BY KATHERINE BRADSTREET
The national anti-war student network Books Not Bombs (BNB) will be holding conferences in every state over the Easter weekend to plan its coming activities and campaigns.
"While CNN tells us that Iraq has been 'liberated', the reality is that the war has triggered a massive humanitarian disaster in Iraq", BNB spokesperson Kylie Moon told Green Left Weekly. "We know the US agenda does not include any serious plans for reconstruction of this devastated country, let alone to support real democracy in Iraq."
Moon said that the anti-war movement "should support the Iraqi people's attempts to build a resistance movement to the US-led occupation and demand that all foreign troops get out of Iraq. Another important demand is that the 'Coalition of the Killing' must pay massive war reparations to the Iraqi people to assist in rebuilding their country."
BNB was set up through the March 5 student strike, which mobilised more than 30,000 students to protest against the US-led invasion of Iraq. On March 26, 22,000 students took to the streets for a second BNB national student strike.
In the short time of its existence, BNB has inspired young people to organise against the war on their schools. Groups have been established on schools throughout the country.
In Sydney on April 2, BNB mobilised around 1000 students in defiance of a protest ban by the NSW Labor government and its police force.
The Easter BNB conferences will also be discussing the impact of the war on Iraq, the US occupation of Iraq and Bush's next war plans.
"BNB needs to become an organisation that will resist the entirety of Bush's agenda of a permanent war on 'terrorism'. This will be one of the key proposals at the BNB conferences", said Moon.
Also to be discussed are plans for BNB's next national action, a proposal to mobilise for the May 1 demonstrations in each city, to demand an end to the US occupation of Iraq.
To find out more about the BNB conferences, check out the web site at <http://www.booksnotbombs.org.au>.
From Green Left Weekly, April 16, 2003.
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