by Noah Cohen, 8/21/04(member of the New England Committee to Defend Palestine)1.It`s particularly interesting in the case of Palestine to see where US intellectuals and progressives decide that it`s necessary to be "realistic" and where "principled;" where they choose to accept more or less the general media consensus about "the boundaries of acceptable discourse" and where they reject it. In the case of Palestine, people who are generally on record as calling for forthrightness and honesty in the demand for justice in political discourse, who criticize a false "pragmatism" oriented toward the corporate media and academic political consultants and who question generalizing statements about popular consensus, suddenly become believers in pragmatism and the limits of what the discourse … [read more]

Paper read in the seminary organized by Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (PONM)Dear friends and respected leaders of the oppressed nations and peoples of Pakistan!I am here to represent the case of Seraiki people struggling for their constitutional, political, economic, cultural rights which are violated and denied by the dominant ethnic groups and ruling cliques supported by ruthless institutions of the state of Pakistan. Geographical background Seraiki speaking people, more than 50 million, have been residing in a vast area in center of Pakistan that is 1,66,326 sq Km. Out of which 1,54,157,sq Km is in Punjab making 75% of the total area of Punjab. Historically, Seraiki people were rich with land and water resources having four deltas of five rivers, vast plains, two major deserts, … [read more]

Islamabad 16 August 2004The situation in Balochistan might lead to disintegration of the country, declared former chief minister of Balochistan and Chairman of Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (PONM) Sardar Attaullah Khan Mengal here on Monday. He said the military-led government and not the nationalists would be responsible for any damage to the integrity of the country. Mengal was addressing a seminar organised by the PONM on constitutional, political, economic and cultural exploitation of oppressed nations in the perspective of facts and figures and its solution in the light of international principles. He asked the powers that be to hang him for his resistance against what he claimed another military operation in his province. "I will love to die for my own people, my own land and … [read more]

Popular movement demands the lifting of de facto martial lawOn August 15, 2004, the thirty two-year-old Pebam Chittaranjan Mangang set himself alit in Imphal, capital of the Indian state of Manipur, in order to protest against the ongoing military rule. He later died for his injuries.This recent episode shows at the same time the desperation as well as the readiness to combat of the people´s of the Seven Sisters, the seven states annexed to the Indian Union when it became independent, and especially the people of Manipur. Since the early stages of the inclusion to the Union, to which they had no important ties, there was popular resistance against Indian rule exercised by brute military force. Already by 1958 the Union imposed the Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA) which de facto … [read more]

Protest self-immolation in ManipurA thirty two-year-old youth Pebam Chittaranjan Mangang, opened yet another new chapter in the ongoing public agitation demanding total lifting of the contentious Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, from the state by burning himself to death.Chittaranjan, who hails from Kwakeithel Takhel Leikai, Imphal west residing presently at the house of his uncle at Khaidem, Thiyam Leikai, Bishenpur died today after a self immolation bid at Bishenpur bazar on August 15, the deadline set by the public for complete removal of the Act from the state. "My treasured life has been sacrificed today as a human torch for the atrocities committed against the Manipuri people by the Armed Forces", Chittaranjan said in a four page hand written suicide note. He mentioned the … [read more]

Another comrade of the Anti-imperialist Camp arrestedFree William Frediani!Militant of the Anti-imperialist Camp arrested in Pisa, Italy, in connection with the inquiry into the so-called "Cells of Revolutionary Offensive"Free the comrades of the group "Il Silvestre"William has been active within the ranks of the Anti-imperialist Camp for the last two years. He has always been generous and ready to engage for others, to practise solidarity with the oppressed, to let deeds follow words. For about one year, William has been working locally with the anarchist and ecologist group "Il Silvestre" which has been strongly hit by searches and arrests (Alessio, Alice, Gioacchino, Betta, Leo, Costantino, Beppe and Francesco), starting last June 7.They were rounded up on the pretext of the so-called … [read more]

Govt. were searching to arrest Jagat Thoudam (of AMUCO) not only him and to arrest all the leaders of the various Org. Today 15 August 2004 Indian Independence Day one man call Pebam Chitaranjan (32 Years) try to suicide with Fire and he burns about 85% of his body and he is now in Coma. The State Cabinet today decided to lift the Disturbed Area Act from the Imphal Municipal areas on a trial basis, in the backdrop of the intense agitation demanding the revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act from the State. With the DAA denotified, the AFSPA will automatically lapse in the areas covered under the Imphal Municipality. A notification announcing the revocation of DAA from the said areas was issued by the Special Se- cretary (Home) S Dino-kumar today. Following the decision to … [read more]

