The Black Radical Congress Opposes a Military Attack on the People of Iraq

The Black Radical Congress (BRC)


The Black Radical Congress Opposes a Military Attack on the People of Iraq.

Statement of the Black Radical Congress, January 2003


The BRC joins the International Call for No war on Iraq.

By the beginning of January 2003 the United States military accelerated the biggest military build up in the Persian Gulf since the Gulf War of 1991.


The Pentagon called up more than 100,000 soldiers - including their tanks and attack helicopters to the Gulf. This will be the first full deployment of a U.S. combat division in the region since the Gulf War.

Among these 100,000 soldiers were crack units from the offensive forces of the infantry, the Marines, the Navy and the air force. These soldiers joined some 4,000 troops already on the ground in Kuwait and added to the tens of thousands of U.S. personnel in various offensive bases in Qatar, Djibouti; Saudi Arabia poised to attack and invade Iraq. There is at the same time the call up of military reservists in the USA in preparation for war.

The BRC is mindful of the fact that a disproportionate number of those who are being called up to go to the frontlines are of African descent and other peoples of color.


At the present moment there is no international force to stop the military build up for war. On January 1st the Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan said that he sees no basis at present for the use of force against Iraq. The impending conflagration spells the end of the legitimacy of the United Nations.

The most important sections of the mainstream media in the USA continue to carry out psychological warfare against the citizens of the USA in order to mobilize them to support this military invasion at a time when millions want jobs, heat, health care, affordable medicine and decent education. The impending war in Iraq is supplemented by an accelerated war at home under the banner of Homeland Security. Africans in America have been the main victims of the oppression and war against the poor inside the USA. Millions of blacks are in the prisons or awaiting sentencing in this war at home. In order to intensify this war at home there are advanced plans for urban warfare to supplement Homeland Security.! The draconian measures being taken by the present government include the use of more sophisticated instruments of coercion and repression than was available at the time of the Nazis in Germany.


The Black Radical Congress unequivocally opposes military intervention in Iraq. The people of Iraq, especially the children have suffered immensely since 1991. It is estimated that over half a million children have died as a result of the sanctions imposed on the people of Iraq. The war against Iraq will create more sufferings. It is up to the people of Iraq to initiate regime change.

The BRC sees this war as one component of the escalation of the hegemonistic actions of a small section of the political leadership in the USA that maintains control over the Organs of state power. Unfortunately, other sections of the bourgeoisie have been silenced or are seeking to gain lucrative contracts from the implementation of Homeland Security. This obscene behavior on the part of these corporations is reminiscent of the relationship between major corporations in the USA and the fascist regime in Germany.

The BRC joins the youth, students, progressive women’s movement, the rank and file workers, the church and religious leaders, those in the environmental justice movement and ordinary citizens who are mobilizing against this war. The BRC recognizes that this is an unjust war and will be part of the national and international opposition to this war. The BRC calls on all sections of the African community at home and abroad to find ways to oppose this war. The BRC is calling upon all political leaders in the African community to support the youth who refuse to be called up to fight against the people of Iraq.

The National Members Congress of the BRC will be convened in June to consider ways of strengthening the work of the BRC in the peace and anti globalization movement.

The current peace movement is playing an important role in delegitimizing the false patriotism that is being orchestrated by the conservative media. This peace movement is very central to the building of a new political movement in this period. One requirement is for the larger movement to begin to grasp the important interconnections between Reparations, Peace and Justice.


Black Radical Congress

January 2003