Irish Anti-War Movement AGM - 1PM Sat 28th January 2012

by Joe McIvor Wed Jan 11, 2012 18:00

Delegates to the Irish Anti-War Movement AGM should urgently address the support that their group gave to the Libyan National Transitional Council last year .Throughout the course of the war in Libya the National Transitional Council acted in concert with the Nato operation that overthrew the Libyan government of Muammar Gaddafi.

On 9 March 2011 the head of the Libyan National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, called on the international community to “move quickly to impose a no-fly zone over Libya.”

Nearly three weeks later , on 28 March 2011 , the IAWM wrote the following in support of Transitional National Council on its website :

"The IAWM gives its full support to the Libyan uprising. It condemns the hypocrisy of western governments which despite their humanitarian rhetoric, have failed to respond to the basic demands of Libya’s Transitional National Council (TNC). It asked for the recognition of the TNC, access to the billions in sequestrated regime funds in order to buy weapons and other crucial supplies, and an immediate halt to the “mercenary flights” that provided Gaddafi’s regime with its foot soldiers." http://irishantiwar.org/node/1209

The Irish Anti-War Movement (IAWM) is currently reprising the pro-Nato role it played during the war against Libya by providing “ left “ support for imperialist intrigues that are aimed at overthrowing the Syrian regime .

Last month Dette Mc Loughlin posted a report on the IAWM website in which she uncritically quoted two “activist groups” - the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees (LCC) - to assert that Syrian government troops had been responsible for the massacre of civilians in Syria .

This recent Global Research report presents strong evidence to suggest that the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is a front for Western intelligence agencies and that it is working in coordination with US-funded NGOs and the British Foreign Office to undermine and overthrow the Syrian government . http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=28374

According to the Christian Science Monitor the LCC is part of the Syrian National Council , a group which named itself after ,and which draws its inspiration from , the NATO/CIA stooge group , the Libyan National Council .
Aljamahiria News quotes the LCC as saying that the group’s aim is to “change the regime in Syria, and as the first step, to end the mandate of the current President” http://africaindependence.com/AljamahiriaComHumanitaria....aspx .

by JoeMc Fri Jan 13, 2012 11:34

With the AGM of the IAWM just a little over two weeks away , when can we expect to see the agenda published ? Just over a month ago the IAWM said on its website that a full agenda for the AGM would be "available soon."

by JoeMc Sun Jan 15, 2012 23:57

Cynthia McKinney reports that 12,000 US troops are now in Malta awaiting deployment to Libya . With Nato forces taking control of Libya’s oil wells , the country is sliding towards civil war , and black Libyans are continuing to be targeted for harassment and murder .
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30243.htm

According to several reports , rival factions within the National Transitional Council are now fighting each other for a share of Libya’s looted oil - while facing strong opposition from ordinary Libyans . Pro -Nato “rebel” forces from Mistra who only a few months ago helped Nato murder Colonel Gadaffi were last week summarily killed by Apache helicopters while attempting to access oil platforms in Breaga.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/317943#ixzz1jZTwVTxt

The IAWM supported the Nato controlled NTC “rebels” throughout the course of the Libyan war. It is currently spinning anti-Syrian propaganda on its website similar in nature to the type it put out last year to discredit the Libyan government .

The IAWM has still not published an agenda for its upcoming AGM .

by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite party Mon Jan 16, 2012 11:12

Was it not on Saturday?

by JoeMc Mon Jan 16, 2012 23:00

Both of them say that the AGM is being held on 28 Jan .

by JoeMc Sat Jan 21, 2012 09:52

It seems extraordinary that the IAWM’s website has been down for the last four days . The IAWM had promised to publish an agenda for its AGM , which is supposed to be taking place next weekend.

Middle East human rights groups published a report Thursday based upon a fact-finding mission to Libya conducted by the Arab Organization for Human Rights, together with the Palestinian Center for Human Rights and the International Legal Assistance Consortium.
http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/2012/FFM_Libya-Report.pdf

“The investigators conducted extensive interviews with victims of war crimes as well as witnesses and Libyan officials. The mission carried out on-site field investigations in and around Tripoli, Zawiya, Sibrata, Khoms, Zliten, Misrata, Tawergha and Sirte”

http://wsws.org/articles/2012/jan2012/liby-j21.shtml

The report collaborates evidence of ethnic cleansing by pro-Nato Libyan National Council forces . The Libyan National Council had been supported throughout the war by the IAWM .