For more than a week the Madhi Army led by Muqtada al-Sadr has been resisting to the onslaught of the US occupation forces. Despite the completely asymmetric relationship of military power the rebellion could not only not be crushed, but has even incited on outright popular uprising reaching out from the shanty towns of Baghdad to the until now more or less calm port city of Basra passing by the entire Iraqi South. The only lightly armed and hardly trained resistance fighters are heroically confronting the US Marine Corps equipped with the most sophisticated military hardware and educated in a century-hardened spirit of colonial massacre and genocide. With fighter aircraft, helicopter gun ships and heavy artillery they are pounding Najaf and other insurgent towns. Already by now scores of … [read more]

by Bolivarian Liberation Forces – Liberation Army (FBL-EL)"Without an awaken, conscious people on the move revolution is impossible. There is no Messiahs, no leader which could lead a revolutionary process, but only the people which is the conditio sine qua non of the revolutionary process. [……] The people is the tide but the tide does not stay high forever. Like the sea the people raise and fall. If we disappoint it, if we do not help it to organise itself, if the people does not develop a conscious historical orientation we are also lost." (Hugo Chávez, April 19, 1999)The Venezuelan people is preparing itself for another battle in its untiring struggle for a decent, just and sovereign nation. On August 15 the dispossessed will show that a conscious people is invincible. By … [read more]

Contribution of Özgür Der, Turkey, to Assisi 04Headscarf controversy is on the Europe`s agenda. After French government´s decision it would not be a surprise to see some other European countries following the way France opened. A similar argument is already going on in Germany for a long time. Despite in Germany there is no such a ban effort occurred among students like France, it is known that after Afghan origin teacher Fereshta Ludin verdict, deep concerns raised among Muslims living in this country. In some provinces, Muslim officers who wear headscarves faced to lose their work. It is very clear that for Muslim women who are get used to be in a measure to face with social-cultural obstructions, after that facing with legal handicaps too is a very bad thing. And the concerns about … [read more]

The occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq; supporting of colonial policies in Palestine, Kashmir and Chechenya; sending troops and opening new military bases in many crisis areas of the world from South America to Africa and Far East, all of these colonial activities expose a global besiegement. By strengthening and expanding colonial policies imperialism on one hand forces international organizations either serving him or losing their all functional capabilities. On the other hand the basic political assumptions of the past century, self determination and sovereignty of nations were dramatically weakend. Actually for a long time, in spite of a picture of division of the world into nation states, the capitalist world system had two basic charecteristics; cultural hegamony and imperialism. … [read more]

The war on Iraq was only a part of this huge campaign. In Iraq imperialism acted as prosecutor, as judge and as executioner also and invaded this country by illegal, injustice and immoral war. By this way they showed that not only Iraq but they wanted to capture the conscience and will of the people of the world and they also wanted to crush the spirit and consciousness of resistance. The aggression which started with Afghanistan and after that continued with Iraq can not be labeled as new colonialism. Although it has some new aspects, in real sense this is returning of classical colonialism. Like before, colonialists again attribute themselves some missions in terms of countries which they came to invade. The countries which were invaded by them long time ago to bring "civilization" … [read more]

In this way they want to kill democracy twice: on one hand the elementary democratic right to national self-determination for which the Iraqi people is fighting and which is also enshrined in international law; and on the other hand the elementary right to free expression and political organisation within Italy itself which the Anti-imperialist Camp is claiming with its support to the Iraqi resistance – which had been gain in the popular struggle against fascism.What the Berlusconi government is actually doing amounts to nothing less than the attempt to implement the rules of the American empire – however, they did not pass. By holding the gathering regardless of the extremely difficult circumstances the Anti-imperialist Camp succeeded in defending the anti-imperialist trench. The … [read more]

