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The second Cairo Conference met between the 13th and 14th of December 2003, upon the invitation of the Popular Campaign against the aggression on Palestine and Iraq, and with wide participation from all over the world, including prominent international figures and political and trade union activists, intellectuals and writers, journalists and artists, defenders of human rights, from Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe and the United States, and from the Arab World, joined by their common struggle against capitalist globalization, US hegemony, Zionism and Racism and their joint efforts to find more humane and just alternatives to the policies of capitalist globalization in the framework of "A Better World is Possible."
We are struggling against capitalist globalization in view of the outcome of its policies including deepening the gap between advanced and developing countries, intensification of the exploitation of peoples and their oppression, the marginalization of wide sectors of the population of the world, who do not have access to the basic necessities of life, and the threat to the security of the peoples by resorting to war and militarization, all of which leads to the strengthening of imperialism internationally and dependence locally. It also supports the Zionist plan on Arab land as an extension of the Imperialist project in the world and the region.
Participants in the 2nd Cairo Conference observe that the conclusions and convictions they had reached in the 1st Cairo conference, held in December 2002, were the basis for a globally active and effective movement, which spread throughout the world with the participation of a wide spectrum of democratic, peace-loving, anti-war and anti-aggression groups, through the organization of international anti-globalization conferences which reject the aggression on Iraq and express their solidarity with Palestine, and the declarations that developed therefrom such as that of the Tokyo and Jakarta conferences; and the specification of days of solidarity with the Iraqi people. Those days have witnessed popular demonstrations of millions from all nations of the world, the largest of which were the demos of the 18th of January and the 15th of February 2003. Several popular conferences have been organized in different countries of the world condemning the American aggression against Iraq and supporting the struggle of the Palestinian people against Zionist aggression and Israeli occupation.
Although those wide popular actions and activities did not prevent the United States from its occupation of Iraq, they succeeded in the condemnation of that occupation from its very beginning, creating a unanimous international rejection of it and has had its impact in the refusal of many states from participating therein. They have also deprived the US of a wide international alliance. This international popular campaign has also contributed to deepening the contradictions between major capitalist states regarding their position on the aggression on Iraq. The activities of the international mass movements have been successful in the continuous mobilization of popular groups and forces within the framework of their common strategic objective represented in the struggle against the policies of globalization and its militarization and the dangers it carries for the interests of the peoples and the future of humanity. Porto Allegre was a clear and successful example of what can be achieved by joint popular struggle condemning anti-people aggressive policies and their challenge everywhere.
Based on those achievements and seeking more effectiveness in the struggle against capitalist globalization and US hegemony, the 2nd Cairo conference discussed the main issues related to that struggle to draw the lessons learned from last year's activities and to prepare for a more effective confrontation in the coming year. Themes for discussion included the resistance of US hegemony and capitalist globalization, means and ways to support the resistance in Palestine and Iraq, strengthening the role of Arab and International popular movements in supporting the resistance and the meeting the challenges that face those popular efforts in the Arab World.
Discussions have developed into the following basic conclusions:
First: As regards Capitalist Globalization and US Hegemony
Participants in the 2nd Cairo Conference observed that the US continues its efforts to strengthen its control over the world, using its increasing control over the world economy and its major military powers, seeking to prevent the recreation of a multipolar world, which might undermine its increasing influence and powers. It is therefore important for the international movement against capitalist globalization and US hegemony to challenge that tendency, which includes:
- The increase and spread of US military presence in new areas of the world such as the Arab World and middle and Eastern Europe in addition to Afghanistan, constituting a direct threat to the peoples of the world.
- The use of international capitalist institutions in achieving more control over the world economy and the reformulation of international economic relations within the framework of free trade agreements, conditioned loans and aid and the international financial and monetary policies, the creation of new relations that are opposed to the previous tendencies with a view to establish a new economic world order that can achieve justice and allow for the advancement of developed nations.
- The insistence of the US to launch war against Iraq, despite the objection of the UN and its continued use of pressure on the UN to rationalize the war and the obstruction of any security council resolution that may condemn the Israeli aggression on Palestine, Syria and Lebanon, thereby clearly falsifying international legitimacy against the interests of the peoples and creating a double standard in international criteria which contradicts the charter of the UN.
