- Conference
- 2004 National Delegate Conference
- Date
- 9 June 2004
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes that ten months after the end of the war in Iraq:
1.The head of the Iraq survey group has stated that no Weapons of Mass Destruction exist, forcing the UK and UK governments to hold enquiries into the information on WMDs.
2.
3.The Hutton report is widely seen as having totally whitewashed the government from the accusation of hyping-up of the WMD threat and putting David Kelly’s name in the public arena, and is seen as a threat to the independence of journalists.
4.
5.The Butler enquiry into the lack of WMDs will have no authority as its remit is too narrow, evidence will be taken in private, details not published, and politicians not put under scrutiny.
6.
7.The US’s coalition provisional authority has opened up the Iraqi economy to a full privatisation over the heads of ordinary Iraqi citizens and is denying the right of Iraqi people to elect their own independent government.
8.
9.The US and UK armed forces are operating a repressive policy, killing civilians in legitimate demonstrations, raiding offices of trade unions, and interning without charge nearly 12,000 Iraqis, which has resulted into widespread opposition to the occupation and the US appointed Iraqi governing council.
10.
11.The war against terrorism is being used to attack civil liberties such as the indefinite detention without charge at Guantanamo Bay and Belmarsh prison, and that Home Secretary David Blunkett is calling for secret trials of terrorist suspects to be convicted on the “balance of probabilities”.
12.
13.The cost to Britain for the war in Iraq was £6.5 billion and with an ongoing cost of £40 million a week to support British troops, while public services are being deprived of proper investment.
14.
Further, Conference condemns the collective punishment of the people of Falluja involving wholesale slaughter by US forces, including hundreds of women and children; in particular Conference highlights the use of US snipers to kill civilians, and the use of the hospital as a sniper post. Conference applauds the courage of those who, when access was being denied by the US, risked themselves to get reports out, and of those Iraqi and foreign health workers and volunteers who sought to give medical aid.
Conference believes that the fact that:
a)No WMDs have been discovered totally discredits the reason given by the US and Britain that the war against Iraq was necessary to prevent an immediate threat.
b)The events since the war confirm that the attacks in New York and Washington of 11 September 2001 were used to reassert through wars the economic and political supremacy of the US.
c)The attempt to deal with terrorism through an “unending war”, rather than dealing with the social injustice across the world has instead rendered the world a more dangerous place.
Conference therefore agrees to:
i)Call on the UK and US governments to immediately withdraw all occupation forces, cease the privatisation of the economy and allow Iraqis to hold direct general elections, so as to respect the sovereignty of the Iraqi people on the political and economic life of their country;
ii)Call for a genuinely independent and public enquiry into all events used to justify the war, its conduct and the subsequent occupation, including the humanitarian, political and legal aspects;
iii)Support the formation of independent trade unions in Iraq including for example with gifts of resources, and twinning arrangements;
iv)Call for a halt on the attack on civil liberties, for the release of prisoners detained without charge at Guantanamo Bay or Belmarsh, and for maintaining the freedom of the press to report and comment without fear;
v)Continue working with and supporting the Stop the War Coalition.