International news in brief

Within a week after President Barack Obama had announced — while trying to avoid a triumphant tone — the end of the U.S. combat mission in Iraq, U.S. troops participated in a firefight at one of the main military commands in Baghdad on Sept. 5.

The announcement occurred simultaneously with an upsurge in attacks, apparently carried out by elements of the Iraqi resistance against the U.S. occupation. Almost all these attacks have been directed at troops or police of the Iraqi puppet government. There have also been mortar attacks on U.S. bases and compounds.

Officials said 12 people were killed in the Sept. 5 attack on the headquarters of Iraq’s 11th Army Division. At least four were soldiers; 36 others were wounded. According to the Baghdad Operations Command, all six insurgents participating in the attack were killed. Most had been wearing explosives. A bomb attack had hit the same military base on Aug. 17, killing 57 young men waiting to join the puppet army. (Sydney Morning Herald, Sept. 5)

The story underlines the fact that the combat in Iraq is far from over, even for U.S. troops. It is interesting that on Sept. 2 the Associated Press sent out a memo to its writers making this point. “To begin with,” the memo read, “combat in Iraq is not over, and we should not uncritically repeat suggestions that it is, even if they come from senior officials. The situation on the ground in Iraq is no different today than it has been for some months.”

Obama’s Aug. 31 statement on Iraq criticized the decision to enter the war there but was friendly to former President George W. Bush. The problem with this contradictory position is that Bush is seen by millions of people, around the world and in the U.S., as a war criminal responsible for causing the deaths of more than 4,000 U.S. troops and at least hundreds of thousands, if not more than a million, Iraqis.

Organizers say 100,000 people marched and demonstrated in 130 French cities, including Paris, Marseille and Lyon, on Sept. 4 to protest the rightist government’s expulsion of Roma people. President Nicolas Sarkozy is scapegoating this part of the immigrant population in an attempt to mobilize reactionary opinion behind his government.

The march of 40,000 in Paris was led by a contingent of Roma (also called “gypsy”) people from France and Eastern Europe. Jean-Pierre Dubois, president of France’s Human Rights League, told Reuters TV, “There are many of us calmly saying that the future of this country is not a return to the old hatreds and racist prejudices.” (Sept. 4)

Large placards reflected a strong position against the Sarkozy government: “Instead of xenophobia and contempt: liberty, equality, fraternity.” (La Haine, Sept. 6)

Roma people, believed to originally have been driven out of India in the 11th century, now live mainly in Europe, with a population there estimated between 4 and 14 million. During the Nazi period in Germany, the Hitler government executed at least a half-million Roma people — more than 90 percent of those arrested.

Sarkozy, who also plans to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62 years and cut other social benefits, is meeting hard resistance from the French working class. Some 2 million workers walked out on Sept. 7 to protest the president’s social policies.

The armed national liberation organization of the Basque people — who live in provinces in both the Spanish and French states — announced on Sept. 5 that it would suspend all armed actions, with the goal of beginning negotiations with the Spanish government that would allow democratic participation in the political process in the Basque region.

The organization ETA, for words in the Basque language meaning “Basque homeland and freedom,” has been fighting for Basque liberation and for socialism for more than 50 years, beginning under the Spanish dictatorship of Francisco Franco. Following the death of Franco and a compromise that allowed the reestablishment of the Spanish king, ETA continued the struggle.

The Spanish state answered with severe repression, not only against the armed fighters of ETA, but against all those who give political support to Basque liberation. The Spanish central government has banned political organizations of the Basque left, such as Herri Batasuna (Unity of the People), from participation in the political process and have jailed many Basque political activists.

The Spanish government of Prime Minister Jose Zapatero has called the current ETA offer to halt armed actions “insufficient.” Despite this initial rejection, some international figures, including Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams in Ireland, have called upon the Spanish government to open negotiations.

Salvador Allende Gossens was elected president of Chile 40 years ago on Sept. 4, 1970. This year the Alberto Hurtado University held an activity, the Seminar “Chile 1970,” to commemorate Allende’s election and the three years of the Popular Unity government. The meetings analyzed the economic, political and social conditions of that period.

Only some in the U.S. social justice movement know that the slogan, “The people united will never be defeated,” comes from the struggles during the Allende government. People’s musician Victor Jara wrote the music and Sergio Ortega the text in the summer of 1973 as an anthem for the Popular Unity government.

That government was overthrown on Sept. 11, 1973, by a bloody military coup organized by the U.S. CIA. The song, interpreted by Inti Ilimani and many others, was adopted by progressive and workers’ movements worldwide.