to freely organize in democratic students organizations.
6- Support to the “9th of March group for the independence of universities” and the movement of “teachers without unions” and demanding the immediate release of its coordinator Abdel Nasser Ali.
IX. Peasants’ Forum
Goals: Right to land, decent life, independent organization
Strengthening solidarity links with peasants struggling for their rights, foremost:
1- Their right to land and its use in a way that secures a decent living and a contribution in the advancement of the country.
2- Their right to organize independently and democratically.
Means:
1. Production of a biweekly newsletter to inform network of update of peasants struggles.
2. Periodic meeting between network members in one of the member villages, with special focus on villages with ongoing problems or crises.
3. Design of a website to connect Egyptian peasants with their counterparts worldwide as well as with Egyptian workers and freedom fighters and providing necessary training of network members on effective use of the internet. The website of the solidarity committee with the agrarian reform peasants (www.tadamon.katib.org) can be used to start this project.
Suggested action plan
• Formation of a preparatory committee (representative for each location) to undertake the initial steps for the formation of the network. The first meeting will take place on the 30th of April in the village of Kamshish on the occasion of the annual memorial of Salah Hussein.
• Preparation for a general conference for fishermen in collaboration with Tadamon in one of the locations.
• Solidarity petition against the arrest of Sarando peasants.
• Suggestions that the next forum be held in an Egyptian village.
X. Workers’ Forum
1. Building links between different working class areas inside Egypt.
2. Attempts to unite efforts of all workers’ committees and political groups concerned with the working class issue to build a unified and strong working class movement.
3. Building links of solidarity between the workers movement in Egypt and worldwide.
4. Building a strong campaign calling for an increase of the minimum wage and the right of the working class to organize in free and independent trade unions.
XI. Women’s Forum
• Organization of a mass campaign “Open the crossings” to demand that the Egyptian government facilitate the passage of Palestinians across the border checkpoints.
• Formation of an Arab women’s platform to address issues of women under occupation, and to expose crimes of violence against women and children and the use of children in military operations.
• Drawing lists of colonial agents and supporters of terrorist activities among Arab and foreign rulers.
• Formation of solidarity groups with the injured Palestinians and Palestinian fighters in Egyptian hospitals.
• We support all forms of resistance as the only means to restore Arab dignity in Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria and we support all forms of boycott of Zionism.
• We adopt the 6th of April as an Egyptian day of protest in solidarity with Egyptian workers struggle against rising prices.
XII. Students’ Forum
1- Organization of a meeting within two weeks after the forum to discuss the formation of a new students’ coalition to bring together students from all political groups concerned with students’ rights.
2- Continue students’ struggle against rising educational fees, current regulations of student union elections and interference of security authorities in university life.
3- Organization of protest rallies on the 4th of May to call for free education (to be further discussed in the meeting).
