1.Iraqi Resistance Report for Thursday, 1 January 2004 through Sunday, 4 January 2004. Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board the Free Arab Voice.

http://www.geocities.com/iraqiresistancesolidarity/IraqiResistanceReport.html

Thursday, 1 January 2004.

Iraqi puppet police announced that one Iraqi was killed in an Iraqi
Resistance bomb attack on New Year's morning. The blast occurred on
the side of the road between Kirkuk and as-Sulaymaniyah. Major
Khudayr Ahmad Hassun of the puppet police in Azadi, north of Kirkuk,
said that 'Abbas 'Umar Muhammad, 30, had been driving his car along
the road, but stopped by the side of the road at about 6:00am and the
bomb went off as soon as he stepped out of his car, killing him
instantly.

This route is extensively used by US occupation troops based in
Kirkuk and those on leave in the hotels of as-Sulaymaniyah controlled
by the collaborationist Kudish chauvinist Patrotic Union of
Kurdistan.

A source in the puppet so-called Iraqi civil defense force reported
its members defused a bomb planted by the side of a road frequently
used by US occupation convoys. The puppet force set up a roadblock
after its discovery.

The source said that the Iraqi Resistance planted a land mine
underneath the bomb, which was placed as a decoy so that bomb
disposal technicians, attempting to disarm the decoy, would fall
victim to the mine underneath. This is what happened in a bombing on
Friday, according to the source.

A source in the Iraqi puppet police, Yaser Karim, said that one Iraq
was injured by shrapnel from an exploding bomb detonated by US troops
near Baaqubah, in northeast Iraq. The device, he said, was
constructed from two artillery shells packed in TNT and wired to a
remote-control detonation device, and planted by a roadside
frequently passed by US occupation convoys.

In a separate incident, the puppet so-called civil defense forces
reported that they had disarmed another bomb in the same area near
Baaqubah.

A spokesman for the US occupation forces said that an American
military helicopter made a forced landing in northern Iraq after
what, he said, appeared to be a mechanical failure. Several soldiers
aboard the helicopter were injured. The spokesman for the 101st
Airborne division said that the helicopter came down at about 12:30
GMT, but tried to minimize any suspicion that the craft had been
brought down by hostile fire. The spokesman said that the landing
was "largely precautionary" despite the fact that injuries resulted,
and said that it was "probably the result of mechanical failure."
Asked if the craft could have been downed by Iraqi Resistance fire,
he replied that "there is nothing to indicate that at the present
time."

Iraqi Resistance bombs damaged electric supply towers in the area of
Kirkuk after noon on New Year's day, causing an electric power outage
in the areas adjacent to the city, according to an official in the
city's electrical establishment. Yaljin 'Adel said that a bomb
exploded on the road between al-Huwayjah and Bayji (west of Kirkuk),
totally destroying three electric power towers. 'Adel said that the
towers, located 75km west of Kirkuk, linked the oil refinery at Bayji
to the electric grid in al-Fat-hah and az-Zab in the same region.

Iraqi puppet police announced on Thursday that they had discovered
the body of the dean of a college in Mosul University the apparent
victim of fatal gunshots. On Wednesday, unknown persons had
kidnapped the man whom the press describes as a "former member of the
Baath Party."

Haytham 'Abdallah, an officer in the puppet police said that the body
of Dr. 'Abd al-Jabbar Mustafa, dean of the college of political
science, on Thursday in the Kafa'at neighborhood in the center of the
city. The officer said that the professor, who did not have a high
post in the Baath Party, was kidnapped by unknown persons from his
home in al-Muthanna neighborhood. 'Abdallah said that an
investigation with the purpose of finding the professor's killers had
been opened, indicating that investigatons of several similar crimes
was already underway.

Kirkuk has been the scene of continued ethnic and sectarian clashes,
following the shootings by collaborationist Kurdish chauvinist
Peshmergah militiamen of Arab and Turkoman demonstrators on
Wednesday, 31December 2003. Puppet police collaborating with the US
occupation reported that a Kurd had been killed in retaliation for
the Wednesday shootings. After dark, there have been battles between
armed groups of Kurds, on one side, and Arabs and Turkomans on the
others have been.

Sources: al-Arab al-Yawm daily newspaper, Amman, Jordan, Friday, 2
January 2004.

Friday, 2 January 2004.

The Iraqi Resistance brought down a US occupation helicopter on
Friday, killing one American occupation soldier and wounding another
according to US admissions. In Baghdad, US army Brigadier General
Mark Kimmitt, after speaking to the 82nd Airborne Division, said
enemy fire likely brought down the copter. The OH-58 Kiowa Warrior
crashed near al-Fallujah.

"We were in a joint patrol with US troops to remove land mines and I
saw a helicopter hovering in the sky which was hit by a missile,"
puppet policeman Muhammad Abd al-'Aziz told Reuters. "It was split
into two and went down in flames."

Eyewitnesses described how the craft was blasted in two in mid-air,
showering helicopter parts on the streets and houses over a wide area
of al-Fallujah.

After that Resistance victory, US occupation forces closed off the
area of the attack and then swept through the city of al-Fallujah,
blocking off streets and raiding and searching shops and homes as
helicopters hovered overhead.

General Kimmit said that as soon as the helicopter was downed, five
individuals wearing masks on which the word "press" written, showed
up at the crash site in a blue Mercedes and opened fire with rocket-
propelled grenades at the helicopter wreckage, then left the area.
Kimmit claimed that the US occupation troops pursued the attackers
and captured four of them.

This claim by the American general aroused some confusion, however,
since Reuters news agency reported that its team at the scene was
fired at by US aggressor troops and three of their journalists were
later detained by the military occupation forces.

The Reuters team was led by Iraqi cameraman Salem 'Uraybi, who was
filming from a checkpoint using a camera on a tripod and was wearing
a flak jacket clearly marked "press," the agency said. "We were
fired on and we drove away at high speed," driver 'Ala' Nuri said. He
said a second car driven by another Iraqi journalist had been fired
upon in the same incident. One of the cars remained in al-Fallujah,
Reuters said. Kimmitt said attackers in two cars fled the scene and
that soldiers doing a sweep through the town, with helicopters
circling overhead, tracked down one of the cars and arrested
four "enemy personnel."

In another helicopter incident, an American spokesman acknowledged
that one US soldier was injured when another US helicopter was forced
down near the Bayji oil refinery. The US spokesman said that neither
the pilot nor the crew, a total of seven persons, were injured.

Friday, a truck traveling toward Baghdad International Airport
flipped on its side, killing one US soldier and injuring six others,
the US military occupation declared. The cause was under
investigation. American occupation forces frequently try to hide
losses due to Resistance attacks by claiming that the American
occupation troops died in "traffic accidents."

The Iraqi Resistance attacked a passing American military convoy
causing an oil tanker to erupt in flames near a US military
occupation base on the road to the western town of ar-Ramadi on
Friday. Witnesses told Associated Press Television News that a rebel
rocket or roadside bomb hit the convoy. Eyewitnesses said that some
of the Americans in the convoy were wounded in the attack.

