Manifesto of the Third Camp against US Militarism and Islamic Terrorism

The present conflict between the Western governments and the Islamic Republic of Iran can have disastrous human, political and social consequences. The terrible experience of Iraq has shown to all the catastrophes that can result from economic sanctions and a military attack. Deterioration of living conditions, economic plight, death, destruction and displacement of people, and increased repression by the Islamic regime, would be some of the immediate consequences of economic sanctions or a military attack on Iran. This policy would unleash Islamic terrorism on a regional scale and escalate it internationally.

We must stand up with all our power to the US government's and its allies' bullying. We must put an end to the crimes of the opposite pole, i.e. Islamic terrorism. We must help the people of Islam-stricken countries to get rid of the menace of Islamic terrorist states and forces. American militarism and Islamic terrorism have brutalised the world. Neither of them has a solution to the present crisis and its resulting problems. Rather, they are themselves the cause of this crisis and its aggravation. Civilised humanity must rise up against both these poles and the suffering that they have imposed on the world. The human and genuine solution to the problem of nuclear weapons, to Islamic terrorism and its horrific crimes against the people of the world, and to the militaristic bullying of the US and Western governments lies in the hands of us people.

Amid all this, the struggle of the people of Iran for freedom holds a prominent and critical place. For years there has been a mass social movement in Iran against the Islamic regime and for liberty and equality. The triumph of this movement over the Islamic Republic of Iran would be a decisive blow to political Islam and Islamic terrorism throughout the world. It would also be a powerful response to the US government's political-military interventionism aimed at regime change, in the name of "exporting democracy", and imposition of reactionary puppet regimes on other societies. The victory of the Iranian people would be a giant step forward and a turning point in the struggle against militarist and Islamic terrorism and in defence of liberty, civilisation and universal rights for all throughout the world.

We, the undersigned, declare:

1- No to war, No to economic sanctions

Economic sanctions and a military strike on Iran will have catastrophic human, political and social consequences. What happened in Iraq should not be repeated in Iran. These threats must stop immediately.

2- No to US militarism, No to political Islam

In the conflict between the state terrorism of the West and Islamic terrorism, the civilised world is not represented. Both sides of this conflict are reactionary and inhuman. They must be driven back.

3- Nuclear disarmament of all states

Neither Iran, nor the USA, nor any other state should have nuclear weapons. The Iranian regime's nuclear project must stop immediately. However, states which have the largest stockpiles of nuclear weapons themselves are not competent authorities to judge on the nuclear capability of other states. Halting the Islamic Republic of Iran's nuclear project is the task of the freedom-loving people of the world, in particular the people of Iran - just as the nuclear disarmament of all states and liberation from the global nuclear nightmare can only be achieved by the struggle of the people of the world.

4- Attacks on civil liberties in the West in the name of 'war on terror' must stop

The governments in the West are violating or restricting civil rights and liberties in the name of fighting the terrorist threat and safeguarding security. Increased surveillance and control of citizens, curtailing freedom of expression and movement and denying the rights of immigrants are some of the commonest forms that this attack on people's rights is taking. This must be stopped. No excuse for an attack on civil rights and liberties is acceptable.

5- We actively support the struggle of the people of Iran against a military attack and against the Islamic Republic of Iran

For 27 years the people of Iran have been fighting against repression, violation of women's rights, sexual apartheid, stoning, torture, execution of political prisoners and poverty and economic deprivation. The people of Iran want to and can determine their own political destiny. Support for the struggle of the Iranian people for freedom, the victory of this struggle against the Islamic Republic and the establishment of people's own direct rule will be a crucial step in standing up to the US government's bullying and a decisive blow to Islamic terrorism in the Middle East and the world.

