ANTI-WAR GROUPS MEET IN BERLIN

ANTI-WAR GROUPS MEET IN BERLIN

By John Catalinotto Berlin

May 3, 2003--Representatives from anti-war groups in 22 countries met here April 25 to discuss how to continue the movement that arose over the past year to challenge Washington's endless war on the people of the world.

It was the first meeting of the European Coordination since the U.S. military blasted its way into Baghdad and began the imperialist occupation of Iraq.

The Coordination is the part of the European Social Forum that called for Feb. 15 demonstrations. Those protests brought more than 10 million people into the streets of 600 cities worldwide to try to stop the U.S.- British war of aggression against Iraq.

The group consists of different political tendencies in diverse countries that came together to stop the war before it began. Its success stemmed from worldwide revulsion against the Bush administration's open aggression.

The Coordination followed up with more limited calls for international protests on March 15, March 22 and April 12 to protest the ongoing war and then the occupation of Iraq.

At the Berlin meeting, almost all of the nearly 100 participants-- representing groups from most of Western Europe, Iran, Turkey, Philippines, the United States, Canada, Costa Rica, Egypt and Lebanon-- called for continuing the fight against the occupation of Iraq.

Larry Holmes of the International ANSWER coalition opened the Berlin meeting. He set the tone--the need for continued struggle--in his report on the April 12 demonstration in the United States.

Holmes stressed the need for solidarity with Iraqis resisting imperialist occupation.

He appealed to the rest of the world, and especially to the European movement, to continue their struggle--which he described as vitally important to the development of the movement within the United States. A number of groups from oppressed countries noted that the existence of a strong anti-war movement in Europe and the United States made a positive impression on the masses of people in their countries. It helped the population differentiate between the governments of the imperialist countries and the people, they said.

While all groups pledged to continue the struggle, the next concrete act was limited to a June 1 mobilization against the G-8 summit meeting at Evian, France. There the Coordination will hold a meeting to protest the occupation of Iraq and continue the discussion about what to do next.

Other suggestions included a call by the Greek delegation for a future international day of struggle on Sept. 27, to coincide with the date the Intifada started in Palestine. A Turkish delegation stated it was ready to organize a Peoples' Tribunal to try U.S. and British leaders for war crimes. And there was also a call to boycott U.S.-made goods.

The fact that no further specific actions could be agreed upon during the Berlin meeting may have reflected that not enough time had passed after the U.S. military conquest for people to assess the impact of the changed situation on their movements.