VOICES NEWSLETTER # 48 (Sept / Oct 2006)

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Time for a change?
Three wars, one way out
Hit and Ramadi
Afghanistan: waging war
"Iraq speaks for itself"
Defending the food ration
In brief
Stop arming Israel
Resistance
Resources

Time for a change?
Despite its very real accomplishments, 3½ years into the occupation of Iraq – and with scores of Iraqis being killed on a daily basis - the UK anti-war movement needs to radically change if it is to succeed in forcing the withdrawal of British troops.

Important as present campaigns are, it is clear that, by themselves, they are not sufficient to force withdrawal. A recent poll said that 53% of the population thought the invasion ‘unjustified’ (Guardian, 25 July) - this widespread dissaffection must be turned into real pressure for withdrawal.

There is little being done to put pressure on existing MPs to support withdrawal and no organised UK counter-recruitment campaign. With the exception of a very small number of highly focused campaigns, there is almost no engagement with direct action or civil disobedience as a tool to create a climate in which it is publicly unacceptable for the UK to continue to occupy Iraq and Afghanistan.

Furthermore there are few forums (virtual or otherwise) where anti-war activists from around the UK can share their experiences of campaigning or discuss strategy and tactics.

At a broader level we should also be asking what sort of an anti-war movement we actually want, particularly as the UK’s involvement looks set to continue for many years. The Independent recently reported a senior defence source as saying, ‘[a] force of around 4,000 British troops will stay behind in Iraq for an indefinite period, even after all provinces controlled by the UK are handed over to the Baghdad government.’

Activist and author Milan Rai has suggested that we should be aiming to build ‘a movement of mutual education, and continual skill-sharing … with the ambition of building a knowledge and skills base in each and every activist, to turn each and every activist into an educator, a public speaker, a confident and capable group participant/leader’ and in which ‘strong, democratic and autonomous local groups...relate to each other [and] are the source of ideas and actions and strategic direction.’ (tinyurl.com/76a59).

Surely an attractive vision - if very far from the current reality.

Iraq Occupation Focus is holding a strategy gathering on “Ending the Occupation”, Sat 18 November in London. See here.

Three wars, one way out
At least three wars are currently taking place in Iraq: a vicious sectarian war between Shiites and Sunnis; a lower-level intra-sectarian war between various Shiite groups; and the ongoing war(s) of resistance to the occupation.

According to figures from the Iraqi Health Ministry and the Baghdad morgue, ‘July appear[s] to have been the deadliest month of the war for Iraqi civilians’ to date, with over 3,400 civilian deaths reported nationwide, including over 1,800 in the capital (NYT, 15 Aug). 85% of the bodies brought in in July had died violently, with ‘gunshot wounds, mostly in the head’ the biggest cause of violent death - a method of killing ‘generally associated with death squads that roam the capital seeking victims from the rival Muslim sect’ (AP, 9 Aug).

Moreover, contradicting earlier US claims, Health Ministry figures showed no significant decline in violent deaths in Aug (AP, 7 Sept) despite the redeployment of 8,000 US troops to Baghdad for a major security crackdown (LA Times, 30 Aug).

An abyss of violence
Meanwhile, though ‘US officers have estimated that 90 per cent of sectarian violence takes place within 30 miles of Baghdad’ (FT, 28 Aug), ‘[i]n once calm southern cities such as Basra and Karbala … fighting between Shiite militias and US-backed security forces, as well as among rival Shiite militias appears to be on the rise’ as ‘the Shiite-dominated south appears to be spiralling into an abyss of violence, fuelled largely by power struggles within the religious sect’ (WP, 17 Aug).

In Basra, nominally under British control, ‘interviews with local politicians and residents give an impression of a city in which militiamen affiliated with Islamist parties terrorise their neighbours with impunity’ and ‘bodies turn up regularly outside police stations’ (FT, 10 Aug).

800 attacks a week
Finally, the war of resistance to the occupation continues to rage. Indeed, according to one senior Defence Department official, “The insurgency has gotten worse by almost all measures, with insurgent attacks at historically high levels” (New York Times, 17 Aug).

