[Nasional-e] AT BROAD CONFERENCE IN MADRID

[Ambon]

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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Nov. 28, 2002
issue of Workers World newspaper
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AT BROAD CONFERENCE IN MADRID: 
ANTI-WAR FORCES TAKE CLEAR STAND AGAINST U.S. WAR

By John Catalinotto
Madrid

A major international conference held here in Madrid on Nov. 
16-17 has condemned the planned U.S. aggression against 
Iraq. It was the first international gathering to convene 
after the U.S. elections, the UN Security Council resolution 
that forced inspectors on Iraq, and the massive anti-war 
protest in Florence, Italy.

This International Meeting Against the War and in Solidarity 
with the Iraqi People was organized by the Spanish Campaign 
for Lifting the Sanctions on Iraq. It adopted a declaration 
sharply condemning U.S. plans to wage war on Iraq and 
denounced UN Resolution 1441, calling it "a green light" for 
U.S. aggression.

The conference reflected several trends regarding the war: 
widespread mass anti-war sentiment, especially in Europe and 
the Middle East; a new and growing anti-war movement in the 
United States; and opposition within the European ruling 
class to U.S. hegemony on the world scene, enforced by the 
Pentagon.

A MILLION PROTEST IN EUROPE

The demonstration of 750,000 to 1 million people in Florence 
on Nov. 9 was a point of reference for the speakers and the 
audience at the conference. Over 600 people took part over 
the course of one-and-a-half days of discussions.

Before Nov. 9, the European anti-globalization movement had 
taken no clear position on the U.S. war against Iraq. Social 
democratic parties--which in Europe often lead imperialist 
governments--have been influential within "social forums" 
like the one that day in Florence, and had prevented such a 
clear anti-imperialist position from winning the day.

But on Nov. 9, the mass mood was so anti-war that the only 
demands made were on the U.S. government to desist from 
launching the war on Iraq. No one was telling the Iraqis to 
disarm first. This meeting of the European Social Forum also 
announced Europe-wide plans for another day of anti-war 
actions in all European capitals on Feb. 15.

Speakers from Morocco like Mohammad Basri of the Union of 
Popular Socialist Forces (USFP)-some of whom had helped 
organize a march of solidarity with Palestine of 3 million 
people last spring in Rabat--took apart the U.S. role in the 
Middle East.

British Labor Party Member of Parliament George Galloway, a 
leader in the movement defending the Iraqi people, hit the 
Tony Blair government in London for being a toady for 
Washington. The British anti-war movement rallied 400,000 
people last Sept. 28 in London to protest the war and in 
solidarity with Palestine.

Some of the strongest protests in Europe have been in those 
countries whose governments have prostrated themselves 
before the U.S. plans: in Britain under Blair, in Italy 
under media magnate Silvio Berlusconi and more recently in 
the Spanish state under Juan Maria Aznar.

>From Belgium, Michel Collon of the newspaper Solidaire made 
a specific attack on what he called the "Ni-ni" problem 
(neither-nor in French) of the European peace movement. When 
the slogan is "Neither [Yugoslavia's Slobodan] Milosevic nor 
NATO, neither Washington nor the Taliban, neither Saddam 
Hussein nor George W. Bush," then the movement becomes 
paralyzed by the equal sign put between oppressor and 
oppressed.

Collon's argument for a clear position opposing any 
imperialist intervention got a strong positive response from 
the audience.

Many speakers from different parts of the Spanish state, 
representing unionists, political activists--mostly from the 
United Left--intellectuals and others focused their 
criticism on the U.S. and on the Aznar government.

GROWING U.S. ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT

Conference organizers showed they believed it was important 
to invite representatives of the resistance inside the U.S. 
Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, unable to attend, 
sent a message of solidarity. Clark condemned UN Resolution 
1441, described the U.S. as a plutocracy, and pointed to the 
popular struggle as the only means left now to stop the Bush 
administration from opening the world to chaos that would 
impact on future generations.