- To impose an American model for democracy on people and to advocate for a false democratic model in the Arab World, which ignores the most basic characteristic of real democracy represented in its social content and its acknowledgement of national sovereignty and the political freedoms and rights that are derived from the will of the peoples themselves and the use of that false democratic proposal to force Arab countries into the acknowledgement of the legitimacy of the racist Zionist entity, to accept its leadership role in the region and to submit to the agenda of neoliberal globalization.
Second: As regards the Heroic Palestinian Intifada against the Occupation
Participants in the second Cairo conference acknowledge that the cause of the Palestinian people started with the issuance of the Belfor declaration in 1917 and the seizure of Arab Palestinian land in 1948 by means of a racist settlement and replacement colonialism led by the Zionist movement. This was completed in 1967 by an occupation of the remaining Palestinian land and parts of other Arab countries, as an extension of the continuous Zionist aggression on the Arab nation. While we differentiate between Judaism as a religion, respected like all other religions, and Zionism as an expanding, Zionist and political movements, participants in the conference condemn the aggressive Israeli policies against the unarmed Palestinian people, which especially targets to:
- Dissolve the resistance of the Palestinian people against the seizure of its land and its occupation through assassination of national figures and leaders, detention of thousands of Palestinian militants, demolition of houses of the martyrs of the resistance, raiding of residential areas and random shooting at civilians.
- Force the Palestinian people to surrender and accept the political settlement that is imposed by the Zionist entity, which does not acknowledge all the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people, foremost the right of return and the implementation of UN resolution #194; through the dissolution of the resistance, the destruction of infra structure and public services, the increase of the daily suffering of the Palestinian people, the worsening of livelihood conditions, the destruction of crops, and the building of the Wall of Racist segregation on the territories occupied after 1967, in addition to ethnic cleansing by uprooting Palestinians from their land.
- To rely on the unconditional US support of the Israeli occupation and imposing crucial changes with a view to create a new reality on the occupied land through the continuous building of settlements and the inclusion of more of the land occupied after 1967.
Participants stress their total support and solidarity with the Palestinian popular Intifada and the right of the Palestinian people to resist the occupation using all means including its right to use military struggle to liberate its land, and its right to reject political settlement projects which do not meet its national need, starting from the Oslo agreement and up to the Geneva Document.
Third: Concerning the Iraqi Resistance of Occupation
Participants in the 2nd Cairo conference stress that the occupation of Iraq constitutes part of a US strategic plan to tighten its control over the world with a view to spread more US power over the world. It is also part of the Zionist plan, which targets the establishment of the greater State of Israel from to Nile to Euphrates, and Israel's direct role in the occupation of Iraq and the use of Israeli weapons by American troops in Iraq, where the US aims to:
- Control Iraq, thereby ensuring a direct military presence in a strategic region impacting the heart of the Old World and control over the production and distribution of the greater share of the oil of the world.
- Reorganize the region in to serve US interests through the co-option of Iran, forcing Syria into submission, and enforcing a political settlement of the Palestinian issue which ignores the totality of the national rights of the Palestinian people, inclusive of the right to return.
- To revive the Middle Eastern project which gives Israel the leadership role in the region to the benefit of the interests of international capitalist monopolies and the spread of cultural patterns that serve the strategic objectives of the US on the expense of the Arab identity. Also, the US pressure to set up a free trade zone in the Middle East to support that objective.
Fourth: The Pursuance of the Struggle to Support the Unified International Front against Imperialism and Capitalist Globalization
Participants in the 2nd Cairo conference agreed that the conclusion and facts they have reached regarding the themes of discussion have strengthened their will to continue the struggle towards building a unified international popular front against imperialism, capitalist globalization and US hegemony, and to extend the activities of that front to the whole world and to ensure the continuity of those activities throughout the year through various actions that are inclusive of wider popular circles. In view of its increasing awareness regarding the contradiction between its basic interests and those of the policies of capitalist globalization, and to achieve that objective they will undertake the following measures:
1- Continue the struggle against capitalist globalization and suggest realistic alternatives to the policies of capitalist globalization in the field of international economic relations that seek secure the interests of the peoples and that are based on more humane and just conditions.
