Iraq: Who Are The Insurgents?

By Dahr Jamail
21 December, 2007The Progressive
Dahr Jamail reviews "Meeting Resistance"
"Suppose Iraq invaded America. And an Iraqi soldier was on a tank passing through an American street, waving his gun at the people, threatening them, raiding and trashing houses. Would you accept that? This is why no Iraqi can accept occupation, and don’t be surprised by their reactions," says "The Imam," a young man from a mixed Sunni-Shia family, as he explains the genesis of the insurgency in Iraq and its exponential growth.
He is one of the protagonists that Meeting Resistance presents as unmistakable evidence that the root cause of the conflict in Iraq is the occupation itself. The film has resistance fighters themselves tell their story.
Journalists-turned-filmmakers Molly Bingham and Steve Connors were compelled to film this documentary during their early reporting of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. They used the al-Adhamiya neighborhood of Baghdad to explore and depict an insurgency that has been caricatured by the Bush Administration.
Bingham, who has reported previously from Rwanda, the Gaza Strip, and Iran, was the official photographer to the Office of the Vice President of the United States from 1998 to 2001. She believes that it is imperative to understand the people within the resistance if the United States is to find a solution to the Iraq quagmire.
Bingham teamed up with Connors, a photographer who has covered ten conflicts and is a former British soldier who served in Northern Ireland in the early 1980s. Between the two of them they share thirty-three years of experience in covering conflicts around the globe.
In August of 2003, they began working on the film. The project kept them in Baghdad for ten months, as Connors filmed and Bingham wrote the script.
The eighty-five-minute groundbreaking film focuses on ten members of the Iraqi resistance. Interspersed with stunning footage of the aftermath of car bomb attacks, of frightened soldiers aiming their weapons at crowds of Iraqis, and of burning remains of destroyed military vehicles, the meat of the film is the words of the fighters themselves.
"I felt a fire in my heart," one of them recounts. "When they occupied Iraq, they subjugated me, subjugated my sister, subjugated my mother, subjugated my honor, my homeland. Every time I saw them I felt pain. They pissed me off, so I started working [in the resistance]."
The complex nature of their lives speaks to the intricacies of the Iraqi resistance.
"The Teacher," for instance, is married with three children, and always loathed the Ba'ath Party. "The Wife" is a Shiite woman who works as a courier, carrying messages and weapons between groups when she is not watching her two children. Other members, Sunni and Shia alike, work as consultants, weapon producers, and strategists.
In the spring of 2004, a twenty six-year-old photographer in Baghdad told me in an interview that "this is not a rebellion, this is a resistance against the occupation. The media concentrates on the Americans, and does not care about Iraqis." He had been opposed to the regime of Saddam Hussein, and had even welcomed the U.S. invasion, but had quickly grown weary of watching his fellow countrymen humiliated and killed by the occupiers. Like the people in Meeting Resistance, he had subsequently taken up arms.
Connors understands this frustration toward Western media coverage of the occupation. "A major weapon in the arsenal of a modern military is the use of information operations," he says. "These operations, which often take the form of misinformation or disinformation, are directed as much at the enemy population as it is at our ownpopulation, without whose support the military cannot continue to execute a war."
He aims to counteract this propaganda.
"To place an opponent like the Iraqi resistance in the human space of ordinary people defending their right to self-determination is to challenge our view of ourselves as liberators," says Connors.
While laying bare the motivations of the resistance, the film also does a forceful job of dispelling other myths.
One of the interviewed, referred to as "The Republican Guard" since he was a career officer in Saddam Hussein's military, is a Sunni married to a Shia woman. "The Sunni and Shia are bound together by blood and family ties," he explains. "I am married to a Shia, my sister is married to a Shia. I can’t kill my own children's uncles or kill my wife, the mother of my children."
One scene includes a butcher hacking away at a side of beef. "Iraq is our homeland, it's our Iraq," he says. "If you don't defend your land, you will not defend your honor."
The film recognizes that the resistance has the tacit support of a large percentage of the population, even though the Bush Administration doesn't acknowledge this.
"The Administration chooses to portray people who oppose their will in Iraq as terrorists or extremists who live on the fringes of Iraqi society, isolated from their own countrymen," says Bingham. "Without doubt some individuals involved in attacking U.S. troops are 'extreme' in their beliefs, and they are relentless fighters in the pursuit of their goals, but they are very human and very much part of the social structure of Iraqi society, and move within it. If we removed the context of occupation—in all its forms—from Iraq, most of them would stand down and return to their lives."
Aside from screenings at international film festivals and numerous private and public shows, Connors and Bingham screened the film at West Point, the U.S. Marine Corps staff college at Quantico, and Baghdad.
Bingham feels that the film represented a radically different perspective to the military personnel who viewed it.
"The bulk of the people were taking on new information that was a dramatic paradigm shift for them," she says. "To see their enemy as largely fighting for their homeland because of nationalism and religion, rather than being terrorists, is a big deal."
Dahr Jamail is the author of the recently released book "Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq." Jamail spent eight months reporting from Iraq, and has been covering the Middle East for over four years for the Inter Press Service, The Sunday Herald, Foreign Policy in Focus, and The Independent, among others.

