PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO INTERESTED INDIVIDUALS
AND LISTS
URGENT REQUEST from NO-IFS
The National Organization for the Iraqi Freedom
Struggles <www.no-ifs.org>
The National Organization for the Iraqi Freedom
Struggles (NO-IFS) is a new anti-war organization that
believes there is an urgent necessity for the anti-war
movement to alter its course in order to stop the war
and end the occupation. We have come together to
oppose the U.S. war in Iraq by supporting the secular,
democratic resistance that is struggling for freedom
both against the occupation and against the political
Islamists and Ba'athists.
We enclose our mission statement. If you agree with
its principles, please support us.
THE USE OF YOUR NAME IN SUPPORT OF NO-IFS IS NEEDED AT
ONCE! It will greatly enhance our ability to
ESTABLISH A NATIONAL PRESENCE WITHIN THE ANTI-WAR
MOVEMENT as quickly as we possibly can.
If you can only support us anonymously, this is also
important. It allows us to count your support, as
"anonymous supporter number X," while protecting your
privacy. In this case, please identify your city or
state.
We cannot emphasize enough the urgency of this
request, or the significant impact your participation
will allow. Every name adds weight to our position.
Any money you can contribute, which will enable us to
coordinate a national mobilization, will be gratefully
accepted.
With your help, we can move this discussion into the
streets.
Please indicate your responses below:
( ) Please add my name to the supporters' list
(affiliation for
identification purposes, only).
( ) Please list me in support, anonymously. Your
city or state: _____________________
( ) I enclose $__________ in support.
( ) Please keep me posted.
Name:
Affiliation:
Address:
E-mail:
Telephone:
NO-IFS
P. O. Box 5
Planetarium Station
New York, N.Y. 10024-0005
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
website: www.no-ifs.org
NO-IFS Supporters
(affiliations listed for identification purposes only)
------------------------------------------------------------------
Kevin Anderson, Purdue University
Stanley Aronowitz, New York, NY
Susan Blake, PeaceSmiths, Long Island, NY
Ronald Bleier
Grace Braley
Lizzie Czerner, NYC
Anne Denise, Tropizmo, Los Angeles, CA
Franklin Dmitryev, News and Letters
Matthew Dodge, Northern Indiana
Kathleen (Kaitlin) Drury, Chicago Committee to
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
Robert Erler, New York Metropolitan Alliance of
Anarchists (NYMAA)
Columbia Fiero, New York Environmental Law &
Justice Project (NYELJP)
Andrea Fishman, The New SPACE
Christina Forras, Student at UTPA and former
intern at WESPAC
Sam Friedman, poet, New Jersey
Urszula Frydman, woman prisoner activist, Oakland, CA
Jay A. Gertzman, Philadelphia
Peter Gorman, writer
Alex Hanna, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
Ann Marie Hendrickson, Moorish Orthodox Radio
Crusade (WBAI), Neither East Nor West
Joshua Howard, National Co-Chair NO-IFS
Peter Hudis, Chicago, IL, News and Letters Committees
Anne Jaclard, National Co-Chair NO-IFS
Tom Jeannot, Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA
Dan Karan, New York, NY
Ron Kelch, Philosopher Activist, Oakland, CA
Andrew Kliman, Pace University
Paul Knopf, New York, NY
Ray Lampe
Robbie Liben
Allan Lummus, peace and justice activist, Memphis, TN
David Massey
Bob McGlynn, founding member of Neither East Nor West
and veteran leading bike messenger activist
Ray McKay, New York, NY
Terry Moon, News and Letters
Judith Mahoney Pasternak, War Resisters League
Andy Phillips, Detroit, MI
Ali Reza, Chicago, IL
Richard S., blog Commie Curmudgeon
Carlos Saracino, Lafayette, Indiana
Jason Schulman, Democratic Socialists of America
Steve Seltzer, New York, NY
Susan Stellar, Detroit Agriculture Network
Vida Tehrani, Los Angeles, CA
Bill Weinberg, National Co-Chair NO-IFS
Steve Weierman, Lockport, IL
Seth Weiss, The New SPACE
Steven Wishnia, writer and musician
Anonymous #1, New York, NY
Anonymous #2, New York, NY
=============================================================
MISSION STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR THE
IRAQI FREEDOM
STRUGGLES (NO-IFS)
The National Organization for the Iraqi Freedom
Struggles (NO-IFS) is a coalition of individuals who
have come together to oppose the U.S. war against Iraq
by supporting the secular, democratic, and progressive
movements in Iraq that are struggling for freedom
against the occupation and against the Ba'athists and
the political Islamists of all stripes, who aim
to impose a theocratic state on the Iraqi people. We
intend to be an organized presence within the American
antiwar movement on the basis of the following
principles:
(1) We recognize the brutality under which the people
of Iraq live, due to a recent history that includes
dictatorship, wars, economic sanctions, and,
especially, the current occupation by foreign troops,
accompanied by
indiscriminate killing and systematic torture. The
presence of these troops has helped to promote
indigenous reactionary forces that often target women,
trade unionists, and innocent civilians. The Iraqi
people cannot be free as long as foreign armies occupy
their land. We therefore demand the immediate
withdrawal of U.S. troops and military bases from
Iraq, and an end to the U.S.-created "democratic
process" that is part of the occupation. We also deem
it necessary to stop the "next war" before it happens.
To this end, we
will help educate Americans as to the causes of
continual U.S. intervention overseas.
(2) We recognize the overwhelming, steadily growing
opposition of Iraqis to the occupation, but also the
sharp divisions within the opposition. Accordingly,
we do not support "the resistance" as such. In
particular, we oppose all forms of outright or tacit
support for the political Islamist and Ba'athist
forces that overwhelmingly make up the armed
insurgency. We reject
all suggestions that non-Western peoples are somehow
less entitled than we are to freedom from oppression
by foreign and indigenous reactionary forces.
(3) We support the secular, democratic, and
progressive freedom struggles in Iraq the Iraqi
women, workers, and youth who have created their own
organizations within Iraq, who oppose both the
occupation and the terrorist reaction, and who fight
for the rights of women, workers, national minorities,
and GLBT people. For instance, we support the efforts
of the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq to
prevent the imposition of Sharia law and to maintain
women's shelters; the struggle led by the Basra Oil
and Gas Workers Union, in defiance of threats and
assassinations, against the
privatization of the industry; the demand for secular
government put forward by the Iraqi Freedom Congress,
a new coalition of several civil groups; and the IFC's
efforts to build a non-sectarian, multi-ethnic society
based on neighborhood assemblies in communities of
Baghdad and Kirkuk. These struggles and their
accompanying ideas are the latest instance of a long
and
rich history of indigenous Iraqi mass movements for
self-emancipation much of it secular, feminist, and
multiethnic that existed prior to the Ba'athist
dictatorship. Although these groups are at present
relatively small and weak, this is no reason to
neglect them. On the contrary, it is a reason to make
our support of them an urgent priority.
(4) We advocate that the antiwar movement as a whole
adopt this approach to ending the war and occupation
active support for the secular, democratic, and
progressive freedom struggles against both the U.S.
occupation and the indigenous reactionary forces. This
type of solidarity is a central way to build and
sustain our movements here. It is by evincing an
unyielding,
principled commitment to human freedom and to people
struggling for freedom not by explicitly or tacitly
supporting a supposedly "lesser evil" that the
antiwar movement and other movements will be able to
grow.
New York City
February 2006
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