DIRTY LIES

The 20th March sees anti-war and pro-peace mobilizations all over the world on the anniversary of the USA/UK attack on Iraq. Scores of cities all over the world will host demonstrations by the anti-war movement of their opposition to and condemnation of the invasion of Iraq. 

Let us examine the "dirty lies" used to justify the military operations:

• eliminate the threat from "weapons of mass destruction": to date these weapons have not been found, except for those dropped on Iraqi heads by US and UK planes;
• bring democracy: if this were true, then why not also attack those Arab states which are governed by dictatorial monarchies like Saudi Arabia or the Emirates?
• guarantee the self-determination of the Kurds: so why not occupy Turkey's Kurdish zone where the Kurdish language is banned and Kurds are registered as "Northern Turks"?

In reality, this war was desired in order to establish a new balance of power, political and economical, in a part of the Middle East and the World which is strategic as regards resources, commercial corridors and raw materials.

It is a war which also involves specific appetites for oil involving even Italy if we can believe what was published in the Italian economic newspaper, Il Sole 24 Ore, in November 2003 to the effect that ENI had an interest in 300,000 barrels of crude per day and reserves of between 2 and 2.6 million barrels in the area of Nassiriya, where curiously enough Italian troops are at present stationed.

The movement which will take to the streets on the 20th March all over the world shares nothing with the bourgeois Arab oligarchies of the International Islamic Front which strikes at innocent citizens with the weapon of terrorism and which is unable (as a result of class interests and a desire for domination) to distinguish between the exploited and the exploiters either in Arab countries or Western countries.

It is the same old logic of militarism whose only outcome is the search for domination and massacre. It is the logic of repression, which hits both the workers' struggles at home and the struggles of the poorer classes all over the world.

The movement which will be taking to the streets on the 20th March shares nothing either with the ambiguities of those forces who continue to seek peace with lots of "ifs" and "buts" and endorsing the use of the military for hypocritical humanitarian purposes.

The movement of the 20th March, on the other hand, demands:

• a cessation of all military operations
• the withdrawal of the occupying military forces
• the demilitarization of Iraq
• self-determination for the Iraqis
• the establishment of political, social, union, religious and cultural liberties
• international solidarity to support the exploited classes in Iraq.

The Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici supports and will be part of the demonstrations on the 20th March.


FEDERAZIONE dei COMUNISTI ANARCHICI

March 2004