Netherlands-Philippines State Terrorism attacks Filipino Revolutionaries

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Belgium: rail-workers begin first one-day strike

Belgian rail-workers launched a one-day strike action on Saturday in support of their demands for new staff and a pay increase.
The strike was called by the Independent Rail-workers' Union (SIC). Although this is one of the smaller unions, officials predicted roughly 50% observance by workers in Flanders and slightly less in Wallonia. The strike began at 4:30am and ended at roughly midnight when the day's last train was due to run.
In Flanders most lines were running no services with one line running at 25% and the other at 40%. In Wallonia there were delays and cancellations in the morning but by the afternoon apart from one line running at 75% most routes were unaffected. The international TGV and Thalys services were reporting delays of between one and a half and two hours in the morning although management claimed that the service had returned to normal by mid-afternoon.
The main demand is for the hiring of more mechanics and drivers as current shortages are leading to increased stress for workers and excessive workloads.. Workers are also demanding that the pay scales for train drivers and other railworkers to be re-evaluated.
Notice has been given for further strike action in December on the 15th, 22nd and 29th. There are also plans for 24 hour strikes for Christmas Day and New Year's Eve.

Is Canadian Military Aid Funding Assassinations in the Philippines?

by Stefan Christoff

A history of popular rebellions is woven into politics in the Philippines, from the 1986 "People Power Revolution" of street protests that overthrew the US supported dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, to the ongoing left-wing guerrilla insurgency of the New People's Army (NPA). Economic inequality is a central element fueling political turmoil and grassroots rebellions in the country. According to the United Nations, an estimated 45 million people in the Philippines live on less than two US dollars per day. Instability in the Philippines extends beyond the current economic crisis, as a growing international controversy surrounds the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Political killings in the country are on the rise; the Philippines is estimated by Amnesty International to have one of the highest rates of politically-motivated murders in the world. In 2006, Amnesty concluded that "over recent years reports of an increased number of killings of political activists, predominately those associated with leftist or left-orientated groups, have caused increasing concern in the Philippines and internationally." Today, political organizers implicated in movements for social change in the Philippines are under the gun. In Manila, human rights advocates point to aid from the governments of Canada and the US as supporting the governmental-backed targeting and killing of local activists. It is commonly estimated that over 860 people have been killed in acts of politically motivated violence in the Philippines since the beginning of Arroyo's term in 2001, which many local human rights activists attribute partially to a US backed "counterinsurgency" program of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). Union leaders, religious figures, progressive politicians and community organizers have all been targeted in killings that leave a bloody trail pointing to the highest levels of political power in the nation. "Despite major international pressure, Arroyo's government has not halted the ongoing political killings," explains Benjie Oliveros the managing editor of Bulatlat, a popular alternative online news publication based in Quezon City. "The Armed Forces of the Philippines denies that they are involved in the killings, although everyone understands implicitly that the military is directly involved," Oliveros told the Dominion over tea in Manila, "we believe that international media has a responsibility to amplify the untold violence that progressive movements are facing in our country today." In 2007 Philip Alston, the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Human Rights Council, accused the current government of "encouraging or facilitating the killings" through the AFP. According to Alston, President Arroyo and the national military were not only in a "state of denial" about the political killings, but "complicit" in the systematic executions of those labeled "enemies of the state." "In some areas, the leaders of leftist organizations are systematically hunted down by interrogating and torturing those who may know their whereabouts," outlines a additional United Nations report released in August 2007, "they are often killed following a campaign of individual vilification designed to instill fear into the community." "I cannot agree on that," Lieutenant-General of the state military, Alexander Yano, told Reuters news agency in a recent interview, in contradiction to the recently published UN report, explaining "that there could be some rogue elements in the military", but it was "not state policy to allow extra-judicial killings and disappearances." Until today the Armed Forces of the Philippines and left-wing guerrillas of the 10,000-strong New Peoples Army (NPA), remain locked in a decades-old battle for political control throughout the Pacific archipelago. Commonly viewed as one of the longest running guerrilla wars in the world, the battle between state military forces and the NPA dates back to the 1960s, when communist-driven national liberation movements spread throughout Asia. Since 9/11, the