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CounterPunch
December
27, 2002
Notes on the
Cairo Conference Against US Aggression on Iraq
by GARY LEUPP
On page A37 of the December 19 Boston Globe
I found a Reuters article under the understated headline,
"Egypt Conference: Activists share their concerns about
war." I had just flown home from Cairo, from this very significant
event organized by the Popular Egyptian Campaign to Resist U.S.
Aggression on Iraq. So I was pleased to see it receive some coverage,
if only in the back pages of the U.S. press.
Speakers at the conference, held December 17-19 and involving
over a thousand participants, ranged from the Muslim devout (many
prefacing their remarks with the words, "In the name of
God, the Merciful, the Compassionate") to the thoroughly
secular. There were Marxists of various stripes as well as pacifists
and at least one European who wanted to make his happiness with
the fall of the Soviet Union crystal clear. Various faiths were
represented, a particular welcome extended to Jews in attendance
by an organizer in her introductory remarks.
Prominent antiwar activists from the west, including former U.S.
attorney general Ramsey Clark, former UN humanitarian director
for Iraq Denis Halliday (from Ireland), and British MP George
Gallaway; activists from Russia and Cuba, and delegates from
Egypt, Palestine, Iraq, Algeria, Lebanon, Jordan and other Arab
and Third World countries spoke against U.S. war plans, as well
as "U.S. Globalization" and U.S. support for Israel.
Legendary freedom fighter and former Algerian president Ahmad
Ben Bella chaired the conference.
Among the issues discussed was the need to organize greater resistance
to war in the Arab and Muslim worlds. Some pointed out the incongruity
of the fact that while organizers in Italy, Britain, and the
U.S. itself have brought out hundreds of thousands opposed to
an Iraq attack, the Arab "street" has been relatively
quiescent. One speaker called for demonstrations of a million
to take place in Damascas, Casablanca and Cairo. Gallaway urged
Arab regimes themselves to organize their populations to powerfully
protest U.S. action.
But you see, this is precisely the problem. How can repressive
regimes in the Arab (or broader Islamic) world that are either
heavily dependent upon U.S. aid, or deathly afraid of U.S. attack
if they should fail to keep the lid on anti-U.S. sentiment, tolerate,
much less officially encourage, resistance to U.S. imperialism?
Consider what happened in Pakistan. In the days after Sept. 11
Colin Powell phoned President Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan and
presented him a series of demands. These included the cutoff
of Pakistani aid to the Taliban, provision of bases for U.S.
military use, and prohibition of anti-U.S. street protests.
In other words: "We demand that you deny the Pakistani
people the rights of free assembly and free speech that the U.S.
Constitution in theory guarantees the American people, insofar
as the exercise of such rights might hamper our plans for war
in your region."
Musharraf agreed on all points, and thus
the military dictator who had seized power in a coup condemned
by the U.S. suddenly won "courageous statesman" status
from the political and journalistic mainstream in the U.S. (As
the bombing of Afghanistan began, CNN's Christiane Amanpour reported
that demonstrations in Pakistan "were smaller than expected,"
failing to mention the fact that such demonstrations were illegal
and participation in them punishable.) Statesman
Musharraf's task is to please the U.S. while retaining enough
political distance from Washington to avoid uncontrollable street
protests that might turn against his regime.
This is Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's
challenge as well; ever since the Camp David Accords, Egypt has
received two billion dollars in U.S. aid (that is, 2/3 the stated
allotment to Israel) as its reward for making peace with Israel
and opening diplomatic ties. Mubarak needs the money, so he plays
ball for the most part, but he also has to deal with the Egyptian
street. This was indicated by the relationship between Mubarak's
regime and the Cairo conference. The latter was organized by
Egyptian academics and financed by local businessmen who believed
that they had received a green light from government to hold
the event. But on the weekend before it was supposed to convene,
invited participants received an email from the organizing committee,
indicating that the Egyptian government, in an "irreversible"
decree, had cancelled the conference. The Sheraton Hotel backed
out of an agreement to provide facilities. I was later informed
that U.S. pressure had resulted in these decisions, but countervailing
domestic and international pressure somehow put conference plans
back on track. Within hours participants who had been told to
seek refunds for their tickets were advised to arrive as earlier
planned in Cairo.