According to an Aug Pentagon report the number of “attacks” – a category vaguely defined as “incidents reported in the Multinational Corps-Iraq Significant Activities database” – during the period 20 May – 11 Aug stood at almost 800 a week, up from just over 400 a week in the period Apr 04 -Jun 04 (tinyurl.com/ezg29). Sixty-three percent of these attacks were directed at Coalition forces. In Dec 03 there were 133 attacks a week (Mercury News, 14 Aug).

In July the number of roadside bombs planted rose to its highest monthly total so far with 2,625 explosive devices either exploded or discovered – almost twice the figure for January 06 (NYT, 17 Aug).

Blurred lines & pitched battles
The lines between these various different wars – which involve overlapping sets of actors – are at best blurred. For example, on 29 Aug, the US intervened in an intra-sectarian battle ‘between militiamen loyal to the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and local forces led by the country’s most powerful Shiite parties … dropp[ing] a 500-lb on what it called a militia position’ (Christian Science Monitor, 31 Aug).

Moreover, ‘American and British forces have stepped up operations recently against [al-Sadr’s militia, the Mahdi Army], raiding hideouts … engaging in pitched battles in the Sadr City neighbourhood of Baghdad and in the area around Basra, the southern port city’ (NYT, 12 Aug) and ‘arrest[ing] high-ranking militia leaders’ (NYT, 4 Aug).

On the one hand these raids – in which ‘dozens of Sadrists have been killed’ (FT, 29/30 Jul) - are being justified, in part, as an intervention to stem the tide of sectarian killings, many of which do appear to be being carried out by members of the Mahdi army (WP, 25 Aug).

However, the Sadrist movement - which fought two largely-defensive “uprisings” against US/UK forces in 04, and which enjoys widespread popularity among poor Shiites (see Voices 35 & 37 and JNV bfg 61: tinyurl.com/hoo24 ) – is also a long-time adversary of the occupation. If, as it has promised (AFP, 28 Aug), the US moves its current ‘security crackdown’ into the Sadrist stronghold of Sadr City, it could ignite a third anti-occupation “uprising” by the Mahdi army.

The vicious circle
The complex nature of the current violence in Iraq makes the anti-war movement’s job more difficult than in 03 and 04, when “coalition” forces were demonstrably responsible for a majority of the killing (see Voices 38 & 42)

Nonetheless as Gilbert Achcar, who teaches politics and international relations at the University of Paris-VIII, notes: “Ever since the occupation started, the situation in Iraq has steadily and relentlessly deteriorated …Iraq is caught in a vicious circle: The occupation fuels the insurgency, which stirs up the sectarian tension … which in turn is used to justify the continuing occupation” (Achcar and Chomsky, Perilous Power: The Middle East and US Foreign Policy, tinyurl.com/g5usc).

The way out
According to Achcar “[t]here is no way out of this burning circle but one: Only by announcing immediately the total and unconditional withdrawal of U.S. troops can a decisive step be taken toward putting out the fire. This would cool down the Sunni insurgency that the Association of Muslim Scholars has repeatedly pledged to call to a halt as soon as a timetable for the withdrawal of occupation troops is announced. It would dampen as well the sectarian tension, as Iraqis will then look squarely at their future and feel compelled to reach a way to coexist peacefully.

“And if ever they came to the conclusion that they needed a foreign presence for a while to help them restore order and start real reconstruction, it should definitely not be one composed of troops from countries that harbor hegemonic ambitions over Iraq, but one that is welcomed by all segments of the Iraqi people as friendly and disinterested help.”

Hit and Ramadi
'[M]ore than two years of warfare have dragged the [Iraqi city of Hit] back to the pre-industrial age’ (Washington Post, 4 Aug), while further up the Euphrates ‘[i]n the cluster of riverside homes that make up Haditha, Haqlaniyah and Parwana, US commanders estimate that about two-thirds of the population have fled their homes since the war began in March 2003’ (AP, 16 Aug).

All phone systems in Hit – an ancient city with a population of 40,000, 35 miles upriver from Ramadi - have been destroyed and the war ‘has shut down industry, so at least 50 percent of the people are jobless and a quarter live in poverty’ (WP, 4 Aug).