Tawergha – ‘Get Out, Black Animals’
http://medialens.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=...id=69

by JoeMc Mon Jan 23, 2012 10:19

A comment from Barry Grey on WSWS this morning concludes that the “Independent Civil Society Fact-Finding Mission to Libya” report is an indictment of the various left groups that supported the Libyan Transitional National Council throughout the war .

“It underscores that these forces—from social democrats, Greens and ex-Stalinists such as the German Left Party to pseudo-radicals such as France’s New Anti-Capitalist Party and the International Socialist Organization in the US—have moved into the camp of imperialism”.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jan2012/pers-j23.shtml

Those who decided the pro-NTC line of the Irish Anti-War Movement during the Libyan war belong on that shameful list. The IAWM steering committee needs to be held to account at the forthcoming AGM . The calls made by steering committee members for the arming of Nato- backed Libyan "rebel" forces is in clear breach of the group’s constitution : “to oppose any further invasions or attacks and to campaign for an immediate end to all military occupations and the international arms trade” and “to campaign for peaceful solutions to war and conflict situations across the world”.

by JoeMc Mon Jan 23, 2012 13:41

I've just received this IAWM bulletin by email .

Contents

Agenda
Motions
Donating to the Irish Anti-War Movement
Setup a Standing Order
Donate with PayPal

[IAWM Bulletin] Motions Submitted for the AGM on Sat 28th Jan 2012
1. Agenda

Standing Orders 13:00-13:05
Summary of last year’s activities 13:05-13:15
Reports from other anti war / solidarity groups 13:15-13:45
Discussion (30 minutes) 13:45-14:15
Financial Report 14:15-14:20
Motions (40 minutes) 14:20-14:50
Election of Steering Committee 14:50-15:00

2. Motions

To download a PDF version of the Motions submitted go to

http://www.irishantiwar.org/files/IrishAntiWarMovementA...s.pdf

Motion 1: I propose that the IAWM should affiliate to PANA.

Signed: Mark Price, IAWM

Motion 2: The assessment of the IAWM is that the effects of the recession will continue to take the foreground of political opposition in Ireland. But it also believes that, given the ongoing instability of the war on terror, the shifts in US foreign policy, and the inevitable nationalism that accompanies economic depressions, military aggression, war and occupation will remain a feature of the present period. We note, too, that in earlier periods, anti-war mobilisations can sometimes be the expression of more generalised political discontent. Our priorities for 2012 will therefore be:

1. The regular hosting of public events and meetings around the themes of Arab Revolution, Afghanistan, Palestine, the changing face of US hegemony, the US’s focus on Iran, Ireland and EU -NATO militarisation and any other issues that may arise.

2. Placing specific focus on the exposure of the role of the Labour party in Government whether around its compliance with greater integration with EU-NATO or with its failure to close down Shannon as a military base.

3. Mobilisations around events of aggression on the part of US, NATO-EU and Israel and Ireland’s involvement in these.

4. The production of a regular newsletter for members of the IAWM.

5. Working with other solidarity and activist groups on the issues noted above

Signed: Steering Committee, IAWM

STEERING COMMITTEE STATEMENT

1. The Arab Revolutions. The IAWM recognises that the revolutions across North Africa and the Middle East, which began in Tunisia, have changed the dynamics of the present phase of western domination in the region. They have propelled the Arab peoples on to the stage of history and challenged decades of western rule though local dictators. The outcome of the revolution in Egypt is still being played out with the protest movement calling for a ‘second revolution’ in 2012. In Syria, in the long term, political impact of mass mobilisation against the country’s dictator and his western allies has yet to be seen. In Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, the protest movements are being viciously suppressed by regimes still supported by the US. But the significance of the Arab revolutions in 2011 and their ability to unravel the agenda of the west for the region cannot be underestimated.

2. Rehabilitation of ‘humanitarian intervention’. The US administration (along with their NATO allies) clung to the old ruling dictators as long as it could, but was forced, finally, to place itself inside the revolutionary process, in an attempt to steer political events back towards its control. The IAWM recognised the so-called ‘humanitarian intervention’ in Libya as part of this strategic about- turn . It opposed the NATO –UN backed bombing of Libya and argued that it was motivated by strategic geopolitical interests, not humanitarian ones. The number of deaths on both sides – over 16,000 according to some reports – would seem to confirm that the western intervention escalated the military conflict. Even today NATO still refuses to investigate its role in killing of civilians. Despite the difficulty in winning wide support for our anti-intervention position in Libya, we believe that events have proved our position to be correct.

