Middle East Solidarity Issue 12 • Autumn 2019 • £3 Photo: TimPhoto: Lüdemanns OUTSOURCING FORTRESS EUROPE
Sounding Rebranding Towards a Clampdown Sowing the the alarm for Sudan’s brutal new Algerian after Egypt seeds of solidarity militia republic? protests hunger in Iraq A fragile lifeline for How the EU’s migrant Samir Larabi analyses Over 3000 thrown How US agribusinesses migrants risking the management schemes the state of the popular behind bars after viral profited from the Mediterranean crossing empowered the RSF movement 1 videos spark anger occupation ‘Church Street’ by Rayan Elnayal This project by British Sudanese artist and architect Rayan Elnayal explores ideas on multicultural identities, hybridity and the third space and how literary magic realism has been successfully used by novelists to tell unconventional narratives.
Elnayal’s exhibtion of digital prints, A Magical Realist Afrabia was on display at P21 Gallery in September 2019.
Go to www.p21.gallery to find out more Middle East Solidarity is backed by by backed is Solidarity East Middle
2 About us
vents in the Middle East often Edominate the news, but it is war, sectarian violence and western military intervention
Illustration: AshrafIllustration: Omar which grab the headlines. Middle East Solidarity shows a different side to the region. We report on resistance to repression and imperialism from Morocco to Yemen, covering the strikes and protests which are missed by the mainstream media. We carry the voices and stories of the women and men who are still fighting for bread, freedom and social justice to new audiences. Contents Our practical guides to campaigning and resources for activists aim to build a stronger Cover story Analysis solidarity movement. 7 Outsourcing Fortress 19 Syrian refugees face Middle East Solidarity is a Europe: sounding the alarm disaster as Turkey prepares joint project of MENA Solidarity for solidarity for war Network, Egypt Solidarity Thom Tyerman and Kashef recount Erdogan’s plans to create “safe Initiative and Bahrain Watch, and the work of Alarm Phone, a project zone” in northern Syria aim to is supported by funding from UCU, which helps save lives of migrants destroy Kurdish autonomy. PCS, NEU - NUT section and a number of Trades Union Councils crossing the Mediterranean. and local trade union branches. 9 Libyan ‘coastguards’ who First person Find out more here: smuggle people www.menasolidaritynetwork.com Julie Henri investigates how EU 5 ‘The regime interfered in every aspect of life at www.egyptsolidarityinitiative.org policies have benefitted Libyan www.bahrainwatch.org pirates and people-smugglers. university’ Editors: 10 Rebranding Sudan’s brutal Dr Iman Hamza reports from the Anne Alexander, Sheila Amrouche, militia campuses in Sudan. Luke G.G. Bhatia, Jad Bouharoun, The Rapid Support Forces played a Richard Donnelly, Marwa Jalal, key role in the genocide in Darfur. News reports Julie Henri, Alice Finden, Ameen Marwa Jalal analyses how the 4 Sudan’s new government Nemer, and Miriam Scharf. outsourcing of Europe’s border courts Gulf support regime empowered them. Publisher: 5 Thousands jailed in Egypt Middle East Solidarity after street protests over Publications, c/o MENA Solidarity, Features corruption PO Box 71143, London, SE18 9NZ 13 Is Algeria on the road to a Email: [email protected] second republic? Campaign reports Design: Ten months into the uprising, Anne Alexander and Ben Windsor Samir Larabi assesses the balance 20 Solidarity with Algerian of forces between the people and political prisoners the state. 21 DSEI arms fair’s “death 15 ‘They take our flags: that’s market” challenged why we continue to march’ Sheila Amrouche interviews Campaign guide Algerian teacher activist Henia 22 No more campus collusion Sadi about the struggle for justice. with al-Sisi’s regime 17 Sowing the seeds of hunger in Iraq How US agribusinesses reaped the Back page rewards of occupation and war: 24 What is driving Iraq Olivia Palmer investigates. protests?
