US rulers are determined to seize exclusive domination of the Middle East. This is because of the importance of the region and its resources for the US "long war" to control the world. The aim of the “long war" is to prevent the rise of rival imperialist powers as well as crushing people’s resistance and revolution around the world. Both collusion and contention are always present amongst imperialists and recently European powers led by France and Germany have shifted temporarily to defend US moves in the region.

27 February 2005. A World to Win News Service. The US bears a large share of the responsibility for the violence between Shia and Sunni Moslems that has killed so many people in Iraq over the last week, and actually many months.

27 February 2005. A World to Win News Service. Somebody’s knocking at the door! Who is it? If we don’t open up, they’ll break in! Is it American soldiers? They raid homes and terrorize children and the whole family. We’ve seen it on TV. They insult, beat and arrest the men…

"In Fallujah many women were killed. Seventy-two women were killed the same way, shot once in the head, and their only sin was they opened the door to their homes", said a witness at the International Tribunal on Iraq in Istanbul. But the men at the door might be just common thugs and criminals who break in and rape the women. None of this was common before the US invasion. An Iraqi woman at the Tribunal testified that from the day that Iraq was invaded, there has been growing violence against women and systematic denial of their rights. They have been kidnapped, raped and even hunted to be traded to foreign countries for the vast global prostitution network. An Iraqi woman told a journalist, "Kidnapping and raping women has become so widespread that every woman worries that she may become the next victim. Very few women are seen on the streets. It was not like that before the war, no! Many are frightened to step out of their home."

Since the invasion, especially in the southern city of Basra governed by US and British-backed Shia clerics, women have been pressured to cover their heads. Barbers have been warned not to shave men, and tailors have been told how women must be dressed. So many women have been driven out of their jobs, especially young women, that now only 10 percent work. "Honour killings" are increasing at an alarming rate all over Iraq, even in Kurdistan.

After last year’s approval of the new constitution and the establishment of an Islamic regime based on Sharia (religious law), the kind of things that were happening to Iraqi women in day to day life became enshrined in law.

FÉMINISMES MONDIAUX ET TRANSFORMATION SOCIALE

CONCERT et FORUM
Le 3 et 4 mars, 2006
Université Concordia
1455 de Maisonneuve Ouest
(Métro Guy)

MANIFESTATION
8 mars, 18 h (rencontre à 17 h)
Place Émilie-Gamelin
Coin Sainte-Catherine et Berri
(Métro Berri-UQAM)

--> Apportez vos bannières et vos drapeaux!

(SVP faire circuler...)

Stop State Terror Against Maoists In India

Demand Immediate Release of com. Sunil Roy, Gaurav, Kiran & Others

CONDEMN STATE VIOLENCE ON WOMEN AND ON THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT!
EXPOSE AND OPPOSE THE VIOLENCE OF STATE BACKED VIGILANTE GANGS ON THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT!!

The Iraqi people took another wrenching leap deeper into the hell of U.S. occupation in the early morning of February 22. A group of men dressed in police uniforms set off bombs that destroyed the golden dome of the Askariya shrine in Samarra, one of the most important mosques for Shi’a Islam. The reactionary attack on Askariya in turn triggered more reactionary violence aimed at the mosques, political parties, and ordinary people associated with Sunni Islam, the main rival trend to Shi’a.

On February 14, Walid and I and several others left Houston well before dawn to make the seven-hour drive to New Orleans. That afternoon, Walid and I walked through the deserted St. Bernard Development -- the largest housing project in the city. Walid grew up and lived here until he was a young man. Between then and now, he has been to Angola Prison farm, learned a skill as a cabinet maker, and lived in California for several years. He was forced out by Katrina and now lives in Houston.

The Communist Party of the Philippines condemns in the strongest possible terms Gloria Arroyo's "State of National Emergency". The CPP further calls on the Filipino people to resist and struggle ever more vigorously to overthrow Arroyo's new fascist dictatorship.

En tant que Canadiens/iennes aimant la paix, nous dénonçons le plus fermement possible le décret imposé par la présidente des Philippines, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, instaurant l'état d'urgence au pays.