Raise Voice Against US Imperialist War
Stand in Solidarity with the People of Iraq  

By the Forum Against Imperialist Globalisation (FAIG)

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The people’s organisations that came to be known as Forum against Imperialist Globalisation (FAIG) call on the people of India to resist the attempts of the US to wage an unjust war against Iraq, which poses a grave threat to the people of the world. We believe that all countries have the right to determine their own destiny, free from military coercion by imperialist powers. All the false reasons - pre-emption, regime change, links with Al Qaeda, having the stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction - given by the Anglo-American imperialists to declare a war on Iraq have been thoroughly exposed as mere arm-twisting tactics to militarily subjugate not only Iraq but also every country in the world.

Afghanistan to Iraq

Driven by the greed for oil, the US used the pretext of September 11 attacks to conquer Afghanistan through a war of aggression. The conquest has enabled the US imperialists to acquire control over the sources of oil in the Caspian Sea and Central Asia and supply route to the Indian Ocean through Afghanistan and Pakistan. The world is now again on the brink of a new round of full-scale US aggression against Iraq. The aim of the US imperialists is to take direct control over the oil resources of Iraq and to further tighten their control over the Middle East and further humiliate the Palestinians and Arab peoples. The US has been militarily suppressing the Palestinians through Israel.

UN Resolution 1441 is an Excuse

In the name of a UN project of disarmament of Iraq, the Anglo-American imperialists have been trying to coerce other countries to join them in the invasion of Iraq. The US wanted to use the resolution only as an excuse to invade Iraq. Iraq had no choice; it had to accept the Resolution 1441. But in accepting, it indeed drew attention of the world to the real purpose of the UK and USA in unilaterally imposing the resolution while the people in all corners of the globe want to prevent an invasion. Iraq should have insisted on excluding American and British inspectors because they could be used to plant evidence as Iraq did not have control over the vast areas in the no-fly zones illegally enforced by USA and UK. The arms inspections are still continuing even while US war preparations have virtually reached the final stage.

The purpose is to Conquest

In fact the US invasion of Iraq has never ended since it began in 1990. It appears more inevitable than ever that the US and a few allies will broaden the assault on Iraq that has had begun 12 years ago and has continued unabated since then (as of Dec. 16, the US and Britain have bombed Iraq 61 times in 2002 alone). The ostensible reason involves the belief that Iraq may be in possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). In addition, it is in violation of UN Security Council resolutions and uses torture as a tactic of control. Finally, as we are endlessly reminded, Saddam Hussein gassed "his own people," the Kurds. But these accusations cannot justify a war of aggression on Iraq.

Flimsiest Reason for Launching a Worst War

Turkey, a staunch US ally and a fellow NATO member, is also in violation of UN resolutions (353 and 354: calling for its withdrawal from Northern Cyprus), has a long record of torture, and has oppressed and slaughtered its "own people," the long-suffering Kurds. There's another Mideast nation ignoring UN resolutions, oppressing and torturing its ethnic minority, that not only possesses WMD, but has even threatened to use them: Israel. Pakistan, India, North Korea, and South Africa all possess WMD and have histories of using torture as a tactic of control. As for oppressing and killing "their own people," the blacks killed by the white government in South Africa were as much de Klerk's people as the Kurds are Hussein's. Putin also kills his ‘own people’ in Chechnya. Still the US warmongers maintain that Iraq is the sole violator of peace in the world! 

Now US talks of Occupation

The guns and bombs of the U.S. are intended to reshape power and politics in the Persian Gulf. This is openly stated by Washington: They swear there will be "regime change" in Iraq. The U.S. warmongers plan to install new rulers in Baghdad at gunpoint – to raise new forces to power, impose new policies on the economy to control production especially of oil, and decide the direction of Iraqi society and the surrounding region. Those preparing the conquest of Iraq now call it "the liberation of Iraq." Though, today the Bush administration has openly floated the idea of imposing U.S. General Tommy Franks as the new colonial governor of a conquered Iraq, the U.S. imperialists have also gathered some loyal servants and are trying to form them into a supposedly "independent" pro-U.S. government -- as they have done in Afghanistan with Karzai. After a war, the U.S. may put in "aid" -- but such aid has repeatedly proved to be a mere subsidy aiding U.S. corporate and military penetration. It means that the self-determination of the people is thwarted and suppressed, their democratic movements are targeted, their interests and highest aspirations denied. The area could become a base for the U.S. to administer its plans for that whole region -- a base for troops, for intrigues, for new threats against the Palestinian people and neighbouring countries like Iran. The stability the U.S. says they'll impose is the stability of their order and their domination.

Let’s Rise to Stop the Huge Destruction by the US War Machinery

In the impending war, the US war machine has more sharp teeth and will use more excessive force than it used in the 1992 Gulf War resulting in wanton destruction of infrastructure and horrendous civilian casualties. Thousands of innocent people in Iraq will be killed unless we fight to stop Bush's war. Everyone knows that waves of heavy attacks may come soon--targeting military sites, government ministries and palaces, and electrical facilities, while also hitting neighbourhoods, shelters, and many ordinary people.

Solidarity with Iraq and Palestine

We, the fighting people of India resolve to stand in solidarity with the people of Iraq and Palestine, recognizing that war and aggression against Iraq is but part of a US project of global domination and
subjugation. In fact, today, in the global theatrics of imperialism, the immediate ‘axis of evil’ constitutes US, Israel and India as far as the oppressed people in Asia in particular are concerned. There is a growing affinity between the Zionist fascism of Israel, Hindu communal fascism of India and American terrorism, the three aspects of the imperialist world order in the Asian continent.

Fight Back American Imperialism

The US has been bullying every third world country in the economic sphere in the name of globalisation and in the political sphere in the name of protecting democracy and human rights and in the military sphere in the name of fighting international terrorism. But we should realise that the American imperialists can easily do this as the rulers in the oppressed countries like ours obey their orders most obediently and act as their stooges. In our country the US has been secretly conducting military intelligence gathering and training in a clandestine way and is operating its FBI from our capital not only to study and prepare itself to suppress the popular upsurge against globalisation policies in our country but mainly to suppress the Nepalese anti-feudal movement against the Regency to transform their country into a democratic one. We call upon the people of different countries to fiercely fight their governments that allow U.S military bases on their territory to close them down, and not to provide air, naval, or land facilities to aid the US war.

The FAIG Resolve

The FAIG organizations declare our total opposition to war on Iraq and our resolve to continue the struggle against U.S. policies of military aggression for global domination as part and parcel of our fight against imperialist globalisation. It is urgent that the anti-war movement in India should gather momentum. Our solidarity with Iraq and Palestine is integral to the internationalist struggle against imperialist globalization.

• Build a strong anti-war movement in the country.

• Take the anti-imperialist globalisation movement to all corners of the country.

• Stand in solidarity with the people of Iraq and Palestine.

• Fight back the draconian laws like POTA.

 Long live the unity of people’s movement!

Delhi 

January 16, 2003  

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