3. Iraq and the use of Shannon. At the end of 2011, The United States officially announced the end of the war in Iraq and withdrawal of all troops at the end of 2011. With hundreds of thousands Iraqis dead, the US leaves behind chaos, a broken infrastructure, poor living conditions, and the increasingly authoritarian control from Maliki’s Shiite collation. Sadly, what we in the anti-war movement foresaw in 2003 has turned out to be the case.

Today, the US-NATO led strategy for Iraq is in tatters. The US’s original plan was that it would oust Saddam Hussein, dismantle the Baathist government and make Iraq the American headquarters along what they called "the arc of instability," extending from the horn of Africa through Afghanistan. Instead, the occupation has turned into a catastrophe for the U.S. Its invasion produced mass resistance and then a civil war. The vast majority of the Iraqi people turned against the occupying troops, causing escalating difficulties for the U.S. plans in Iraq and the region. At the end of nine years of occupation, the US have not even managed to retain a small military presence.

Despite the withdrawal of US troops in Iraq, Shannon airport continues to be used by the US as a stopover for its troops to Afghanistan, Kuwait and other locations. With not a whimper of opposition from the Irish establishment, Shannon has now become a permanent military base for the US. The IAWM will continue to seek the widest support for its opposition to this development.

4. Afghanistan and Pakistan and US terrorisation strategy. The recent revelations of US marines urinating on the dead bodies of Afghans is a reminder yet again of the degrading treatment that Afghanis, dead or alive, receive at the hand of the occupying forces.The war on Afghanistan continues to result in severe civilian casualties mainly with the use of drone attacks and indiscriminate night raids. NATO troops are due to leave in 2014 but it is likely that they will stay long after that date. The Taliban have increased their support since the invasion and it is now with them that the West (despite having previously ruled this out) will be forced to negotiate. The troop surge launched by Obama, supposedly to further counter-insurgency after the assassination of Osama bin Laden, has been revealed as the plan that it really is - to terrorize the populations of both Afghanistan and Pakistan into abandoning resistance to the NATO presence. But through the vicious and cowardly drone attacks, the US is stoking mass popular opposition to its presence, now reflected even among the client governments in both countries.

The IAWM continues to call the cessation of Irish involvement in the NATO- ISAF occupation of Afghanistan. It further calls on the Minister of Foreign Affairs to publicly condemn the drone attacks.

5. American Empire weakened. While the U.S. is still the largest imperial power on the planet, it is also the case that the U.S. is the weakest it has been since the end of the Second World War. The economic crisis has forced the Pentagon to cut back its military spending which undermines its role as a global aggressor. Obama, with the opportunism of a true imperialist, has officially announced that now the US needs to redirect its attention away from the Middle East in order to address possible challenges to its hegemony that it faces in Asia, particularly China.

In this context, US foreign policy has shifted from troop occupation to Special Forces and drone wars - both of which are cheaper, more targeted and do not involve US casualties. Drone activity has spread, from Yemen to Afghanistan and even Mexico. The U.S. is increasingly looking to drones as an alternative vehicle for implementing their foreign policy initiatives. American officials are also looking to Special Forces attacks as a compliment to the drone strikes. In the last year alone, the U.S. has conducted Special Forces operations in 70 countries around the world.

However with the backdrop, in the long term, of declining US power, such moves constitute a riskier strategy for the maintaining of global dominance and more prone to provoking local and global outrage.

6. Iran, regime change and nuclear weapons. The US focus on Iran has to be seen in this light. The US wants to ensure that Iran will not become the symbol of geopolitically independent Middle East. It therefore wants to see regime change in Iran - hence the sabre rattling over Iran’s nuclear programme and the absurd allegation that Iran was behind the plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. The Obama administration wants to transform Iran’s state-controlled economy into an open market for international investments, especially in the oil industry. Thus, Iran remains, for the US ideological enemy Number One and also at constant risk of military attack.

The IAWM condemns the continuing threats against, and escalation of tension with, Iran by the US, NATO and Israel and the highly suspicious assassinations of Iranian scientists. The main pretext for this is the allegation that Iran is in the process of developing nuclear weapons and the threat is of some kind of strike or intervention to prevent or punish this.

