Hat tip to Tim Blair...
Hundreds of Arab and international activists are expected to flock in Cairo on Saturday, December 13, for a two-day popular conference on U.S. hegemony and the foreign occupation of Iraq and Palestine.
| Oh, good. They're in Cairo for Sammy's capture... |
The conference, to be held under the slogan: "Yes to resistance in Palestine and Iraq. No to capitalist globalization and U.S. hegemony", is to witness several workshops and sessions.
| Ahhh... More organized incoherence... |
"Many international and Arab activists from different political parties and affiliations have sent papers that will be discussed during the conference’s sessions and workshops," Abdel-Aziz Al-Husseini, one of the organizers, told IslamOnline.net. Among the prominent participants are veteran British politician Tony Benn, British MP Jeremy Corbyn, head of the Focus on the Global South Center Walden Bello. Staunch anti-war opponents British lawmaker George Galloway and British activist John Rees, are to turn up for the event, organized by the usual suspects international campaign against U.S. and Zionist Occupations (ICAUZO). Also, delegates from several foreign countries including the U.S., Britain, Italy, Spain, Korea, Japan and the Philippines are to join colleagues from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Lebanon, Bahrain, Yemen, Palestine and Iraq, said the organizers.
| So, I wonder what they're talking about at this very moment? |
Unlike the first Cairo conference which was held in December 2002 in the run up to the U.S.-British invasion of Iraq, organizers and participants are keen on having as much independent and popular gathering as possible. "We want to keep ourselves away from businessmen funds and the five star hotels," Wail Khalil, another organizer, told IOL.
| Cash getting a little tight, is it? |
"People should exchange their experiences and to feel of each others. We want it ‘people to people conference,’ " he added with a clear enthusiastic tone.
| "That's because the last time we had some big bucks coming in, this year some of us even had to pay our own way!" |
Most of the participants will be covering the costs of their travel and accommodation, organizers said, adding that volunteers in Cairo reiterated readiness to host some of the guests.
Many observers fear that this conference could not turn away last year’s – which had been characterized with much inflammatory speeches and less action – especially that the occupation of Iraq is now a fait accompli and Israeli aggressions against the Palestinians continue unabated. |