EUROPE: War on Terror Seen as Front for Domination

By Julio Godoy Reprint | | Print |

Julio Godoy

ST. DENIS, France, Nov 13 2003 (IPS) - The so-called war on terrorism is only a U.S. ploy to extend military domination over world resources, leading analysts said at the second European Social Forum.

Speaking at the first plenary session of the European Social Forum (ESF) in the village of Saint Denis some 10 km north of Paris, several speakers denounced the U.S. led war against Iraq as a neo-colonial, imperialistic war.

“The occupation of Iraq is only the military component of a global strategy of U.S.-led capitalism to complement the economic and social battles neo- liberalism is waging against humanity,” moderator Ignacio Ramonet said in his opening speech.

Ramonet’s position was backed by speakers from several countries, including the United States and Israel.

Italian philosopher Antonio Negri spoke of his “immense sorrow for the death of Italian soldiers in Iraq.”

This is the first time since the end of World War II that Italian soldiers have died in a war on foreign soil, Negri said. “It might be no coincidence that Italian soldiers die now because of the decision taken by a government that ignores basic norms of democratic life.”

Negri called the so-called global war on terrorism “a constitutive part of the global domination strategy the U.S. government has designed to guarantee its domination over world resources.”

The Italian philosopher urged the alter globalisation movement gathered at the ESF to constitute a “powerful new left, to organise effective resistance against neo-liberalism.”

Other speakers denounced European efforts to build up its military capabilities.

Greek peace activist Panos Garganas pointed out that the U.S. government spends 360 billion dollars a year on the military. For Europe to match this budget would not bring stability to the world, but would drain resources from the European welfare state, he said.

“We would be paying for the military build-up with a grading down of our pensions and of our social security systems,” Garganas said. “Europe is not different from the U.S. With a powerful military Europe would commit the same crimes as the U.S.”

The speakers at the plenary session on war clarified that while they criticise the U.S. government, they feel united with the people of the United States to stop the war.

“The U.S. people have the capacity to stop the war in Iraq, as they stopped the war in Vietnam 30 years ago,” Ramonet said. “We don’t condemn the U.S. people, we condemn the U.S. government.”

Lou Plummer, a U.S. anti-war activist and father of a soldier among the occupation forces in Iraq called the war against Iraq “useless and counterproductive.” He said: “We U.S. citizens have no right to interfere in Iraqi affairs, we have no job to do in Iraq.”

Plummer said U.S. President George W. Bush loves the people of his country “as much as a chicken farmer loves his chickens.”

Speaking on violence in another part of the world, Israeli peace activist Peretz Kidron called the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories “a tragedy for both peoples.”

Kidron pointed out that more than 1,000 Israeli soldiers and high-ranking military officers are serving prison sentences for their opposition to the war against the Palestinian people.

Conflicts in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia are the subject of several seminars and workshops at the ESF.

The second ESF has brought together some 50,000 delegates from non- governmental organisations from across Europe, as well as guests from other parts of the world to discuss ways of countering capitalist-led globalisation.

The ESF, organised by environmental groups, unions and academic groups opened Wednesday evening with meetings in Paris and in nearby Saint Denis, Bobigny, and Ivry sur Seine.

Among the special guests at the inauguration Wednesday evening were Brazilian activists Sergio Haddad and Candido Grybowski, both founding members of the World Social Forum held so far at Porto Alegre.

An ESF declaration at the opening ceremony urged “the European peoples to mobilise against war and against the neo-liberal economic and social model.”

The declaration said the main objective of the event is to “fight for the creation of a new Europe where social rights are guaranteed, where equality among men and women reigns, for a continent without unemployment and social instability.”

The opening declaration said also that “we (in Europe) have to propose alternatives to counter the processes of the European Union, which sacrifices basic human and citizens rights to commercial and financial benefits.”