The 5,000-gallon oil tanker erupted in flames and the US occupation
authorities later reported that it was in a convoy attacked with a
roadside bomb, a grenade and small arms fire. Three American soldiers
suffered burns and shrapnel wounds, the American officials claimed.

Al-Jazeera TV's correspondent in Iraq reported that one Iraqi citizen
was killed and another wounded by American gunfire after the
Resistance attack as the US invaders, as is their habit, opened fire
indiscriminately at a civilian car, after the attack in ar-Ramadi.

About 500 demonstrators gathered outside the Baghdad mosque of Ibn
Taymiyah, (formerly known as Masjid Umm at-Tubul) to condemn the
American occupation troops' desecration of the Muslim place of
worship on Thursday. The protestors demanded the release of about 34
people whom the invader forces arrested during their raid on the
mosque, including the representative of the Salafi trend in the
recently established Consultative Council of the Sunnis of Iraq,
Mahdi as-Samida'i. The demonstrators also chanted slogans against
the US occupiers.

Shaykh 'Abd as-Sattar al-Jannabi, deputy chairman of the Supreme
Iraqi Board for Propagation, Guidance, and Fatwas, denied that the
Americans found any weapons or bombs during their search of the
mosque. In an interview with al-Jazeera Shaykh al-Jannabi accused
the Americans of ransacking the mosque and wrecking mosque property.

US occupation forces justified their raid on the grounds that it was
based on information that they had been given by Iraqis who claimed
that there were weapons in the building, including sticks of dynamite
and explosives. US Brigadier General Mark Kimmit claimed that the US
occupation forces found such weapons but denied that US invader
troops tore up copies of the Qur'an or ransacked the mosque contents.

US aggressor troops in Samarra' blew up the house of Talib Saleh, who
is accused of orchestrating attacks against US the occupation,
witnesses said. They said the American troops arrested Saleh's wife
and brother and said they would not be released until Saleh
surrenders. The American military had no immediate comment.

US forces also claimed to have arrested four persons including one
whom they described as "foreign" on the suspicion that they were
helping fighters get into Iraq to join the Resistance struggle. The
arrests reportedly took place in ar-Rabtah in al-Anbar Province.

US invaders also reported capturing ten Iraqi Resistance fighters
whom they described as "terrorists" in the city of Baaqubah.

Meanwhile tension continues high in the city of Kirkuk after American
occupation forces announced that they had found the bodies of two
Kurds who had been stabbed to death. Meanwhile the deputy commander
of the city's puppet police said that one Arab was killed and two
others wounded by the puppet "security forces" south of Kirkuk where,
he claimed, armed Arab and Turkoman groups were gathering to attack
Kurdish chauvinist targets. Representatives of the three communities
had earlier met together to try to reduce tension. Meanwhile the
Turkoman Islamic Movement rejected what it called "feverish attempts
and plans being carried on to draw the Turkomans into bi-ethnic or
tri-ethnic federalisms." In a statement, the movement called on the
puppet so-called Interim Governing Council to respect the rights of
Turkomans and to recognize them in the framework of a unified,
parliamentary, constitutional, democratic Iraq.

Sources: al-Arab al-Yawm daily newspaper, Amman, Jordan, Saturday, 3
January 2004.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
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http://www.aljazeera.net/news/arabic/2004/1/1-2-13.htm
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040103/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq&cid=540&ncid=716


Saturday, 3 January 2004.

The American occupation forces in Iraq have apparently come to a
point where they no longer even make gestures towards respecting
international norms in their treatment of the Iraqi civilians
subjected to their occupation. The rising power of the Iraqi
Resistance has thrown them off balance and they are now resorting to
brutalizing the unarmed civilian population – women and children –
not distinguishing between them and armed fighters.

On Saturday US aggressor forces in Iraq committed two heinous war
crimes. In Tikrit the invaders killed four Iraqi civilians,
including a woman and child, and injured one other. The Iraqis were
riding in a civilian car and tried to pass a column of US occupation
forces when the aggressor troops opened fire on the car, spraying it
with 27 bullets, according to the chief of the puppet police in the
city.

Tikrit's puppet police chief, Usamah Adham 'Abd al-Ghaffar said "the
car, a gray Chevrolet Caprice, was hit by 27 bullets that entered the
windshield and exited the back window killing four persons, including
a woman and nine-year-old child. The car swerved off the road after
being struck by the gunfire," explaining that "the car was trying to
pass the military column."

In a separate American aggressor war crime, this one in the area of
al-Buwayhat, near al-Hadithah, west of Baghdad, the invaders fired a
tank shell into a private house killing four Iraqi civilians and
wounding five others, including women and children, all of them
belonging to one family. The massacre occurred in the course of
American house-to-house raids and searches in the area.

Local people

Otherwise, the aggressor forces admitted Saturday that three American
invaders were killed and five others wounded in two attacks by the
Iraqi Resistance.

One Iraqi Resistance attack consisted of a mortar assault on an
American occupation base north of the village of Balad, and the other
was a bombing in Baghdad.

In the first of those two deadly attacks, Iraqi Resistance fighters
fired mortar shells at a US occupation base in central Iraq, killing
one US soldier and wounding two others, according to a US military
occupation spokesman on Saturday.

The mortar shells struck a base of the American occupation army's 4th
Infantry Division near Balad, about 50 miles northwest of Baghdad on
Friday night, Sergeant Robert Cargie said. One of the shells exploded
near a trailer used as a bedroom by troops, and a soldier standing in
its doorway was killed. Two other soldiers were struck by shrapnel
and taken to a combat support hospital, where they were in stable
condition, Cargie said. Occupation forces set up road blocks in the
area and began searching cars after the attack.

Iraqi Resistance fighters also attacked a train with rocket-propelled
grenades in the west of Baghdad, blowing the train off the tracks and
crippling it.

A US military occupation statement on Saturday disclosed that
Resistance fighters attacked a train with anti-tank weapons (RPGs) in
the area of west Baghdad, blowing the train off the tracks. The 82nd
Airborne Division declared that "a train was on its way to al-
Habbaniyah" home of a major base of the occupation forces. Forces of
the US aggressor 1st Infantry Division arrived on the scene of the
Resistance attack after the fighters had dispersed and Iraqi puppet
police secured the area for their American masters.

In the suburbs of Baaqubah on Saturday, an American occupation patrol
came under rocket-propelled grenade attack by the Iraqi Resistance.
In response the American aggressors opened fire on a group of their
own Iraqi puppet police. The incident occurred about 400 meters from
the puppet police station in the town of Bahraz, 4km south of
Baaqubah. Puppet police Lieutenant Muhammad Ibrahim, a member of the
puppet police in the village of Bahraz, 4km south of Baaqubah, who
was injured in the incident, said that the five injured puppet
policemen were taken to hospital with American gunshot wounds.
Puppet police Lieutenant Ibrahim said that the American occupation
troops, tore down the barbed wire surrounding the police station and
gathered there and then began to fire indiscriminately in all
directions, wounding five puppet policemen. The incident was
reported on Sunday by the AFP.