3 News | Sudan
Top: Demonstrators march in memory of Hassan Uthman, killed during the 3 June massacre. Left: Rail workers march, Atbara. Right: Solidarity protest calls for the release of political detainees | Photos: SPA
SUDAN and in the sit-ins are still including the current long before any progress hungry for change and social chairman of the Sovereignty had been made towards Mourners justice. Council, General Abdelfattah civilian participation in the Funerals for some of the al-Burhan, and his deputy, transitional government. demand victims of the massacre on Mohamed Dagalo, known Further weeks of protests justice for 3 June, when the Rapid as Hemedti, who commands and a two-day general strike Support Forces and army the RSF. brought Qusay Hamedto martyrs cleared the sit-in outside the and hundreds of thousands Army General Command People who risked of others repeatedly onto fter seven months in Khartoum mobilised their lives on the the streets to demand real Aof protests and mass thousands in early October. change. strikes a coalition of civilian Hundreds of mourners barricades and in Al-Burhan and Hemedti opposition parties sealed chanted “justice for the the sit-ins are still toured the capitals of the a deal with the Sudanese martyrs” as they gathered to hungry for change. Gulf, and their ally, Egyptian military in August. remember Qusay Hamedto, dictator al-Sisi in late May, The power-sharing whose body was so badly The same week that and returned home to launch agreement has led to the injured that he was only Qusay was buried, al- the RSF against the sit-in, creation of a joint civilian- identified from his DNA. Burhan travelled with killing over 100, many of military Sovereignty Council, Marches and Prime Minister Abdalla whose bodies were dumped and a new government demonstrations have also Hamdok to Saudi Arabia in the Nile. led by economist Abdalla called for an independent and UAE to discuss details There is no question that Hamdok, while a transitional judiciary and the prosecution of a multi-billion dollar aid Sudan’s economy badly legislative assembly has also of those responsible for the deal promised by the Gulf needs support, but will the been agreed in principle. killing of protesters. states to help rebuild Sudan’s mourners who want justice Yet the mass movement Carrying out those “stability and prosperity”. for Qusay agree that his which made this agreement demands would put the The joint Saudi-Emirati blood is a price worth paying possible has not gone away, military partners of the offer was first made in for the Gulf states’ gold? and the people who risked new civilian government in April, barely ten days after their lives on the barricades the frame for investigation, the fall of El Bashir, and Read more at www. menasolidaritynetwork.com
4 News | Egypt
EGYPT 57 released without charge.” Forced disappearances Thousands are chillingly common. Thousands are in jail: arrested according to some estimates as protests there are 60,000 people detained right now in defy regime Egypt, Mina told us. “The disappeared include men, undreds demonstrated women and children. Our Hin Cairo, Alexandria, colleague Ibrahim Izz-al- Damietta, Mahalla, Suez Din disappeared on June and several other cities 11 and he is a human across Egypt on Friday 20 rights defender. There are September in a rare show of thousands like him.” public defiance against al- Sisi’s authoritarian regime. Thousands are in Videos circulated on jail: according to social media showing crowds chanting against the regime. some estimates In Suez, where clashes there are 60,000 erupted with police for a people detained second night on Saturday 21 September, crowds could be right now in Egypt heard chanting “There is no Lawyers representing God but God, and al-Sisi is detainees have themselves the enemy of God.” become targets of Protesters who gathered repression. in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Award-winning human the epicentre of the 2011 rights lawyer Mahienour el- revolution, could be heard Masry was seized by police using the familiar slogan: Images of al-Sisi as a gangster have spread online | Photo: revsoc.me on 22 September. According “The people want the to reports from a friend who downfall of the regime.” financial support to the came to power in 2014, he was speaking to her on the The trigger for the families who needed it the has been systematically telephone during her arrest, protests was a series of most.” cracking down on every and several eyewitness, videos by whistleblower social and political structure Mahienour was bundled into Mohamed Ali, a former in the country,” explained a microbus by plain-clothed military contractor, now Viral videos Mina. officers on the afternoon living in Spain. accused al-Sisi of “That includes civil of 22 September after Ali accused al-Sisi, his building palaces society, social movements attending the prosecutor’s son, and other senior figures while ordinary and parties. He has been office to follow up on arrests in the regime of corruption systematically closing down of alleged protesters. by diverting public funds people struggle to these movements, attacking Leading opposition into their own pockets, feed their families freedom of assembly and activists have been arrested, building luxurious palaces expression, freedom of including senior figures in and villas while ordinary According to government political participation. the Karama (Dignity) Party Egyptians struggle to feed statistics, one third of the Thousands are in jail: and the Bread and Freedom their families. population live below the according to some estimates Party, as well as academics Frustration at rising poverty line. there are 60,000 people such as Professors Hassan inequality and poverty was The protests on 20 detained right now in Nafaa and Hazem Hosny of one of the reasons behind September seemed to have Egypt, because they tried to Cairo University. the protests, Egyptian caught the regime off-guard. exercise those freedoms.” Well-known activist Alaa human rights activist Mina Al-Sisi scrambled to respond “According to our Abdelfattah was among Thabet told Middle East directly in a speech at a statistics at least 3120 those arrested as the Solidarity. youth conference organised people were arrested clampdown widened. “President al-Sisi has by the regime. between 20 September and been applying extreme But as expectation of 2 October, 2447 of those Turn to page 22 for austerity measures for the further protests mounted appeared in front of the more on how you past three years under the over the following week, prosecutors, 113 confirmed can support political label of economic reform and the machinery of repression as remaining disappeared, prisoners in Egypt and removing the social safety swung into action. 94 reappeared after read more online at www. nets which were providing “Since President al-Sisi disappearance, and at least egyptsolidarityinitiative.org
