[antiwar-van] Fwd: [IAC] Report From Cairo Conference: Solidarity with Palestine & Iraq

[Ken]

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<ActionCenter.actgen at action-mail.org> (Action Center) Subject: [IAC] Report
 From Cairo Conference: Solidarity with Palestine & Iraq Date: Sat, 28 Dec
2002 11:54:01 -0500

CAIRO CONFERENCE SUPPORTS SOLIDARITY WITH IRAQ AND PALESTINE CALLS FOR
DEMONSTRATIONS FROM JANUARY 18 TO FEBRUARY
15 TO STOP U.S. WAR DRIVE

[Article prepared by the International Action Center] Jan. 27, 2002

An international conference of over 400 representatives of popular
organizations from 20 countries met in Cairo, Egypt, from Dec. 18-19, 2002
and resolved to take action in solidarity with the people of Iraq against
threatened U.S. aggression and in solidarity with the Palestinian movement
for self-determination.

The conference called the International Campaign Against U.S. Aggression on
Iraq (ICAA) created a steering committee whose first order of business will
be to mobilize worldwide for mass demonstrations, first on

January 18, 2003 against U.S. war plans. This is simultaneous with national
anti-war demonstrations already underway in the United States in Washington
and San Francisco and with many other actions already scheduled
internationally. The committee will also promote actions for February 15,
2003, a day chosen for demonstrations in Europe.

The continuations committee of the Conference undertook the challenge of
mobilizing in Egypt on January 18. Its first action was immediately
following the conference on December 20, when it mobilized 1,000 people for
a public protest of U.S. war plans despite the presence of hundreds of Cairo
police.

Until the last minute the Egyptian government tried to stop the conference
from taking place. After a mobilization by political forces it backtracked
and permitted the assembly. Then the Sheridan Hotel, a U.S. owned hotel
chain canceled contracted space at two of its hotels in an effort to
sabotage the conference. The conference was finally moved to the Conrad
Hotel. The general feeling was that the U.S. State Department was behind the
efforts to stop this international anti-war gathering.

The challenge of calling the conference and confronting the efforts to halt
it was undertaken by the Egyptian Popular Campaign to Confront U.S.
Aggression. Key organizers of the effort included Mohammed Oudah, Amin
Eskander, Maher Maklouf, Member of Parliament Hamdeen Sabahy, Professors
Soheir Morsy and Ashraf El-Bayoumi and political analyst Samir Amin.

Among the prestigious world figures attending the conference were Ahmed Ben
Bella, leader of Algeria's

struggle for independence from France and first president of Algeria in
1962, Saad K. Hammoundy, Iraq's ambassador to the Arab League, Former U.S.
Attorney General Ramsey Clark, Denis Halliday, (Ireland) was the United
Nations Assistant Secretary-General heading the Oil-for-Food

program in Iraq up through 1998, UN director of the Oil-for-Food program,
Dr. Hans Von Sponeck, and George Galloway, Labor member of Parliament in the
UK. The
86-year-old Ben Bella presided over the conference.

Coordinators of anti-war groups in the different countries attending
included John Rees of the Stop the War Coalition in Britain, Christof Agiton
of Attac in France along with delegates from Cuba, Canada, Russia, Germany,
Italy and more than fifty distinguished guests from most Arab countries.
Sara Flounders of International Action Center, Elias Mashmawi and Fadia
Rafeedi of the Free Palestine Alliance, also representing the ANSWER
Coalition, Peter Phillips from Project Censored and Gary Leupp were part of
the U.S. delegation.

BEN BELLA SETS DIRECTION

President Ben Bella gave direction to the conference, noting that the U.S.
attack on Iraq, should it take place, would be only the first of a
succession of wars by the U.S against Arab and other lands of the Middle
East. He was firm in wanting to mobilize the people of all Arab lands to
hold mass demonstrations against U.S. plans to dominate the world, calling
for a demonstration of 2 million.

Ben Bella also said it was up to the people of the United States to fight
against those policies and that the struggle within the U.S. was vital.

Ramsey Clark, who was attorney general in the Johnson administration from
1967-1969, has been the only former high-ranking federal official to
publicly oppose U.S. military adventures all over the world and has been
strong in his solidarity with the Iraqi people.

Clark said that "an attack on Iraq is obviously unlawful, it is criminal.
Through years of sanctions, the U.S. is already committing genocide against
Iraq." Another strike now by the U.S. "builds toward world domination and it
has to be stopped. It is an urgent issue because it can happen in the next
three months," because the Pentagon will want to move before the summer heat
sets in.

