'Resistance is a just response to occupation'

Bill Mason, Brisbane

"Resistance is a just response to occupation; it takes various forms, including armed struggle", Louay Alzaher, representing the Iraq Solidarity Committee, told a public forum on the theme "Iraq in crisis" on November 22.

"The US war on Iraq is an aggression and has no international legal basis. The real terrorists in Iraq are the US military", said Alzaher. In Fallujah, around 6000 houses and 33 mosques have been destroyed by the US forces, and around 2000 people have been massacred, he said. But the people's resistance is growing.

Hassan Ghulam, from the Hazara community of Afghanistan, told the 30-member audience that the Iraq war is about "occupying territory and resources, and maintaining world power for the US". Just like in Afghanistan, the January 30 Iraq election will be a fraud in which the US government "hand-picks a few leaders who are trained by the CIA and put into power", said Ghulam. "The resources of the people are being privatised and stolen from them."

Halim Rane, representing Fair Go for Palestine, spoke of the connection "between the war in Iraq and in Palestine". He outlined the history of the Palestinian struggle for national self-determination. Israeli violence against the Palestinian people is a war crime, he said.

"As an occupied people, Palestinian resistance is legitimate under international law. We need to educate the Australian people about the occupation of both Palestine and Iraq", Rane concluded.

Adrian Skerritt, speaking for the International Socialist Organisation's Socialist Worker paper, explained the background to US war policy in Iraq. He noted the US capitalist rulers' drive to control Middle Eastern oil, and to "enforce the 'free market' by military power".

For the US rulers, "defeat in Iraq is unthinkable", Skerritt said. He stressed the need to support the Iraqi resistance in its struggle to end the US occupation of Iraq. A defeat for the US rulers in Iraq would not only enable the Iraqi people to win their democratic rights, it would help make it politically more difficult for the US to attack Iran and North Korea, and it would give confidence to the Australian and international anti-war movements that they can win.

From Green Left Weekly, December 1, 2004.

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From GLW issue 608