5 First person | Sudan ‘The regime interfered with every aspect of university life’ excluded students who opposed it. The government and Students and university staff the Ministry of Higher Education intervened in every detail of the curriculum while some of the subjects were played a key role in Sudan’s geared towards brainwashing students. revolution and are continuing There is no funding for academic research. The Ministry of Higher Education has negligible funding, to organise and push for real and they control the topics researched. If you agree to work on those topics you will get some justice and democracy, writes of this funding, but if you want to research anything Dr Iman Hamza else you will get nothing. Moreover, there are no rewards for the research staff whatsoever, which creates l Bashir’s regime created what was called the little incentive to pursue a career in research given the E‘Higher Education Revolution’, which extended poor economic conditions in the sector. higher education horizontally by opening a lot of new Students and staff have been organising themselves. universities with minimal infrastructure. Some of these They tried to gather and strike. They struggled greatly universities were rented houses: there were no libraries, and have exposed themselves to the aggressiveness of no proper lecture rooms, no offices for staff. Sometimes the regime. Many of them are in jail. At last however, all the staff of the university were in one room. they have made some gains. All the organisations Even tables were lacking, or 2 or 3 people would be began secretly. They used WhatsApp and Telegram for at one table. Staff had nowhere to sit and nowhere to meetings to avoid the violent response of the military contact students. Even the basic living conditions and and the security services. minimum needs of students were not met. It was the strikes which really got rid of the regime: The regime also invented a body responsible for they mobilised everyone. People going into streets, student accommodation and assistance, but this was raising their voices and striking had a huge impact. targeted at the students supportive of the regime who The deal signed by the military council which agrees were members of the ruling National Congress Party, to a new government with civilians is not entirely what while other students did not receive the same benefits. we want. The agreement is full of faults and we still The imposition of the Arabic language on the think that the military council doesn’t want justice to be universities prevented students from strengthening achieved. Unless we keep a close eye on the agreement their knowledge of English as a second language. and scrutinise it, it might put us back again on an The regime introduced subjects with the aim of undesirable path. We will put on pressure to make brainwashing students, to make them feel positive sure the agreement leads to a democratic transition, about the regime. otherwise we will go back to the streets again! Those subjects would take up most of the first year, The role of all activists, and not only students and thus affecting the scientific content of the staff is to keep an eye on what’s happening curriculum. When these new universities and try to help in getting things in the opened, the needs of the labour market right direction. were not considered, and as a result People benefiting from the former students suffered from unemployment. ruling National Congress Party are Staff were also victims of the Higher still there. However, with our help and Education Revolution. They suffered poor alertness, the path of the revolution will working conditions, wages were not paid at go where we want, and we will be there to market rates, which meant that lecturers correct it along the way. had to work in more than one university to fulfill their living needs. Dr Iman Hamza is a leading activist in The regime and its Higher Education the Sudanese Association of University Ministry interfered with every aspect of Teachers. Find out more online about how university life, leaving no room for staff Sudanese university staff are organising at or the university itself to be independent. www.menasolidaritynetwork.com The regime sacked staff members and
6 CoverOpinion story | |Alarm Syria Phone OUTSOURCING FORTRESS EUROPE
Refugees climb to safety aboard a volunteer-run Sea-Watch rescue boat, April 2018| Photo: Tim Lüdemanns
an accident but by design. Europe’s At Europe’s deadly Sounding restrictive visa system shuts out most the alarm for of the world’s poorest people and those borders thousands in need of asylum by denying them die every year. solidarity access to legal routes of free movement. Instead, those escaping war, the Meanwhile in Thom Tyerman and terror of authoritarian regimes, displacement, famine, poverty and Libya and Sudan, Kashef exploitation, are forced to take long and “better migration dangerous journeys to find safety and a liveable life. management” eath is a daily occurrence at The details of people’s journeys DEurope’s borders. Conservative are as complex and multiple as their schemes funded by estimates in 2017 placed the number of reasons for embarking on them, many deaths since 2000 at 33,761. spending years living in transit. Moving European states are The Mediterranean Sea is one of North from West Africa through Niger benefitting brutal the world’s deadliest borders and to Algeria and Morocco, or from the divides some of the richest and most Eastern Horn of Africa up through militias. secure regions on the planet from the Sudan to Libya or Egypt, most have poorest and most insecure. This is not risked their lives crossing the Sahara