‘Residents complain bitterly about U.S. military roadblocks and curfews’ and ‘[m]ajor roads are routinely cut off for months, leaving some areas uninhabited except by packs of stray dogs.’ The riverfront ‘once crowded with fish restaurants, shops and homes … is now virtually abandoned, with many of its buildings destroyed.’

Nobody wants us here
US raids in the city are still frequent, and the current US commander in the area has sent at least 130 people from Hit to prison since his arrival in February. The US currently holds over 13,000 detainees in Iraq (AP, 27 Aug).

According to the Post, residents ‘blame the US military rather than insurgents for turning their town into a combat zone’ and say ‘[t]he Americans should pull out … and let them solve their own problems’ (4 Aug). Maj. Brent E. Lilly, who leads a Marine civil affairs unit in the town, agrees. “Nobody wants us here, so why are we here? That’s the big question,” he told the Post. “If we leave, all the attacks would stop, because we’d be gone.”

Shooting kids
Meanwhile, in Ramadi - where US and Iraqi forces claim to have killed at least 200 ‘insurgents’ since June alone (WP, 2 Aug) - US troops have, until recently, been shooting teenage boys allegedly ferrying explosives into the city at night, ‘fighting what [the senior US commander in Ramadi, Army Col Sean MacFarland] suggests was a losing war of attrition. “We were killing these guys – kids. We could do that forever,” he said. “Were we creating more insurgents that way?”.’

Afghanistan: waging war
“We are killing far too many people. They can’t all be Taliban” – a ‘top British military officer’ (Sunday Times, 10 Sept).

British forces in Afghanistan are ‘using up missiles, rockets, and spares at an alarming rate’ and are ‘so few on the ground in Helmand province … that they are having to call in air strikes by American B1 bombers and other aircraft on a daily basis’ (Telegraph, 28 Aug). Meanwhile the US/UK-led policy of forced poppy eradication ‘has resulted in a wave of starvation among destitute farming families across southern Afghanistan’ (Afghanistan Five Years Later, SenlisCouncil.net, Sept 06).

Though bitterly attacked by the Government as “facile”, “dangerous”, “foolish” and “part of a distorted view of the world” (Observer, 13 Aug), the letter’s claim that British foreign policy provides “ammunition to extremists who threaten us all” is in line with the views of the majority of the British public – as well as the Government’s own internal analysis.

Indeed, according to an 18-20 Aug ICM poll 72% of people believe that “government policies such as backing for action in Iraq and Afghanistan has made this country more of a target for terrorists” and only 1% that these policies have made the UK “less of a target” (tinyurl.com/r78cl).

Furthermore, this realism is in accord with the Government’s own internal analysis. Thus, in an 18 May 2004 letter to the Cabinet Secretary, the head of the Foreign Office noted that ‘the issue of British foreign policy and the perception of its negative effect on Muslims globally plays a significant role in creating a feeling of anger and impotence among especially the younger generation of British Muslims’ and that foreign policy ‘seems to be a key driver behind recruitment by extremist organisations’ (tinyurl.com/r29qr).

"Iraq speak[s] for itself”
“Martyrdom videos” found by police investigating the alleged airline plot show a man talking to the camera stating: “As you bomb, you will be bombed; as you kill, you will be killed” (Times, 30 Aug). ‘His main motivation was the foreign policy of the United States and “their accomplices, the UK and the Jews.”’

As Michael Scheuer, the former head of the CIA’s Bin Laden unit put it: “Iraq is an almost unimaginable force multiplier for Bin Laden, al-Qaida and their allies … Al-Qaida doesn’t have to do anything except let Iraq speak for itself” (Guardian, 1 Sept).

62%
In his indispensable book 7/7: The London Bombings, Islam and the Iraq War, Milan Rai writes that whilst ‘[f]or the authentic anti-war movement this question of self-interest is irrelevant … If the Government were forced to admit that British citizens are likely to go on dying in [7/7-type] atrocities for the foreseeable future – because of the occupation of Iraq – this might well tip the balance in favour of withdrawal.’

A 1-3 Sept Populus poll appears to confirm this analysis, with 62% agreeing that ‘To reduce the risk of future terrorist attacks the Government should change its foreign policy, by distancing itself from America, being more critical of Israel and declaring a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq’ (Times, 6 Sept).

