JUDGE CHEATS, FORCED TO STEP DOWN

Chianciano Conference in Italy By the Free Traq Committee

A first balance sheet of the Chianciano conference by the Free Iraq Committees Italy

March 20 National Day of Action

SDS March 20 National Day of Action:
Thousands of students walk out, take to streets

By Josh Sykes

“Stop the war, yes we can! SDS is back again!” This was a popular chant heard around the country as students in high schools and colleges walked out of classes, held rallies, marches, teach-ins and other creative actions in response to the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) call for national coordinated student actions on March 20, the fourth anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq War. The call was put out by SDS groups that met at the School of the Americas protest last November, where 100 students from 20 campuses voted unanimously to make March 20 a national day of student action against the war. Those 20 schools quickly became 83, as colleges and high schools from the Northeast to the Midwest, from West Coast to the South, signed on to the call.

The call for action read, “We, students and young people here in the U.S., support the right of the Iraqi people to self-determination. We refuse to accept this new strategy to ‘expand the military,’ and reject any means the government may use to make these new troops materialize - whether through the implementation of a draft or the continued use of manipulative and deceptive recruitment techniques. We refuse to be subtle in our outcry against this war, we refuse to do nothing and be silent while people are killed in our name for profit for the rich and we refuse to be sent overseas in a war for oil.”

Kati Ketz of the University of North Carolina -Asheville SDS, one of the lead organizers for the national March 20 day of action, said, “It’s incredibly inspiring to see students taking up this call to action and organizing on a local level. Students are becoming united and organized across the country against the war, and we’re really going to see a new student movement emerge out of these actions.”

Veterans and Their Families Speak Out

	UNC-Chapel Hill students block traffic during their march on March 20

SDS students at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa chanted, “What do we want? Troops Out! When do want it? Now!” as they rallied and marched. Corbin Martin, a veteran of the Iraq war who fought in the battle of An Nasiriyah said, “The American people, in 2006, made it clear that they want our troops out of Iraq, with their vote, yet President Bush will not listen. Instead President Bush has increased the number of troops and continues to do so. This is unacceptable. This is more than a failed policy; this is injustice.”

Martin said that his experiences in Iraq led him to oppose the war. People in the audience wept as Martin told them that, “After the battle of An Nasiriyah, my unit occupied a small farm community south of Baghdad. I learned to speak a little Arabic and had become relatively proficient with my translating book, so I was in charge of handling civilians that needed to come through our position. One day, an old Arabic woman drove up to our position. She was crying and walked right up to me speaking very fast. It took some time, but I finally realized what she was saying. She said that a helicopter had shot missiles at her town and her grandson was injured during the attack. I looked in the back of her car and saw the little boy sitting there. I walked over to the car with the boy’s grandmother. I still have nightmares about what I saw. One of the little boy’s arms and one of his legs were gone. All that remained were bloody stubs, wrapped in dirty rags. I ran over to my Staff Sergeant and told him about the boy and his grandmother. He told me to send them away, that the medical supplies were for us, not them. I am ashamed to say that I followed that order. I sent them away. I don’t know if that boy got help, but I pray every night that he did.”

In Rock Hill, South Carolina, students from the Winthrop University Socialist Student Union signed onto the call and led a rally of 100 students. Summer Lipford spoke about her son, Steven Sirko, who had been a medic in Iraq for exactly four months when he was killed in 2005 at the age of 20. Courtney Hunt, one of the organizers at Winthrop, said, “I underestimated the Winthrop student body. They aren’t as apathetic as I thought. It shows the students are looking for an outlet like this, and I want to provide it for them.”

In New Brunswick, New Jersey, Rutgers Against the War led a walkout and rally of 400 students “My son was a Rutgers graduate,” said Sue Niederer, speaking of her son, Ceth Dvorin, who died in Iraq. “My son went here. My son paid the ultimate sacrifice. He was 24 years old and he had just been married. And the recruiters were on this campus and all the other campuses around and they got him by their lies, deceit and deception.” During the march, protesters blocked traffic on southbound Route 18.

High Schools Join the Walkout

Numerous high schools came out to oppose the war on this historic day of action. In South Jersey, Cherry Hill High School East students held a rally to oppose the war. “Why are we spending billons of dollars on a war that doesn’t matter?” asked Lai Wo, 17, a Cherry Hill student. Over 300 high school students at Maria Carrillo walked out of classes in Santa Rosa, California, in one of the largest of the high school walkouts.

