<html>
Greetings Friends,<br>
<br>
Please save the date on Monday, May 8, Samir Adil, President of the
Iraq <br>
Freedom Congress will speak in western Massachusetts. (I just received
<br>
confirmation, so I have to hustle to find a location! Stay tuned!)<br>
<br>
The Iraqi Freedom Congress was formed in March 2005 by the <br>
Worker-Communist Party of Iraq. The purpose of the Congress is to promote
<br>
democracy and secularism in Iraq. It's a people's movement -- based
in the student, labor and human rights communities.<br>
<br>
The Worker-Communist Party of Iraq is a Marxist political party in Iraq
<br>
and amongst Iraqi exiles. They opposed both Saddam Hussein and the <br>
American-led new administration. Under the Ba'athist regime, the group
was <br>
persecuted, and so operated primarily in the Kurdistan region, and <br>
overseas in the United Kingdom and Australia (where they were among the
<br>
founders of the Socialist Alliance).<br>
<br>
They are involved in the Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in
<br>
Iraq, the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq and the Union of the
<br>
Unemployed in Iraq. They produce a newsletter called Iraq Weekly.<br>
For more information:
<a href="http://www.ifcongress.com/English/index.htm" eudora="autourl"><font color="#0000FF"><u>http://www.ifcongress.com/English/index.htm</a></u></font>.<br>
<br>
I understand from colleagues that Samir is extraordinary. He was tortured
<br>
during Saddam Hussein’s presidency, but continues to speak of uniting a
<br>
peaceful Iraq.<br>
<br>
I would be happy to make him available for all of Monday and Tuesday days
<br>
for radio interviews and/or school visits. Please call my cell to arrange
<br>
this (413.695.6059). AFSC also welcomes co-sponsors of this
event. All are welcome also to table and distribute
literature.<br>
<br>
The following is a letter Samir wrote to the international community on
the <br>
third anniversary of the US war in Iraq.<br>
<br>
Peace, Jo<br>
<br>
An open letter to the anti war and anti terrorism movement of the world
in <br>
the third anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq<br>
<br>
As the third anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq emerges while the
<br>
society is undergoing the hardest time of its life, the war continues its
<br>
pace in every single street in Baghdad, Mosul, Kirkuk and everywhere else
<br>
in the country. The assassinations and disappearances overtake <br>
politicians, doctors, engineers and scholars. The explosives are taking
<br>
the civilians lives regardless of their ages at every given moment. The
<br>
arrests, raids and torture carried out by the occupying troops are in a
<br>
state of ongoing actions. The poverty and unemployment are wide spreading
<br>
as the security situations slipping off the hands. In addition the puppet
<br>
government and in response to the International Monetary Fund have made
<br>
decisions to make peoples’ lives even more miserable by rising the fuel
<br>
prices and taking steps to gradually eliminate the subsidized ration
<br>
coupon. What we gained after three years of occupation are, the lack of
<br>
social services, power outage, and ethno-sectarian gangs hanging over the
<br>
society. <br>
<br>
Just as we forewarned in the eve of the constitution referendum and
<br>
election at the end of last year, that the US administration attempts to
<br>
get its policies through and continue its occupation after failing to
find <br>
the weapons of mass destruction. We said at that time that this is a US
<br>
game in which the ethnic and sectarian division will deepen and the
<br>
society will slide into a civil war. There you are! Seeing and hearing
how <br>
Iraq is becoming another Rwanda. People are getting murdered on a daily
<br>
bases because of their sectarian identities. <br>
<br>
We were supposed to organize marches in the third anniversary of the
<br>
invasion in Baghdad, Kirkuk and Basra as we announced earlier this month,
<br>
however the current security situation preclude us from doing so. Though
<br>
we will consider different possibilities to express our protest in this
<br>
day where millions of people around the world will march the streets to
<br>
denounce the war and occupation. <br>
<br>
Friends, brothers, comrades and peace lovers all over the world and
<br>
especially in the United States: <br>
<br>
Millions of people in Iraq are looking forward to your movement, to your
<br>
hard work, and to your struggle to bring peace to the world. Without your
<br>
solidarity and support the US inhumane policies will not be defeated. We
<br>
strongly believe that the security and stability will not prevail unless
<br>
the occupation is ended. Therefore we are determined to boot out the
<br>
occupation, and here we are today in spite of the hardship we are <br>
enduring, we save no effort to bring hope to millions of people around us
<br>
and present our humanitarian alternative. <br>
<br>
We work in several regions in Iraq to create secured neighborhoods where
<br>
the sectarian and ethnic hatred have no ground what so ever. We educate
<br>
people how to protect themselves and their neighbors and how not letting
<br>
the hatred get to their unity. We organize their ranks to make their
<br>
places of living safer for the people who run away from the sectarian
<br>
mobs. At the same time we work to bring basic social services to make
<br>
their lives easier. <br>
<br>
On the other hand, through carrying out demonstrations, sit-ins, <br>
gatherings, and media we struggle to end the occupation, forming a <br>
non-ethnic and non-religious government where people are recognized as
<br>
human beings and take their matters on their hands. <br>
<br>
In this occasion, I would like to say: what ended the bloodshed in
Vietnam <br>
are the protests that swept New York, Washington and the rest of the
<br>
world. And we are absolutely certain that ending the chaos and bloodshed
<br>
in Iraq will take place by rising the international protests and
awareness <br>
in the same cities that ended the Vietnamese war. <br>
<br>
Iraq Freedom Congress is part of the humanitarian current you represent.
<br>
With your support by all means only, will prevail.<br>
<br>
Long Live international solidarity <br>
Samir Adil, President of Iraq Freedom Congress <br>
Baghdad <br>
March 14, 2006 <br>
ifcongress@gmail.com</html>