Defending the food ration
The Iraqi food ration – a life-line for millions of ordinary Iraqis – is under attack. JNV’s Milan Rai puts the case for action:

The anti-sanctions movement was a movement to counter harsh economic and financial policies imposed on Iraq by international institutions at the behest of Washington and London. Once again, Iraq is suffering harsh economic policies - but imposed this time by the IMF and the World Bank rather than the UN Security Council.

One key issue is the food ration. As previous voices newsletters have noted, there has been a 25% budget cutback for the Iraqi food ration, which millions of families rely on, and items have been dropped from the food ration package. The Iraqi Government has been forced by the IMF to announce the phasing out of the universal food ration and its replacement (over four years, probably) with a cash-based system for the poorest section of the population [so-called “monetization”].

Rising prices
Targeting poses significant risks for millions of people who may be wrongly excluded (on the basis of poor data collection) or who lie just outside the ‘1 million poorest families’ target zone. Monetization, on the other hand, poses risks to those who are lucky enough to be caught by the new ‘Social Safety Net’. Food prices, like all prices in Iraq, have tripled over the last four years, and the cutting of subsidies for fuel prices is boosting the price of necessities even further.

Last November, petrol cost only 4 US cents. Now, because the IMF forced the Oil Ministry to cut its subsidies, the official price is about 67 cents and the unofficial price is $3.19. According to the New York Times (26 Aug.), the inflation rate in Iraq ‘has reached 70 percent a year, up from 32 percent last year’. Rising petrol prices have a knock-on effect on all other goods and services (tinyurl.com/hd98s).

Act now
The signs are that the IMF is backing off on the food ration for the time being. Precisely the time for those who are genuinely concerned for the Iraqi people to band together to save the food ration from being cut at the worst moment for ordinary people in Iraq, as all prices rise dramatically.

We need to reverse the policy of monetization, to ensure that targeting is focused on human need rather than budgetary savings, and to promote the agenda set out in the World Food Programme’s 2004 Food Security Survey.

Two key goals
The WFP argued that two key goals should be increasing family incomes – ‘through improved employment opportunities’ - and controlling inflation. Such measures ‘would result in enhanced food access through the market and result in improved food security.’ The WFP also calls for ‘adequate water and sanitation’ and ‘public health care’ (Sept. 04, tinyurl.com/punfu).

Sounds familiar? A lot of this is precisely the agenda of the old anti-sanctions movement, calling for a major investment in the civilian infrastructure, a reflation of the economy leading to greater employment and an enlargement of real family incomes.
The need is still there. The food ration is under threat, but it can be defended. Millions of Iraqis will be affected if monetization and ‘targeting’ of the ration go ahead. We can make a difference.

For more info contact JNV on 0845 458 9571 or visit www.j-n-v.org.

In brief
Alternatives to democracy
‘Bush administration officials are beginning to plan for the possibility that Iraq’s democratically elected government might not survive’ (New York Times,17 Aug). According to a ‘military affairs expert who received an Iraq briefing at the White House’ in July, “Senior [Bush] administration officials have acknowleged…that they are considering alternatives other than democracy.”

“Cowboy” returns to Iraq
‘ An American general blamed for aggressive and brutal tactics that helped fuel the insurgency … is to return [to Iraq] as second in command of coalition forces there’ (Sunday Telegraph, 6 Aug).

According to the Washington Post’s military correspondent, Thomas Ricks, Major Gen. Raymond Odierno, who led the US Army’s 4th Infantry Division for a year from mid-2003, ‘had a disastrous operational philosophy that valued short-term subjugation of the population more than the long-term goal of winning hearts and minds.’ Two colonels attached to the Division, ‘accused Gen Odierno of ordering his men to arrest and detain all military-age males without discrimination’ and an American intelligence officer told Ricks “I saw so many instances of abuses of civilians, intimidating civilians, our jaws dropped. They were cowboys.”

