Pip Hinman
Mark Latham's March 23 promise that an ALP government would bring Australian troops out of Iraq — preferably by Christmas — has been welcomed by the peace movement. However, just three days later, in the face of pressure from the US government, shadow foreign minister Kevin Rudd was backtracking.
An ALP government would take advice from the "security services" on when exactly the troops should be withdrawn, he told the March 26 Sydney Morning Herald.
The anti-war movement needs to keep up the pressure on the Coalition government for the troops to be withdrawn now, and for the ALP opposition to commit to an immediate troop withdrawal should it win the next election.
According to Anna Samson from the Sydney Stop the War Coalition, "Mark Latham's promise to withdraw the troops is good news, but it must be clear and unqualified. Any handover to a US-appointed Iraqi government will not mean independence unless there are democratic elections and all troops are withdrawn."
Bashir Sawalha, also from the coalition, added that Latham must follow up his comments with a clear statement that troops will be pulled out "regardless of the situation in Iraq and regardless of American pressure".
US Ambassador Tom Scheiffer, a personal friend of the US president, wasted no time in attacking Latham. A troops out policy, he said, "just invites more political bombings". This flies in the face of reality — the Madrid terror bombings happened before the new government announced it would withdraw the troops.
The Spanish elections have given many some hope of punishing pro-war governments, and Latham can see this. He's also reacting to a Newspoll published in the March 23 Australian which showed 65% believed that Australia's participation in the war on Iraq had increased the risk of terrorist attack.
One year after the invasion of Iraq, the global anti-war movement is on the rise again. The election results in Spain had a significant impact on the March 20 anti-occupation rallies here and overseas. The largest, a million in Rome, put PM Silvio Berlusconi on notice that he may follow the same fate as former Spanish president Jose Maria Aznar.
In the US too, the rallies were big — 100,000 in New York, 50,000 in San Francisco, 20,000 in Los Angeles and 10,000 in Chicago. There were demonstrations in more than 250 cities and towns across the US — another sign that the movement is reviving. The US rallies were always going to be the critical ones. US troops are and will continue to be the main occupation force even if they are under a UN flag after June 30. This spells trouble for the US military occupation — under any name.
The Australian protests in all major cities and some regional centres totalled some 13,000 people, with the largest — up to 7000 people — organised by the Stop the War Coalition in Sydney. Considering a section of the movement was nervous about rallying behind the demand for troops to come out, the protests were a good size.
To keep Latham to his promise to get the troops out requires the anti-war movement to build up and maintain the pressure in the run-up to the federal elections.
This is critical, and it makes the issue of unity in the movement critical also. While most anti-war coalitions across Australia mobilised for the March 20 protests, the Sydney Peace and Social Justice Coalition and the WA Peace Network decided against.
The pretext for the splits in both cities last year was a difference over the role of the United Nations in Iraq. In both cases, those who split argued that the UN would have to play a major role, including with peacekeeping forces.
Now, those arguing for the UN force to go in, may well see their dream come true — but it will not have a significant impact for the better. Unlike in the East Timor UN intervention, the UN in Iraq is being set up to legitimise the US occupation, not to displace it.
However, differences on this question should not stand in the way of the anti-war movement uniting around the growing call worldwide for the occupation troops to leave Iraq.
Palm Sunday and May Day rallies are opportunities to make this call on the government and opposition. Some peace coalitions have started discussing plans to make June 30 the next big rally focus. Let's not squander the opportunity posed by Latham's call. A united approach can bring Australia out of this illegal and immoral war.
[Pip Hinman is an activist in the Stop the War Coalition in Sydney.]
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, March 31, 2004.
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