Attack on Basra

What is behind the today's attack on Basra by the Iraq government? Assuming that the OK has been given by the US government and with the British longing for resistance in the south to be finally crushed (by someone other that British troops) this is likely to be linked directly to the moves to privatise the oil fields of Iraq. Sami Ramadani provides some early analysis of what is going on in his piece on the Guardian website. BTW most of the comments seem to be analysis-free. What does seem to be the pattern now is for the occuppiers to use one bunch of thugs against another before those thugs are in turn attacked by another. The US/UK spin machines have yet to explain how this method will build either peace or democracy.

Judging for Justice

Find out more about Tony Blair getting his collar felt...it may happen for real one day!

More Pictures of Hands Off Iraq Oil Protest

Thanks to Heather for sending in some more pictures from the London Hands Off Iraq Oil event. There are more pictures on the Hands Off Iraq Oil website.

Hans von Sponeck speech on Iraq Peace Plan, December 2007

Pirates plundering Iraqi Oil

Hands Off Iraqi Oil ran a number of actions up and down Britain on Saturday 23rd Feb. The London action saw 100 pirate protesters marching through London round various of the lairs used by the pirate companies currently involved in the plundering of Iraqi Oil through production sharing agreements.


First off was a visit to Erinys International: a nasty bunch of mercenaries. Currently pitching to provide "security" to the oil companies i.e. using violence to steal the oil that belongs to the Iraqi people.


Next to the BP offices in St James's Square where the high command of this company plan their next move after polluting their way across the north American continent: the theft of Iraq's oil.


The National Portrait Gallery takes money from BP. This is a trade of cultural respectability in exchange for cash. Not exactly a first in the history of Art. The pirates preferred the artistic impulse behind the banner.




The International Tax and Investment Centre lurks behind an utterly anomymous doorway in Duncannon Street just opposite St Martins church. This bunch of nobodies co-ordinates government action to help corner the Iraqi oil industry to deliver it into the maws of the corporate pirates.








Finally on what must have been a starboard reach across the Thames to the Shell Building. Shell has been taking the lead to make sure that British oil corporations get their piece of loot from the oilfields of Iraq.

What now for Iraq?

As Gordon Brown prepares to pull the troops out of Basra, Liz Davies warns that withdrawal is not enough

Liz Davies

Morning Star
Thursday 24 January, 2008

Half the population of Iraq is aged 16 or under. These children have lived their lives experiencing aggressive assaults on their country by the US and Britain.

First, economic sanctions and then military invasion and occupation. Their parents grew up during the Iran-Iraq war when the West funded Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons, which he used on the battlefield against Iran and against the Kurds, and lived through the aborted invasion of Iraq following Saddam's invasion of Kuwait. Saddam's dictatorship was the product of the US-backed Ba'athist coup in 1968.

If ever a country were entitled to reparations, Iraq is it.

Read full article

So the troops may be leaving, but what happens next?

The UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has indicated that most, if not all, UK troops may be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of 2008. But should the anti-war movement be satisfied with that?

Some of us in the anti-war movement have put together a discussion document entitled Justice for Iraq, which sets out a broad range of draft demands aimed at starting to address a portion of the appalling damage caused by the invasion and occupation of Iraq over the last five years. We invite all those who desire a free Iraq to read this and then to get involved in the process of developing these initial rough ideas into a solid campaign platform that we can launch in 2008.