George Galloway, Labor Member of Parliament in Britain mocked Washington's
charge that Iraq holds weapons of mass destruction. "Everyplace visited by
the inspectors so far has been completely empty," he said, calling Great
Britain and the U.S. "imperial powers" who want to decide on "new kings, new
countries, and new slave centers" in the oil-rich Middle East.

Denis Halliday, who resigned in 1998 to protest the effect of sanctions
against Baghdad, said that Washington has accused Baghdad of "material
breaches" of the new UN

resolution because it "plans to undermine the work of inspections and the
work of the Iraqi government. 'The United States doesn't want a peaceful
solution. They want an excuse to go to war, to conquer Iraq and control its
oil," Halliday said.

Hans Von Sponeck, who also resigned his UN post in protest, called the
150-percent increase in infant mortality in Iraq since 1990 "genocide by the
United

Nations."

Ashraf el-Bayoumi, an Egyptian professor and one of the conference
organizers, said Washington was preparing to go about "launching an attack
on Iraq, occupying Iraq, usurping its natural resources, oil and otherwise,
in order to continue being the solo superpower in the world."

Sara Flounders told of "Bush's one big problem," the

growing opposition to the war inside the United States. She referred to the
demonstrations of hundreds of thousands ANSWER called on October 26 and its
plans for January 18, 2003. "The one power that the Pentagon today fears is
the arousing anger of the millions of people, whose power is explosive when
they are organized and

mobilized. This is the one force that can stay the hand of the Pentagon."

Elias Rashmawi, a Palestinian American, focused on the need for a strong
anti-war mobilization from the U.S. He stressed that there is now the
potential to build a movement that can effectively fight against U.S. war

plans. "Our international coordination in mobilizing for January 18th will
strengthen solidarity and  will send a signal to the Bush Administration
that the world is united against the continuation of conquest  and war."

John Rees referred to both the September 28 demonstration of 400,000 in
London against the war, and the almost

million people who gathered in Florence, Italy, to demonstrate on November 9
as part of the European Social Forum's anti-globalization actions.

Iraq's Hammoundy connected U.S. military aggression with the drive to impose
capitalist globalization on the world. With U.S. capital invested around the
world, it requires its military to secure its profits. Hammoundy drew
attention to the U.S. seizure of Iraq's weapons declaration from the United
Nations, saying Washington altered the declaration to create an excuse for
an invasion.

Mohamed Asad Kanaana, Secretary General Abnaal El-Balad, People of the
Homeland Movement within 1949 Palestine, described the period as one of the
most critical periods facing the Arab nation in its modern history. The U.S.
is repartitioning the world. Israel has decided that direct control - the
return of colonialism - is the assured

method to guard their interests. But the one polar world of U.S. imperialism
is not the destiny of humanity. People's movements will innovate new forms
of struggle to confront imperialist arrogance.


CAIRO DECLARATION

The statement known as the Cairo Declaration coming out of the international
meeting to launch an "International Campaign" starts:

"We, the participants reaffirm our resolve to stand in solidarity with the
people of Iraq and Palestine, recognizing that war and aggression against
them is but part of a U.S. project of global domination and subjugation.
Solidarity with Iraq and Palestine is integral to the internationalist
struggle against neo-liberal globalization.  The Cairo meeting is not an
isolated event, but an extension of a protracted international struggle
against imperialism, from Seattle and Genoa to Lisbon and Florence, to
Cordoba and Cairo."

The statement goes on to "declare our total opposition to war on Iraq and
our resolve to continue the struggle

against U.S. policies of global domination. We strongly believe in the
urgency of mobilizing against these policies."

It condemns "U.S. military presence on Arab land" and calls for "pressuring
the Arab governments that allow U.S military bases on their territory to
close them down, and not to provide air, naval, or land facilities."

As practical actions it proposed to "elect a Steering Committee to follow up
on the implementation of the Cairo Declaration, and coordination among
organizations which commit to its principles, and enhance awareness through
appropriate actions ranging from the preparation of posters to organizing
marches and demonstrations in solidarity with Iraq and Palestine."

The first action was the Cairo demonstration on December
20. The steering committee will support a month of activities starting with
the January 18 demonstrations internationally in concert with those in the
United States and ending with actions February 15 in concert with those in
Europe.

For more information of the International Action Center go to
http://www.iacenter.org

For more information on the January 18, 2003 Washington DC March to Stop the
War on Iraq go to: http://www.internationalANSWER.org



http://www.iacenter.org iacenter at iacenter.org

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