Socialist Resistance

An archive of socialistresistance.org, 2002–2022

Organising for solidarity with the people of Iraq

Socialist Resistance no5  |  page 23

This is scanned newsprint, not web text. The original PDFs carried no text layer at all, so every word here was read off the page by OCR. Expect dropped opening letters, run-together words and wrong characters. There was no contents page to cut the paper up by, so the articles were found from the size of their headlines: a headline may carry its kicker, and where an article ran beside a boxed panel a few lines of the neighbour can appear. The scanned issue is the authority; this text is here so the words can be found at all.

the equipment and resources to improve the paper and develop new educational and publicity material that can reach out to a new layer of young activists.

If you like what you see in Socialist Resistance, but have not yet sent in a donation, please rush us as much as you can afford.

If you have already donated a lump sum but could give more in smaller monthly payments, why not fill in a Standing Order form below! Make all cheques payable to Resistance, and send to us at PO Box 1109 London N4 2UU While the exact course of the war in Iraq is still unclear, we know that people will need material aid, and it is likely that, for all the boasts about bringing freedom to Iraq, there will be very little freedom of political association for non-favoured organizations, or even just for ordinary people who try to join together to push for more bearable conditions.

Aid agencies are already expressing concern that if they take US or British government money they will be seen. as part of the military, that promised funds for the UN are not coming through, but that the US army intends to try to squeeze out other organisations from the aid effort (as indeed they will from the rebuilding contracts):

While at the moment the priority of the anti-war movement has to be to keep trying to stop the war, we should also be thinking about whether in the near future we should become involved in campaigns in solidarity with the peoples of Iraq to help them recover from their traumas and work towards real independence.

Doing this in practice would be difficult, but the lessons of International Workers' Aid for Bosnia might be useful, as could be the present huge size of the anti-war movement. for decent pay. men and people with disabilities.

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