2- Call for the total disarmament in general and nuclear disarmament in particular from the Middle East, through the disarmament of Israeli nuclear weapons, and worldwide in view of the dangers it entails for the future of humanity.
3- Stress the importance of democracy to ensure the effectiveness of the popular struggle against globalization and foreign control. This calls for the right of the peoples to enjoy their freedoms and their basic rights and the building of an effective popular movement that is based on a strong civil society and a free democratic mass media. They also agreed that democracy has a social content, which realizes justice in distribution of national wealth and protects the interests of the struggling classes, which calls for an effective role of the State in the framework of national sovereignty.
4- Stress the importance of coordination with popular movements and groups throughout the world including American organizations struggling against imperialism, Zionism and racism and which challenge the practices of American capitalist monopolies and the neo conservative leaders of the US, which threaten the real interests of the American people. They also stressed the importance of the role played by the American people akin to its role in the Vietnam War, paralyzing the abilities of the ruling circles to continue to threaten the world.
5- Stress the legitimacy of resistance against external aggression and the right of the people to resist that aggression.
6- Continue solidarity with the Iraqi people and its resistance against the occupation forces with all legitimate means including military struggle and helping the Iraqi people in sabotaging the American plan which is based, internally, on a transitional governing council that derives its legitimacy from the occupation and not from the Iraqi people. It is important that this council is not acknowledged, and that we call for an end to the American and British occupation and to work towards reestablishing of Iraqi national institutions on a democratic basis that is formulated by the Iraqi people and its national forces.
7- Continue solidarity with the Palestinian people in order to secure its right in establishing its national, independent and totally sovereign state, and to support the Palestinian Intifada and its right to resist the occupation with all means including armed struggle.
8- Call for an international mass challenge of the real objectives of the Middle Eastern project, including the rearrangement of the region to the interests of United States policies, which works to impose a false model of democracy that, in reality, targets the dissolution of the Arab identity, the spread of cultural consumerist patterns, the acceptance of "Israel's" leadership role in the region and the submission to the agenda of capitalist globalization.
9- Organize the international popular resistance movement against globalization policies and in solidarity with Palestine and Iraq such that it involves certain activities on certain dates acknowledged worldwide, foremost:
- Identifying common dates for international solidarity with the resistance of the Palestinian and Iraqi people, especially the 20th of March in memory of the aggression on Iraq and the 28th of September in memory of the outbreak of the popular Palestinian Intifada.
- Putting the challenge of globalization and the resistance of the Palestinian and Iraqi people on the agendas of international meetings such as the Bombay meeting in India next January 2004.
- Expressing solidarity with prisoners of conscience, supporters of resistance and antiglobalization activists who suffer illegal trials, calling for their immediate release.
- Calling for an end to all non-democratic conditions, especially in the Arab countries, foremost the cancellation of martial laws, exceptional courts and restrictions imposed on political and mass activism.
- Condemnation of Arab regimes who participated and facilitated the American aggression on Iraq and their passive position viz. a viz. the Iraqi resistance against the occupation. Calling upon Arab governments to close all US military bases on their grounds.
- Calling for the boycott of the occupying states and institutions, which support the aggression.
- Refusing normalization with the Zionist entity in all fields and appreciating the position of all popular organizations in the different countries of the world which boycott this entity culturally, politically and economically.
- Mobilize so that the UN readopts its resolution of equating Zionism with Racism and its widespread adoption by all popular organizations in the world.
- Organizing popular trials in several parts of the world for war criminals: George Bush, Tony Blair and Ariel Sharon.
10- The organizing committee is responsible to follow up with regional and international agencies the implementation of those activities, the popular campaign against capitalist globalization and in solidarity with the Iraqi resistance and the heroic Palestinian Intifada, on the basis of the 2nd Cairo Declaration.
Cairo, 14th of December 2003
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