New oil law
The draft of a new law governing Iraq’s oil sector has been reviewed and commented on by the US Energy Secretary and nine major oil companies despite the fact that it has not yet been seen by the Iraqi Parliament (Greg Muttitt, Oil Pressure, 28 Aug, fpif.org/fpiftxt/3466). Iraq agreed to draft such a law in the Stand-by Agreement that it signed with the IMF last Dec (tinyurl.com/je3y2).

Last Nov a report from Platform warned that Iraq could lose up to $200bn under a US-inspired plan to hand over the development of its reserves to US and British multinationals (crudedesigns.org)

91.7% of iraqis oppose the occupation
91.7% of Iraqis either “strongly oppose” (84.5%) or “somewhat oppose” (7.2%) “the presence of coalition forces in Iraq” according to a Mar/Apr poll funded by the US National Science Foundation (Tessler, Moaddel and Inglehart, Continuity and Change in Iraqi Political Attitudes, TAARII newsletter, forthcoming). For Iraq’s Arab population the figures are even higher: 97.2% of Sunni Arabs and 89.7% of Shi’i Arabs are “strongly opposed” to such a presence.

Stop arming Israel
“From a young age every Palestinian child learns to distinguish the Apache’s sound and associate it with assassinations, destruction and blood on the street” – Shawan Jabarin, director of the Palestinian human rights organisation al-Haq (Guardian, 29 Jul).

British complicity in Israel’s most recent assault on Lebanon – helping delay a ceasefire and permitting US planes carrying weapons bound for Israel to land in Britain (JNV bfg Blair Versus Peace, 30 Jul) – was particularly blatant. That attack killed ‘some 1,000 Lebanese civilians’ and destroyed at least 15,000 houses (Amnesty International, 23 Aug), leaving many Lebanese border villages “carpeted” with deadly cluster bombs (Sunday Telegraph, 20 Aug). In its wake a serious push for a UK arms embargo on Israel stands a real chance of success.

In 2005 the UK ‘approved £22.5m worth of arms-related exports to Israel, almost twice the amount in 2004. They included components for combat helicopters, aircraft radars and air-to-surface missiles. British companies also make crucial parts for US-made Apache helicopters and display units for US F-16s’ (Guardian, 3 Aug).

A clear breach
Many, if not all, of these exports are already in clear breach of the EU Code of Conduct on Arms Exports, which prohibit the export of any equipment ‘which would provoke or prolong armed conflicts or aggravate existing tensions or conflicts in the country of final destination’ or ‘if there is a clear risk that the intended recipient would use the proposed export aggressively against another country or to assert by force a territorial claim’ (tinyurl.com/kkbsc).

In Jul Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells ‘said the British embassy in Tel Aviv “has confirmed reports that Israel is using F-16s in its incursions into Gaza and Lebanon”’ (Guardian, 29 Jul). Meanwhile ‘Apaches are alleged by human rights groups to have been used by Israel for extra judicial assassinations, missile strikes in heavily populated areas and the shelling of schools, medical facilities, refugee camps and civil society buildings.’

Public opinion, MPs and the DMA
Several factors suggest that a strong push for an arms embargo on Israel could be successful:

* An embargo probably has widespread public support. eg. In the middle of the attack on Lebanon 49% of people said that Israel was “targeting the whole Lebanese nation and not just Hezbollah” (Telegraph, 27 Jul).

* Many MPs may be susceptible to public pressure for an embargo. During the attack on Lebanon more than 100 Labour MPs signed a petition calling for an immediate ceasefire (Independent, 5 Aug) and the Liberal Democrats have already come out in favour of “suspending” arms exports to Israel (BBC, 24 Jul), as has Amnesty International (Guardian, 10 Aug).

* The arms industry itself appears to be worried about the prospect. Indeed, the Defence Manufacturers Association (DMA) has already launched a pre-emptive strike against the idea, denounce it as “a totally hollow and empty political gesture” (Independent, 20 Jul).

What are we waiting for?

Action
* A new campaign to push for an embargo on weapons sales to and from Israel (the UK spends millions of pounds each year on ‘battle-tested’ arms from Israeli companies) has been set up, backed by Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and War on Want. Contact Stop Arming Israel, 11 Goodwin Street, N4 3HQ, tel. 0207 281 0297, www.stoparmingisrael.org.

