March 20th Statement
of the
Provisional Organizing Committee (Europe)
World People's Resistance Movement

March 20, 2005 marks the second anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq. The Provisional Organizing Committee (Europe) of the World People's Resistance Movement joins with other organizations and millions of people around the world to once again condemn this naked act of imperialist aggression and to repreat its call to all members and supporters of the WPRM and people everywhere to join the protests being organized all around the world.

The invasion and continued occupation of Iraq are but a part of a worldwide imperialist offense being led by the USA whose aim it is to establish US world hegemonie and cement this world domination for generations to come. Under the cover of a phoney "war on terror", the US and its allies have been invading and occupying countries all around the world declaring that no oppressed country has any right to national sovereignty in any form. Given the aims of this offensive it is only natural that it has left a trail of massive death and destruction in its wake.

Tens of thousands died in Afghanistan as the US-led occupiers stormed across the country and replaced the Taliban regime with an Islamic state whose medieval reactionary character is equal to that of the Taliban in almost every respect. This "victory for democracy" has resulted in local war lords ruling over almost all regions of the country enforcing feudal oppression and exploitation on the people of Afghanistan; the Sharia (Islamic religious law) being officially declared the highest law of the land; the most viscious forms of patriarchal servitude continuing to be violently enforced upon Afghani women with its most prominent symbol, the Burka, still obligitory for women throughout large areas of the country; and with US/CIA control firmly established over the central government in Kabul, Afghanistan once again becoming the largest source of herion in the world. The only real change -- aside from herion regaining its position as Afghanistan's chief cash crop -- is that this new set of oppressors is firmly under the direct control of the US itself and US military bases and torture chambers dot the countryside backing up the Kabul regime and serving as a point of departure for further aggression against countries throughout the region.

Just a year later on March 20, 2005 and in open defiance of the desires of the vast majority of the world's people, the US and its allies launched their invasion of Iraq. All the lies used by governments around the world to justify this crime have now been revealed for what they really are. "WMD" no longer stands for "weapons of mass destruction" but rather for "weapons of mass deception". The false claims of a "threat" that Iraq suposedly posed to world peace and of "a war for liberation" have been replaced by the NAKED TRUTH of an imperialist grab for resources and power.

This aggression and occupation have already cost the lives of over 100,000 Iraqi civilians and thousands of additional Iraqi soldiers and resistance fighters. Thousands more Iraqis are being held without almost no rights at all in the occupiers' prisons subject to the most inhuman treatment and tortures. First "Guantanamo" and now "Abu Ghraib" are no longer just the names of distant places, but stand most of all for injustice, degradation and torture: this is the real content of the "democracy" that the US and its allies are seeking to impose upon the world. They are the true symbol of the "common values" that the governments of all the world's big powers repeatedly declare that they share with the US.

While foreign companies scramble to gain control over Iraq's oil and are reaping obscene profits through "re-construction" contracts, the people of Iraq of suffering massive unemployment, increased poverty and remain deprived of basic needs and services like clean water, electricity, health care and personal safety: innocent Iraqis are shot down in cold blood on a daily basis by occupation troops immune from prosecution for their crimes. Whole families are wiped out in seconds only to have the occupation authorities declare these acts to be "in accord with the rules of engagement" -- which themselves have been declared a military secret. The sham election they have held in an attempt to give legitmacy to the world of horror they have created has done nothing to change the reality of occupation.

As the invasion of Iraq began 2 years ago the world witnessed an almost unprecedented public dispute among the big powers. Fearing that a US victory would diminish their own influence in the Middle East and demanding "multi-polar" domination of the world in opposition to "unipolar" US world hegemony France, Russia and Germany were openly opposed to this particular aggression. But as the world's number one tyrant, George W. Bush, visited Europe just a few weeks ago these very same "anti-war" leaders were seen scrambling like children for the "right" to be the first one pictured shaking hands with the US-Tyrant or having the "priviledge" to sit next to him at some opulent banquet. This subservaint display reveals volumes about the real goals behind their opposition to the invasion of Iraq and their continuing refusal to send occupation troops: it is not about opposing aggression, occupation and injustice but a fight over who will get the biggest war booty and the largest increase in strategic power.

But it was not the sharpened dispute among the world's biggest predators that was the most important new development the invasion of Iraq gave rise to. It was the unprecedented movement of millions of people around the world in opposition to this crime that really shook the structure of world power relations. Rulers everywhere were shocked at the speed with which this opposition spread and the size and strength it achieved. Today, with the US threatening to attack and/or invade countries all over the Middle East and other parts of the world -- from Syria to Iran, from North Korea to Nepal -- this is the most important lesson to be learned: only the people can put an end to the occupation of Iraq and to the whole worldwide imperialist offense it is part of. The emergence of this movement and the blows it struck once again revealed the potential the people hold: that when we unite our ranks, rely on our own strength and aim our struggle at the oppressors and their whole worldwide system of exploitation and oppression that is our true common enemy -- we have the power to win!

Occupation is Not Liberation -- All Foreign Powers Out of Iraq Now!

People of the World Unite to Defeat the US-led Imperialist Offensive!

North, South, East and West: Unite the People's Struggles!

POC (Europe)
World People's Resistance Movement