The IAWM is opposed to nuclear weapons in general but absolutely rejects the right of the US (which possesses by far the world’s largest nuclear arsenal) or the West to decide which countries may or may not hold such weapons. This is particularly unacceptable in view the fact that the US’s principle ally in the region, Israel, is known to posses such weapons. The notion of ‘Our nukes good, their nukes bad ‘ is imperialist and implicitly racist in its assumptions. As a pretext for an armed strike or war which would have catastrophic implications for the people of Iran, for the people of the whole region and potentially for us all, we reject it utterly.

The IAWM commits itself to oppose any aggression against Iran and to mobilise on the streets in the event of any armed attack or war. This opposition to aggression and war does not of course signify political support for the Iranian regime.

7. Palestine. The Arab revolutions have shown Palestinians that change of the ruling order can happen and they have triggered a desire for unity between the contending factions of Hamas and Fatah. The have also alerted Israel to the power of popular mobilisation which has made the Zionist state up its aggression towards Palestinians and seek a copper- fastening of its occupation beyond what its bankroller and protector, the US, may seek.

Solidarity with the Palestinians and the plight Gaza under Israeli strangulation is deeply felt across large sections of Irish society. Our involvement with the Irish Ship to Gaza showed the extent of Irish support for Palestine and showed how well different strands of the Palestinian anti-war, peace, and trade union movement can work together. This cooperation around Palestine we see as important to continue. The campaign to further isolate Israel through the Boycott, Divest and Sanction campaign has been popular in the past. Many young people identify with the cause of Palestine and as Israel appears to be ramping up the war rhetoric, mobilisations around this issue will remain a continued priority for the IAWM.

3. Donating to the Irish Anti-War Movement

3-1. Setup a Standing Order

To set-up a standing order with the Irish-Anti War Movement please go to the following link http://www.irishantiwar.org/files/standing-order-form.doc fill in the form and post to the Irish Anti-War Movement P.O. Box 9260 Dublin 1.

3-2. Donate with PayPal

Follow this Link.

by serf Mon Jan 23, 2012 14:38

"..the highly suspicious assassinations of Iranian scientists.. " You mean there's even the slightest possibility that it wasn't the US or Israel that carried out these murders??

Perhaps it was unpaid drug or gambling debts?? but really IAWM, how often does the local drug/gambling kingpin use expensive precision shaped charges and magnetic bomb casings attached to car doors while stopped at traffic lights. ??

Come on IAWM, are you lot even scared to use strong language against the imperialists??. If that's the case then what hope is there that you can get out there on the streets and strongly represent Irish opposition to US military wars of aggression?

I think there's some back pedalling on Libya here too. Well its not a "mistakes were made" but at least they are starting to see how they were had like everyone else by the new US yellow pack regime change strategy.

Perhaps they'll even join the dots on a few other campaigns now. Like Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma for instance.

Pah. Grow a pair IAWM. Maybe instead of joining pana, you lot should disband and someone else with real balls should start something more effective.

by JoeMc Mon Jan 23, 2012 17:10

The IAWM steering committee say in their resolution that they had a non-intervention policy during the Libyan war . This is untrue . The group called on the Irish government to recognize the Libyan Transitional National Council during the war , an organization that had been set up by Nato and the CIA and which was openly calling for Nato intervention . The IAWM posted the following demand on its website .
We call on Ireland to recognise the Libyan Transitional National Council and call a halt to the NATO bombing.”

"The two positions were mutually exclusive as was pointed out to the IAWM in April last year .Here is a copy of an email sent to the IAWM April 5 pointing out the incongruity of the two positions . The email was not answered .

