End the occupation!
In 2003, a clear majority opposed Australia joining the US in its war for oil in Iraq. The contemptuous Howard government retorted that removing Saddam Hussein was a matter of urgency because its "weapons of mass destruction" (WMD) were an immediate threat to the world and had connections with the terrorists responsible for 9/11.
A year after the illegal invasion, the warmongers stand exposed. The WMDs were not in Iraq, but they are in plentiful supply in the US.
Mass deception
The Howard government and "Coalition of the killing" were engaged in a campaign of mass deception to try and justify the unprovoked invasion. Most didn't buy it then, and still don't.
On the basis of these lies, John Howard has made Australia a criminal accomplice in a cruel and bloody war in which tens of thousands of innocent people have died.
Freedom and democracy?
The invasion of Iraq has not made the world a safer place, nor has it given Iraqis the promised freedom and democracy. The end of the brutal Saddam Hussein dictatorship, welcomed by many Iraqis, has not translated into an acceptance for the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). Frequent demonstrations against the occupying forces and their lackeys is evidence of this.
Many of the former regime's anti-democratic laws, including banning unions and outlawing pickets and strikes, are now implemented by the CPA. The new security apparatus is being formed from former Baathist forces.
Iraq for the Iraqis
The continuing US-led occupation and mounting death toll, mainly of Iraqis, is causing widespread bitterness and resentment. Protests call for the occupiers to leave, and for direct elections.
Already widespread unemployment is set to worsen as the CPA prepares the way for the wholesale privatisation of public assets — mainly to US corporations. Iraq is being looted by Halliburton and the other multinational corporations with the blessing of the CPA keen to promote the "free market".
Some argue that if the troops leave, the country will erupt into a civil war. This avoids the fact that Iraq is still a sovereign nation, whose majority did not ask to be invaded. Iraq, the cradle of civilisation, has the right to decide how it is to be governed without outside interference. This is fundamental.
Howard out!
The Socialist Alliance joins the call for an independent inquiry with the power to subpoena witnesses to give evidence about the performance of intelligence agencies and how the government has used that intelligence.
PM John Howard is happy to spend millions on firming up the Australian-US alliance. Meanwhile, the public hospital system, public education and other services are either being run down, or the more lucrative ones privatised.
We want Howard to go. But we also want ALP leader Mark Latham, who says both that he supports the "war on terror" and that he was always against the war on Iraq, to join the call for the occupying troops to leave. This would be a clear statement of support for Iraqi national self-determination.
We need strong mass movements to force a change in policy. The Socialist Alliance is committed to building such movements. Our members are active in all the main anti-war coalitions, and many of the local peace groups, that organised the resistance to the war, and which are now organising against the occupation.
We want Howard called to account, not just for supporting the war on Iraq, but for his government's anti-democratic and anti-worker policies.
[This is a statement from the Socialist Alliance.]
From Green Left Weekly, March 17, 2004.
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