Support the Iraqi Resistance!

Towards the fifth anniversary of the Intifada: Build international support for the Iraqi Resistance!

We, the undersigned, call for an international conference in support of the Iraqi Resistance on October 1/2, 2005, to coincide with the anniversary of the Intifada. The venue of the conference will be Italy as the popular opposition against war and occupation was paramount while the government continues to be one of the most important allies of the US providing some 3.000 occupation troops.

Massive opposition was mounted against the war and occupation of Iraq. But for all those who opposed the war and occupation of Iraq it is now necessary to move on also with a clear support to the Iraqi resistance that is struggling to liberate their homeland. It is not possible to, on the one side, be against the occupation and on the other side not support and acknowledge the impressive resistance being fought in Iraq to oust the occupiers.

We call for the full recognition of the Iraqi popular and armed resistance. The Iraqi resistance includes every current regardless of political or religious standing that resists the occupation under the simple slogan of liberating the Iraqi homeland

The Iraqi people's resistance against the imperialist occupation encompasses all forms of resistance including protests, strikes, civil disobediences, non-violent direct actions and the armed struggle. Further more, the Iraqi people's resistance to the occupation is an inseparable part of the people's movement on an international level to resist and fight against imperialism, Zionism and all forms of reaction.

Neither the US-sponsored "elections" nor the catchword of "democracy" can veil the reality. Behind the Iraqi puppets is the US regime, represented by its giant American Embassy in the "Green Zone" of Baghdad. While there is an "election process" Iraq is robbed of its oil resources. Her cultural treasures are being plundered. Meanwhile more and more Iraqis suffer without food, water or electricity. All political opposition is brutally suppressed. Up until the "elections" prisons were packed, and fifty people arrested every day.

Iraq has become the new symbol of both the suffering and the resistance of the Arab nation. The Iraqi resistance is spearheading the movement against American hegemony in the Middle East and in the world. The resistance has given new hope to the Palestinian Intifada which has moved into its fifth year of confronting the brutal Zionist occupation. It has given new hopes to the millions still residing in refugee camps of Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. And it has been an inspiration for the Arab masses who struggle to overthrow the US-loyalist regimes in the Middle East.

We need to rally around the Iraqi resistance as the main pole which can stop imperialism's onslaught in the Middle East. The struggle for the liberation of Iraq is not only the struggle for Iraqis, but for all the world. The masses in Iraq are fighting the very "project for a New American Century". Because of the Iraqi resistance it was impossible for Bush and the American warmongers to proceed to attack Syria, Korea, Iran and Venezuela.

The imperialist powers led by the US have tried to put a wedge between the people of Iraq and the Middle East on the one hand and the anti-war and anti-globalization movement in the West on the other by using the rhetoric of the "clash of civilizations" and "war on terror". They have sought to demonize the struggle of the Iraqi people by labeling it "terrorist". In fact, it is the war of aggression and occupation that is illegal and criminal. The Iraqi people's armed resistance to that illegal and criminal war is just and legitimate.

The international conference that we propose aims to bring together the representatives of the Iraqi resistance and the struggling people of the Middle East and the forces of the anti-war and anti-globalization movement.   We hope thereby to strengthen the unity between the peoples who are struggling for national self-determination and the working people in the West who suffer under the yoke of their own governments that are engaged in foreign adventures of war and plunder.