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<TITLE>FW: Morning Star: Anti-war movement</TITLE>
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<P><SPAN LANG="en-gb"><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">(Naomi Klein has a fine article in today's Guardian, on war imagery, reprinted from The Nation, but I haven't seen other reports of her Wednesday speech. She gave a press conference here at the NUJ on Wednesday afternoon, trailing the meeting, which no national media attended.)</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN LANG="en-gb"><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">TimG</FONT></SPAN>
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<P><SPAN LANG="en-gb"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">(Friday 26 November 2004) </FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-gb"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">Louise Nousratpour </FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-gb"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">BRITISH REPORT: LOUISE NOUSRATPOUR reports on Naomi Klein's calls for revitalisation and transformation of the movement. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN LANG="en-gb"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">The anti-imperialist author of No Logo and Fences and Windows addressed 1,200 sympathetic listeners at Friends Meeting House in London on Wednesday night. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN LANG="en-gb"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">The packed event was organised by activist groups Iraq Occupation Focus, Jubilee, Voices in the Wilderness UK and War on Want. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN LANG="en-gb"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">National Union of Journalists general secretary and chairman of the event Jeremy Dear introduced Ms Klein to the cheers of the crowd. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN LANG="en-gb"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">She issued a call for the US anti-war movement to stop dragging its feet in the mire of old slogans and reinvent itself as the leader of the fight for "genuine, meaningful" democracy for the Iraqi people. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN LANG="en-gb"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">In a lively and gripping speech that was packed with detail, Ms Klein exposed the intentions of the White House and Downing Street for the invasion and occupation of Iraq. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN LANG="en-gb"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">She spoke of how, every day, the Iraqi people face "brutal repression" from the so-called "freedom" coalition. </FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-gb"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">"It was very clear, from the beginning, that they were going to turn Iraq into a kind of a laboratory for the most radical forms of free-market economy," she noted. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN LANG="en-gb"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">Ms Klein warned that Iraq is being twisted into "the capitalist dream." </FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-gb"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">She drew attention to decisions to sell off 200 state-owned companies in Iraq which, she stressed, is yet another breach of the Geneva convention. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN LANG="en-gb"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">From her visit to Iraq earlier this year, she detailed the Iraqi people's heartfelt stories of "small and large betrayals and how they have lost faith in democracy, a bullet at a time." </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN LANG="en-gb"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">She revealed that "the occupiers have undermined, suppressed, subverted and repressed expressions of genuine liberation and demands of real democracy. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN LANG="en-gb"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">She argued that "it is these acts, more than any others, that explain why Iraq is so consumed by violence." </FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-gb"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">Ms Klein went on to voice her frustration at the US peace movement's failure to make the case for "concrete political demands" to bring real liberation to Iraq. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN LANG="en-gb"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">On the depressing US election result, Ms Klein voiced the anxiety of many on the left, when she stressed the Herculean task of fighting this "supercharged" Bush. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN LANG="en-gb"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">"Bush has won a new sense of total impunity," she warned. </FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-gb"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">"We're seeing a newly defined Bush, a new swagger in the swagger, chock-full of impunity-boosting vitamins and minerals." </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN LANG="en-gb"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">And she threw more harsh criticism at the anti-war movement's activities during the elections, noting that it was too wrapped up in depicting people in the West as the victims of lies, while forgetting the plight of Iraqi people. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN LANG="en-gb"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">"We need to start wrestling with how we can turn an anti-war movement into a pro-democracy movement," she urged. </FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-gb"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">"How we can become the voice demanding genuine democracy and the genuine liberation of Iraq that our leaders promised, but never meant to deliver." </FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Research and Information</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">National Union of Journalists</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Headland House</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">308-312 Gray's Inn Road</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">London</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">WC1X 8DP</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Tel: 020 7843 3745</FONT></SPAN>
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