With chants of “No blood for oil - U.S. off Iraqi soil!” students from the University of North Carolina-Asheville SDS walked out and marched downtown, where they were joined by dozens of high school students who had walked out of Asheville High. “We’re letting people know that we don’t believe in this,” said Carla Michelle Moore, an Asheville High senior. “I don’t want to watch people go home in body bags.” Charla Schlueter, one of the organizers of the UNCA SDS walkout said, “Any great change that this country has seen, whether it has been in the workplace or in ending unjust wars, it has been achieved by the people taking to the streets and demanding it, not by the government suddenly realizing its own benevolent nature. Student movements have often been at the core of these changes.”

Many Raleigh, North Carolina high schools came out for March 20 to join with demonstrating students from North Carolina State University, including Enloe, Southeast Raleigh, Cary, Green Hope and Raleigh Charter High Schools.

Struggle Builds on the University Campuses

Many major universities from around the country participated in the day of action as the wave of protests swept every corner of the country. SDSers from Brown University in Rhode Island staged a die-in in downtown Providence in front of Textron Inc., a corporation contracted to manufacture helicopters, armored vehicles and munitions. Harvard University students held a candlelight vigil and read the names of Iraqi and American casualties. 500 students marched at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

At New York University, students held a rally called ‘Red Tuesday’ where students dressed in red to symbolize the human cost of the war held up giant banners reading “658,000,” representing both the Iraqi and U.S. casualties of the war.

In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, UNC-Chapel Hill SDS organized hundreds of students to walk out of classes and march through the streets. SDS members marched alongside the Black Student Movement and Student Action with Workers as they chanted antiwar slogans such as “Walk out! Resist! Carolina, raise your fist!” and blocked traffic. “The dead are our age,” said Tara Ilsley. “They’re in their 20s. What are we doing now? The war isn’t accomplishing anything. In my opinion, it’s become another Vietnam.” One sign at the protest read, “ACC Champs against the occupation.”

	University of Minnesota students march at protest organized by the U of M Anti-War Organizing League (AWOL)

At the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, over 300 people came out, including clerical workers from the campus, community members and students. One clerical worker voiced solidarity with the growing student movement, saying, “If workers and students work together the sky is the limit!” Other speakers talked about the importance of ‘surge’ in the student movement - a reference to Bush’s plan for a ‘surge’ of 21,500 more troops to Iraq - noting the importance of escalating the movement in response to the escalation of the war. Protesters took to the streets, occupying a busy intersection for 20 minutes. They then took their energy to the campus, marching through, chanting, “Money for schools, not for war! Hands off Iraq!” and “Who is the terrorist? Bush is the terrorist!”

In Chicago, Students for Social Justice at University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) led hundreds of students in the largest protest on campus since the start of the war. Sussan Navabi, an organizer from UIC, reported on the new student movement. When she said, “Let’s hear it for the students that walked out of classes today to protest this war,” the crowd roared its support. At the rally, Bill Ayers, a leader of SDS in the 1960s spoke to the assembled crowd. Ayers encouraged the current generation of student activists to see the impact they are having, telling them, “Students today are inspired by what we did in the 1960s, but then feel they can’t compare. But the largest anti-war rally I ever attended in Chicago was in March 2003 when the invasion of Iraq occurred.” Nearby Wright College organized the first ever anti-war rally on their campus, with 30 students. Two Iraqi women students spoke, calling for troops out now. Students from both schools joined thousands of others marching in downtown Chicago.

Build the Student Movement - Build SDS!

A great deal of the momentum for the March 20 day of action was built by the 27 schools, mainly on the West Coast, who held student strikes and walkouts on Feb. 15. Momentum is building, and as the war drags on into its fifth year we are seeing a new wave of student activism emerge. A national student movement is a necessary weapon against Bush and the right wing. Building the newly emerging Students for a Democratic Society is a major component to building a strong anti-war movement.

Palestine: Zionist Court Delays Trial

Zionist Court Delays Trial…
General Secretary of the PFLP Refuses to Stand Before the Judge and Reaffirms: "It is the occupation that must be put on trial."

