The Anti-War Struggle in Italy
Let’s Face the Truth: A Report from an International Protest Gathering in Rome
By Katrina Yeaw
On Sunday, October 2, 2005, I attended the conference “Let’s Face the Truth”, an international protest gathering in support of the Iraqi resistance, organized by Free Iraq Committees in Rome.
The nature of the meeting changed a number of times from its conception to the event that took place on Sunday. Originally, the goal was to hold a gathering in Italy of those involved with openly supporting the Iraqi resistance.
In April and May of 2005, several prominent Iraqi representatives accepted invitations to attend the conference. This substantially changed its nature as it now included representatives from many of the main political currents involved in opposing and resisting the US occupation. Entitled “Leave Iraq in peace – support the legitimate popular resistance”, the conference was going to consist of Baathists, Ayatollah Sheikh Ahmed al Baghdadi, international spokesman of the movement of the Shiite movement of Muqtada al Sadr, dissident Communists leaders, the Iraqi National Foundation Congress and Iraqi Patriotic Alliance as well as activists from across Europe. This would have been a historic event: for the first time, these forces would have had the opportunity to meet together, and to launch a peace proposal to the occupying countries.
Once the nature of the conference took shape, pro-war forces in the US and Europe made attempts to both impede the gathering and criminalize the anti-imperialist camp, one of the organizations involved in the Free Iraq Committees, for a campaign for “10 Euros for the Iraqi Resistance” which had taken place two years before. On June 28, 44 Congress members wrote a letter to Sergio Vento, the Italian ambassador in Washington, expressing “concern” that “supporters of terrorist activity are planning to meet on Italian soil…to plan a campaign of financial aid for terrorism.”
On top of this, the Anti-imperialist Camp’s website was closed down by its Internet hosting company in Utah because of their support of the Iraqi resistance. The Department of Homeland Security also admitted that it had a secret court order requiring the web host to turn over records that included every visitor to the Anti-Imperialist Camp’s website. Furthermore, the Italian police raided the home of Emanuele Fanesi, a member of the Anti-Imperialist Camp, for the lists of those who had contributed to the “10 Euros” campaign. On September 3, however, the court of Perugia established that there was nothing illegal about the fund-raising campaign.
The organizers did not take these attacks lying down. On August 31, they launched a hunger strike in front of the Farnesina, the Italian foreign ministry in Rome, demanding that the Foreign Minister, Gianfranco Fini, grant visas for 6 prominent Iraqis planning on attending the conference (http://www.counterpunch.org/yeaw09192005.html ).
In the end, the organizers were forced to postpone the “Leave Iraq in peace – support the legitimate popular resistance” conference since the visas were denied. The more modest goal of Sunday’s gathering became to make the idea of the right of Iraqis to resist a topic of discussion among not only the left but also the mainstream media.
In spite of attempts to isolate those who support the Iraq resistance, Sunday’s conference was attended by over 300 activists from 15 countries and a range of organizations involved with the anti-imperialist left in Europe including communists and socialists as well as immigrant from the Middle East and Islamic forces both from Europe and the Middle East. Speakers included Leonardo Mazzei, the Secretary Italian Free Iraq Committees; Awni al Kalemji, spokesman of the Iraqi Patriotic Alliance (IPA), Abdulhaleem Kandil, representative of Kifaya, Egypt; John Catalinotto, International Action Centre, USA and the prominent dissident Catholic thinker Giovanni Franzoni . Throughout the day, speeches centered on the threat to civil liberties and democracy in Europe and in particular Italy, support for the Iraqi Resistance and strategies for building future stuggles.
I addressed the gathering, speaking about the American anti-occupation movement and the work that the Campus Antiwar Network has done opposing military recruiters on campuses. Since most activists in Europe are the familiar with the counter recruitment movement, they were excited to hear about the campaigns CAN is organizing. During my speech, I received loud applause from the audience. Many people approached me afterwards to thank me for the work I had been involved with and for sharing it with the gathering as well as to ask for more information about CAN.
Originally, Hajj Ali, who became the symbol of the torture at Abu Ghraib when photos of him hooded and attached to electrodes were broadcasted around the world, had also been planning on addressing the meeting on Sunday. Unfortunately, he was denied a visa to enter Italy at the last minute. When he arrived at the Italian embassy in Amman, Jordan on September 29, he was informed the visa was not available and that he must return to Iraq to apply with the diplomatic representation of Italy in Baghdad inside the American Green Zone.
At the end of the gathering, a three-point resolution was read in both Italian and English. It stated that the organizers want to: 1) Bring Hajj Ali to Europe in order to expose the anti-democratic character of American rule in Iraq. 2) Make the conference with the representatives of the Iraqi opposition possible, which means recognition of the Iraqi resistance. 3) Strengthen the network of anti-imperialist organizations that support the Iraqi resistance.
Katrina Yeaw is a member of Students Against War, a chapter of the Campus Antiwar Network, at San Francisco State University. She is currently studying in Florence and can be reached at Katrina.yeaw@gmail.com