- MELBOURNE -- Cindy Sheehan, a softly spoken and courageous US anti-war
activist, took Australia by storm on a whirlwind tour of Australia last
week. "It's so urgent that we get off our butts and try to stop this
bullshit war for profit in Iraq", was the challenge Sheehan threw
out to Australian activists. Sheehan was a keynote speaker at the Unity
for Peace conference in Melbourne on May 27, which was attended by some
280 people.
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- Along with Dr Salam Ismael from Doctors
for Iraq, Sheehan talked up the need for international solidarity against
the occupation of Iraq. "I can guarantee you that the troops will
come back [home]. I can also guarantee that the world will never forget
my son Casey, his buddies and the people of Iraq will never be forgotten
in this bullshit war for profit", she said to cheers.
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- Activists from across Australia talked
about how to step up the campaign to bring the Australian troops back from
Iraq, and how to combat the government's anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism.
They also decided to step up the campaign against any attack on Iran, with
Melbourne Stop the War Coalition urging peace groups to use the upcoming
Hiroshima Day anniversary protests in August to highlight opposition to
nuclear power and uranium mining. The conference decided to support the
international day of action in September against an attack on Iran and
to coordinate where possible national anti-war initiatives.
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- At a 500-strong Sydney public meeting
on May 23, veteran anti-war campaigners, newcomers and even skeptics came
to hear Sheehan speak about why the international campaign against the
war and occupation in Iraq and any future war in Iran had to continue.
The Sydney leg of her tour was supported by the Sydney Stop the War Coalition,
the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at Sydney University and the
Medical Association for Prevention of War.
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- Sheehan, a mother of four, says she was
not "political" before her son Casey was killed in Fallujah in
2004. Recounting her own political awakening, Sheehan connected very powerfully
with activists and non-activists alike.
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- Since camping outside US President George
Bush's Texas ranch last August, Sheehan has been on a non-stop circuit
of national and international anti-war tours, including to Venezuela for
the World Social Forum in January. There, she addressed a crowd she described
as so immense she couldn't see where it ended. She described how overwhelmed
she was with the response to her calls for Bush to be impeached. When she
said, "We want to get Bush tried for war crimes", the crowd went
wild. It wasn't until later on that Sheehan discovered her translator had
adlibbed a little, telling the massive crowd, "We want Bush executed!"
(Sheehan is a pacifist now, although she said she wasn't always.)
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- Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez "is
demonised [by Bush] for kicking Chevron out of Venezuela", Sheehan
said , but then the White House hypocritically pushes US corporate interests
in countries all over the globe. "The US government provides equal
opportunity for war profiteers."
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- On the "most frequently asked question"
about whether pulling foreign troops out of Iraq would lead to an even
greater catastrophe, Sheehan was unequivocal: the troops have to come out
"because they are not wanted there". She went on: "Iraq
was once the cradle of civilisation ... Iraqis have the intelligence to
solve their own country's problems and they don't need the US administration,
or any other, to help them. Anything less is racist."
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- Sheehan said her son, Casey, was killed
by someone in the Mahdi Army controlled by Moqtada al Sadr. But she bears
no animosity towards the Iraqi resistance fighters. She told the meeting
that the mother of an Iraqi fighter had written to her afterwards saying
that Iraqis didn't want to kill young Americans, but that they did want
the US to get out. "They wanted my son out of their country",
she said simply, adding "I wish they didn't have to, but the Iraqi
people have the right to resist the occupation".
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- Sheehan slammed the lies told to justify
the invasion of Iraq, the war profiteering, the neglect of UN conventions
and the US's use of chemical weapons such as napalm. "This war is
not about WMDs, or terrorism. It's about controlling Iraq's natural resources
so that Exxon, Haliburton, Bechtel and Blackwater Security and other US
corporations can profit."
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- When Sheehan "sat down in a ditch
in Crawford" outside Bush's ranch last August, 51% of people in the
US disagreed with the war in Iraq. Now, more than two-thirds are opposed.
This relatively fast change of heart relates to the overwhelming majority
opposition to the occupation by Iraqis, the more than 2400 US soldiers
who have been killed there, and the breadth of the US anti-war movement,
which involves a significant number of the troops' families.
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- Sheehan's remarkable story of how one
committed person can have an impact on a movement has lifted anti-war activists'
spirits in Australia.
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- While conditions for building the movement
in the US and the rest of the world differ from those in Australia, there
are nevertheless lessons activists here could take from Sheehan's experiences.
Sticking to a core demand - troops out - was central, and trying to link
up with everyone who opposes the war, regardless of their background, was
also critical, she said.
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- Building practical solidarity with the
people of Iraq was another important focus for the movement, and Dr Ismael's
trip has already kick-started a new network of young doctors for peace
in Australia.
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- The Unity for Peace conference agreed
to invite organisations to elect representatives to a new peace network
to try and better coordinate strategies "to enable rapid and effective
media responses to major events; coordinate national speaking tours; help
network people working on specific aspects of campaigns and help in the
sharing and cross-promotion of resources".
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- >From Green Left Weekly, May 31, 2006.
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