6- The Islamic Republic must be expelled from the international community

The Islamic regime in Iran must be kicked out of the international community, just like the racist South African regime, for 27 years of crimes against humanity, for the brutal suppression of the rightful struggles of the people, for the execution of over one hundred thousand political prisoners, for establishing a sexual apartheid in Iran and for promoting Islamic terrorism in the Middle East and throughout the world. We call for the non-recognition of the Islamic Republic as the representative of the Iranian people, for the ending of diplomatic ties with it and the closure of its embassies everywhere. We call for the expulsion of the regime from international institutions.

We invite all humanitarian, secular, anti-war and freedom-loving organisations, forces, parties and individuals in the world to sign this Manifesto and join the Third Camp to confront both poles of terrorism.

Initial list of signatories:

Mina Ahadi, Coordinator, International Committee against Stoning, Germany (including organisation).

Homa Arjomand, International Campaign against the Sharia Court in Canada and Director of Children First Now, Canada (including organisation).

Ophelia Benson, editor of Butterflies and Wheels, deputy editor of The Philosophers' Magazine, and co-author of 'Why Truth Matters', USA.

Nazanin Boroumand, Coordinator, Never Forget Hatun Campaign, Germany (including organisation).

Denis Cobell, President of the National Secular Society, Chair of Right to Refuse to Kill, and former Asst. Editor of Hyde Park Socialist, UK.

Jalil Shahbaz, representative of the Defence of Secularism and Civil Rights in Iraq, Germany (including organisation).

Deeyah, singer and composer, USA.

Caroline Fourest, writer, editor in chief of Prochoix, and author of several books, France.

Mersedeh Ghaedi, political prisoner in Iran for 8 years, Norway.

Tommy Gorman, writer, Ireland.

Hakeem Hasan, Secretary of the Health Care Workers' Council in Nasiriyah, Iraq (including organisation).

Reinhard Hascha, Historian, Germany.

Farshad Husseini, Deputy Director, International Federation of Iranian Refugees, the Netherlands (including organisation).

Khayal Ibrahim, Head of Women's Liberation of Iraq, Germany (including organisation).

Parvin Kaboli, Spokesperson of the International Campaign for Defence of Women's Rights in Iran, Sweden (including organisation).

Hartmut Krauss, editor of 'Hintergrund', Germany.

Terry Liddle, Chair of Lewisham Humanist Group, UK.

Azar Majedi, Chair of the Organisation of Women's Liberation, UK (including organisation).

Manochehr Masouri, webmaster of the International Committee against Executions, Sweden (including organisation).

Sean MacAughey, journalist, Ireland.

Reza Moradi, activist of the Young Communists' Organisation (including organisation), UK.

Anthony McIntyre, writer, former Republican prisoner and H-Blocks blanket protester in Maze prison in the 70s and 80s, Ireland.

Kevin McQuillan, former chairperson of the Irish Republican Socialist Party, Ireland.

Maryam Namazie, Writer, Director of the Worker-communist Party of Iran's International Relations, and 2005 winner of the National Secular Society's Secularist of the Year award, UK.

Richard O'Rawe, author of Blanketmen, Ireland.

Liam O Ruairc, Communications Worker, Ireland.

Fariborz Pooya, Director Iranian Secular Society, UK (including organisation).

Mohammad Reza Pooya, editor of Secular, the Netherlands (including publication).

Terry Sanderson, veteran of secular and gay activism, author of nine books with a journalistic career spanning 30 years and vice president of The National Secular Society, UK.

Michael Schmidt-Salomon, Giordano Bruno Foundation, Germany.

Antoine Sfeir, director of Les cahiers de l'Orient, and author of several books such as Les réseaux d'Allah (2001) et Liberté, égalité, Islam: la République face au communautarisme (2005), France.

Issam Shukri, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Left Worker-communist Party of Iraq, Iraq (including organisation).

Bahram Soroush, Public Relations of the International Labour Solidarity Committee of the Worker-communist Party of Iran, UK (including organisation).

Hamid Taqvaee, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Worker-communist Party of Iran, (including organisation).