7 Feature | Alarm Phone desert before reaching the shores of borders that seek to make this freedom North Africa and making the decision impossible. to get onto an overcrowded and poorly Struggles for freedom of movement repaired boat. But before they even are intimately bound up with struggles reach the Mediterranean they will have for freedom against state tyranny already encountered multiple European and economic inequality that exist borders. everywhere but have been particularly Over the last decade, European prominent in the uprisings of the last border controls have been increasingly decade in the MENA region. externalised and outsourced to Many people who called the Alarm countries in the MENA and Sahel Phone in distress over the years have regions. Under the auspices of the got on that boat to escape the civil war Rabat and Khartoum Processes, in Syria that began with a revolution summits in Valletta 2015, Malta 2017, against the brutal Assad government, or and Sharm El-Sheikh 2019 saw the EU the racist persecution of the Sudanese provide billions of Euros in exchange regime against the populations of for neighbouring states to implement Darfur and Nuba Mountains, or the restrictive border control policies aimed degrading horror of the Libyan camps. at disrupting, detaining, and deporting At the same time, the struggle for migrants before they even reach Carola Rackete, captain of the Sea-Watch freedom of movement, for ‘no borders’, 3 rescue vessel was arrested by the Italian Europe’s borders. authorities | Photo: Sea-Watch website is a struggle against a political and Close collaboration has been economic system that maintains the further developed through bilateral perpetuates the physical and structural wealth and power of Europe in part agreements, such as the Italy-Libya harms migrants face even as it turns its through stabilising and upholding Memorandum of Understanding 2017 back on them. authoritarian states in the Middle East which designated assigned primary Set up 5 years ago, Watch the Med and Africa. responsibility to the so-called Libyan Alarm Phone is a transborder network Therefore, struggles for national Coast Guard as the primary responsible of activists from different countries in democracy and rights, regional agent for border control and search and Europe and beyond that is committed peace and prosperity, and global free rescue in the Central Mediterranean. to the freedom of movement for all. It movement are all part of the same Given the conflicts and human rights operates a 24 hour emergency distress project of building another world. abuses documented in many of these hotline for people who are crossing the Alarm Phone has members across the partner countries, a huge amount of Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. Mediterranean, West Africa and Europe. violence is involved in implementing The Alarm Phone helps to coordinate As part of the project, acts of solidarity the EU’s borders. The Libyan detention their rescue by alerting the European with diaspora communities working centres offer a stark picture of this coastguards and then monitoring the to claim and defend civil and political violence, where people are incarcerated situation until we can confirm they rights are vital. In order to facilitate this by Libyan militias in inhumane are rescued. When confronted with EU Alarm Phone organises and participates conditions and subject to routine abuse, state inaction or collusion with push- in a variety of networks. torture, and extortion. backs, we raise the alarm through social An example is We’ll Come United, a In the Mediterranean itself, media to apply pressure and demand a network Alarm Phone members helped European states have moved from rescue is carried out. to establish and participate in, which a policy of search and rescue, to We also raise the alarm in a more assists in networking exiles, diaspora abandonment, to what can be seen as general sense through regular reports communities and European activists, the institutionalisation of refoulement documenting the daily violence going particularly in Germany, with refugee (the forcible return of asylum seekers to on at Europe’s borders and their and migrant communities in various a country where they risk persecution) structural injustices. countries that are involved in political which is a violation of international Alarm Phone develops its vision and societal struggles to improve human rights law. and argument for a world without refugee and migration policies. Since the EU-Turkey deal in 2016 borders out of direct action in the We show unconditional support for established automatic deportations Mediterranean. We stand in solidarity the Sudanese revolution and Sudanese for ‘irregular’ migrants and those with with all those who struggle to enact community activists in Europe, and rejected asylum claims, we are now also their freedom of movement despite the stand in solidarity with our friends in seeing EU states coordinate with Libyan the Kurdish and Afghan communities. and Moroccan authorities to have Alarm Phone strongly criticises migrant boats ‘pulled-back’ to North European-Egyptian cooperation in the Africa and their passengers arrested. fields of migration and security, as well At the same time, solidarity has as the use of development discourses been increasingly criminalised, with in order to open up the state for civilian NGO rescue ships denied entry international capital. to European ports, or else impounded However, Alarm Phone’s interests and their crew charged under anti- extend beyond solidarity to influencing smuggling laws. public policy. The organisation In this way, the EU actively facilitates information exchange,
8 Feature | Alarm Phone and Libya
sharing the experiences of exiled activists in order to communicate successes to other activist groups. With other networks, Alarm Phone recently organised the transborder summercamp (TSC) in France, which was attended by approximately 556 activists from across the Mediterranean. Initiatives such as this have real connective and productive impacts on refugee and migrant solidarity actions, helping to develop in the exchange of ideas and experiences, and inspiring those taking part. The TSC brought activists together from across the MENA, Sahel, Central and Western Africa, and Europe to share and learn from each other’s Messages of solidarity at the Transborder Summer Camp | Photo: courtesy Thom Tyerman struggles. Discussions made links between struggles against corporate of the Egyptian regime. Each search simply fighting for documentation, resource extraction in central Africa, and rescue boat that docks in Italy is a but against a system that makes us mass displacement, authoritarian challenge to rising European fascism undocumented immigrants”. The regimes in North Africa, and the and its partners, and the Libyan Alarm Phone is one part of this EU’s increasing security-border militias that profiteer from death and wider project of building networks of infrastructure. These conversations torture. These links were highlighted solidarity and resistance. reminded us that we need to develop for us during the camp when we common strategies which link our received news of the occupation in This article expresses the individual different struggles across and against Paris, organised by the gilets noirs, views of the authors and not the borders. Fighting deportations in a movement of undocumented official position of Watch the Med Germany is also fighting the terror migrants. Their message: “We are not Alarm Phone.
