26 December - 1 January 2003
by Ashraf Khalil It took some work, but the conference finally found a venue
It's taken a while, but Egypt's fledgling and beleaguered anti-war movement has
finally started to make its presence felt. A three-day conference held last
week no doubt served as a rallying point and networking opportunity for regional
activists and the impressive list of international names in attendance. But it also presented a bleak example of just how hard any kind of local grassroots movement will have to struggle against a government that seems determined to harass and limit public expression. The conference, organized by the recently formed "Popular Egyptian Campaign to Resist US Aggression on Iraq" signaled the start of what organizers say will be an international campaign combining opposition to a US strike on Baghdad, anti- globalization themes and support for Palestine. "The goal now is simply to continue
until the average citizen feels connected to this issue," said Ashraf Al Bayoumi, one of the conference organizers. "The events themselves are going to
draw people to us."
If there was one overarching theme to the series of speeches and seminars, it was that Iraq, Palestine and corporate globalization were all one issue and that regime change in Iraq will only be the start of an American-backed re- drawing of the Middle East map.
"If Iraq falls, I believe that Syria and Saudi Arabia and Egypt will fall next,"
said Al Osboa editor Moustafa Bakri. "This is the real face of globalization."
The international aspect of the conference was particularly on display. The event
attracted a host of Western peace and anti-
globalization activists, including former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark and former United Nations officials Hans von Sponeck and Denis Halliday–both of whom resigned from high-ranking positions in Iraq in protest over the continuation of UN sanctions. "This war of Bush's is obscene, it's unjustified, it's criminal and I believe it's indictable," said Halliday, the former director of the UN's oil-for-food program in Iraq. Halliday urged those in attendance to avoid defeatism and "channel your anger and your outrage... into preventing further tragedies."
But perhaps the most remarkable aspect of last week's conference was that it managed to take place at all. Conference organizers complained bitterly over the fact that the original site, the Cairo Sheraton, cancelled their reservations
at the last minute because the conference hadn't received formal government
approval. In classic form, the government never said no, but also never said yes–leaving the event, in the words of organizer Soheir Mursi, "in limbo."
After the Gezira Sheraton also declined to host, the conference was left homeless
just 48 hours before the opening session. Finally, the Conrad Hotel agreed to take them in, but not before several high-
profile cancellations among planned international attendees–leaving organizers bitterly talking about adding Sheraton hotels to their boycott list.
When contacted by the Cairo Times, officials at the Cairo Sheraton at first cited
"security reasons" for the pull-out, before eventually claiming that the hotel
was booked solid and simply didn't have room for the event. The high profile
cancellations, some critics point out, could also have come because of allegations
that Iraq helped fund the conference. Organizers maintain that much of the funding came from Egyptians doing business with Iraq.
Once the conference managed to find a home, an eclectic collection of local, regional and international activists gathered to compare notes, plan for the future and, occasionally butt heads over the best way to go about their work. One ongoing point of contention: how to oppose a strike against Iraq without simultaneously serving the interests of the Saddam Hussein regime? It was hard to ignore the fact that a delegation from the Iraqi embassy was on hand, and a comment by Iraqi Ambassador to Egypt Kamal Nigm prompted a furious rebuttal from a German journalist and activist in attendance. The journalist, Harald Schuman of Der Spiegel and author of The Global Trap which has been translated into 24 languages, drew a mixed reaction from the crowd by saying that Arab activists must consistently demand domestic reform in addition to opposing US regional ambitions. "The Iraqi people are also suffering because... their regime is as corrupt as all the others," he said. "You can only be credible if you don't turn a blind eye to your own failures."
Al Bayoumi, however, acknowledged that the efforts of any Arab anti-
war movement is inevitably going to be partly in the interest of the Iraqi government
and other repressive Arab regimes. The final conference declaration made a point of calling for democratic reform in Iraq and across the region, but only if the changes are sparked from within. Democratization "has to be an Iraqi initiative, not because of foreign pressure," Al Bayoumi said. "The priority
is to oppose aggression from outside. I am against [the Egyptian government]
as well, but if it was in a similar situation, I wouldn't hesitate to support it."
