Pip Hinman, Melbourne
Cindy Sheehan, a softly spoken and courageous US anti-war activist, took Australia by storm on a whirlwind tour of Australia last week. "It's so urgent that we get off our butts and try to stop this bullshit war for profit in Iraq", was the challenge Sheehan threw out to Australian activists. Sheehan was a keynote speaker at the Unity for Peace conference in Melbourne on May 27, which was attended by some 280 people.
Along with Dr Salam Ismael from Doctors for Iraq, Sheehan talked up the need for international solidarity against the occupation of Iraq. "I can guarantee you that the troops will come back [home]. I can also guarantee that the world will never forget my son Casey, his buddies and the people of Iraq will never be forgotten in this bullshit war for profit", she said to cheers.
Activists from across Australia talked about how to step up the campaign to bring the Australian troops back from Iraq, and how to combat the government's anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism. They also decided to step up the campaign against any attack on Iran, with Melbourne Stop the War Coalition urging peace groups to use the upcoming Hiroshima Day anniversary protests in August to highlight opposition to nuclear power and uranium mining. The conference decided to support the international day of action in September against an attack on Iran and to coordinate where possible national anti-war initiatives.
At a 500-strong Sydney public meeting on May 23, veteran anti-war campaigners, newcomers and even skeptics came to hear Sheehan speak about why the international campaign against the war and occupation in Iraq and any future war in Iran had to continue. The Sydney leg of her tour was supported by the Sydney Stop the War Coalition, the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at Sydney University and the Medical Association for Prevention of War.
Sheehan, a mother of four, says she was not "political" before her son Casey was killed in Fallujah in 2004. Recounting her own political awakening, Sheehan connected very powerfully with activists and non-activists alike.
Since camping outside US President George Bush's Texas ranch last August, Sheehan has been on a non-stop circuit of national and international anti-war tours, including to Venezuela for the World Social Forum in January. There, she addressed a crowd she described as so immense she couldn't see where it ended. She described how overwhelmed she was with the response to her calls for Bush to be impeached. When she said, "We want to get Bush tried for war crimes", the crowd went wild. It wasn't until later on that Sheehan discovered her translator had adlibbed a little, telling the massive crowd, "We want Bush executed!" (Sheehan is a pacifist now, although she said she wasn't always.)
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez "is demonised [by Bush] for kicking Chevron out of Venezuela", Sheehan said , but then the White House hypocritically pushes US corporate interests in countries all over the globe. "The US government provides equal opportunity for war profiteers."
On the "most frequently asked question" about whether pulling foreign troops out of Iraq would lead to an even greater catastrophe, Sheehan was unequivocal: the troops have to come out "because they are not wanted there". She went on: "Iraq was once the cradle of civilisation ... Iraqis have the intelligence to solve their own country's problems and they don't need the US administration, or any other, to help them. Anything less is racist."
Sheehan said her son, Casey, was killed by someone in the Mahdi Army controlled by Moqtada al Sadr. But she bears no animosity towards the Iraqi resistance fighters. She told the meeting that the mother of an Iraqi fighter had written to her afterwards saying that Iraqis didn't want to kill young Americans, but that they did want the US to get out. "They wanted my son out of their country", she said simply, adding "I wish they didn't have to, but the Iraqi people have the right to resist the occupation".
Sheehan slammed the lies told to justify the invasion of Iraq, the war profiteering, the neglect of UN conventions and the US's use of chemical weapons such as napalm. "This war is not about WMDs, or terrorism. It's about controlling Iraq's natural resources so that Exxon, Haliburton, Bechtel and Blackwater Security and other US corporations can profit."
When Sheehan "sat down in a ditch in Crawford" outside Bush's ranch last August, 51% of people in the US disagreed with the war in Iraq. Now, more than two-thirds are opposed. This relatively fast change of heart relates to the overwhelming majority opposition to the occupation by Iraqis, the more than 2400 US soldiers who have been killed there, and the breadth of the US anti-war movement, which involves a significant number of the troops' families.
Sheehan's remarkable story of how one committed person can have an impact on a movement has lifted anti-war activists' spirits in Australia.
While conditions for building the movement in the US and the rest of the world differ from those in Australia, there are nevertheless lessons activists here could take from Sheehan's experiences. Sticking to a core demand — troops out — was central, and trying to link up with everyone who opposes the war, regardless of their background, was also critical, she said.
Building practical solidarity with the people of Iraq was another important focus for the movement, and Dr Ismael's trip has already kick-started a new network of young doctors for peace in Australia.
The Unity for Peace conference agreed to invite organisations to elect representatives to a new peace network to try and better coordinate strategies "to enable rapid and effective media responses to major events; coordinate national speaking tours; help network people working on specific aspects of campaigns and help in the sharing and cross-promotion of resources".
From Green Left Weekly, May 31, 2006.
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