[Marxism] 2008 Cairo Conference

[Jscotlive at aol.com]

I've posted below my report of the 2008 Cairo Conference, which I attended. 
Apologies to Louis and Les in advance for posting the report in its entirety. 
It will also appear on the UK Socialist Unity Blog and a truncated version in 
the Morning Star newspaper in the coming days.

John

CAIRO CONFERENCE 2008

This year's Cairo Conference was held from 27-30 March in the Egyptian 
Journalists' Union in downtown Cairo, the same venue it's been held at in previous 
years. It's a grand multi-storey building with elevators that arrive once every 
five minutes if you're lucky, though I suspect this was due to the heavy 
demand placed on them during the packed three days of the conference than any 
inherent technical deficiency.  

This was my first time visiting either Cairo or the conference and after the 
experience I would advise anyone who gets the opportunity to attend next year. 
Being able to meet and listen to comrades and delegates from the Arab and 
Muslim world, and internationally, was both edifying and inspiring, and for me it 
certainly provided a lot more clarity with regard to the ongoing struggle 
taking place on the frontlines against US imperialism and Israel's continuing 
siege of Gaza and occupation of the West Bank. The theme of the 2008 conference 
was 'International Campaign against Zionism and American Occupation', and over 
three days multiple plenary sessions and numerous workshops took place on 
themes ranging from the state of the antiwar movement to the nature of the Arab 
resistance.

I was at the conference as part of a six-person delegation from the Scottish 
Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC). We arrived at the conference armed with 
a paper on the current state of the UK antiwar movement, analysing its 
strengths and weaknesses, and offering suggestions for the way ahead.

Also in attendance was a large contingent of Egyptian workers, who were there 
to garner support for an upcoming one-day general strike which is set to take 
place on 6 April. Given the repressive nature of the Mubarak regime, its 
track record of stamping out dissent and strikes, this is a significant 
development, and the charged atmosphere at the conference was reflective of a feeling 
that the Egyptian working class was on the move. The Egyptian authorities also 
thought so, because in the streets adjacent to the conference venue huge 
armoured trucks filled with riot police were sat each day, making sure, we were 
informed by the organisers, that no demonstrations were held outside the venue as 
in previous years.

The Muslim Brotherhood had a significant presence at the conference as well, 
and we enjoyed informal conversations with a number of them. Their analysis of 
the Middle East was very sharp and they were extremely friendly and eager to 
exchange views. Later, I was part of an international delegation invited to 
meet the Brotherhood's leadership at their headquarters on the other side of the 
city, which proved an interesting experience.

Other Arab and Muslim representation came from the Egyptian IS tendency, the 
Jordanian Socialist Forum, a few Nasserite formations, the Islamic Labor 
Party, and Hezbollah in the shape of Ali Fayad of Hezbollah's political bureau. 

As for the international delegations, the largest by far was UK Stop the War, 
comprising in the region of thirty people. Among them were three members of 
the SWP's Central Committee in the shape of John Rees, Alex Callinicos, and 
Chris Nineham. Other members included key activists like John Molyneux and John 
Rose. The presence of so many key figures from the SWP illustrates how 
seriously they view this event.

Notably absent from the conference was George Galloway, currently campaigning 
for the upcoming GLA elections in the UK. He'd issued a statement to be read 
out, but as far as I'm aware the organisers failed to do so. I managed to 
mention his name during a contribution I made during one of the plenary sessions, 
which as you might imagine went down like lead ballon amongst the SWP 
delegates who were sat in the audience given the acrimonious nature of the recent 
split within Respect.

International delegates were also there from Italy, Greece, Spain, Austria, 
France, India, and Canada, and we found common cause in our analysis of the 
international antiwar movement and the Arab resistance with a sizable contingent 
of them centred round a group called Campo Antiimperialista. They'd organised 
an initiative to reach Gaza by bus after the conference ended, the objective 
being to deliver medical supplies and break the siege. Immediately upon hearing 
of the initiative, myself and the other members of our delegation committed 
to it. As for Stop the War, they declined to participate, and indeed accused us 
of being irresponsible, stating that in their view it would jeopardise the 
future status of the conference given the Egyptian government's discomfort at 
the holding of this annual event in Cairo and the likelihood of it using any 
excuse to cancel it. 

That said, the organisers of the conference did not request that we refrain 
from going ahead, and the Egyptians and Arabs whom I spoke to were all 
supportive of the initiative, citing our status as 'internationals' in helping to 
raise the issue and challenge the Egyptian government's current policy of 
complicity with Israel and the West with regard to Israel's ongoing siege of Gaza.

I was struck, and disappointed, by the fact that there were no delegates 
representing the US antiwar movement present at the conference. I'd been hoping to 
meet people from either the Answer Coaliton or the Troops Out Now Coalition, 
but much to my dismay they were absent. This diminishes the conference in 
terms of its relevancy, in my view, as the role of US antiwar movement, given it's 
location inside the belly of the beast, is of more importance than that of 
any other country.  