In Kirkuk, the Iraqi puppet police announced that two Sunni Arabs and
a Turkoman were wounded on Saturday in two armed incidents in the
city. The puppet police said that two Sunni Arabs were wounded by
gunfire when they tried to launch a lightly armed attack a puppet
police patrol in a south Kirkuk neighborhood. Captain Sirzad Rif'at
Qader told Agence France Presse (AFP) that two Sunni Arab Iraqis were
wounded in their attempted attack on the puppet police in the
neighborhood of al-'Urubah. He said that the two Resistance fighers
fired at the puppet police patrol which then returned fire. He said
that the wounded men were taken to the General Hospital in the center
of town. He ascribed the attack to the desire of the Arab population
of Tikrit for revenge after Kurdish chauvinist collaborators opened
fire on a crowd of Arabs and Turkomans on Wednesday, killing seven.

In the second incident in Kirkuk, an officer in the local puppet
police named Khattab 'Abdallah 'Aref said that 'Awad Muhammad was
wounded in a shooting incident as he stood guard outside the
headquarters of the Turkoman National Party. 'Aref said that "unknown
persons" fired at the headquarters, wounding Muhammad.

'Aref also reported that "unknown persons" threw a hand grenade at
the home of Sabah Zaydan, an Arab member of the Provincial Council,
but Zaydan was unhurt.

Meanwhile the occupation forces continued to bombard the area of ad-
Durah at the southern edge of Baghdad with tank fire, heavy weapons,
and aerial bombs on the grounds that they are attacking areas that
they suspect are Resistance fighter positions. Observers say that
the occupation forces have resorted to these highly destructive
weapons in order to impose their aggressor version of "security,"
while at the same time, the use of these weapons is a reflection of
the inability of the invaders actually to impose their will on the
capital or the country. US spokesman claimed that the area was
sparsely populated, and that the intense bombardments were in
retaliation for the successful downing by Iraqi Resistance fighters
on Friday of a US helicopter in which at least one US occupation
soldier was killed.

The US military spokesman said the shelling of ad-Durah neighborhood
was part of an offensive dubbed Operation Iron Grip. Residents said
it appeared US aggressor fire was targeting fields in the
neighborhood.

A captain in the Iraqi puppet police reported that US occupation
forces had discovered two bombs in the area of Baaqubah and disarmed
them Saturday morning.

Meanwhile, high ranking occupation military sources disclosed that
dozens of Bulgarian soldiers who were slated to be deployed to Iraq
as part of the occupation forces have refused to go, in the aftermath
of the killing of five of their countrymen in a recent martyrdom
attack.

The Chief of Staff of the Bulgarian Army, General Nikolai Kolev said
that about 25 or 30 soldiers of the 2nd Bulgarian Division have
refused to leave for Iraq. Hitherto, all the Bulgarian soldiers who
went to Iraq were said to have been volunteers. The troops who have
refused to deploy to Iraq will be required to refund the costs of
their training and medical examinations, Kolev said.



Sources: al-Arab al-Yawm daily newspaper, Amman, Jordan, Sunday, 4
January 2004. Al-Arab al-Yawm daily newspaper, Amman, Jordan,
Monday, 5 January 2004.
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Sunday, 4 January 2004.

An armed battle between Iraqi Resistance fighters in Tikrit on Sunday
left one American aggressor wounded and three Iraqi Resistance
fighters martyred. A spokesman for the American occupation forces
said that the battle erupted between Iraqi Resistance fighters and
the American invaders after the Resistance fighters set up an ambush
for the US aggressor troops.

In Balad, 75km north of Baghdad, US aggressor troops reportedly
opened fire on two Iraqi Resistance fighters who had shot at the
occupation troops. According to the American occupation account, the
Resistance fighters died as martyrs. Eleven persons were detained
and 30 AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifles were seized in the course of
that battle, the American sources claimed.

In Mistal, 30km east of Tikrit, one Iraqi was killed by the American
occupation forces, who suspected him of supplying Resistance fighters
with weapons. The Iraqi patriot approached the American aggressors
carrying a Kalashnikov, and the Americans shot him dead on the spot,
according to the invader statement. Five other individuals were
captured in the operation.

A former colonel in the Iraqi army who had been pursued by the
American occupation forces was captured in Kirkuk on Saturday,
according to an American aggressor statement.

In Mosul, northern Iraq, two Iraqis died, apparently as martyrs, and
a Jordanian was injured on Saturday in a roadside bombing, according
to a report by the Iraqi puppet police. Puppet police Lieutenant
Samir Najm al-'Azzawi told Agence France Presse (AFP) that the two
Iraqis died and the 25-year-old Jordanian, whose name was 'Izz ad-Din
Ibrahim, was wounded in a blast in their Brazilian-made, German label
car - a type of car used as taxi cabs. The explosion occurred in al-
Ansar neighborhood in the east of the city. Al-'Azzawi said that the
occupation authorities were interrogating the injured Jordanian, who
had been taken to hospital, to learn more of the details of the
case. The puppet police spokesman indicated that he believed that
the explosion was the result of the detonation of materials being
carried inside the car.

Meanwhile the British newspaper, The Independent on Sunday, published
an article based on a British internal investigation that revealed
that British forces beat an Iraqi prisoner to death in September.
The article also disclosed that the British investigation admitted to
seven other cases of the torture of Iraqi detainees by the British
occupation forces in Iraq. The British occupation forces have a
reputation for being much less brutal and more civil with their
prisoners than are the American aggressors, and the fact that similar
investigations have never apparently been undertaken within the
American occupation military would tend to confirm their brutal
reputation, and arouse the suspicion that American treatment of
prisoners would be qualitatively worse than that revealed in the
British newspaper report.

The Independent on Sunday disclosed that Baha' Musa died as a result
of strangulation during his detention, according to medical records
published by the British military occupation. The article, written
by well-known British journalist Robert Fisk, went on to say that
after Musa's death, British authorities launched an investigation but
no charges were ever filed against the two British troops charged in
the case and they were released.

The article can be read at:
http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news1/fisk10.html

Iraqi puppet police in Kirkuk reported that American invader forces
arrested five Iraqi Arab Sunnis on the grounds that they were sowing
ethnic tension and attempting to attack the local puppet police.
Puppet police Colonel Khattab 'Abdallah 'Aref told the AFP that the
Sunni Arabs were arrested in al-Wasiti neighborhood and the
celebration square in the south of the city of Kirkuk.