of our capacities – just can’t … If I were and establishing a Maritime Rescue The Libyan a smuggler, no one would be able to Coordination Centre. The overall ‘coastguards’ stop me”. programmes of the European Union’s The documentary also shows that support to migration management in who smuggle Bija knows who the other smugglers Libya are worth over €20 million. are, and ensures he brings the Yet, this same Libyan Coast Guard people migrants trafficked by other smugglers which received millions of euros in EU back to the Libyan coast to be able to funding, are in fact human traffickers Julie Henri smuggle them himself later. themselves. Amnesty International’s Originally, the European Union’s Libya’s “Dark Web of Collusion” 2017 missions were aimed to save lives report revealed that seven of the 72 ollowing years of civil war since and disassemble human trafficking migrants interviewed by Amnesty Fthe fall of Gaddafi in 2011, networks in the North African region. International confirmed that they Libya is controlled by thousands of However, since 2016, following had been stopped by the Libyan Coast rival militias. At the same time, the disputes among European member Guard while at sea and were allowed European Union’s policies have turned states around receiving incoming through after their smuggler was from rescue to outsourced border migrants, the Italian government identified as someone who had paid for control. refocused its priority on reducing safe passage of his boats. Abd Al-Rahman Milad (aka Bija) is the number of crossings through In 2018 following campaigns by the leader of a militia in control of part greater collaboration with the Libyan human rights organisations and media of the Libyan coastline and was paid Coast Guard by providing them with investigations, Bija was sanctioned by European governments to patrol “training, patrol boats and other by the UN for human trafficking. the Mediterranean in search of “illegal equipment, and financial and other Other militias continue to cash in on migrants”. support”. the EU’s migration policies, however, A 2017 Libya Experts Panel report In January 2017 alone, the by running camps where migrants identified Bija as a key smuggling European Union announced the “rescued” by the Libyan Coast Guard figure in the region. Isobal Yeung, a immediate allocation of €1 million are detained. This is a vicious circle Vice News reporter, interviewed Bija to the Libyan Coast Guard and Navy that enriches smugglers, maintains back in October 2017, who is well as well as a grant of €2.2 million human trafficking networks in Libya aware of his position of power in this under the Regional Development and and puts displaced people’s lives at context: “They are accusing me of Protection Programme in North Africa risk. smuggling. The government – with all
9 Feature|Feature Sudan| Libya
RSF troops on parade| Photo: RSF via Facebook The Khartoum council decided to engage in the According to the Mixed Migration discussion. Just a month after the Centre, a research body which is part Process and the conference in Khartoum, in November of the Danish Refugee Council, all are 2014, a document called the Rome entitled to protection under human rebranding of Declaration was adopted at the rights law. Sudan’s brutal Ministerial Conference. Yet instead of working on The Declaration saw 37 African and strategies to help these groups of militia European countries agree to cooperate “mixed migrants”, the governments in tackling human smuggling and of these countries signing the Rome the social and “human” effects of Declaration decided to represent “mixed migration”, through providing them as enemies and a threat to social Marwa Jalal technical assistance and improving harmony. national capacity building. Indeed, it is this approach of rebranding vulnerable groups as stablished in 2014, the Khartoum The European Commission hazardous that has allowed for EProcess was originally called the such an initiative to take place. The EU-Horn of Africa Migration Route has taken the tragic African Commission and European Initiative. It was an outcome of the phenomenon of people Commission have taken the tragic African Union Regional Ministerial being forced to leave their phenomenon of helpless people being Conference on Human Trafficking and forced to leave their homes and expose Smuggling in the Horn of Africa which homes and rebranded it as themselves to all forms of danger and took place in Khartoum, the capital of a crime. rebranded it as a crime. Sudan. The focus – and funds - have shifted The conference’s claimed aim was to The term mixed migration mentioned from helping the vulnerable and weak, explore solutions to human trafficking in the document refers to cross-border to ensuring they can only leave their in the Horn of Africa and establish a movements of groups of people who countries through routes approved by coordinated action plan between the may have a variety of legal statuses the same oppressive regimes they were member states in the region. - some may be refugees fleeing trying to flee. However, the outcomes of the persecution, others may be victims of Even funding for projects aimed conference took a different route trafficking, while others are trying to at tackling hunger and disease were when representatives of the European escape unbearable living conditions. brought under the umbrella of the
10 Feature|Feature |Sudan Libya
Sudan’s regions have suffered decades of war and genocide | Photo: Enough Project
Khartoum Process, in effect making several times in the media about the Sudanese border guards and police humanitarian aid conditional on role of his militia in protecting Europe. was also “halted” in mid-March, “improved” border control. Through He went as far as to demand a ransom German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, the EU Trust Fund for Africa, 217 in the form of monitoring equipment revealed. EU officials said that this million euros have been allocated to and drones or he will open the borders project had stopped because it required projects in Sudan since 2015. to the asylum seekers.” “the involvement of government Although this was the same regime Although the EU continues to deny counterparts to be carried out.” which had instigated a genocide in that the RSF has benefited directly and In mid-March, the EU’s Darfur, a civil war that contributed indirectly from the Khartoum Process, “government counterparts” in Sudan to the separation of South Sudan and it is hard to see how else to describe were mainly busy trying to repress a got Sudan listed as a state sponsor the way in which the militia has risen mass, peaceful movement which was of terrorism, the EU governments to prominence within the Sudanese mobilising hundreds of thousands continued to work with El Bashir’s state. of