NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #18/NN_1992_18.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/5866

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Path: sparky!uunet!wupost!mont!pencil.cs.missouri.edu!daemon
From: [e-mail] (Harel Barzilai)
Subject: "LIFT ECONOMIC SANCTIONS!" Canadian&Iraqi Labor Activists
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[From PeaceNet's labor.newsline via misc.activism.progresive]
[To email to "pns" (PeaceNet Sweden): [e-mail] --Harel]
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Topic 248       LIFT THE ECONOMIC SANCTIONS AGAINS
pns:akosha      Labor News & Notes      12:01 pm  Aug  2, 1992
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
    "it is the intransigence and political opportunism of [Washington
    et al] which has kept Saddam and other regional rulers in power
    over the years in a delicate, but cruelly cynical balancing act.
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
    Continuing United Nations sanctions on Iraq, including the
    freezing of its foreign assets so that Iraq cannot buy food and
    medicines, has caused the deaths of an estimated 80,000 Iraqi
    children under the age of 5.
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
    "Working people and the poor have borne the brunt of economic
    sanctions and war against Iraq, not the Iraqi elite. Demands by
    President Bush and Prime Minister Major that Iraq must scrap its
    nuclear, chemical and ballistic arms, and pay reparations to the
    Kuwaiti emirate, OR ELSE, is a transparent pretext for war. It
    also demonstrates an incredible double standard, given that no
    such de-mands are made of more heavily armed, and potentially more
    dangerous regimes, like South Africa, Pakistan and Israel, to name
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
    "In the name of democracy, and the fight against the dictator
    Saddam Hussein, over 200,000 Iraqis were directly annihilated.
    However, tyranny and oppression continue to rule the region.
    Statehood for the Palestinians is not even on the agenda in the
    showcase peace talks [...]


          ==========================================
          LIFT THE ECONOMIC SANCTIONS AGAINST IRAQ!
          ==========================================
         Call by Canadian and Iraqi labour activists
             Worker Today No.26, June 92

WT News Service:  In a recent report on the impact of the UN
sanctions against Iraq, which is claiming more and more lives each
day particularly of the children, the International Affairs
Committee of the Labour Council of Metro Toronto and York region
called on the Canadian trade unions to demand an immediate lifting
of the sanctions and a reversal of the Canadian government's
policy on Iraq.

Also Serenji Kerikar (WorkerNotice), a worker paper published in Iraqi
Kurdistan, in a communique called on labour organisations and
activists worldwide to join Iraqi workers in opposing the economic
blockade which "has driven our fellow workers in Iraq and Kurdistan to
the brink of death and disaster".

Below we reprint both these statements.

       ===============================================
     REPORT OF THE INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE TO THE
       LABOUR COUNCIL OF METRO TORONTO AND YORK REGION
       ===============================================

ALTHOUGH Iraq, one year after the Gulf War, remains devastated by the
effects of military bombardment and continuing economic sanctions, a
rising drumbeat for renewal of war can be heard coming out of
Washington and London.

Whether this is being done to divert attention from the prolonged
world capitalist recession/depression, to further tighten the West's
stranglehold over Gulf oil, or merely to aid U.S. President George
Bush's faltering re-election campaign, it is urgent that working
people everywhere denounce and seek to reverse this tide of
belligerence.

The human suffering that is a daily reality in Iraq demands world
attention. The people of Iraq are in need of urgent medical, food and
technical assistance, not more bombardment, blockade and embargo.

During the U.S.-led war in 1991, over 88,500 tons of bombs were
dropped on Iraq and Kuwait, destroying electrical power, water
treatment, transportation and health care infrastructures. Rampant
disease and malnutrition is the ongoing result. Continuing United
Nations sanctions on Iraq, including the freezing of its foreign
assets so that Iraq cannot buy food and medicines, has caused the
deaths of an estimated 80,000 Iraqi children under the age of 5.

In the name of democracy, and the fight against the dictator
Saddam Hussein, over 200,000 Iraqis were directly annihilated.
However, tyranny and oppression continue to rule the region.
Statehood for the Palestinians is not even on the agenda in the
showcase peace talks between Israel, its Arab neighbours, the U.S.
and Russia. Iraqi Kurds are worse off. And Saddam Hussein remains
in power, politically fortified by the manifest suffering imposed
on his country by "outsiders" - that is, by the imperialist
powers, under the cloak of the United Nations.

