Log in
The success of the 6th Cairo Conference and the Cairo Forum for Liberation 2008, despite all the challenges and difficulties, is, by all measures, an important achievement.
The objective of the two events was and continues to be linking between three struggles: the resistance movements in Palestine, Iraq and Lebanon; the political groups, foremost the Islamic, Arab Nationalist and socialist, struggling against colonialism, hegemony and despotism in the Arab world; and the antiwar and anti globalization movements worldwide.
The previous year has witnessed major challenges on each of the three fronts.
The Palestinian people and resistance face a frightening siege imposed by the Zionist occupation, with a total US support to puppet Arab regimes and against a background of massacres and starvation policies committed by the Zionist army. Despite all, the Palestinian resistance continues and the Palestinian people continues to subvert and defeat all plans and attempts seeking its liquidation and the liquidation of its cause.
The Iraqi resistance is facing insistent attempts by US colonialism and its allies to divert its path from national independence towards a sectarian war, which will only benefit the occupiers. However, despite the attempts at its liquidation and fragmentation, the Iraqi resistance continues to cause the occupying US arms and its allies major losses every day. The brutal aggression committed by the Iraqi army, supported by the occupation forces, against the Mahdi army in the South is further evidence that this is not a sectarian war between Sunnis and Shiites, but a war between agents of the US occupation and those who refuse that occupation.
The Lebanese resistance has achieved a historical victory against the Zionist enemy during the summer of 2006 and has disrupted all US and Zionist plans for the region. Still the Lebanese resistance continues to face major challenges represented by the Zionist preparation for a new war, of which the assassination of militant martyr Emad Moghneyya was but the beginning, in addition to the attempts by some Lebanese political forces and Arab regimes to disarm the resistance and besiege and isolate Hezbollah, which has shown that the more the sacrifices it has to pay and the tighter the siege, the more its determination, commitment and strength in facing its enemies, both inside and outside Lebanon.
As for political forces and groups struggling against despotism, colonialism and Zionism in Arab countries, they are facing repeated campaigns of oppression and violence by the Arab regimes, foremost the Egyptian regime, whose prisons are overflowing with honorable, militant detainees. The real forces of opposition have been prevented from participation in local council elections, already rigged in favor of the ruling party. We have witnessed the rise of new working class and social movements, which expressed themselves through strikes, sit-ins and demonstrations and which have enforced themselves on the Egyptian political map through their struggle against policies of oppression and impoverishment exercised by the Egyptian regime under the name of "economic reform" in favor of a corrupt alliance between the political authority and big businessmen. This struggle cannot be seen in isolation from that against despotism, colonialism and Zionism. It is the beating heart and the force of life, which will settle the outcome of that struggle.
The rise of that movement has left its mark on the form and content of the Cairo conference and forum. The halls and the forums were full, not only with students, activists and intellectualism, but also with hundreds of workers, peasants and civil servants, in a clear demonstration of the link between the suffering of the Egyptian people by the hands of the ruling regime and the suffering of the Palestinian, Lebanese and Iraqi people by the hands of colonialism and Zionism.
As for the global antiwar movement, which managed to organize massive demonstrations and continues to play a central role in the exposure of the barbaric nature of the war and colonialism, to pressure for bringing to an end the US occupation of Iraq, as well as lifting the Zionist siege on Gaza and to mobilize against a new war against Iran or Syria, it also faces the challenge of the media and propaganda campaign inciting world public opinion against Muslims as a pretext for war and US hegemony.
The success of our conference, which is by far the largest in terms of number of participants and the most diverse in its activities, once again reinforces our conviction that solidarity is our means to support the liberation of Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon, the liberation of Arab peoples from despotism, corruption and exploitation and the liberation of the whole world from war, globalization and capitalism. This solidarity and this movement will not retreat; it will continue to expand and gain in depth and strength until we attain our victory.
Still we all have to work towards the translation of our slogans into concrete action plans, capable of impacting the world and achieving our objectives. We believe that central to our missions in the coming few months is an effort to achieve the following objectives:
1- Lifting the siege off Gaza and activation of boycott campaigns of the Zionist state and its institutions, world wide, as well as the US, in addition to complete support for the use of all available means of resistance of that brutal enemy. This can range from raising legal cases against Zionist and US officials to the legitimate armed resistance against foreign occupation and racist regimes, as well as rejection of all settlement plans which violate the basic rights of the Palestinian people.
2- Challenging all forms of US colonialism with different means and support of the resistance until liberation of Iraq.
3- Exposure and challenge of US plans to expand the war to Iran, Syria and Sudan.
4- Solidarity with the Lebanese resistance against any new Zionist aggression and against all attempts at its disarmament.
5- Immediate release of all political detainees in Egypt, foremost organizing committee members engineer Ali Abdel Fattah and Dr. Ahmed Ramy and putting an end to the farce of military trials of the Moslem Brotherhood.
6- Undertaking solidarity actions with the workers and social movement in Egypt and supporting the struggle of the Egyptian people against exploitation and despotism.