Despite the Iraqi presence, conference planners made an obvious effort to keep the event free from ties to any particular government or political movement. Opposition politicians, former Arab government officials and high-profile Muslim Brothers were in attendance, but merely as private citizens. Hamdeen Sabahy, an independent MP and one of the organizers, proudly proclaimed that the event had "no connection to any Arab regime or party."
But that dedication to independence may have caused an unintended side effect– one which highlights just how far local activists still have to go in order to overcome local infighting and forge a coherent popular movement. While the state press completely ignored the proceedings as expected, most of the major opposition papers did the same as payback for the fact that none of the major opposition party leaders were invited to speak. One opposition journalist told the Cairo Times that coverage of the conference was banned "from the top."
Now the challenge for Popular Committee members will be building the conference's
momentum into a series of concrete actions–all while staying on the right side of the law. Organizers are planning a series of public protests, and representatives of the local movement will be participating in a major anti-war demonstration planned for 18 January in Washington, DC. The first offshoot of the conference's efforts was a 20 December rally (see accompanying
article) near the Qatari embassy in Mohandiseen to protest Qatar's agreement to allow strikes against Iraq from Qatari soil. The final "Cairo Declaration" approved by the conference attendees specifies a number of measures.
For starters, what Al Bayoumi calls a "targeted boycott" of all Israeli goods and a selection of American products. However, the declaration doesn't
call for a total boycott of all American goods–something Al Bayoumi says would be impractical and doomed to failure. Instead, the group has chosen a list of consumer goods such as Marlboro cigarettes, Nike shoes and McDonalds fast food as targets for a symbolic boycott. The group is also considering the possibility of sending teams of international activists to Iraq to serve as human shields and observers–a tactic used extensively this year in Palestine during the various Israeli incursions into the West Bank. But in addition to human shields, the international teams would have the express purpose of "inspecting the inspectors." Teams of trained scientists, including nuclear experts, would be sent to shadow the inspection teams and report independently. But perhaps the most immediate priority will be to build on the connections made between local anti-war activists and their international counterparts–especially since many of those internationals come from far more open societies that have already seen anti-war protests on a scale that would not be allowed in the Middle East. "The first goal is to solidify the network we have established," Al Bayoumi said. "We're in the business of bringing people together. That is a goal in itself."
ISLAND OF PROTEST
The first target for the first protest launched out of last week's anti-war conference
in Cairo wasn't the heavily guarded US or Israeli embassies or the nearest McDonald's. Instead, protestors chose a softer target–and one that perhaps enabled them to deliver several messages at once.
The recently-opened Qatari embassy, next door to the Moustafa Mahmoud Mosque in Mohandessin, enjoyed the dubious honor on 20 December. Around 400 protestors gathered on a traffic island in the middle of Gamaat Al Dowal Al Arabia Street to protest Qatar's agreement to allow bases on Qatari soil to serve as a staging point for a US attack on Iraq.
Protestors carried signs asking "Qatar, what's your price?" and speakers such as writer Abdel Wahab Al Messiri and Nasserist parliamentarian Abdel Azeem Al Maghrabi called on all regional leaders to deny access to any Western military force. "We're telling not just Qatar, but all Arab leaders," shouted Al Maghrabi. "We're standing with Iraq and Palestine because of self-
defense. We know our turn is next."
And although the location was a novelty, the government response was purely business- as-usual. As with every protest in recent years, Central Security troops turned out in numbers that probably outnumbered the protestors–forming a shifting arm-locked pen around the proceedings a half- block away from the embassy.
Asked how many people he thought were in attendance, one protestor quipped,
"A thousand if you count the soldiers."
Events on the traffic island proceeded peacefully. Although there was a little shoving around the edges as some protestors attempted to expand into the street, tempers stayed cool and the participants filed out peacefully after a few hours. Unlike the confrontational pro-Palestine student protests of the spring, some protestors showed an almost sympathetic attitude toward the shivering Central security troops. One participant was overheard telling a soldier, "God give you strength and knowledge. You're unfortunate."
The choice of Qatar may be evidence of strategic savvy on the part of the organizers.
With Qatar serving as a proxy for all "complicit" Arab regimes, protestors could, in effect, speak the unspeakable without risking jail time. It's likely that other Gulf states such as Kuwait will soon fall into the protestors'
sights.
Ashraf Khalil Additional reporting by Hani Bishr and Issandr El Amrani
-- Michael Pugliese