NATIONAL FIGHTBACK CONFERENCE
International guests address conference
By Deirdre Griswold
New York
A nurse from Buffalo, a student from San Diego, an immigrant
laborer from New Jersey--they and hundreds of others listened
closely to a panel of international speakers who described the
state of the struggle in their countries on Nov. 13 at the
National Fightback Conference here.
The audience showed a hunger to learn what is really going
on around the world. Technology has bridged the oceans and
continents, and many workers are keenly aware that what happens
far away impacts their lives profoundly. They also deeply
distrust the commercial media, whose virtual monopoly on
international news means that every liberation struggle gets
presented here in a sinister light.
First up was Kadouri Al-Kaysi, who had spoken just that
morning to his sister in southern Iraq. This was news you
couldn't get on CNN. He passed on the information that Iraqi
high school youth were trying to march to Falluja, the city
under deadly siege by U.S. forces, to bring the people there
medicines, water and food. The audience gave them an emotional
standing ovation.
First Secretary Carlos Lazo of the Venezuelan Mission to the
United Nations started his remarks with a "salute to the Iraqi
comrades" in their struggle for self-determination and
liberation. He warned that the U.S. government is trying to
split the non-aligned countries in the United Nations, and that
it is also trying to create pretexts for intervention in
Zimbabwe, Iran and Sudan. It was a thoroughly internationalist
talk.
News of the Korean people's struggle for reunification came
from Yoomi Jeong, deputy secretary general of the Korean Truth
Commission. She emphasized that decades of U.S. nuclear threats
had forced the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the
north to develop a nuclear deterrent for self-defense against a
"preemptive" attack.
And she reported on a remarkable deve lopment. The president
of South Korea, Roh Moo-hyun, told an audience in Los Angeles
on Nov. 12 that North Korea had legitimate reasons for
developing a nuclear deterrent. While buried in the U.S. media,
Roh's statement sent shock waves through Washington and was
immediately attacked by the pro-U.S. right-wing party in South
Korea.
Struggles in a number of African countries were covered by
Donatien Bukuba, including a possible general strike in
Nigeria-- since suspended when the government banned it but
also lowered oil prices somewhat; France's intervention in
Ivory Coast and the mass mobilizations there against its
colonial troops; and the continued struggle in Zimbabwe for
land and reparations.
Dorotea Mendoza, a leader of the Fili pino women's
organization Gabriela, which gained 100,000 new members this
year, talked of resistance to the U.S. reopen ing its bases
there and the growing repression in the Philippines, where
human rights groups have counted 467 election-related killings.
On an average day, 2,400 workers leave to work abroad; 60
percent of them are women and many are enslaved in the
international sex trade.
Ben Dupuy, leader of Haiti's National Popular Party,
announced that the political forces resisting a puppet
government--imposed last February when U.S. Marines forcibly
removed elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from the
country--are now building an army of national liberation. An
important meeting on the struggle in Haiti will take place in
Brooklyn, N.Y., on Dec. 5.
Colombian labor unionist Luz Ortiz said the situation in her
country is complex as the "Yankee" president, Alvaro Uribe,
continues to free right-wing paramilitaries involved in
tortures and murders of workers and villagers.
In addition to these invited guests, WWP speakers Sara
Flounders, Rebeca Toledo and Dustin Langley contributed to the
discussion. Flounders urged everyone to become "resistance
organizers" in the struggle against the war. Toledo spoke of
Cuba's long struggle against the U.S. block ade and the
movement here to free the five Cuban heroes held in U.S. jails.
Langley talked about GI resistance to the war in Iraq. Workers
World will run excerpts from their talks in a future issue.
Reprinted from the Nov. 25, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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