Sources: al-Arab al-Yawm daily newspaper, Amman, Jordan, Monday, 5
January 2004.
http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news1/fisk10.html

2.Newsletter From the International League of People's Struggle, formed by Comrade Jose Maria Sison, former head of the New People's Army of the Philippines (PDF)

http://www.geocities.com/iraqiresistancesolidarity/ilps.pdf
100,000 people marched through the streets of Washington,
D.C. on Oct. 25 in the largest anti-war protest since
George W. Bush’s May 1 speech on the U.S.S. Lincoln
aircraft carrier where he proclaimed “Mission Accomplished.”
The demonstration was co-sponsored by the
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism)
and United for Peace and Justice. The demonstration
continued to grow throughout the day, reaching its peak
only around 2:30 p.m., when the last busses arrived in the
area of the Washington Monument grounds. By the time
the front of the march reached the Justice Department the
last demonstrators were only leaving the assembly area.
The march stretched more than 20 city blocks filling them
curb to curb including Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington's
eight lane boulevard.
More than 145 cities participated in organizing transportation,
bringing busses and car caravans to the demonstration.
March organizers said that the dramatic increase
in the turnout, compared to the first demonstration against
the occupation of Iraq on April 12 (estimated by the police
at 30,000) is evidence that a growing number of people in
the U.S. believe that the Bush administration’s rationales
TWO YEARS AFTER 9/11:
US IMPERIALISM IN A QUICKSAND
By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
General Consultant
International League of Peoples' Struggle
11 September 2003
By unleashing wars of aggression against Afghanistan
and Iraq and using weapons of mass destruction, the US has
committed far more monstrous acts of terrorism than those of
September 11, 2001 and has gained the condemnation of the
broad masses of the people of the world.
US military forces have massacred tens of thousands of
Afghani and Iraqi civilians and destroyed the social infrastructure,
including schools, hospitals, water and power systems,
office buildings and so on. The US has used the most
lethal weapons of mass destruction, including various types
of bombs and ammunition tipped with depleted uranium. These
kill civilians in large numbers immediately and long after hostilities.
November 2003
continued on p.2
continued on p.2
2
for the war and occupation have been exposed as lies.
The Washington demonstration was also the largest
mass mobilization in opposition to the Patriot Act, which
was signed into law two years ago this weekend, and
the protestors marched to both the White House and
the Justice Department. A sister action in San Francisco
drew 20,000 people into the streets demanding an
end to the occupation of Iraq and calling for troops to
be brought home now. #
US Imperialism and Terrorism
There is clear evidence that intelligence agencies of
the US and some governments friendly to the US had
advance knowledge of the terrorist plot leading to 9/11.
At least five of the 19 hijackers came under surveillance
by US intelligence agents. But no effective counteractions
were taken to foil the terrorist plot.
There is also clear evidence that long before 9/11 a
cabal of “neo-conservatives” had launched the Project
for a New American Century and had agitated for an
opportunity for the US to use overwhelming military
force, demonstrate the “unchallengeable” superiority
of US power and gain control over the strategic resources
of the world. Their neo-conservative pipedream
is to spread “democracy” and “free market” under Pax
Americana.
Top officials and covert operatives of the US Central
Intelligence Agency have long collaborated with
Osama bin Laden and his followers since the anti-Soviet
campaigns of the 1980s. In fact, some of the 9/11
hijackers had pilot training in US air bases. The Bush
and bin Laden families are close friends and co-investors
in the Carlyle Group.
Filipinos are familiar with US instigation of terrorist
groups and activities. The US Central Intelligence
Agency was responsible for recruiting some Moros for
jihad against Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the l980s
and for forming the Abu Sayyaf terrorist gang in 1992.
The CIA agent Michael Terrence Meiring and General
Angelo Reyes have been implicated in terrorist bombings
in Mindanao in recent years.
The US has used 9/11, like Hitler used the burning
of the Reichstag, as the pretext for proclaiming a “global
war on terrorism”, for launching wars of aggression
and for whipping up repression on a global scale. It has
used the “terrorist” label to demonize countries asserting
national independence, national liberation movements
and progressive leaders.
High Material Rewards for the US
The material rewards for the US in pursuing a phoney
war on terrorism have been high. With the conquest
of Afghanistan, the US has tightened its grip
over sources of oil and gas in Central Asia and Caspian
Sea. It can build the pipelines from Central Asia to the
Indian Ocean via Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The US is discouraging the construction of pipelines from
Russia and Central Asia to China. It is tightening its encirclement
of both Russia and China even as the regimes in these large
countries are still friendly and pliant to US monopoly interests. It
is driven by imperialist greed to stay on in Afghanistan and in
the regions of Central and South Asia.
From its conquest of Iraq, the US has gotten far bigger material
rewards than from that of Afghanistan. It has seized the
second largest oil reserves in the world and has gained direct
control over the entire OPEC more than ever before. The US
dollar remains secure as the currency of oil transactions.
The US has long nurtured the plan to occupy Iraq and reshape
the entire Middle East politically and economically under
US hegemony. The US military bases in Iraq are now at the heart
of the entire region. The Palestinian and Arab people are being
told to accept the US-made “road map” and other dictates of the
US and the Israeli Zionists.
The US arrogantly demands that Syria and Iran submit completely
to US hegemony or else suffer the fate of Iraq. US strategists
calculate that one way or the other they can soon take full
control over Iran and Syria. They are also threatening the feudal
oligarchies of Saudi Arabia and the emirates with loss of their
feudal rights if they do not yield further to US economic and
military demands.
US Imperialism in a Quicksand
So far, Iraq is the biggest prize that the US has gained under
the pretext of warring on terrorism. The reason is clear why the
US cannot walk away from Iraq so easily even if more and more
US troops are killed and injured. The US cannot abandon the
oilfields and all the reconstruction contracts that the US companies
have snatched up. Thus, it has veritably placed itself in a
quicksand.
Just as the US is hell-bent on occupying Iraq indefinitely, the
Iraqi people are determined to wage a people’s war for national
liberation against the US and its foreign and local puppets. It is
now the turn of the Iraqi people to use to their offensive advantage
rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, mines, improvised bombs,
mortars and the like.
It is the turn of the US to hold ground, secure fixed structures
and have so many of its troops on the defensive. Such US high
tech weapons as cruise missiles, airplanes and long columns of
armor, which were effective in the blitzkrieg invasion of Iraq, are
An Iraqi man
detained for
shouting slogans
praising Saddam
Hussein refuses
to sit down when
ordered by a U.S.
Army soldier in
central Baghdad
October 15, 2003.
The sign at rear
reads in Arabic,
‘We will win’.
...from p.1
...from p.1
continued on p.10
3
We, the undersigned, are
happy to announce the official
establishment of the International
Campaign against US Overseas
Military Bases under the initiative
of the International League of People’s
Struggle, as the main accomplishment
of the international anti-bases conference
held on 20-22 September 2003 in
Chania, Greece.
The delegates attending the conference
included representatives from Denmark,
England, Greece, Italy, Philippines,
Turkey and Scotland. Delegates from
Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bolivia,
Fiji, Indonesia, Japan, Nepal, Netherlands,
Thailand and the US were unable
to attend for various reasons. In addition
there were many massages of solidarity
and support to the conference
from, various anti-imperialist, peace, human
rights groups and national liberation
movements.
The conference mandated the members
of the initiative committee to act as
the coordinating committee to oversee
the implementation of planned activities
of the campaign reach out to more organizations
and forces and prepare the
holding of a future conference to facilitate
greater and broader participation.
It is the hope of the conference to build
a powerful worldwide movement to oust
US overseas military bases throughout
the world.
The conference affirmed that the
peoples struggle to throw out the US
military bases from all countries in the
world has become especially important
under the current world conditions. The
wild aggressiveness of US imperialists
for world domination, the frequent military
interventions in various countries
Communiqué
No to US Bases,
No to Occupation!
International Campaign Against US Overseas Military
Bases Launched in Chania, Greece
and regions that are of strategic importance
to US interests and the recent invasion
and occupation of Iraq, more than
ever bring to the attention the issue of
the struggle against US military bases.
It is now evident to all the peoples
across the world that these military
bases are used as instruments to facilitate
the imperialist powers in their unjust
wars to occupy countries and regions
and to impose complete imperialist