protesters across the country to security apparatus on “migration demand “freedom, peace and justice”. management.” EU governments Dozens had already been killed and This involved direct support to the hundreds injured by police and the Sudanese police, which is notorious continued to work with RSF militia. Although El Bashir was for brutal treatment of refugees, El Bashir’s security removed from power in April by his and collusion in the rise of the Rapid apparatus on “migration own generals, the attacks on protesters Support Forces militia. continued. On 3 June, RSF troops were Under the leadership of Mohamed management,” despite the among the armed men who smashed Dagalo (also known as Hemeti), the regime’s role in genocide a sit-in in Khartoum, killing over 100, RSF brought together and relabelled injuring hundreds and raping dozens the Janjaweed militias which had Pressure from Sudanese activists of women and men. terrorised Darfur on behalf of the finally forced the suspension of some This mass movement for government a decade previously, and Khartoum Process activities in Sudan revolutionary change boosted then tasked by Omar El Bashir with earlier this year. These included campaigns against the Rapid Support protecting Sudan’s borders in 2016. the relocation of a key intelligence Forces, challenging the rebranding As Sudanese researcher Dr Amgad centre, the Regional Operation Centre aimed at hiding their past crimes. Eltayeb points out, the RSF’s role was Khartoum (ROCK), to Nairobi. Social media was an integral part not exactly secret: “Hemiti bragged A German-led project training of the activists’ campaign, which hit
11 Feature| Sudan back at covert efforts by the regime to influence public opinion and boost the military rulers’ support. Sudanese youth groups sent emails and held meetings with senior managers at Facebook and Twitter demanding that all content praising the Rapid Support Forces be removed and their pages and accounts deleted. These posts and pages were part of a campaign orchestrated by an Egyptian company which used fake accounts to increase pro-military content on the internet. Facebook recently announced that it had shut down fake accounts and pages related to Sudan that were linked to this Egyptian company, New Waves. Sudanese activists spoke up in parliaments across Europe and the UK to demand action
A Sudanese activist, who asked to Partners in crime: El Bashir (c) and Hemedti (r) | Photo: RSF via Facebook remain anonymous, sent emails to Eva Perez Gonzalez, Secretary to the head of make the Irish public aware that the the Horn of Africa Unit at the European Khartoum Process is funded through Commission. Another encounter their taxes in order to put pressure on happened on Twitter between the EU through public opinion”. various Sudanese activists and the Although these campaigns have been European Commission spokesperson successful in the short term, as long for humanitarian aid and crisis as anti-immigration discourse prevails management protesting at his vague in Europe, institutions such as the and ambiguous replies. European Commission will continue The European Union’s Facebook page to invent methods to use taxpayers’ was also raided by Sudanese activists money to extend European borders regarding their complicity in abhorrent further south. Meanwhile new laws are acts against protestors in Sudan. making life harder for migrants who Sudanese activists spoke up in manage to reach Europe. parliaments across Europe and the London protest against the 3 June massacre Photo: Anne Alexander UK to demand action to stop the Civil society organizations funding of mercenary groups through projects such as the Khartoum Process the Khartoum Process. Lugian Salih, need to make it clear that need to be discussed. It is also one of a young activist residing in Ireland, they will not tolerate EU the reasons why the suspension of said that most of the efforts in Ireland states funding oppressive the Khartoum Process shouldn’t be were made by the Sudanese Revolution considered the end of the struggle. Support Committee (SRSC). and tyrannical regimes to Parties, political activists and civil Lugain and other members of the keep migrants out. society organizations in Europe need to SRSC met with the Ministry of Foreign make it clear that they will not tolerate Affairs in Dublin about the Khartoum In June 2019 the German parliament funding oppressive and tyrannical Process and held a briefing session at passed a controversial legislative regimes on the grounds that they are the Parliament that was attended by package that included the expansion of helping European governments keep political parties and various civil society migration police powers and introduced migrants out of Europe. organisations. what it called the “Orderly Return Law”. They also held awareness sessions The law extends the grounds on which Marwa Jalal is a Sudanese student that addressed the human rights asylum seekers may be deported and and activist. Read more about what violations that African immigrants permits officers to access apartments you can do in solidarity with the are subject to and the attempted and put migrants awaiting deportation revolution in Sudan online. Go to www. rebranding of the Janjaweed militia in regular prisons in a stark violation of menasolidaritynetwork.com and search using taxpayers’ money. Lugain told their privacy and human rights. “Sudan” for resources and background. Middle East Solidarity, “we wanted to This is the context within which
12 Analysis| Algeria
Mass protests have shaken Algeria since February | Photo: Zoheir Abderkane Is Algeria on the road to a new republic? deeper than that. maintain itself. Ten months since They are essentially connected to the Although everything began with the mass movement structural contradictions of an anti- the challenge to the 5th term for the popular, authoritarian regime. This former president, the people’s demands erupted, hundreds of popular movement has accentuated radicalised over time towards rejecting thousands still surge the crisis of the regime and is the role of the regime in organising fundamentally challenging its authority a political transition or elections into the streets. over society. on the grounds that this means the The dynamic of popular mobilisation, reproduction of the regime. Samir Larabi asks with all its limits and contradictions, The mass movement in the streets if the people or is part of the process of destroying has been able to force the cancellation the regime and replacing it with a of two presidential elections and it is the old regime will democratic and social republic. preparing for a massive boycott of those emerge the winners Since 22 February the regime has planned for 12 December 2019. found it difficult to impose its solution, The movement