War Against War

(translation by Laura)

It is often said that the first casualty of war is truth. All of the media - CNN, other international chains, and our local press monopolies - are demonstrating as the war intensifies the correctness of this saying. The media are actors in this war and not only out of political commitment to governments. Some, as businesses, are even linked to arms manufacturers. But the truth sifts through the wall of lies they construct. Our brave comrades who have stayed in Iraq try to "put faces and names on the victims". Thousands of bombs have fallen on Baghdad, one of the cradles of civilization. There is an undefined number of dead and the figures are only estimates. Stories are contradictory. According to CNN and its followers Baghdad is deserted, but according to members of the international brigade report, "Every morning, after each attack, the people of this city come out on the street again and they still smile at us, raising their fists or making the victory sign, friendly and confident in spite of everything. They ask us that we transmit their will to resist even when it seems an unimaginable miracle before the war machine that blooms over them." Even the spokesman of the British army, Lt. Colonel Chris Vernon, was obliged to recognize that the coalition has been "two days stalemated at Um Qasr, where Iraqis dressed in civilian clothes battle street by street using guerilla tactics."

The imperial machine, with its careful and tidy image, cannot hide either the horror of the war or the resistance of the people. And one of the main reasons that they cannot is that, for thousands and perhaps millions of people in the world, the bombing is not a simple and innocuous video game seen on TV. In the US the movement against the war has reached enormous dimensions. To get an idea it is enough to know that in only one day there were 7000 arrests across the country, and the mobilizations continue. In Spain, thousands of people marched to the parliament, pushing aside the police and chanting, "You don't, you don't, you don't represent us!" According to an Indymedia Madrid report: "A large number of initiatives proliferate throughout the city: highway blockades, work stoppages, peace camps, spontaneous demonstrations, etc. prevent business as usual...” In Athens yesterday a combative mobilization faced off the police and attacked the US embassy. Situations like this are occurring around the world. It has been said many times that this is a war against all of us, that no one is neutral and that we face a battle of imperial powers. This is a war that in Palestine serves as cover while Sharon constructs a 150 km wall to enclose the Palestinians, which Bush takes advantage of to launch new attacks in Afghanistan, and which in the whole world means increasing control, repression, and militarization of social conflicts. It is a war in which, like it or not, we are participants. It is up to us to continue the mobilizations, demonstrations, and the boycott to stop this massacre and defeat the imperial plans of Bush, Blair and Aznar. The Indymedia international network is working intensely minute by minute, informing the entire planet about the different protests.

(to discuss building solidarity with argentinian social movements contact eleusa [at] riseup.net)