Call to boycott all trade with the USA, Britain, Australia and their allies.
People all over the world are being asked to impose a five year personal
and collective boycott on the purchase of all goods and services from the
United States of America, Britain, Australia and any of their allies, if
they attack Iraq militarily. This call is irrespective of whether the
United Nations Security Council supports such action or not. It has been
issued by a small peace group, Not in Our Name, from the village of
Samford, in Queensland, Australia. The group has issued the following
statement:
"We are asking all those who do not believe in inflicting capital
punishment and lifelong torture and mutilation on people who are guilty of
nothing, to simply check the source of whatever it is they are about to
buy. If it is from one of these belligerent nations, please put it back on
the supermarket shelf, or fly by another countryâ??s airline, or buy a
different brand of car, or whatever.
We are not in any sense supporters of the government of Iraq. We are
supporters of the right of the Iraqi people to live peaceful and decent
lives, and to not live in constant fear of airborne terrorists, or of any
other kind of inhumane behavior.
The last time Iraq was attacked, a long string of war crimes was committed
by the attackers, and hundreds of thousands of people were killed and
terribly injured. The country was impoverished, and next to nothing was
achieved. The belligerent nations now demanding that Iraq scrap the weapons
of mass destruction it may have, but are quite deaf to all calls to scrap
the weapons of mass destruction they themselves definitely do have, or to
submit to similar UN weapons inspections and destruction themselves. They
are likely to shortly use radio-active foul bombs on the cities, towns and
fields of the country that is the cradle of human agriculture. These will
not only kill children and blow their feet off, they will render some of
Iraqâ??s fields, and parts of its ancient towns and cities, uninhabitable
for all time. Under the patriotic rhetoric of the leaders of the western
belligerents and their supporters, there seems to lurk the thin edge of an
attempt at species suicide.
We wish to see a civilized, negotiated settlement to this problem, and the
stripping of all belligerent nations of their weapons of mass destruction,
by the United Nations.
We are tired of nationalistic and patriotic barbarism.
We apologize to those who are opposed to this and other wars and will
suffer financially from this boycott, but we can, at this late hour, see no
other way to try make the militant people of these countries reconsider
their course. They seem to be impervious to appeals to decency, so perhaps
self-interest will stay them. Probably four billion people on this planet
are opposed to this war. Together, we have considerable purchasing power.
We have once again been sold short in country after country, by our
governments. Lets now use our right to buy what we choose, from whom we
choose, to remedy that. In particular, we are calling for a boycott of any
and all services directly supplied by the governments of the United States,
Britain, Australia and their militant or collaborating allies.
We appeal to all the worlds people who are opposed to the settling of
disputes by the barbarities of war, to help spread this call and to make
this boycott effective. It is issued in defence of the children of Iraq."
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http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=242835&group=webcast