To add your signature to the Manifesto, email

thirdcampmanifesto@ukonline.co.uk. Moreover, please feel free to publish it.

For more information, the press can contact any of the signatories or Maryam Namazie at

thirdcampmanifesto@ukonline.co.uk, telephone: +44 (0) 7719166731.

Maryam Namazie
BM Box 1919, London WC1N 3XX
England
Tel: +44 (0) 7719166731

m.namazie@ukonline.co.uk

http://www.maryamnamazie.com/

http://maryamnamazie.blogspot.com/

http://www.anternasional.tv/english

http://www.wpiran.org/english.htm

MN
Homepage: http://www.maryamnamazie.com/

Comments

Hide the following 6 comments

'Islam-stricken countries'- hide this disgusting racist article now please

31.05.2006 17:05

It is hilarious to see so many Irish names attached to this dreadful and disgusting piece of racist propaganda. Why? Because Ireland was filled with child rape and torture facilities all the way into the 80's, masquerading as Catholic social care services. And as for the women of Ireland, well the Catholic Church and the Irish state treated them every bit as bad, with the laws against divorce, abortion, contraception, and the ability of males to lock up their ADULT female relatives in the so-called Magdalene laundries.

What one sees in this document is the pot calling the kettle black, with respect to a very nasty christian movement attacking the muslim faith.

QUOTE
Islam-stricken countries
UNQUOTE

There is NO ATTEMPT by the authors to hide their racist agenda, as the above quoted phrase shows. The use of this phrase PROVES that this organisation is no different from the BNP or KKK.
Indeed, the use of the phrase 'Islam-stricken countries' probably makes the article ILLEGAL under UK law.

While waiting for Indymedia censors to follow their own policy, and hide the article for reasons of clear racist content, one can only ponder why the authors feel brave enough to use such nazi-like language. I mean, it hardly needs someone like me to point out the sickening intent of a phrase like 'Islam-stricken countries', using the language of INFECTION and DISEASE. Why do these people no longer feel the need to apply subtlety to their propaganda? Are they that certain that Blair is about to apply the fascists' favourite cure to Iran?

twilight

Don't hide this article!

31.05.2006 18:06

The phrase 'Islam stricken' is inappropriate. However the article makes a reasonable asesment of the two main forces in the world today, western imperialism and nihilistic Islamic terrorism. Both kill innocents and are wrong! Numbnuts, most of the signatories are not in fact Irish but have asian names and so may be Islamic! Muslims are the main victims of Islamism and Iran is a repressive, teroristic and throughly unpleasant regime. The solution is real internationalism not a load of US/UK bombing!

Arthur

Contemptible racist bollocks

01.06.2006 13:51

Half of all terrorist attacks in the world happen on the cano Limon-Covenas, an oil pipeline in Columbia, a majority catholic country. Where does that fit in your racist little scheme?

The main force that uses suicide bombing is the Tamil Tigers, a secular nationalist movement. Where does that fit in your scheme?

"Islam stricken"

This is not just an unfortunate phrase, it is propoganda aimed at demonising another culture. Fuck the whole stinking racist lot of you and your Euston Manifesto politics.

Sim1

The Euston Manifesto and the Third Camp

09.06.2006 14:01

There is a qualitive difference between the pro-imperalist politics of the The Euston Manifesto and the third camp position, there is a recent article in the Weekley Worker which shows this quite clearly, it is an interview with ex-AWL member and Euston Manifesto founder Alan Johnson, an extract follows:

"One of the reasons I have moved politically is because I was writing a book about Hal Draper. In course of that work, it became clear to me how absolutely central to the politics of ‘third campism’ was the notion of the death agony of capitalism, as outlined in Trotsky’s 1938 work. Some of the assumptions of this are: that capitalism is totalitarianism-in-waiting; that it is finished as a viable social system; that it is synonymous with decay; that no reform is possible and it is an integrated system of exploitation verging on the fascistic."