* Write to your MP and urge them to back the call for an embargo on arms sales to and from Israel (including components for weapons systems that are sent to Israel from third countries).

* Set up a campaign to focus on an arms company that’s supplying Israel. CAAT have identified companies in the following areas: London, Liverpool (F-16 components); Middlesex (Merkava tank components); Yeovil, Manchester, Fareham, Gwent, Macclesfield, Sunbury-on-Thames, Chester, Brockenhurst, Cheltenham and Annesley (Apache helicopter components). See www.stoparmingisrael.org.

Resistance
Jo Wilding film & book launch
Activist Jo Wilding – eyewitness to both the 2003 invasion and the April 2004 siege of Fallujah – will be launching her new book Don’t Shoot the Clowns: Taking a Circus to the Children of Iraq on 6 Oct (7pm, Housmans Bookshop, London N1) in an event jointly organised by voices and the New Internationalist. For more on Jo’s book see www.jowilding.net.

Jo will also be speaking at a special screening of A letter to the Prime Minister: Jo Wilding’s Diary from Iraq (71 mins) on 15 October at Curzon Soho, 99 Shaftesbury Ave, London W1D. Tickets £6.50. See www.curzoncinemas.com. A Letter... is also being screened in Reading on 21 Oct - see here.

Anti-war speaking tour
Artist Emily Johns – who has produced dozens of striking images for voices over the past 8½ years and who recently returned from a peace delegation to Iran – and activist Maya Evans – who last December became the first person to be convicted of taking part in an “unauthorised” demonstration within 1km of Parliament – are on a mini-speaking tour this October. Dates include: Stirling (9 Oct, 07951 987 422), Sherwood (10 Oct, 6.30pm, Lower Hall, The Methodist Church on the corner of Devon Drive and Mansfield Rd, Sherwood), Birmingham (11 Oct, 0121 414 3219), Falmouth (12 Oct, 01326 378 587) and London(13 Oct, 7.30pm, Bertrand Russell Room, Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1.). Emily will also be speaking in Tunbridge Wells (7 Oct) and Coventry (28 Oct, 2-5pm at the Coventry Peace House). See www.j-n-v.org or tel. 0845 458 9571 for more.

B-52 two to go on trial
Toby Olditch and Phil Pritchard – two Oxford-based activists who attempted to break into RAF Fairford and disarm a B-52 bomber at the outset of the 2003 invasion of Iraq – will be on trial in Bristol Crown Court starting on 2 October. The pair – who spent several months in jail on remand following their action – are charged with conspiring to cause criminal damage and possessing articles, including bolt cutters and glue, with intent to destroy or damage property (Guardian, 29 Jun 04).

Their trial has been set for 7 days. Please put these dates in your diary now and be there to support them! For more info see www.b52two.org.

The Raytheon nine
On 9 August nine activists from the Derry Anti-war Coalition – including veteran civil rights activist Eamonn McCann – were arrested after occupying the Londonderry offices of Raytheon and ‘throwing computer equipment and documents out of first floor windows’ (BBC, 9 Aug).

One of the biggest arms manufacturers in the world, Raytheon makes guidance systems and tail kits for the 5,000lb GBU-28 “bunker busting” bombs - at least 100 of which were delivered to Israel by the US during the height of Israel’s most recent attack on Lebanon (http://tinyurl.com/k63d3 and Observer, 30 Jul). It also makes the Patriot, Tomahawk, Cruise and Sidewinder missiles (BBC, 9 Aug).

According to Gorretti Horgan of the Derry Anti-war Coalition, the nine have been charged with Aggravated Burglary and Unlawful Assembly (Counterpunch, 14 Aug). They are now been bailed to re-appear in court on 12 October (SocialistWorker.co.uk, 7 Sept) and a petition has been launched for the charges against them to be dropped: http://tinyurl.com/z2kro.

No deportations to iraq!
On 5 Sept the UK deported 32 Iraqis to northern Iraq, despite warnings from Amnesty International that these Kurdish areas were ‘neither stable nor safe’ and that consequently ‘rejected Iraqi asylum-seekers should not be forced to return to any part of Iraq’ (Guardian 6 Sept; AI press release, 5 Sept).

