WHY WE ARE OPPOSING THE US/UN SANCTIONS ON IRAQ

1.5 million people in Iraq, over half of them children under five, have died as a direct result of the sanctions. One-third of children are severely malnurished. Eight years of sanctions have denied an entire generation books and even pencils, and have caused them physical and mental damage that, even if they survive, they will never completely overcome.

For the Iraqi people, the Gulf War is still not over. Since August 1990, Iraq has been under U.S.-led UN economic sanctions. These sanctions prevent Iraq from selling oil and freeze Iraq's foreign assets, the result of which is the inability to purchase the food and medicines that the people desperately need. The UN's own agencies (UNICEF, FAO, WFP, WHO), academic institutions (such as Harvard and the University of Massachusetts), and grassroots organizations including the International Action Center have sent teams of people to independently investigate the humanitarian situation in Iraq. Medical professionals, professors, students, religious leaders, political and social activists, and many others have traveled to Iraq to witness the suffering of the Iraqi people and to bring a message back to the U.S. that the mainstream press will never tell you_THE SANCTIONS MUST END NOW!

These sanctions are genocidal and they are racist. The sanctions on Iraq, and all sanctions imposed and endorsed by the U.S., target Arab and African people. The U.S. government practices racist oppression internationally through sanctions and economic domination in the same way that they practice it domestically through welfare reform, police repression, attacks on affirmative action, and cuts in education and healthcare that target poor and working communities of color.

The U.S. is doing all of this in the name of profit. They seek to recolonize an oil-rich region to benefit Exxon, Mobil, and Wall Street_not to help working people in this country or in any other. They speak in our name and spend our tax dollars in attempts to dominate and control other countries and peoples, and we are here to say no to that. We are here to say END THE SANCTIONS NOW!

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