tative of the Al Sadr organisation had been refused a visa by the British government.
Al Khallisi said he had come to Britain to heal the wounds that the war had opened and that the taking of hostages was a blow for peace.
Hassan Jumaa talked about the union's campaign against privatisation and for trade union rights. He said we should support the resistance but not the terror.
The most moving part of the day was hearing from the relatives of soldiers who had died in Iraq, such as Rose Gentle and Reg Keys from Britain, and Cindy Sheehan from the USA.
The power of their interventions came from their sincerity they were no "political activists" or public speakers before the tragedies that took over their lives.
Sheehan described how she had been treated by the US and UK press, who were trying to make the victims, that is the soldiers and their relatives, responsible for their deaths. The campaign of these soldiers' relatives is affecting recruitment; now virtually nil in Scotland and in serious dif ficulty in the USA were there are at least 5,000 soldiers who are AWOL avoiding going to
Tariq Ali reminded conference that every movement against colonialism has been described as terrorist and Iraq is no different, and that the purpose of the attack on civil liberties at the moment is to curb dissent. admitted that the war was a mistake, but that the US and UK troops should stay to clean the mess. "Now that really is nonsense!" he said.
Billy Hayes of the CWU underlined the importance that "unions in Britain must demonstrate their solidarity with Iraqi workers by supporting Iraqi trade unions." He argued that
«We cannot offer solidarity in the donation of funds and equipment for Iraqi unions if armed forces acting in our name, and funded by our taxes, are destroying the social basis for trade unionism to develop. Our priority must be to gel our troops out. Nothing distorts the development of a country more than foreign occupation."
The conference unanimously agreed to:
• Organise internation
lemonstrations on March 1 19 2006, the third anniversary of the war and invasion, calling for the immediate withdrawal of troops and an end to the occupation.
• Campaign for a full international public inquiry into the assault on Fallujah last year.
• Give full support to the campaigns of military families in the US, Britain and the other occupying countries.
• Develop an international coordination from this conference to plan further events.
• Campaign against the privatisation of Iraqi oil.
• Oppose any attack on Iran or Syria. • Other reports, transcript of speeches and photographs of the conference can be viewed at http://stopwar.org.uk