"Hello,
" We call on Ireland to recognise the Libyan Transitional National Council and call a halt to the NATO bombing.”
http://irishantiwar.org/node/1209

The IAWM is calling on the government to recognise the Libyan Transitional National Council despite the fact that the council has called for and is supporting air attacks by western powers to enforce the no-fly-zone over Libya.
This is from the Transitional Interim National Council website:
“The Transitional Interim National Council welcomes the UN Security Council resolution 1973 (2011), as well as the outcome of the Paris meeting held on 19th of March, 2011, and commends all efforts exerted to expedite the implementation of the resolution, especially with regards to the imposition of the No-Fly Zone and the aerial attacks against Qadhafi’s brigades, which were approaching to enter the city of Benghazi and bombarding the city from all directions. The coalition aerial attacks prevented a genocide in the city, forced Qadhafi’s brigades to retreat away from the city, and brought back tranquility in the hearts of innocent civilians who had initiated to move away from the city.” http://ntclibya.org/english/statement-resolution-1973/

Support for the Libyan Transitional National Council and opposition to western attacks on Libya are mutually exclusive . It has been evident for some time that the PTNC is working in close collaboration with the US , France and Britain whose aim is to impose a more pliant dictator on Libya; the council’s Mahmoud Jibril is currently being lauded in the right-wing western media as “Libya’s prime-minister-in-waiting” . Eight days ago it was reported that the Transitional National Council had appointed a long-time CIA collaborator , Khalifa Hifter , to head its military operations.
The IAWM should urgently address its position of support for the Libyan National Council"

by JoeMc Tue Jan 24, 2012 10:19

“The US administration (along with their NATO allies) clung to the old ruling dictators as long as it could, but was forced, finally, to place itself inside the revolutionary process, in an attempt to steer political events back towards its control”

The IAWM supported the “rebel” LTNC last year saying that it was at the head of a revolutionary process in Libya. With this resolution the IAWM steering committee is essentially saying the same thing :that the Nato-coordinated throat-slitters and lynch mobs headed by this organization were part of a “ revolutionary process”

Despite credible reports of the “rebel” military commander Khalifa Hifter being a CIA asset , and even though the LTNC were calling for Nato air strikes against Libya , the IAWM distributed leaflets in support of the organization and said that it should be recognized by the Irish government. Not only that : the IAWM called for this group to be armed and demanded that Libya’s oil wealth be handed over to it. To this day, the IAWM website refers to post-Gaddafi Libya as being "liberated".

The CIA set up the LTNC .The CIA does not set up organizations that head revolutionary movements – or revolutionary processes . The Libyan National Council was not a revolutionary movement at all , but the very opposite ,and the IAWM supported it . With this resolution the IAWM steering committee is asking AGM delegates to endorse the support their organization gave last year to this CIA set-up.

by What Not Tue Jan 24, 2012 11:18

IAWM is NOT Irish (line and priorities directed from SWP/ Counterfire HQ in London)
as you point out here it's NOT Anti-War
and it's a hardly a movement, after being run into the ground by sectarian priroities (profile building, brand enhancement, direct action & grassroots organising marginalised, TD's elected, mission accomplished)

Read this critique, still accurate after a decade
http://www.schnews.org.uk/sotw/monopolise-resistance.htm

by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite party Tue Jan 24, 2012 12:16

Revolutions take many forms, they can be of the left or right, and multiple mixes. Ideological jargon is limiting your analysis.

by JoeMc Wed Jan 25, 2012 02:51

The AGM needs to address the issue of Mahdi Al-Harati , the CIA asset and Dublin resident who has been prominent in both IAWM and IPSC circles for some time . Mahdi Al-Harati, who returned to Libya last year and led the band of NTC cut-throats that captured Tripoli for NATO last August , was outed as a CIA asset by the Sunday World last November . see this indymedia article:
:http://www.indymedia.ie/article/100895 .

To date the IAWM has issued no statements regarding its associations with the Libyan “rebel commander” .

Mahdi Al-Harati’s face and bald head can be seen on the left side of the IAWM website’s front page - in the still of the video clip taken at an anti-Mubarack demo held outside the Egyptian embassy on Feb 4 . In the video itself he is wearing a Palestinian scarf and chanting after the IAWM chairperson Richard Boyd-Barrett’s speech . He appears again later on in the video standing next to Freda Hughes from the IPSC as she speaks. See http://irishantiwar.org/

Al-Harati appears in other videos on the IAWM website under the Egyptian video link . The site can be difficult to navigate and the videos are easier to access on YouTube. This one taken by Adele Jazeera (Adele King) from the IAWM steering committee features the CIA spy prominently. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sufSUZ76Kd4&feature=related

by JoeMc Tue Feb 21, 2012 12:11

Three weeks since the IAWM’s AGM was supposed to have taken place, the group has not published a single word about the event on its website. Other articles have been posted , but mention of the AGM has disappeared from the front page of the IAWM site altogether .