Comrade Ahmad Saadat presented, during the trial that took place, Jan. 14 in Ofar (Occupied Palestine), a political statement in which he reaffirmed his refusal to judge the Palestinian resistance and its combatants and said: “It is the occupation that must be put on trial.”

The following is a complete text of his court statement:

	Ahmad Saadat, imprisoned PFLP leader

This trial cannot be separated from the process of the historical struggle in Palestine that continues today between the Zionist Movement and the Palestinian people, a struggle that centers on Palestinian land, history, civilization, culture and identity. Therefore, any attempt to overlook this reality as we deal with the repercussions of the conflict would be an arbitrary attempt against facts and reason. An arbitrary judgment by the arrogant oppressors, those that try to subdue their Palestinian counterparts by using the systems of occupation that control the land in said conflict.

And if the function of any judicial apparatus is to obtain justice, then any honest, legal and ethical practice should allow arbitration by an independent authority and by laws that concur with international legality. And, international legality and its legislative organism [the United Nations], along with the whole of resolutions adopted by that body, did not legalize your occupation; it pressed to put an end to its status and to eliminate its consequences. Also, when it recognized Israel as a state, the introduction of the resolution of recognition established, as a condition, the return of the Palestinian refugees that were forced into exile. To this day, this condition has not been fulfilled; in addition, the conventions passed by the UN endorse the right of our people to resist the occupation, as a means to obtain national independence and to practice its right to self-determination.

As for your judicial apparatus, which is where this court comes from: it is one of the instruments of the occupation whose function is to give the cover of legal legitimacy to the crimes of the occupation, in addition to consecrating its systems and allowing the imposition of these systems on our people through force.

This judicial apparatus also supports the administration of this occupation - which is the worst form of state-organized terrorism - as if you were in a permanent state of self-defense. The legitimate resistance of our people is seen as if it were terrorism that must be combated and liquidated and judgment is placed upon those that practice or support it. And in the face of this contradiction between two logics, there would have to be a conviction.

I do not find myself obligated to submit to you the pages of international law nor those of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in order to describe the situation, since a witness already exists among you, one who is a leader of the Labor Party that founded your state and who has already served as witness many years ago. This leader described the exceptional international laws legislated by the British occupation in 1945 as “worse than Nazi laws” and added: “It is true that the Nazis have committed crimes; nonetheless, they did not come to legislate for these crimes.” Seeing as your court, like the list of accusations, is based on said laws and places the occupation and the particular accusers as the issuers of the conviction, perhaps indeed this is not a conviction?

Based on what has already been said, I consider your judgment against the combatants of our people as a crime and as a prolongation of the further crimes committed against the sons and daughters of our people, including the expropriation of their lands, the confiscation of their freedom and the assassinations of their children, women, elderly and political leadership.

Also crimes are the judgments against their fighters and leaders, like the assassinations of Abu Ali Mustafa, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin and Yasser Arafat; and the detentions of ministers and legislators democratically chosen in elections legitimized by the international community, which had praised their transparency, honesty and freedom and which were approved, at that time, by your government. The crimes referred to continue to be committed, and it is for that reason that we urge the sponsor of international legality to stop them, to place the occupation and its leaders in front of an international court of justice as ‘criminals of war.’

But most importantly, and which is even worse, the conduct of your successive governments continues to insist on practicing a failed logic in order to impose a solution, instead of looking for a political resolution, based on international legality, of a chronic conflict that has lasted for over a century. This way would open up a democratic, civilized, and humane path toward an end to the conflict.

The Israeli leadership is based on the exploitation of the imbalance of international forces favorable to Israeli military interests, so that Israel continually resorts to the language of arrogance and pride as a way to try to eliminate a conflict that gains vitality at the base of objective historic realities.

And so, this leadership has tried to hijack any attempt or movement to resolve the conflict peacefully and through political means, demonstrating its predisposition to reject any initiative toward building a balanced political project that reflects international resolutions. In this way, the French-Spanish-Italian initiative to facilitate an international conference was rejected even before any attempts to delimit its functions. This policy may correspond to the interests of this or that North American leadership or administration, but it does not serve the slogans that the Israeli leadership tries to sell to the Jewish population of Palestine and to the peoples of the world, with reference to the theme of security and the fight against terrorism. Because security can never be obtained in an area where there is a conflict between the military machinery and brutality of an occupying force and the people whose land is occupied. .