domination. The US uses these military
bases to make the hosting countries
economically, politically and militarily
dependent, lead them, through the
local bourgeoisie to greater subjugation
and blackmails them to act as “willing”
participants in the US plans. After September
11th the US has intensified its
military presence and installed new
military bases within regions considered
as strategic, such as Eastern Europe,
the Balkans, Central and Western
Asia (Middle East).
It is under such anti-peoples and
reactionary developments and the imminent
dangers poised against humanity
by the US belligerence, which
the need for common action and
struggle of the peoples to throw out
US military bases from every country
and region becomes an urgent task.
The struggle against the military bases
is a basic element of the anti-imperialist
struggle and an important factor in
the struggle to defeat US imperialism
and can bring hope and victory to the
peoples’ struggles everywhere.
The installation of US military
bases and their military presence in
the hosting countries create the reactionary
political conditions that
strengthen the rule of the most reactionary
and tyrannical regimes in order
to continue to implement antipeople,
anti-worker policies. From this
point of view, the struggle against the
military bases is at the same a struggle
in support of the national and social
liberation struggles across the world.
The massive anti-war wave of opposition
that was recently displayed
in every corner of the planet against
the US shows the anger of the peoples
worldwide and their will to fight
against imperialism and war. The great
wish of the peoples is to live in peace
and brotherhood, without the horror
of war, without exploiters and oppressors.
continued next page
ILPS Newsletter November 2003
4
tAddressing the Palestinian people’s plight, the
conference condemns the US backed Zionist state
and the occupation of Palestine and expresses its
support and solidarity with the Palestinian people’s
just struggle and resistance against the occupation
forces. The Conference condemns the genocidal
policy of the Bush-Sharon criminal gang against the
Palestinian people.
The conference resolutely condemns the criminal
and illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq by
the US and British imperialist forces and calls upon
peoples everywhere to expose the crimes and atrocities
of the US and British occupation forces against
the Iraqi people. Further, the conference expresses
its support for the resistance of the Iraqi people to
liberate their land from the US-British imperialist occupation.
The conference calls on the American people,
especially the working people and families of servicemen,
to resist the hypocritical “war on terror”
policy of the Bush regime and demand the immediate
withdrawal of all US military personnel from foreign
soil. Furthermore, the conference calls on all-peace
loving people to oppose and bring pressure upon
their own governments not to send troops and stop
collaboration with the US in its wars of aggression
and occupation.
The conference calls on all democratic, anti-imperialist
and anti-war organizations, groups and activists
to intensify their struggle against the presence
of US overseas military bases and to join the
international anti-bases campaign to bring about an
effective internationally coordinated and sustained
campaign against US bases and other forms of US
military presence overseas.
International Participants:
Philippines: Philippine Peace Center , Cordillera
Peoples’ Alliance; Turkey: ILPS Turkish Section,
Leather Workers’ Union In Tuzla/Istanbul; Gernmany:
ATIK; ILPS: ILPS Secretariat, ILPS General Secretary; England:
Vice-chair of the CND (Campaign of Nuclear Disarmament) - Helen
John; Scotland: Scottish CND (also Sc.Soc.Party) - Brian Qail;
Denmark United Peoples - Ole Larsen; Italy: Campo Antiimperialista
Greek Participants:
Akrotiri Committee Against the Expansion of the Bases, Antiwar
Anti-imperialist Initiative of Thessaloniki, Anti-war Committees
of Epirus, Anti-war Anti-imperialist Committee of Karditsa,
Peace Committee of Chania, Labor Center of Chania, Social Security
Foundation Pensioners’ Union, Teachers Union of Primary and
Infant School of Chania, Teachers Union of Secondary Education
of Chania, Greek Social Forum, Greek-Kurdish Friendship Association,
Doctors Association of Chania, Communist Party of Greece
(marxist-leninist), League of the Left of the Movements and of
Ecolology, Communist Organization of Greece
Messages of Solidarity:
Bangladesh: BAFLF, NGWF, YOUTH Aproach For Development
& Cooperation; Belgium: For Mother Earth; Italy: Bastaguerra;
New Zealand: ABC Antibases Campaign; England: Fairford Peace
Watch, Campaign Of The Accountability Of American Bases; USA:
National Lawyer’s Guild/Military Law Task Force; Australia Australian
Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition; Fiji Islands: PCRC; Thailand:
Compatriot Network Group, Non-Violence Center International
Net; Japan: ICOM (Intern Communication Center); Nepal:
World Peoples’ Resistance Movement, Nepal Trade Union Federation,
Anti-Imperialist Revolutionary Forum; Netherlands: Organization
For Peace Solidarity Right And Justice; Bolivia Accion
Andina; Indonesia: National Students Front (FMN); India: AIPRF,
MR2004.
For more information please contact:
International Campaign Against US Overseas Military Bases.
tel. +30 210 3303639
fax. +30 210 3815597
e-mail: antibases03@yahoo.gr or info@ilps2001.com
5
ILPS and Other Progressive Organizations Launch MR 2004 Against
Imperialist Globalization and War Parallel to the World Social Forum
ILPS Newsletter November 2003
The International League of
Peoples’ Struggle together
with other democratic and
anti-imperialist organizations is holding
a counter-forum to coincide with
the World Social Forum to be held
on January 16-21, 2004 in Mumbai,
India. This counter-forum is Mumbai
Resistance 2004 or MR2004:
“Against Imperialism and War”.
The so-called globalization has
become exposed as a big swindle.
The imperialist countries are the only
dubious winners; while the underdeveloped
countries have sunk deeper
into the morass of poverty and backwardness.
It could not be otherwise.
The real purpose of the economic
prescriptions under the banner of
“free market globalization” was to
open up the markets and natural resources
of underdeveloped countries
to the plunder of the imperialist economic
giants. No technology transfer
to develop self-reliant economies
in underdeveloped countries has
occurred. In fact, industries in the
so-called “emergent economies”
have caved in to unfair competition.
Local agriculture in many underdeveloped
countries have been ruined
by trade liberalization and the dumping
of products from the US and Europe.
Loans given to the economically
backward countries were only
meant to finance imports from the
imperialist countries or pay for outstanding
debt.
Having failed to solve the ever
worsening crisis of the world capitalist
system through this “free market
globalization”, the US is resorting
to militarization to revive the US
economy from its doldrums and grab
economic territory at the expense of
its imperialist rivals. Its wars of aggression
in Afghanistan and Iraq
have aroused massive opposition
from the people of the world and intensified
the contradictions among
the imperialist countries.
MR-2004 is intended to gather organizations
in India and from around the
world who are genuinely opposed to
imperialist plunder of the world’s resources
and the wars of aggression that
the imperialist countries led by the US
wage to grab resource-rich territory and
impose their will on other sovereign nations.
The MR-2004 is a four-day international
event, scheduled for January 17-
20, 2004. It is independent of and will
run parallel to the World Social Forum
(WSF) in Mumbai.
It is part of the process of building a
strong worldwide anti-imperialist movement
going beyond the limits of WSF
towards organised resistance.
MR 2004 has a clear and unambiguous
anti-imperialist focus. Through
sharing experiences and analysing imperialist
strategies, it aims to develop a
perspective that will take the movement
forward, and unite all struggling forces,
irrespective of the forms of struggle they
may choose, to confront and ultimately
defeat imperialism.
MR 2004 stands for a concretely defined
alternative socio-economic structure
built on the basis of self-reliance
and a socialist perspective.
MR 2004 will hold a two-day seminar
and a series of workshops on issues
that affect the lives of the people, a day
of cultural resistance on January 19th
and a mass rally on January 20th.
We call on all those in favour of a
militant and sustained struggle against
imperialism and imperialist wars to join
us on these days of mutual sharing and
solidarity.
For more information, go to the
MR2004 website: http://
www.mumbairesistance.org.
Nearly 100 organisations from
different parts of India and other
countries have come together to
organize the ‘Mumbai Resistance
2004 against Imperialist
Globalisation and War’, an anti-imperialist
conference to be held between
January 17-20, 2004 at
Mumbai. The event will consist of
a two day seminar, a day of cultural
resistance and a massive antiimperialist
protest march on 20th
January , which will culminate as a
public protest meet at American
Consulate.
The main Theme of the rally will
be against American Occupation
of Iraq. It will be held parallel to the
World Social Forum (WSF) Mumbai
programme.
Details of the perspective and
the broad outlines of the
programme were finalised at a two
day all India meeting held at
Mumbai on November 8 and 9,2003
which was attended by over 100 delegates
representing about 50 of the
participating organizations.
The constituents of the event
include several struggling people’s
organizations at the international,
all-India, state and local levels representing
different sections of society.
Around 100 organizations have signed up for MR2004
6
t
work, which is coordinating the parallel
