by Freedom Socialist Party, U.S. and Australia

Victory to the Iraqi resistance against military and economic occupation

The Freedom Socialist Party`s delegation to the World Social Forum unreservedly supports the call for an international conference in Europe to build support for the Iraqi people`s resistance to occupation. We are joined in this by a representative of Radical Women, our associate organization. In addition, we together urge the participants of the World Social Forum to endorse and help organize worldwide antiwar actions on March 19 and 20.

The naked truth is that U.S. corporations and their arrogant servants in government are not bound by laws or decency to do anything that does not serve their interests. Entire cities in Iraq have been ravaged and hundreds of thousands of people killed and wounded. The U.S. intended to turn over the national wealth of Iraq to companies such as Halliburton, Bechtel, and Chevron-Texaco. But the brave and determined Iraqi resistance and worldwide denunciation are obstructing that predatory plan.

Despite the claims of imperialist propaganda, the resistance in Iraq is far broader than the Saddam loyalists and religious fundamentalists who terrorize and kill civilians and women. Iraqi resistance includes those who despised Saddam`s regime and those who want a secular, not a religious, state. It encompasses Sunnis and Shiites such as the residents of Najaf and Falluja, who crossed traditional divisions to help each other survive the sieges of the two cities. It contains protesting workers like the railroad workers who refused to deliver supplies to U.S. troops destroying Falluja. It includes women`s groups, some of them openly feminist like the Organization for Women`s Freedom in Iraq, which staunchly oppose Islamic fundamentalists, run shelters and organize demonstrations for the unemployed. It includes both pacifists and those who firmly believe in armed self-defense. It comprises soldiers who refused to fight against their own people in Falluja, and Moslem scholars who call for a boycott of the upcoming sham election.

All of these forces, and more, make up the Iraqi resistance. The World Social Forum belongs on their side. If the U.S. empire can be defeated in Iraq, it will be far more difficult for it to invade other countries in the Americas or anywhere else.