Security cannot be achieved if not through peace based on an objective look at the realities of the conflict, and this peace then begins to put an end to the occupation and to recognize the national rights of an occupied people. It begins with respect for international law, and not through treating the occupation as if it were above the law, reverting to the logic of arrogance and pride, represented by the quote: That what Mussolini thinks, is truth,” which fosters the cycle of conflict. Your government will be responsible for the lives of the people that will waste away and for the loss of personal, social, and economic stability on both sides of the conflict. This reality should compel the Jews in Palestine and the peoples of the world that aspire to promote justice and peace, to understand the causes and impulses of this policy.

We understand, with certainty, that the reasons for the policy of occupation are not based on political ignorance, or on fear of the future, or to preserve the security of the Jews (like some suggest).

What moves the policies of your government is the purpose decided for Israel by imperialism. This purpose converts the slogans raised by the Israeli leadership for the Jewish masses into deceitful slogans, and chooses as its logic, not just the justification for crimes of the occupation, but also the policy of racial discrimination practiced against the masses of our people in the parts of Palestine occupied in 1948. This discrimination is a characteristic that, given their distinct cultures, does not exclude the Oriental Jewish community or the Jewish immigrants originating from Africa and Ethiopia especially.

The top of the political pyramid in Israel was always occupied by those in favor of the interests of a handful of local and international Zionist capitalists, allied with the imperialist monopoly companies of the world that today manage and guide the policies of the U.S. and Israel. The peace, security, democracy and welfare for the Jews in Palestine, besides being already exhausted slogans, are no more than ingredients for the imposition of the U.S. imperialist project in the ‘Greater’ or the ‘New’ Middle East, as Shimon Peres calls it. The members of the extremes of international imperialist globalization, with the U.S. as their head, now do not even deny this or try to cover it up.

Based on all that I have said, and in defense of the justice of our cause and in defense of the legitimate struggle of our people against the occupation, I refuse to recognize the legitimacy of your court or to legitimize your occupation or to stand before either of these. Because what you call a list of accusations and ‘security infractions’ are in reality my patriotic duties, “whether they were effective or not,” and would have to be framed within the context of the general duty of resistance against occupation.

At the same time, and as the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, I would like to reaffirm my pride in belonging to the Palestinian Revolutionary Movement and to the extensions of this movement in the regional, national and international planes that form the components of the international movement against the imperialist system of globalization. This is the leading framework of the peoples of the world and their oppressed social classes that struggle for freedom, democracy, socialism, global progress, the just distribution of wealth, equality among peoples and peace - rejecting repression and the concept of imperialist freedom based on plunder, injustice and racial discrimination. This movement supports the construction of a global, humanist and progressive culture and civilization in order to return to man his humanity and to open up to him the path toward free development.

I am proud to be a combatant fighting to end the Israeli occupation, to achieve national independence, to guarantee the Return of our people and to build the necessary mechanisms that drive a democratic solution to the conflict in Palestine. A solution capable of obtaining a permanent peace for all the population of Palestine, be they Arab or non-Arab. A solution capable of achieving historical reconciliation, equality and impartiality, as much in duties as in rights, within the framework of one single democratic state sustained by a system that detests all forms of discrimination based on religion, nationalism, ethnicity, social class or sexual orientation.

To close, it may be that this court would not wish to listen to this position; it may consider this position as being outside the framework of its functions; to maintain a theory within a certain narrow perspective. However, my position is pressured with logic, the fundamentals of the conflict and its objective causes; as the simple solution is that which deals with the causes, rather than the results. And before this fundamental counter-position, I would like to end my statement by saying the following: This is your court and you possess the force to celebrate the trial and convict me on the basis of your lists of accusations, the public one and the secret one, and you can dictate a sentence prepared by the political and security apparatuses that are behind this trial. But I too possess a will obtained from the justice of our cause and the determination of our people to reject any decision from this ‘kangaroo court,’ and to preserve a logical and cohesive balance, and to continue my determination to resist your occupation alongside the sons and daughters of our people, in spite of the limited space that you impose on my already-limited movements as a ‘prisoner for freedom!’

PFLP Office of Information.
01.14.2007

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