"I think this is wrong. From my reading about the development of capitalism since World War II, it does not fit. But the theory of the death agony is the theoretical basis for a certain form of propagandistic third campism."

"Irving Howe - one-time member of the US Workers Party and International Socialist League, later the editor of Dissent - made the point this abstract third campism only has meaning if you have a revolutionary perspective. I now think that is correct. That revolutionary perspective is, in turn, based on the notion of the death agony of capitalism. It all fits together."

...

"If you look at capitalism as it has developed since 1945, it is nonsense to talk about its death agony. It has been the most explosively productive period in capitalism’s history. I’m not trying to sound like an apologist, but look at the facts. Those countries that have been fully integrated into the world economy have grown much faster than those that have not. Also, it simply isn’t the case that only a thin layer at the top of society has benefited from that growth: the poor also benefit from that inclusion and relationship to the world market."

"I’m not trying to come to too many general conclusions from this. I’m simply trying to state what the statistics tell us about this period. These are facts. It does not mean that we have to make our peace with capitalism. But it does mean the premise of the death agony - that capitalism is terminally ill and the choice is simply between different forms of totalitarianism - is nonsense."

"This is the type of thinking that has informed my personal involvement with the Euston Manifesto."

http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/627/alan%20johnson.htm

The problem with this of course, is that the USA is moving down the path of fascism and that "an analysis that suggests capitalist democracy is only a sham that it is in truth fascism-in-waiting" is actually correct...

All the pieces are in place for a police state... this is a good place to read more on this:

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=theme&themeId=7

Chris

The 14 Characteristics of Fascism

23.06.2006 23:07

The 14 Characteristics of Fascism
by Lawrence Britt
Spring 2003
Free Inquiry magazine

Political scientist Dr. Lawrence Britt recently wrote an article
about fascism ("Fascism Anyone?," Free Inquiry, Spring 2003, page
20). Studying the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini
(Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet
(Chile), Dr. Britt found they all had 14 elements in common. He
calls these the identifying characteristics of fascism. The
excerpt is in accordance with the magazine's policy.

The 14 characteristics are:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic
mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia.
Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing
and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the
people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can
be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people
tend to look the other way or even approve of torture,
summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of
prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over
the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe:
racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals;
communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military
Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the
military is given a disproportionate amount of government
funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and
military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant Sexism
The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost
exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes,
traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to
abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation
and national policy.

6. Controlled Mass Media
Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government,
but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by
government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and
executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very
common.

7. Obsession with National Security
Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over
the masses.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined
Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common
religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public
opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from
government leaders, even when the major tenets of the
religion are diametrically opposed to the government's
policies or actions.

9. Corporate Power is Protected
The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation
often are the ones who put the government leaders into power,
creating a mutually beneficial business/government
relationship and power elite.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed
Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat
to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated
entirely, or are severely suppressed .

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility
to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for
professors and other academics to be censored or even
arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and
governments often refuse to fund the arts.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment
Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless
power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to
overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the
name of patriotism. There is often a national police force
with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of
friends and associates who appoint each other to government
positions and use governmental power and authority to protect
their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in
fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to
be appropriated or even outright stolen by government
leaders.

14. Fraudulent Elections
Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham.
Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns
against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use
of legislation to control voting numbers or political
district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist
nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or
control elections.

Copyright © 2003 Free Inquiry magazine
Reprinted for Fair Use Only.

http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fasci14chars.html (hypertext)

http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fasci14chars.txt (text only)

http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fasci14chars.pdf (print ready)

Lawrence Britt
Homepage: http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fasci14chars.txt

Islam is a religion and not a race

24.06.2006 00:39

Islam & Christianity etc, are religions faiths ideologies not races.
Every religion has a multifaceted array of interpretations, practises etc.
As far as I know most faiths or faction will let you join regardless of you're race.
Why don't you read and try to understand this article?

twopercenthuman