is insisting on from this contest? which it calls “a road map for resolving the departure of all the symbols of the crisis”, through organising a the regime and on a revision of the ince 22 February 2019, Algeria has presidential election. constitution before engaging in any Sbeen living to the rhythm of an electoral process. The key issue at stake immense popular movement, the like The movement is insisting is the question of popular sovereignty of which we have not seen since the and the rejection of any foreign independence of the country in 1962, on the departure of all the interference. a movement which can be described symbols of the regime In the face of repression and as a revolutionary process. Certainly, dozens of arrests, the mass movement everything started with the rejection The regime is not even able to mobilise continues to challenge the regime. of a 5th term in office for deposed political support: its social base has Despite threats by Gaïd Salah (Chief president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, but the fractured, it lacks legitimacy and it of the Army General Staff) and the reasons for popular anger run much can only rely on its own institutions to repression in Algiers every Friday,
13 Campaign reports Analysis | Algeria DS movement including checkpoints blocking the routes into the capital, the violent and arbitrary arrest of demonstrators, the banning of the Amazigh banner and the Palestinian flag and the detention of protesters and political activists, the popular movement has maintained intact its demand to change the regime through a democratic transition where the army’s role is restricted to its basic functions. Most workers are participating in the mass movement as citizens, rather on the basis of their class identity or their professional role. Nevertheless, the popular mobilisation has boosted the independent trade unions, in particular Repression has increased in recent months | Photo: Zoheir Abderkane the Confederation of Independent Unions (Confédération des syndicats federations, which have declared their autonomes - CSA) which has been support for the movement “to create a involved in this dynamic of protest. new republic,” as well as demanding the From the first weeks of the departure of UGTA General Secretary movement, the CSA has shown its Sidi Saïd and all the UGTA’s leaders who support for the popular movement colluded with the regime. by refusing to recognise the existing They have been joined by several government and demanding the return members of the UGTA’s National to popular sovereignty. Executive Committee, which is The CSA, which solely organises in the federation’s governing body the civil service, is not raising socio- between congresses, and by the economic or sectional demands, but National Federation of Workers in the rather echoes the demands of the Metallurgical, Mechanical, Electrical street in calling for the departure of and Electronic Industries. Calls for solidarity with political prisoners are the regime and the installation of a Through gatherings organised on growing | Photo: Zoheir Abderkane second republic. The confederation has 17 April and 1 May in front of the House of the People, the headquarters with the relative success of the organised two strikes and two marches general strike in Bejaia province on with the same political demands in the of the UGTA, this coordination which is called the “National Committee 25 September, which was called by a capital on 10 April and 1 May, despite number of local unions and left parties. the efforts of the regime to repress for the Restoration of the UGTA to the Workers”, attracted the support However, the success of the general them. strike at a national level requires more Since the two marches in April of a large number of trade unionists, workers and left-wing militants. organisation and the involvement of and May, however, the leadership of the trade unions. This is also the case in the unions have fallen silent and no relation to civil disobedience. further major strikes or protests have The idea of a general strike We have witnessed several struggles taken place. For the moment the union has been gaining ground by workers over the last few months leaders prefer to get involved in a kind where the demands have been of coalition with certain parties and The Committee launched a national connected to the question of pay and with civil society organisations which petition for the organisation of an working conditions. For example in the have regrouped around the demands for extraordinary congress of the UGTA petroleum sector workers have been a return of the elections with minimum before the end of the year composed able to secure pay rises of around 20 guarantees over the transparency of the solely of delegates properly elected by percent. process. the membership. This is also the case in the textile In effect this is not far from the However, the movement for taking sector, where a cycle of strikes has regime’s proposal for a political solution back the UGTA has not been able to shut down the TOYAL (Algéro-Turque) within the framework of the existing win the support of the majority of factory demanding permanent constitution. However, popular pressure workers and trade union officials, nor contracts. As purchasing power falls, and the regime’s repression may force prevent the organisation of a federation the coming weeks will witness more the development of these positions in congress. This attempt to recover the protest movements in different sectors, future. UGTA has not lasted the course, as it particularly in the civil service. With the launch of the revolutionary was led by trade union bureaucrats who process a new tendency or coordination ended up being reabsorbed into the Samir Larabi is a sociologist and an in the heart of the major trade union UGTA apparatus. activist with the PST party in Algeria. federation the UGTA has come into The idea of a general strike have been Read more on p20 about the campaign being. This coordination brings gaining ground recently, particularly in solidarity with political prisoners. together four of the UGTA’s provincial
14 Interview | Algeria ‘They take our flags: that’s why we continue to march’ Sheila Amrouche
