Leigh Hughes, an activist in the socialist youth group Resistance and a member of the Socialist Alliance, argues that anti-war activists must work towards making March 20 a national day of protest against the war in Iraq.
Despite the official declaration of an end to major combat operations on May 1, 2003, the war of blood for oil continues in Iraq.
Even with an occupying army of more than 100,000 troops, the US still cannot crush the Iraqi resistance. Dozens of attacks by popular and well-organised rebels are reported each day, workers' unions have flourished despite being illegal and there have been marches of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis chanting, "No to America, No to Saddam".
But while US President George Bush claims the occupation will "stay the course" to control Iraq's oil, the soldiers on the ground are saying, "our sorry asses are ready to go home".
While now at a low ebb in Australia, in places where it is organised the anti-war movement has shown that it too can "stay the course" for a free Iraq and an end to the war.
In the US, tens of thousands protested late last year. Half the US soldiers in Iraq do not plan to re-enlist and US anti-war groups have called for a global day of action on March 20. In Britain, revelations about the lies that justified the war have shaken the Labour government.
All this is just the tip of an iceberg that could sink the bloody ambitions of Bush, PM John Howard and British PM Tony Blair.
The millions who marched before are still out there, and angry. Will these people march again?
The anti-war organisations of Australia need to plan for the most successful mass rallies possible on March 20 — as the Sydney Stop The War Coalition and the Victorian Peace Network are already doing.
These actions could be used to relaunch a campaign that could end Australia's role in Iraq's subjugation.
Bush and his allies will have no quick military victories to break the movement's morale, but can only try and make the world's people forget about Iraq as a headline issue.
Anti-war groups can't afford to retreat into self-reflection, but must again fight to inform, educate and mobilise people.
Mass rallies, where people act with thousands of other people with the same thoughts as them, give us confidence to keep fighting.
The main benefit of rallies isn't in their ability to appeal to the scruples of politicians who have none, but to give ordinary people confidence and a sense of their own power to change things. We need to sense our ability to make change. We need to convince more people that together we can stop this war.
There is a myth that says, "the war happened even though we all marched, so the fight was futile". The war happened because those few, albeit enormous protests, were not enough, not because struggle doesn't change anything — it is the only thing that ever really has.
We need to point out what we did achieve. We forced the US to hesitate, and to reduce its "shock and awe" plan. Thus, the strength of the resistance in Iraq is at least partly the result of the anti-war movement's strength.
Already a growing number of unions around the world are planning to strike on March 20, including dockworkers in the US and Japan. Anti-war groups have to build and deepen this trend, and give platforms to political parties that unequivocally aim to end the occupation.
This year we have a real opportunity to further the anti-war campaign. People know now that the anti-war movement was right in its claims, and anti-war activists should proclaim this. But this alone will not inspire action.
People also need to know that there is a movement, and that it can win. Anti-war groups and campaigners need to make these arguments in their outreach work, rally speeches and materials.
We should work closer with union militants, community groups and political allies.
We shouldn't put false hopes in those in power in Australia, the US or Iraq to win our campaign for us — nor in their replacements in the Labor and Democratic parties or the United Nations. Their policies will only change if forced to do so by an independent grassroots movement that puts the only demand that will free Iraq, "Troops out now!".
We need to get on the phones again, have stalls in the streets again, put posters on the walls again and begin to march again at March 20 and after.
To stop the war and end the occupation it will require organisation and hard work, but if the anti-war activists don't do it, who will?
Because, after all, this is how we can end the occupation of Iraq.
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, February 18, 2004.
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