ongoing struggle between state forces and the leftist guerrilla movement in the Philippines has been swept into the international "War on Terror," as both the NPA guerrilla movement and also the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), an umbrella organization representing left movements in the country, have been designated as "terrorist" organizations domestically and internationally by western governments, including the US and Canada. Today, the Canadian government delivers approximately $20 million on an annual basis in overseas development aid to the Arroyo government in Manila, mainly through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Officially, the outlined objectives of CIDA’s development strategy in the Philippines is to "foster efficient, responsive, transparent and accountable governance at all levels." Canada's international development agency describes the Philippines as a "functioning democracy with a vibrant civil society," despite the rise in political killings in the country. In addition to Canadian "development aid," Canada's Military Training Program (MTAP) has provided army personnel from the Philippines with training in Canada on "peace support operations, staff training and language" since 1997. According to the Department of National Defense, military personnel from the Philippines participate in training activities in Canada on an annual basis, despite official Canadian policy guidelines barring the government from offering military support "to countries that are involved in armed conflict or whose governments have a persistent record of human rights violations." As Canadian military aid to the Arroyo government continues to flow, the southern Philippines has been labeled a "new front" to the US-driven 'War on Terror' opened shortly after 9/11, in an effort to legitimate the heightened targeting of armed movements rooted in the minority Muslim community by both the Philippine military and US forces stationed in the country, according to human rights advocates. In 2002 the Bush Administration launched Operation Enduring Freedom – Philippines, in which thousands of US soldiers and military personnel were deployed, including more than 1200 members of the United States Special Operations Command, Pacific. Armed Muslim movements such as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the shady Abu Sayyaf group are facing an overt military campaign from government and US troops in this new battleground of the War on Terror." A 2007 feature article in USA Today claimed that in the Philippines, the "US is making progress in war on terror; US special forces have helped kill, capture or rout hundreds of Abu Sayyaf guerrillas." According to one US Army Major operating in the Philippines, "they've been kicking some butt... I think they're close to breaking this thing open." Hundreds of Filipinos civilians are missing or have been killed in the military violence. Those affected by the military campaigns are overwhelming the Philippines' impoverished majority. Muslims in the Philippines are estimated to comprise five per cent of the national population, known locally as Moros -- the term dates to Spanish colonial forces which ruled the islands from 1565 to 1898 -- and widely regarded as playing a central role in the struggles against both Spanish and US colonization. In recent years, grassroots political parties representing minority Muslim communities in the Philippines such as Suara Bangsamoro -- "Voice of the Moro People" -- have built alliances with left movements running in national elections. 100 years ago, US forces battled Moro fighters in the southern Philippines, during the Philippine-American War, in which an estimated one-tenth of the Filipino population lost their lives. Violent US military campaigns in Philippines during the early 20th century are a haunting historical reference point for the current US military role in the southern islands; until today, US forces have never been able to permanently subdue the Moro population. US writer Mark Twain authored a disturbing account of US military action in the early 20th century. "We have pacified some thousands of the islanders and buried them," Twain wrote, "destroyed their fields; burned their villages, and turned their widows and children out-of-doors; furnished heartbreak by exile to some dozens of disagreeable patriots." Silencing "disagreeable patriots" in the Philippines remains a seemingly impossible task today, as modern weaponry and US troop deployments to the Philippines as part of the "War on Terror" manifest echoes of the history of US colonialism in the country. "People in the Philippines today are facing a deathtrap, as the international economic system creates a massive monetary outflow from the country, with over 70 per cent of our annual budget going to payments on our national debt, as administered by international creditors including the World Bank," explains Teddy Casino, sitting congressman for the progressive political party Bayan Muna. "This economic system squeezing the people of the Philippines is a new colonialism, enforced by the Arroyo government through military force," continues Teddy Casino, "a government that is waging a war with US support against the progressive movements in this country with armed violence and repression." A battle of ideas is apparent everywhere you visit in the Philippines, a battle that pits western-backed economic and military policies endorsed by the government of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo against grassroots progressive movements in the country, which according to all indicators are on the rise throughout the nation.

