Italian gov´t to repress supporters of Iraqi resistance?

18/11/2003

Urgent appeal to step up solidarity with the Iraqi resistance and its int´l allies

After the attack on the Italian occupation soldiers last week in Nasseriyya, the Berlusconi government is sparking off a terrible patriotic campaign. The centre left opposition, keen to seize governmental posts itself, is joining into the hysteria. The two poles of the Americanised bi-partite system are competing on who is more subservient towards to their US masters by supporting their aggression against the Iraqi people.

Meanwhile the broad majority of Italians, who opposed the war but is in no way represented by the political system, correctly blame the government for the death of the Italian soldiers. The patriotic sentiment is only superficial and induced by the media but along with the growing resistance it is doomed to subside. The way is being prepared for a mass opposition to the Italian complicity with the Anglo-American occupation inflicting misery, poverty and terror on the Iraqi people – a people which still remembers the genocide of the embargo committed by the very same imperialist powers.

In Berlusconi´s efforts to prevent this sentiment to grow into a powerful political movement possibly bringing down his government he is attacking its most advanced forces – namely those who organise the demonstration in support of the Iraqi resistance scheduled for 13 December in Rome and who are collecting money in order to support the formation of a National Resistance and Liberation Front in Iraq.

It is not by accident that the Anglo-American corporate media like BBC, NBC and CBS are on the first line of the campaign. They recently reported that the Anti-imperialist Camp would actively support terrorists killing Italian soldiers. Senator Lucio Malan, vice president of the parliamentary fraction of Forza Italia (Berlusconi´s formation), referring to the report by BBC thus stated that "the Anti-imperialist Camp must be isolated and condemned by everybody and persecuted by the force of law". Persecution might be in preparation.

In his immediate reaction the spokesman of the Anti-imperialist Camp, Moreno Pasquinelli, said that these threats will not intimidate the movement nor stop it. On the contrary he called upon those millions and millions who opposed the war to join the mobilisation which has nothing to do with terrorism. The main terrorist power in the world are the US themselves repressing, starving and bombing any popular and democratic attempt against their empire. After the simple-minded hopes in the diplomatic efforts of the European Union have been frustrated people must and are about to understand that only the popular resistance can defeat the pre-emptive war waged by US imperialism. The European anti war and anti globalisation movement must join hand with the Iraqi resistance and develop into a conscious anti-imperialist movement.

Despite the coward retro-active justification the European regimes gave for the US aggression and the following occupation the Iraqi resistance is legitimate in the same way as the resistance against the occupying Nazi armies was. The right to self-determination against imperialism is inalienable even more as it is stipulated by the UN charter.

On this occasion the Anti-imperialist Camp re-iterates its calls to support the Iraqi resistance with 10 Euro in order to build a National Resistance and Liberation Front. The international movement has to express by this means that the Anti-imperialist Camp is not alone with its support to the Iraqi people fighting the occupation but the audible voice of a large popular sentiment in Europe and even more world-wide.

There is a good chance to defeat US imperialism in Iraq as it happened in Vietnam. Only such a crushing and humiliating defeat can stop the savage capitalist globalisation linked to the escalating war into which the US precipitated the world. Hindering the erection of the US empire means to open the door for the struggle for social justice, popular democracy and a just peace.

All together on the side of the popular Iraqi resistance to defeat US imperialism and its allies!
Occupation troops out of Iraq!
For the right to self-determination for the Iraqi people!