activities in Cancun, is Antonio
Tujan of IBON Foundation.
Rafael Mariano, chairperson of
the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan
(BAYAN) and Kilusang Magbubukid
ng Pilipinas (KMP), is a guest speaker
of Via Campesina, a Mexican-based
international network of peasant organizations.
Joan Carling of the Cordillera
People’s Alliance (CPA) has been invited
by the International Farmers
and Indigenous Peoples Forum to
give a situationer on the Philippines,
while Ferdie Gaite of the Confederation
for the Unity, Recognition and
Advancement of Government Employees
(COURAGE) has been invited to
speak on trade union internationalism.
This writer was invited to speak on
the Philippine experience on transnational
corporations, trade and corruption.
Around 15 other Filipino activists arrived
here, representing labor, farmers
groups and various NGOs.
They joined around 10,000 protesters
who tried to march to the WTO convention
site but were blocked eight kilometers
away by 10-foot steel barricades and
a phalanx of riot police.
Another march was scheduled on the
13th, coinciding with anti-WTO protests
in at least 22 other countries, including
the Philippines. #
Filipino activists hold
up banners of Bayan
and the International
League of Peoples'
Struggle at anti-WTO
march in Cancun,
Mexico.
Filipino activists join protests against WTO in Cancun
by Teddy Casino
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan
Among the thousands who
jammed the main road leading
to the venue of the World
Trade Organization’s 5th ministerial conference
yesterday were Filipino activists
who flew in from across the globe
just to take part in the anti-globalization
protests.
The Filipinos, coming mostly from
non-governmental and people’s organizations,
also served as resource persons
and facilitators in a range of parallel
activities sponsored by various local
and international NGO networks.
At least 78 different forums, assemblies,
protest rallies and cultural events
had been planned from September 7-14
by groups critical of the WTO and the
governments that support its agreements.
Some 20,000 people were expected
to attend these gatherings.
For the past two decades, many international
NGO networks and social
movements have been relying on Filipino
activists to get the job done. Aside
from being fluent in English, Filipinos
are known in the NGO world for their
rich experience in organizing, campaign
and networking owing to the country’s
vibrant people’s movement since the
late 1960s.
For example, among the organizers
of the Our World is Not for Sale net7
ILPS Newsletter November 2003
The International Association of
People’s Lawyers (IAPL) held
its Second Congress in
Istanbul, Turkey from 7-9 November
2003. The theme of the Congress is
“The Task of Lawyers and Jurists of
the People in the Time of ‘Terrorism’
and Resistance”. Twenty-six (26) human
rights/people’s lawyers and law
students attended the 2nd Congress
as delegates representing countries in
Asia, Latin America, Middle East and
Europe.
Delegations from lawyers offices
and organizations from Afghanistan,
Belgium, India, the Netherlands, the
Philippines and Turkey attended as
members while the delegations from
Brazil, the United Kingdom and Germany
attended upon invitation by the
Board of Directors. Lawyers from
Nepal, were unable to send a delegation
due to compelling reasons, and instead
sent a message of solidarity.
The International League of
Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) and the Alliance
for the Advancement of People’s
Rights (Karapatan-Philippines) also
sent their solidarity greetings.
The 2nd Congress opened with a
minute of silence to pay tribute to lawyers
and legal workers who had sacrificed
their lives in the struggle for human
rights. Delegates from India, the
Philippines and Belgium were elected
to the presidium.
P.A. Sebastian, of India, delivered
the Chairman’s Report. He presented
the current world situation and expounded
on the role of lawyers under
such milieu. The Secretariat and Treasurer
also presented their respective
reports. Papers on Europe, Latin
America, Middle East and Asia on the
theme of the conference were presented
to the assembly.
The delegates then presented reports
on human rights situations in
their respective countries. The following
observations are notable: Although
US imperialism is perceived as
being stronger than ever, it faces an
ever growing and intensifying class
struggle and people’s resistance. To
crush this resistance, the United States
and other imperialist countries used the
events of September 11 to enact repressive
laws and measures and have influenced
or pressured other governments
to do the same. These measures are
ostensibly meant to target terrorism but
in fact target legitimate expression of
democratic rights and quell national liberation
and social movements. Thus,
existing human rights and international
humanitarian conventions and instruments
are rendered meaningless. In the
face of the intensified struggle of the
people, a big responsibility is placed
on the shoulders of people’s lawyers,
law students and legal workers and the
IAPL in particular is called upon to be
ever more militant and to respond accordingly.
In relation to this, the presenters put
forward the following proposals: Belgium
proposed that an exchange program
among the offices of the IAPL
members be undertaken as well as participation
in the European Conference
in February 2004 to oppose the passage
of an anti-terrorist bill; India proposed
the sending of a fact finding team to
Andhra Pradesh to investigate human
rights violations in Andhra Pradesh; the
United Kingdom proposed to liaise with
the Greek Bar Association which has
launched a complaint against Prime
Minister Tony Blair of the UK before
the International Criminal Court, similar
to what lawyer Michael Mansfield Q.C.
proposes to file in the UK; the Philippines
supported the proposal of Belgium
as a concrete step in strengthening
international cooperation and support
for anti-imperialist initiatives
around the world.
Brazil and the UK formally submitted
their applications to join the IAPL,
which was accepted by the Board.
The Congress passed resolutions
on human rights issues in their various
countries including condemn1ng the
continuation of lawlessness and widespread
violation of human rights in Afghanistan,
the persecution of people’s
lawyers in Brazil, particularly of Ermogenes
Jacinto de Souza (lawyer of the League of
Poor Peasants of Rondonia), the attacks
on the legal democratic movement in the
Philippines, the continued terror listing
and persecution of Prof. Jose Maria Sison
and other progressive individuals and
groups, calling for justice for peasants’
lawyer Gabriel Sales Pimenta of Brazil and
supporting the hunger strike of human
rights lawyer Nadia Nasravi of Tunisia.
The Congress also agreed to undertake
aggressive expansion work, promote
the IAPL publication “Dissent”, initiate
an international war crimes tribunal
against US aggression, undertake a factfinding
mission in India in January 2004,
participate in the human rights workshop
of the ILPS Second International Assembly
in November 2004 and in other activities.
Elected as new Members of the Board
of Directors are Hakan Karakus of Turkey
as President; Edre Olalia of the Philippines
as Vice President; Gabrielle Machado of
Brazil as Secretary General; Dundar
Gurses of the Netherlands as Treasurer;
Rateb Ahmed of Afghanistan as Auditor;
and Raf Jespers of Belgium and Rajindar
Claire of the U.K. as the other members.
P.A. Sebastian of India was elected Honorary
Chairperson.
There were short speeches by two
prominent guests, namely: former Chairman
of the Istanbul Bar Association, Professor
Y. Sayman and forensic doctor of
the Turkish Medical Association, Professor
Sebnem Korur Fincanci. #
2ND Congress of the International Association of People’s
Lawyers (IAPL) Held in Istanbul
The IAPL is a participating organization
of ILPS.- Editor
8
Protests Greet George W. Bush in Asia Tour
South Korea Indonesia Australia
Protesters in the Philippines burn 100 US flags
The burning Bush
A visiting US Pres. George W. Bush is burned, exorcized
and whacked in Asia
By Rita Baua
Secretary-General, ILPS-Philippines
On his blitzkrieg trip to several Asian countries last
month, US President George W. Bush’s was hounded by
popular protests at every stop.
Bush attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference
(APEC) meeting in Thailand and managed to hop like a
kangaroo to the Philippines, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia
and Japan, trying to court greater commitments for
the US-led occupation of Iraq and renewing America’s
push for bilateral trade agreements.
Bush’s visit came at the heels of the almost daily
killings of US soldiers in Iraq and the World Trade
Organization’s (WTO’s) failed ministerial conference in
Cancun, where developing countries rejected the US and
EU trade agenda.
First in the list of his Asian tour was Japan, which he
visited on October 17. In a meeting with Prime Minister
Koizumi, Bush asked his junior partner in Asia to send
1,000 Japanese troops to Iraq and contribute to the
country’s war and reconstruction fund.
The Japanese people declared October 17 as a day of
protest. Among the numerous anti-war groups that organized
the protests was the Asia-Wide Campaign (AWC)
which has been conducting educational and political activities
for the past 10 years against US-Japan imperialism
against the peoples of Asia.
Next in his itinerary was the Philippines on October
18, where he was warmly met by Pres. Gloria Macapagal-
Arroyo amidst the protective barrier of 10,000 police and
military elements deployed in the National Capital Region.
Despite the tight security, one of the highlights of his
trip, which was his speech before the joint sessions of
Congress, was delayed by an hour due to Bayan’s big
rally which had partially blocked the road leading to Congress.
Bush’s entourage eventually made the trip from the