Canada: University teachers vote to strike

An overwhelming majority of teachers l'Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQRT) voted in favour of strike action in support of demands for increased staffing and wages.
Over half of UQTR's teachers participated in the vote, only 25% are needed for the vote to count as legitimate. With many teachers on sabbatical or working at other campuses the turnout was considered by the union to be ver encouraging.
83.4% of teachers voted for a five-day strike action to begin in January. Negotiations are currently on-going. The main demands are for the hiring of new teachers to ease staffing shortages; for a reaonable salary increase and for wages to be equal in the city and the provinces.

Italy: truck drivers strike over conditions

An estimated 90% of Italian truckers have taken to the streets in protest at rising fuel prices and deregulation of the market.
There have been three major types of protests: filtered barrages on motorways; blockades of motorways and rolling barrages. The strike action is planned to last five days and is likely to seriously affect the 70% of Italian freight that is moved by road. According to La Stampa the strike will cost up to €5bn although the FAI union estimate is €2bn.
There are reports that the entire road network between Rome and Milan is at best reduced to a single lane and mostly entirely at a standstill. Border crossings have been entirely blockaded causing tailbacks in France stretching towards Nice. The tunnels at Fréjus and Mont Blanc are being picketed but are currently still open.

UK: Public service strike enters second day

70,000 workers at Jobcentres, benefits offices, the Pension Service and Child Support Agency (CSA) are on strike for a second day over the imposition of a below inflation pay offer.
The two day strike called by PCS members working for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), follows the imposition of a below inflation pay offer which sees the lowest paid receiving increases which take their wage to only 24 pence above the minimum wage and approximately 40% of staff set to receive a 0% pay increase next year.
The 48 hour stoppage will be followed by an overtime ban starting on Monday next week.
Picket lines were once again set up across the country with reports showing that the number of staff staying away from work had grown. Reports included:
* 540 staff a Swansea pensions centre out on strike* Only 5% of staff at work in the Derby contact centre* 90% of staff at the Glasgow benefit centre stayed away from work* Partick Jobcentre open but offering no service to the public* Ramsgate Jobcentre mounted the first picket lines in their history* Support for strike grew across East Anglia* The mail was turned away for the second day running across the country including Newcastle City Jobcentre* Elephant and Castle Jobcentre were turning away members of the public
Commenting, Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, said: "Tens of thousands of members have demonstrated over the last two days that they are not prepared to see their pay cut in real terms or be used as an anti-inflationary tool. Imposing a pay cut in real terms on some of the lowest paid is completely unacceptable and has only served to damage the morale of a workforce battered by job cuts. The disruption of the last two days will only be compounded by an overtime ban beginning next week, unless management start negotiating about a fair pay rise."

France: Student day of action, early reports

A national day of action, with demonstrations and continued action by student strikes was called for today.
Most demonstrations are to take place in the afternoon, with militants trying to convince as many students as possible during the morning to join demonstrations and mass actions.
In Paris at least six lycées (Arago, Victor-Hugo, Fénelon, Jacques-Decour, Gabriel-Fauré and Claude-Monet) are totally blockaded by students, the mass media is focussing on the headteacher of Arago, Victor-Hugo, Fénelon, Jacques-Decour, Gabriel-Fauré et Claude-Monet Arago who sprained her ankle. Reports of student injuries from CS gas, rubber bullets and truncheons are harder to find.
In the Haut-Rhin region there have been reports of clashes between some 300 lycéens and police. The students are accused of starting a confrontation by throwing stones at windows and police lines. At least five students have been arrested, with police firing tear gas grenades at demonstrators.
In Paris Tolbiac is reported to be blocked for the most part and Clignancourt is at least partially blockaded. At the Sorbonne clashes have been reported between striking students and non-strikers. During the anti-CPE struggle there were clashes like this, but this time there has been a deliberate and open strategy by university teachers and presidents of inciting conflict between students.
At Nanterre university on Monday there was a serious attempt by students to storm the administration building after the AG. Students were angered by the behaviour of the university President. Eventually he agreed to banalise Thursday, that is to cancel the day's teaching, to allow students to attend the demonstration. However rather than simply declaring this he 'requested' that heads of department do it, meaning that while some departments, such as English, will close and allow their students to attend the demonstration while others, such as law, will not and students will be considered absent.
The education minister Valérie Pécresse has called on students to end the strikes, 'for the sake of those who have exams', completely ignoring the fact that striking students also want to take and pass their exams. This is a continuation of government rhetoric, treating striking students and workers as wreckers who want to hold customers, other students etc to ransom.