About 30 people attended a public forum against the war on Iraq on Monday 10th February in Footscray, to here Iraqi dissident Surma Hamid. Surma was forced to flee Iraq after her work in various movements for democratic rights, in particular the feminist movement against "honour killings", earned her the wrath of both the Saddam Hussein government and the right-wing nationalist and religious fundamentalist militias that have dominated her native Iraqi Kurdistan since the 1991 war.
"This war will only strengthen the reactionary forces in the region. They would find fertile ground for growth and recruitment. The wound inflicted on the people will be exploited by Islamic and nationalist parasites… The overthrow of the regime in Iraq is the work and the job of the people of Iraq. It is the task of a social movement to rid Iraq of this inhumane situation," she said.
She continued, "If anyone had the slightest concern for the people of Iraq, they would abolish the economic sanctions by the US and its allies. The food and medicine of millions of deprived people have been held hostage and every month thousands of children and elderly perish for lack of medicine and medical facilities. Economic sanctions against the Iraqi people is itself one of the biggest weapons of mass destruction."
The meeting also heard from Lincoln Hancock, a young activist who has
been involved in the anti-corporate, refugee rights and anti-war movements
who is standing as Socialist Alliance candidate in the Maribyrnong Council
elections. He cited the example of the Vietnam war to show that mass mobilisations
of people can stop wars.
The meeting, which included a number of people from the local Kurdish
and Turkish communities, decided to set up an ongoing local anti-war organising
group, which now meets every Tuesday at 6.30pm at the Footscray Resistance
Centre, Room 6 (upstairs), 48 Leeds St.
"While the city wide mobilisations and the student movement will be on
coal face of the anti-war struggle, it is the local actions that will
be its backbone," Lincoln Hancock said.
This group (provisionally named the Maribyrnong Anti-War Group) decided
to hold a rally in Footscray Mall on February 22 at 11am. Surma Hamid
will be among the speakers, as will Lincoln Hancock and refugee rights
activist Sylvie Leber, who is a Green candidate in the Maribyrnong elections.
The group is asking participants to bring to the rally their government
"Terrorism kit" to return to sender.
Group convenor Tony Iltis explained: "Not only are these kits part of
the paranoia-inducing propaganda that is conditioning us to accept the
war, they also encourage mistrust towards ethnic and religious minorities.
In a community as culturally diverse as ours this is particularly offensive
and dangerous. At the rally we will be calling for peace abroad and unity
and tolerance in our own community rather than war abroad and racism and
paranoia at home."
To contact the Maribyrnong Anti-War Group call Tony on 9687 0789 or 9332
8566 or Ray on 9370 1769.