presidential palace to Congress but not without passing
through Bayan’s highly agitated and spirited protesters,
some of whom burned an effigy of the American and
Philippine presidents as Bush’s car drove by.
On Oct. 19, Bush arrived in Thailand where he was
met with protests in two regions –Bangkok, where the
lavish APEC conference was held, and Changmai, home to numerous
peoples’ organizations and NGOs.
An estimated 1,000 peasants, workers, students and their professors
marched in the streets of Bangkok to protest the arrival of a “war
criminal” and “the evil one in APEC.”
“APEC means more poverty for the farmers and workers in this
country… It is being manipulated by a superpower for its security
against the so-called terrorists, instead of food or health security of
the people in Asia” warned the Thai activists.
In nearby Changmai, around 300 members of various rural peoples’
organizations and NGOs placed a photograph of Bush in a pot amidst
black magic mantra chants, then tossed the picture into the Ping river.
The Thai farmers and their support groups rallied against the agricultural
policies of the US government.
“This is a traditional northern Thai ceremony meant to keep Bush’s
spirit down on the river bed so that he could not come and exploit our
natural resources or suppress our farming brothers with his superior
influence,” a peasant leader from the Northern Farmers Alliance said.
In Australia, where Bush proceeded on Oct 20, he was once again
met with a militant and noisy protest by thousands of anti-war activists,
some of whom tried to push their way towards Parliament, where
Bush also addressed the country’s lawmakers.
Bush was “whacked” by the protesters. A huge stage backdrop
depicted a cowboy Bush holding a shotgun, his mouth pursed, revealing
a twisted tongue.
“Don’t be Bush Whacked! Give George the Welcome He Deserves,”
read flyers that had the same image. A placard read, “Bush,
Rumsfeld, Rice – Make a Toxic Meal.”
Protesters also criticized Australian Prime Minister John Howard
for being Bush’s “puppet” in that part of the Pacific. Like his master,
Howard is actively promoting the US pre-emptive war doctrine, even
once threatening Philippine protesters with it. #
9
ILPS Newsletter November 2003
Forty-five out of forty-seven Founding
Member-organizations, 45 Observermass
organizations and 53 local and foreign
guests, and 33 organizers, staff
members and volunteers, comprised the
Founding Assembly of the Philippine
Chapter of the International League of
Peoples’ Struggle which was held August
1, 2002. A total of 220 people attended
said event.
Held at the Environmental Education
Center of Miriam College, Quezon City,
the Founding Assembly carried the
theme, Rally the Filipino to the anti-imperialist
struggle! Unite with the peoples
of the world to defeat US-led wars of
aggression and intervention!
The establishment of the ILPS Philippine
Chapter came after a series of organizational
meetings held among the
representatives of majority of the founding
member-organizations that attended
the First International Assembly of the
ILPS in Zutphen, Netherlands, including
ILPS Chairperson Crispin Beltran
and Philippine-based members of the
I n t e r n a t i o n a l C o o r d i n a t i n g
Committee(ICC), namely, Rep. Liza Maza,
Rafael Mariano, and Cherry Clemente.
Among the major decisions and
resolutions passed in the plenary session
were the following:
1. the two-year program from August
2002 to September 2004, with emphasis
on organizing the broadest ranks of the
people against imperialism and reaction,
taking the intiatives in organizing international
conferences on the 18 concerns
of the ILPS, bringing the ILPS issues
close to the masses through the media
and other forms of propaganda, and
strengthening anti-imperialist struggles
especially in Asia
2. the declaration of unity, with focus
on the current struggle to stop US
armed intervention and aggression
against the Filipino people by working
for the removal of US troops currently
deployed in the three major islands of
the country
3. the approval of the nomination of
15 Patrons of the League to the ICC in
their next meeting based on their eminent
status in their respective fields of
expertise of advocacy and on their outstanding
track record as anti-imperialists
and democrats
4. the approval of resolutions on Imperialist
Globalization, Against US Intervention
and Armed Aggression in the
Philippines, and to Launch a Campaign
against the US “War on Terror”
5. the approval of resolutions calling
on: the immediate and unconditional
release of Memik Horuz, editor of the
Turkish paper Ozgur Gelecek and Vice-
Chairperson of the ILPS, and Dr.
Darshan Pal of the All India People’s
Resistance and a member of the ICC
6. the approval of resolutions supporting
the struggles of the people of
Iraq against US armed aggression, and
that of the Palestinian people against
US-Israeli current war of occupation and
genocide
7. the approval of the resolution stating
the willingness of the newly
founded ILPS Philippines to host the
ILPS’ Second International Assembly.
The following were elected officers
by the National Coordinating Council
after their election by the Founding
Assembly:
* Chairperson - Danilo Ramos of the
Kilusang Magbubukid ng
Pilipinas(Peasant Movement in the Philippines)
* Vice-Chairperson - Dr. Carolina
Araullo of the Bagong Alyansang
Makabayan (BAYAN, New Patriotic Alliance)
* Secretary General - Rita Baua of
BAYAN
* Deputy Secretary General - Norma
Binas, of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (May
First Movement)
* Treasurer - Dr. Joseph Carabeo,
Health Alliance for Democracy(HEAD)
ILPS Chairperson Beltran gave the
keynote address. He said that from the
point of US military strategists, the Philippines
is a “frontline state in the war
on terrorism…(and) that (the US) urgently
needs “air defense and naval
asset “… To reestablish deterrence visà-
vis China.”
Chairperson Beltran continued,
“With the loss of their bases in the Philippines
in 1991, US strategists considered
it as a puncture in their strategic
parameter to contain potential enemies
in Asia and Eurasia and the forfeiture of
vital sea lanes to guard their economic interests.”
It was for this reason, Beltran
added, that George Bush considers the
Philippines as the “new frontline in the
war against international terrorism.”
In his message of solidarity to the
Founding Assembly, Professor Jose Maria
Sison, General Consultant of the ILPS,
noted that “You are the first in the world
to form a national chapter of the ILPS. Your
signal role reflects the strength of the national
democratic movement in the Philippines.”
He said that the ILPS is urgently
needed in these times when US imperialism
and all its allies are terrorizing the
whole world and “subjecting the people
to the worst forms of exploitation and oppression.”
Professor Sison urged the members of
the ILPS Philippine Chapter to “bring together
all the anti-imperialist and progressive
forces to the broad united front and
be ready to go into broader alliance in order
to mobilize greater numbers of people
and wage more effective struggles against
their adversaries.”
The Founding Assembly was also attended
by several foreigners majority of
whom were participants to the International
Solidarity Mission(ISM) which had
just concluded its successful fact-finding
mission to Mindanao where US military
troops have been deployed.
The ILPS General Secretary, Arman
Riazi, who was invited by the organizers
(Philippine Committee) to come to the
Philppines, was unable to attend. His message
was read on his behalf by Cherry
Clemente, Deputy Secretary General of the
ILPS.
In his congratulatory message, he
stated: “The Philippines chapter of the
ILPS promises to be one of the most fruitful
and hard working sections of the ILPS
that will work in a determined and planned
way to advance the aims of our organization.
I am certain that the lessons learned
from this live experience will help the development
and establishment of chapters
in other countries. It is in this context that
the establishment of the Philippines chapter
finds most importance and must be the
cause for celebration for all progressive
and anti-imperialist forces throughout the
world.” #
First National Chapter of ILPS Established
10
no longer as effective in holding ground and fixed positions.
The US troops are often like sitting ducks in a
shooting gallery or they are in the most risky blind patrols
amidst a hostile population.
As soon as 500 or 1000 US troops are killed in Iraq,
there will certainly be a powerful demand from the American
people for the return home of the US military forces.
By that time the American people shall have become
fed up with the mounting casualties, military expenditures
rising from the level of USD 4 billion per month
and the sick state of the US economy. In April this year
USD 79 billion was appropriated for the military aggression.
Now, Bush is asking for another USD 87 billion.
Multilaterize the Costs and Monopolize
the Spoils
More and more people in the US are disgusted that
American lives are sacrificed and tax exemptions and
public money are being used in the interest of US big
business. The tide has started to rise against the Bush
regime and will rise faster as the US stagnates with
“jobless growth” and preparations for the 2004 US elections
heat up. Thus, the Bush regime is now proposing
to “multilateralize” the casualties and other costs of
occupation while the US continues to monopolize the
spoils of war.
The US can accelerate the passing of administrative
duties from the Coalition Provisional Authority to
the puppet Governing Council. But it does not do so
because it does not completely trust its current Iraqi
puppets. It is using the time to burden the Iraqi state oil
companies with US loans and to prepare the
privatization of the oil assets of Iraq in favor of BP
Amoco and other US oil companies. It is also preempting
the oil income with all kinds of onerous contracts
with Halliburton, Bechtel and other US companie