Campaign for the Rights of Political PrisonersTo all Friends and Supporters of Human Rights around the World:The Committee for the Families of Political Prisoners and Detainees in the West Bank, representing 7,500 political prisoners currently in Israeli prisons, is seeking the support of the international community in its campaign against the gross violations of their rights that the prisoners are enduring and against the appalling conditions under which they are being detained.Political prisoners in Israeli prisons will be commencing a hunger strike on Sunday, August 15, 2004 to protest their conditions. They complain that the conditions they experience are reminiscent of the former Abu Ghoraib facility in Iraq which gained worldwide notoriety recently for its treatment of detainees. … [read more]

The proposal launched by the Basque political formation Batasuna pursues the objective to open up a process of bringing together the anti-capitalist left of Europe – situated left of the reformist social democrat and communist parties. Its aim is to build an ample current against capitalist Europe and its Constitution which should be based on the principle of self-determination of the peoples. Thus we want to lay the fundament for a theoretical and practical confluence requiring time for debate and political rapprochement. At the meeting in Urruña four documents were discussed and a call elaborated which can be retrieved from www.ezkerraeuropan.comThe forces participating at the Anti-imperialist Camp regard it as necessary to participate in this process as well as to broaden and spread … [read more]

The meeting:1. Confirms its commitment first of all to obtaining the liberation of the comrades Zeynep Kilic and Avni Er, still held in an Italian gaol as part of the so-called "Operation Thrace" launched on last April 1st, and of William Frediani, militant of the Anti-imperialist Camp who is currently held in the prison of Pisa as part of an inquiry into the "COR" movement.2. Expresses its support for the development of international campaigns of great symbolic value, such as the campaign for the liberation of comrade Saadat, secretary of the PFLP, and the campaign for freeing the comrade Luz Perly Cordoba of the Peasants´ Association of Arauca (Colombia).3. Decides to look into the feasibility of making a European-wide book on all the main aspects of repression in each country.4. … [read more]

Bolivarian Anti-imperialist Camp Latin America is not only an extremely important scenario for imperialist ambitions. It also represents an obstacle to the development of its policies. It is a place of risk because of the struggle which is arising thanks to the popular movement of resistance for peace with social justice and full sovereignty in Columbia and the Bolivarian Revolution headed by Hugo Chávez in Venezuela. This Revolution has opened up a new road based on participated democracy with the people organized for sovereignty, against racial discrimination and for the self-determination of peoples, a process which hardly suits the development of the strategy of Yankee imperialism, since it would not guarantee the supply of oil, the social control over the people and the submission … [read more]

Colonialism and Racism are the Underpinning Foundations of the Zionist-Settler Project in PalestineIbrahim Makkawi, Ph.D. (1)Makkawi48@yahoo.comPaper presented at the: Anti Imperialist Camp, Assisi, Italy (August 1 – 6, 2004) What is Racism?We cannot understand and combat Racism, without understanding its intertwined relationship with the colonialism, economic exploitation and oppression. The idea of establishing a pure "Jewish state" by European settlers in Palestine, is by definition a colonialist project combining economical interests with racism and cultural imperialism. For this discussion, it is possible to identify three types or levels or racism:Institutional Racism: The established laws, customs, economic and political practices, which systematically produce racial inequality … [read more]

INTERNATIONAL MEETINGASSISI – AUGUST 4, 2004 1. Stress the importance of the success of the International Day of Action to support the struggle of the Iraqi people, scheduled for September 25th.2. On that day, they engage to take every possible initiative in their various countries, using all available forces.3. They believe the time has come to activate a constant coordination among the committees of the various countries, lasting beyond September 25th, with the aim of setting up an international conference and a unitary front supporting the struggle of their Iraqi brothers and comrades.4. They stress the link between the Iraqi Resistance and the resistance of the Palestinian people, a link which is already symbolically present in the choice of the date of September 25th, which … [read more]

There is an obvious growth of anti-Jewish sentiments worldwide. One cannot disregard anymore the rise in Judaeophobia and consider it always as just propaganda and manipulation. By the way, I prefer the use of the term Judaeophobia to the more common, and in itself racist term "anti Semitism"**. Judaeophobia has to be confronted and rejected as every other form of racism, and for that purpose we have to understand its present reasons and causes and not just stop at the isolated "treatment" of superficial symptoms as propagated by many Zionist organizations and Israel.In order not to exploit your patience unnecessarily I´ll tell you in advance that I´m deeply convinced that the main reasons for the increase in Judaeophobia are basically the Israeli criminal policy against the … [read more]