Checking into the newly-selected hotel
along the Nile, the day before the conference was to open, I
asked about it at the desk. The clerks seemed clueless. I tried
another hotel employee manning an information counter; he checked
the computerized roster of hotel events and said there was no
listing of a conference against U.S. aggression on Iraq. But
he had heard something about it. "So it will happen tomorrow?"
"Yes." "It's just a secret?" "Something
like that." Sure enough, the next morning there were beautiful
glossy posters in the lobby announcing the meet, which went off
without a hitch.
At the end of the conference the last
speaker, after listing the businessmen who had financed the meeting,
also dutifully thanked the Egyptian government for rescinding
its ban and allowing it to happen. He didn't, however, explain
the details behind the flip-flop.
* *
*
On December 18, the English-language
Egyptian Gazette, provided to the hotel guests, headlined
a Mubarak warning "against repercussions of striking Iraq
on ME development." It quoted him as saying that "there
will be popular Arab and Islamic sympathy with the Iraqi people"
in the event of a U.S. attack. But the next day the headline
was "No tension in Egyptian-U.S. relations." The article
quoted the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and International
Cooperation Fayza Abul Naga. "Egyptian-U.S. relations are
strong enough to allow leeway for mutual disagreements,"
she stated. "The United States is a superpower whose priorities
would normally differ from the priorities of a regional power
like Egypt." In other words, "We'll understand if you
do what you have to do, and trust that we'll still have that
strong relationship, and get the two billion a year, even if
we don't back you on this one. And maybe even if we allow some
street protests against your war plans."
According to Reuters, "several hundred
people demonstrated outside the Qatari embassy in Cairo"
three days later "to protest the West's buildup to war and
the U.S. presence in Arab states." I understand there are
more events planned. Surely Cairo could and should muster a million
people. But if the warmongering cabal in Washington feels that
Mubarak can't muffle such people, then he'll be on the wrong
side (the side of evil) and likely targeted for regime
change. Several at the conference matter-of-factly noted that
possibility.
References to Gamal Abdul-Nasser, Egyptian
leader from 1952-70, drew some of the loudest applause from the
conference attendees. Ben Bella (leader of the Algerian independence
movement from 1954 and president, 1962-65) was received with
great warmth and enthusiasm. Why are these men---secular, leftist
leaders---so popular? Because having taken on western imperialism,
they are regarded as freedom fighters and symbols of Arab dignity.
Few leaders in the Arab countries today hold such credentials.
Without mass support from below, and obliged, in the face of
a general U.S. assault on Arab independence and dignity unfolding
daily, to yet insist "relations are strong despite disagreements,"
how can they ever acquire such credentials?
* *
*
Virtually all the Arab governments oppose,
in words, a U.S. war on Iraq. But Donald Rumsfeld insists that
"behind the scenes" many are in fact cooperating in
clandestine ways. One would like to think this characterization
is a product of a fevered imagination, of arrogant confidence
that ultimately Third World elites must bend to the carrots and
sticks he offers. But the confidence may prove well-founded,
and the U.S. government may get the cooperation it needs from
regional regimes to attack Iraq. Then the world will see the
strength or weakness of the Arab street. I do not live on that
street, and don't know what to expect from it. But it seems to
me that the powerful, who see geopolitics like a chess game,
in which you move pieces around to capture and destroy your opponent,
are incapable of grasping the fact that ordinary people enraged
by injustice can (if properly organized) upset the board entirely.
That is, the bosses don't understand the power of the street.
They don't hang out in the street, and can't respect or appreciate
it. That's probably a good thing because their ignorance (despite
all their intelligence gathering) may cause them to miscalculate.
Imagine picking up a rook intending to
checkmate the king on the chessboard, and just as you are pouncing
triumphantly, the piece dissolves in mid-air. Imagine counting
on puppet regimes, and suddenly finding them gone. You lose the
game. Those playing this game of war on Iraq deserve to lose,
and the pawns of the world, the potential victims and cannon-fodder
of all nations, deserve to win in this International Campaign
to Resist U.S. Aggression on Iraq.
Gary Leupp
is an an associate professor, Department of History, Tufts University
and coordinator, Asian Studies Program.
He can be reached at: gleupp@tufts.edu
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