For the International Action Center, John Catalinotto 
discussed the Bush administration's "National Security 
Strategy" document as proof that the U.S. war had nothing to 
do with Saddam Hussein or terrorism, but was aimed at 
establishing U.S. imperialism's hegemony worldwide, 
including over its rivals in Europe and Japan.

Teresa Gutierrez of International ANSWER discussed racial 
profiling and other repressive measures since Sept. 11, 
2001, and the passage of the USA Patriot Act. She showed how 
despite this repression, the movement against the war and in 
solidarity with Palestine has been steadily growing, right 
in the center of the empire.

The anti-war activists from the U.S. were overwhelmed with 
requests for interviews, both from the progressive media 
inside Spain and from newspapers from Chile, Peru and 
Morocco. This reflected the interest all over the world 
about what is happening inside the United States and how 
much it has been distorted by the U.S. corporate media.

Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies, 
Washington, spoke of the dangers to the Palestinian people 
following the unleashing of a war against Iraq.

Naim Abu Tair, president of the Union of Health Work 
Committees in Palestine, also raised these dangers, but 
added that the Palestinian people would have no choice but 
to continue their struggle, by whatever means they need to 
use to end the Israeli occupation.

Juan Carretera , president of OSPAAAL Cuba, spoke of Cuba's 
solidarity with the Palestinian struggle and of its 
insistence that the sanctions against Iraq be ended and that 
no war be launched against it. OSPAAAL is the Organization 
in Solidarity with the Peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin 
America.

SOLIDARITY WITH THE IRAQI PEOPLE

Dennis Halliday of Ireland and Hans-Christof von Sponeck of 
Germany, both coordinators of UN programs in Iraq, have been 
for the past few years regular spokespeople at conferences 
like this one in Madrid. They are not lifetime anti-war 
activists, but individuals in diplomatic service whose 
outrage at the horrors imposed on the Iraqi population has 
turned them into important spokespeople.

Usually they expose the lies and contradictions of U.S. 
policy or explain just how the sanctions harm the people of 
Iraq.

This time, asked to speak on "a commitment of solidarity 
with the Iraqi people," they took a different approach to 
their talks, showing how their own feelings of solidarity 
developed with the population and led them to question what 
they were doing.

Von Sponeck, for example, told how years ago delegations 
from the Spanish movement had come to Iraq with aid for the 
Iraqis suffering under sanctions, and had also demonstrated 
before the UN offices. "Little did either the demonstrators 
or I know at that time," said von Sponeck, "that we would 
wind up on the same side. It was important that you were 
there. You won me over."

OPPOSITION FROM EUROPE TO U.S. PLANS

Another defecting diplomat was present. Fernando Valderrama, 
former head of the Spanish Legation in Iraq, had resigned 
from that post after Aznar backed Bush fully in the demand 
for "regime change" in Iraq. For Valderrama, this demand for 
"regime change" is a violation of the Spanish constitution, 
which forbids aggression. It is a legal reason for 
withdrawing from his assignment there.

What is interesting is that the Aznar government has yet to 
challenge Valderrama in his interpretation of the 
constitution. The diplomat is confident he is legally 
correct, and says he has received comments of support not 
just from the anti-war forces or from his own Socialist 
Party, but also from members of the right-wing Aznar 
government.

Behind this experience is the attitude of the bulk of the 
European imperialist ruling class. They see the war on Iraq 
as something that, even if it goes quickly, benefits only 
U.S. imperialism. In Germany they are left out completely 
from the spoils of the war, in France they are better off 
exploiting the Middle East by doing business as usual. They 
see Blair, Berlusconi and Aznar as servants of Washington 
and Wall Street in a dangerous enterprise.

This does not mean they will confront U.S. imperialism, nor 
that they plan to assist the liberation movements. It just 
means there is a sharp point of contradiction between the 
U.S. and European rulers.

While everyone at the conference acknowledged how important 
events are within the United States, only those from the 
U.S. publicly looked to the movement there to stop the war. 
The others directed their calls to the populations of the 
Middle East and Europe.

Words are insufficient to convince those abroad that a 
broad, strong and combative anti-war movement is possible 
inside the U.S. For that they will have to see deeds. 

- END -

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