According to Amnesty, ‘Serious human rights violations have been committed in Kurdish areas in northern Iraq, including by Kurdish security forces’ and ‘there is considerable fear that the ongoing conflict and the sectarian violence is gradually expanding north and could spill over to the three northern governorates of the Kurdish region.’

Please write to Home Secretary John Reid, The Home Office, 2 Marsham St, London, SW1P 4DF to urge that the Government cease all forcible deportations to Iraq. For more, contact the Coalition to Stop Deportations to Iraq: www.csdiraq.com or 07734 704742.

No More Fallujahs
28-29 Oct, London: A Weekend of Nonviolent Resistance to the Occupation of Iraq on the 2nd anniversary of the November 2004 US/UK attack on the city of Fallujah.

Events include:

* Peace journey from the UK’s military nerve centre in Northwood (nearest tube Northwood) on 28 Oct

* An “unauthorised” 24-hour peace camp in Parliament Square to demand an end to the occupation on 29 Oct (meet 12 noon, Parliament Square). The camp will begin with Maya Evans and Milan Rai reading the names of 100 Iraqis who have died as a result of the occupation - one year after their arrest for doing this in Oct 05. N.B. Under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act participation in such an “unauthorised” demonstration is a criminal offence punishable by a fine of up to £1000.

* Nonviolent Direct Action Workshops and Legal Briefings on 8th October (11am-4pm) and 28 October (4.30pm-7.30pm), Diorama, 3-7 Euston Centre, London NW1 (tube: Great Portland Street). Workshops run by Seeds for Change: www.seedsforchange.org.uk.

Accommodation will be available on request on 27 and 28 Oct. Org. by the Mass Action Group and supported by Iraq Occupation Focus, JNV and Voices UK. Contact 0845 458 2564. www.rememberfallujah.org.

Resources
A Different Kind of War: The UN Sanctions Regime in Iraq by Hans von Sponeck. (Berghahn Books, 2006). £22.95. Reviewed by Jonathan Stevenson.

A revealing insider’s account of the 13-year sanctions on Iraq by the man who resigned as UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator in 2000, this book provides a crucial historical record of the inadequacy of the humanitarian programme, and the role of compensation payments, ‘oil for food’, the no fly zones, the weapons inspectorate, and the Hussein regime in exacerbating the known impacts of the blockade. ‘Knowledge alone,’ von Sponeck writes, ‘is not enough’, and the book reads like an inquest into why the UN system failed to halt the suffering. The domination of the Security Council by Washington and London is well known – but UN diplomats, he argues, were too timid about communicating the severity of the failure. This book shows that knowledge alone may not be enough, but it still indispensable – order it for your local library today.

"No more Fallujahs” t-shirts
Printed on fairtrade cotton and featuring artwork by Emily Johns. £7 each, incl p&p.

Postcards
Copies of Voices three campaign postcards: Don’t Attack Iran – No Bases for Aggression; Support the Troops, Grant Them Asylum (about US forces seeking asylum in Canada); and End the Occupation of Iraq (featuring artwork by Emily Johns) are available free from Voices. Ideal for stalls, mailings etc…

Web-sites
Electronic Iraq and Electronic Lebanon - www.electroniciraq.net and www.electroniclebanon.net.
Regularly updated news portal drawing on a wide-range of high-quality sources.

The National Guantanamo Coalition - www.guantanamo.org.uk.
Web-site of four active UK-based campaign groups.

Democracy Now! - www.democracynow.org.
Independent US radio show, focusing on international news and current affairs. Broadcast every weekday, all shows are archived on the site and can be watched/listened to using RealPlayer (itself available free on-line).

Dahr Jamail’s Iraq Dispatches
http://dahrjamailiraq.com
Must-read reports from the US activist and journalist (mainly filed for Inter Press Service). Also available by email.

Weekly news and analysis
Watching the Warmakers - www.watchingthewarmakers.org.uk
Excellent, free “war on terror” news digest emailed out on a weekly basis by the Brighton Hands Off Forum. Formatted for printing on double-sided A4.

Paul Rogers’ weekly briefings for Open Democracy - http://tinyurl.com/oq7za
Essential analysis from a Professor at the University of Bradford’s Peace Studies Department.