As I mentioned earlier, the SPSC had produced a paper with our analysis of 
the decline of the antiwar movement, the reasons for this decline, and 
suggesting a way forward. We participated in various workshops, including one that we 
had organised on the issue of boycott. I myself also attended workshops and 
meetings organised by Stop the War and the Jordanian Socialist Party on the 
international antiwar movement and the resistance. In each of the aforementioned 
meetings we came up against Stop the War as we set about challenging their 
analysis of the antiwar movement as the vibrant, broad mass movement that most 
people outside their ranks would agree it is not. At the Stop the War meeting 
myself and Vanesa Fuertes of SPSC had an exchange with both Chrish Nineham and 
Alex Callinicos over the state of the movement, while at the workshop on the 
academic boycott Mick Napier and Sofiah MacLeod of SPSC had it out with John Rose 
when he proposed a limited academic boycott encompassing only those Israeli 
universities and institutions located in settlements.

At one of the main plenary sessions Chris Nineham shared a platform with 
Fayad Ali of Hezbollah. Ali, in his contribution, made a few veiled and nuanced 
criticisms of the antiwar movement - stating that it must find a way to offer 
more support for the resistance, that it has to break down the ideological 
barriers that so far have prevented it from doing so, that it must challenge the 
British government and its role in the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, 
along with its continued support for Israel. He said that the resistance to US 
imperialism and to Zionism must continue in the interests of all oppressed 
peoples in the world.

Then Chris Nineham of Stop the War and the SWP spoke. As you might expect he 
talked about the huge success of the antiwar movement in mobilising 2 million 
on February 15 2003, 100,000 in response to Israel's attack on southern 
Lebanon in 2006, how it forced Blair from office, and so on. 

I had not intended to speak at this meeting, but listening to Nineham and a 
few other Stop the War delegates once the meeting was opened up to the floor, I 
decided I had no choice but to put forward a different view to the evangelism 
masquerading as political analysis they were offering. I began my remarks 
with the premise that the antiwar movement is in decline; that we have to stop 
living on the successes of 2003 and be honest about where we are now and why. I 
stated that it is not enough to offer support for the Arab resistance at the 
Cairo Conference and among ourselves, that this support must be loud and proud, 
included in our slogans and written on our banners. For it is not enough, I 
said, to challenge the British government's policies vis-à-vis the Middle East, 
but we must go further and also challenge the received truths which inform 
those policies. I criticised the last set of official slogans put forward for 
the march in London, suggesting that the only word missing from the end of each 
of them was the word 'please'. A politicised and determined movement doesn't 
ask, I went on to say, it demands. With regard to Palestine, I offered support 
for the international campaign as the way forward. More specifically, I talked 
about the academic boycott as being a transcendental initiative, in that it 
went beyond its material effects and began to chip away at the foundation of 
moral legitimacy upon which this apartheid state rests. 

I then talked about George Galloway's speech at the London demo, during which 
he stated that perhaps up to now the movement has been 'too peaceful and too 
law abiding', affirming that we in the SPSC agreed with him on that. I ended 
my contribution by stating that the movement must change direction, must deepen 
its politics, and must offer its unequivocal support to those who are 
struggling on the front lines against imperialism.

At the end of the meeting I had an interesting exchange with Fayad Ali of 
Hezbollah. He was on his way out of the hall, surrounded as ever by a coterie of 
Stop the War/SWP minders, who throughout the three days of the conference 
seemed intent on keeping him ring fenced away from other international delegates. 
As he passed me and other SPSC comrades, Ali shook my hand, leaned forward and 
putting his other hand up to his ear, said: "I heard you." Then he walked on.

The attempt to reach Gaza took place the day after the conference ended, when 
we set off on a bus for the Rafah crossing. Rather than recount the 
experience in my own words, I have taken the liberty of posting the account of the 
attempt that was carried on the Islam Online website:

Iman Badawi - Cairo 

The Egyptian authorities prevented a delegation, from the "European Campaign 
Against the Siege" from reaching Rafah. and forced them to stop at "Baloza", 
140 km away from Al Arish. 

The delegation consists of 33 Europeans and 5 from other nationalities. The 
Egyptian police prevented them from continuing their trip of solidarity with 
the besieged Gaza suffocating under siege and expressing solidarity with the 
Palestinians. 

The stopping of the delegation has been met with deep dismay, they said such 
step can not be justified nor understood, which urged some people from the 
group to decide to go to Gaza on foot!! Unfortunately, they were stopped by the 
police who confiscated their passports. 

The delegation took some medicine and food as an expression of rejection of 
the blockade, which prevents the entry of food and medicine into Gaza. 

The European delegation, held a press conference in front of the European 
Union Commission in Cairo. They talked about their experience in trying to reach 
Rafah crossing, expressed their rejection of the European official complicity 
in the siege of Gaza and the killing of innocents in front of the world 
without blinking!!

End.

During the expedition, I spoke to the Arab comrades who came along. I was 
struck by their courage, as for participating in this event they said there was a 
strong possibility they would be visited at their homes by the Egyptian 
authorities in the coming days. Maryam, a journalist with Islam Online, said that 
it was only because we were internationals that we managed to get as far as we 
did across the Sinai. She said that if the delegation had comprised Egyptians 
and Arabs only, the Egyptian authorities would not have let it take place and 
those involved would have faced arrest and torture. 

Finally, the international comrades involved in the Gaza expedition held a 
series of meetings, which concluded with a plan to come together as a bloc under 
the rubric of an anti imperialism alliance to coordinate international 
initiatives and intervene at future international events such as the Cairo 
Conference. Further developments in this regard will be revealed as and when they take 
place.

End.

Links:

SPSC paper: 

http://www.scottishpsc.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2293&
Itemid=404 

Campo Antiimperialista: http://www.antiimperialista.org/  

Islam Online: http://www.islamonline.net