Working people and the poor have borne the brunt of economic
sanctions and war against Iraq, not the Iraqi elite. Demands by
President Bush and Prime Minister Major that Iraq must scrap its
nuclear, chemical and ballistic arms, and pay reparations to the
Kuwaiti emirate, OR ELSE, is a transparent pretext for war. It
also demonstrates an incredible double standard, given that no
such de-mands are made of more heavily armed, and potentially more
dangerous regimes, like South Africa, Pakistan and Israel, to name
but a few.

Canada's Prime Minister, Brian Mulroney, said on March 10, on the
occasion of the visit to Ottawa of Jordan's King Hussein, "I lament
the sad fate of the Iraqi people but their suffering is the result of
the intransigent attitude of Saddam Hussein."  Mulroney knows full
well that it is the intransigence and political opportunism of his
allies which has kept Saddam and other regional rulers in power over
the years in a delicate, but cruelly cynical balancing act.

As the New York Times revealed in January, not only did the Reagan
administration arm both sides in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, "American
arms, technology and intelligence helped Iraq avert defeat by Iran and
eventually grow - with much help from the Soviet Union later - into
the regional power that invaded Kuwait in August 1990."

Today, the question is, will we allow history to repeat itself so
soon? Will economic sanctions, supported by military threats - and
resumption of war -be permitted to further punish innocent people,
purely to advance a western military/corporate New World Order? The
answer must be a resounding NO!  The International Affairs Committee
calls on Labour Council to

1. Demand that the Canadian Government reverse its policy on Iraq,
denounce the threats of bombardment and war coming out of Washington,
London and New York, and urge an immediate lifting of all United
Nations' imposed sanctions on Iraq and the removal of the
embargo/blockade on trade with that country.

2. Further demand the unfreezing of Iraqi assets, and the provision of
medical, food and technical aid to Iraq by Canada, the U.N., and other
countries to assist Iraq in rebuilding its civilian infrastructure,
and in feeding, clothing and housing its destitute people.

3. Urge affiliates, the OFL, and CLC, to pursue the above demands with
the urgency that the present situation in Iraq clearly requires. This
should include letters and petitions to MPs and government, public
statements and protest demonstrations.

Respectfully submitted by the International Affairs Committee:

Lucille Kerr, Holly Kirkconnell, Ken Luckhardt,
Barry Weisleder, Jay Nair

##################################################################
NOTE: The "Comrades!" rhetoric tends to strike Joe American as
indicative of "rabid extremism" ; in fact, however, for those long
suffering from Washignton's policies and its local "Our S.O.B."
representatives like George's ex-pal Saddam Hussein for so long, this
does not represent so fringe a group, but a far more common, and
understandable reaction, and spirit of survival (and maintaining one's
sanity in the face of brutal conditions year after year that, unlike
us sitting in front of our neat computer screens, these workers face
every day and are far more powerless in their ability to put an end
to). --Harel
##################################################################

To:  Trade unions and labour organisations!  Labour leaders and
activists!  Worker papers and groups!  Labour solidarity
committees in Europe and North America!

The economic blockade [of Iraq] is an inhuman policy of the
imperialists, part of the assault that capitalism has today launched
against the world working class in the name of the New World Order.
Having driven our fellow workers in Iraq and Kurdistan to the brink of
death and disaster, this economic boycott has provided a pretext for
the old and new rulers of the bourgeoisie - the Iraqi government and
the Kurdistan Front* - through which to pursue their interests against
us workers and working masses.

Comrades!  We believe that not only will your militant support and
solidarity ensure that this policy is brushed aside, to our advantage,
but that our united and organised world rank can smash the capitalist
system and build socialism on its ruins. We therefore call for your
solidarity and unity in struggle.

Long live the international working-class movement against the
economic boycott and world capitalism's anti-labour onslaught!

*The Kurdistan Front includes the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, led by
Jalal Talebani, and the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iraq, led by
Masoud Barzani
 -WT
##################################################################