LONG LIVE PEOPLE'S WAR!!!

Anyone want to take bets on how long this website is gonna stay up?

http://www.geocities.com/iraqiresistancesolidarity/


Please feel free to tell Yahoo/Geocities exactly how much you love this website:

http://add.yahoo.com/fast/help/us/geo/cgi_abuse



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I let Yahoo know that these scum are promoting the deaths of US military members in Iraq.

Damn stupid Communists.

They're so stupid, they don't even know they lost.

They're even stupider than Kucinich supporters...and that's saying a lot.

Have I mentioned lately how stupid they are?

nonanarchist, who thinks Communists are stupid.

See nonanarchist, indymedia can be a useful tool.

We should send LA-IMC a thank-you note for allowing us to use their website for patriotic deeds, like reporting communist websites to their internet hosts and such.

Thanks Ihttp://la.indymedia.org/process/disclaimer.php
© 2000-2003 Los Angeles Independent Media Center. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by the Los Angeles Independent Media Center. Disclaimer | PrivacyMC!

I'd like to thank IMC, the unwitting (or is it...?) tool of Communism for helping to defeat Communism.

Thanks, IMC!

nonanarchist

© 2000-2003 Los Angeles Independent Media Center. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by the Los Angeles Independent Media Center.

There.

That's better. Far more accurate now.

nonanarchist


© 2000-2003 Los Angeles Independent Media Center. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by the Los Angeles Independent Media Center.

Much better than NA's.


http://la.indymedia.org/process/disclaimer.php
© 2000-2003 Los Angeles Independent Media Center. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by the Los Angeles Independent Media Center. Disclaimer | Privacy

VERY accurate now.


nonanarchist


2000-2003 Los Angeles Independent Media Center. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by the Los Angeles Independent Media Center. Disclaimer | Privacy