n the mountainous region of Kabylia Iin the north of Algeria, the village of Ihitoussène is one of about 20 villages in the municipality of Bouzeguene (population 26,000) within the wilaya or province of Tizi Ouzou, and about 170km from the capital Algiers. The nearest city, Tizi Ouzou, is 60km away. The area is known for its high number of emigrants in different parts of the world, especially in France, where many locals left to find work during French occupation. That continues today, with many families reliant on the support of their relatives abroad. During a visit to Algeria in July, I spoke to Henia Sadi, a teacher at a local high school in the Kabylia region of Algeria who has been active in the weekly protests which have led to the forced resignation of President Bouteflika, and which have progressed on to the demand for an end to the system, for a civil not a military state. The Kabyle people are one of several Berber or Amazigh groups indigenous to North Africa, and comprise about seven million of the 12 million Berbers in Algeria. They have their own language and identity which they are fiercely proud of. Kabylia has a long Samira Messouci was arrested for carrying the Amazigh flag |Photo: Zoheir Abderkane history of struggle before, during and after the war of independence. It is this background that makes this across the country. The ruling FLN decided Algeria would year’s hirak or protest movement so Henia and other women from her be a monolingual Arab and Muslim significant. It has united the Kabyles village first joined demonstrations country, denying any other languages with the entire country for the first in a neighbouring town, but as the and cultures. In 1980, during the time in opposing the regime, whether in movement developed they began to Berber Spring, demonstrations and large urban centres, remote mountain make a regular journey to the city of strikes demanded the recognition villages or steppes and deserts of the Tizi Ouzou. of Berber or Tamazight as an official south. And it has resisted the divide and “On 8 of March I was with fifteen language. rule tactics of repression. women from our villages. We walked The movement was violently The first local demonstration to Bouzeguene town, without saying suppressed. In the Black Spring of 2001, against the fifth mandate of President anything, with Amazigh flags and riots took place following the killing of Abdelaziz Bouteflika and against the Algerian national flags, to say that we a young Kabyle student by gendarmes, regime took place on 16 February were against the fifth mandate. And who subsequently killed 126 Kabyles, 2019 in the Kabyle town of Kherrata, then just after the 8th of March we mainly by gunfire, and severely injured in Béjaïa province. On 19 February did another march in Bouzeguene, a or tortured thousands more. protests broke out Khenchela, a city major one. That is to say that everyone Villages like Ihitoussène still display in the Aures Mountains populated understood that something must be portraits of the victims today. Marches by Berber Chaouis. By 22 February, done. So after the march of Bouzeguene in the capital Algiers have remained the movement had become a national we joined the marches at Tizi Ouzou, banned since the Black Spring. popular revolt, with protests spreading giving our messages with songs.”
15 Interview | Algeria
Students have been organising Activists from the RCD opposition suicide and say they represent the as part of the popular movement, party, which has strong support among movement and can do something. So we mobilising every Tuesday with their Kabyles have been targeted by the state. are in an impasse.” own protests: “They go out in the streets “There is a young woman who we march The movement has deep roots in on the demonstrations, peacefully, with with every Friday and she is now in ordinary people’s frustration at the way leaders, with guides, it is well organized. prison. Her name is Samira Messouci, in which the regime and its cronies keep The teachers are in the movement, with and she was elected for the RCD to Algeria’s wealth for themselves. The their students,” Henia told me. the provincial assembly of Tizi Ouzou. minimum monthly wage in Algeria is In late June Gaid Salah, Algeria’s She’s been in prison in Algiers since 21 quoted as 20,000 Dinars, approximately strongman since Bouteflika was June. They tried to take the Amazigh £135, and the average wage 40,000 ousted on April 2nd, played the card flag from her and she resisted. They are Dinars or £270. “An Algerian works of Algerian nationalist allegiance and doing everything to break our unity, hard, full time, for a baguette, for a banned the carrying of the Berber or banning the flag.” bag of milk. Algeria is a rich country. Amazigh flag. Many protesters have “Samira Messouci told her lawyer “I Where there’s petrol there’s wealth. Of since been arrested and imprisoned. don’t want you to free me because I am all this wealth, the Algerian people have “The one guiding everything now is a woman. I want to be freed with my nothing. They work hard for 30,000 General Gaid Salah. We don’t want him brothers, with the men. If not, don’t dinars (£200) a month. You can spend or his laws. Since July 9th, the period free me because I am a woman.” that in two or three days. for Bensalah as president is over, so now That’s a woman who is fighting for For someone who wants to eat Gaid Salah is acting unconstitutionally. the condition of women, for equality. normally, with five or six children, Gaid, he has managed to put everyone “Secondly, if they imprison me, I want it in three days his pay is gone. What against him, with his actions.” to be for ten years, so that I won’t find is 30,000 dinars, or 60,000 dinars? The flag ban sparked a reaction in It’s nothing. He lives on credit, or he solidarity across the country. finds a second job. There is money sent “All the races, all the provinces, they from abroad, or from the south where were all against it. Nobody accepted they are paid relatively well. Here it is that decision. He tried to divide the pitiable. As a teacher, I have 25 years of Algerian people, but after that the experience; I get 60,000 dinars (£400) a Algerian people became united. This month. A less experienced teacher gets decision, it was more of an advantage half that.” than an inconvenience! He incited the Many young people have been people to unify. Because before it was leaving Algeria and risking their lives by a bit ‘you’re Kabyle, you’re Arab’, there crossing the sea to Europe. were differences. Now we’re all Amazigh “What hurts is that people leave, of North Africa. They continue to seize especially the young, they die in the our flags, and that’s why we continue oceans, they die in the sea. They’re to march. We don’t stay at home on called ‘harragas’, those who attempt to Fridays, we are in Tizi Ouzou, we are in illegally migrate to Europe in makeshift Algiers, we are everywhere.” boats. I have a boy. I don’t want him to Women are playing an important role Henia Sadi (left) | Photo: courtesy Henia Sadi say to me ‘Mum, I want to leave because in the movement, Henia said, despite I want to live’. I want him to live in facing oppression in many areas of this Gaid still living”.” front of me, because we have a rich their lives. “In the east of the country As the movement has developed, country, we have petrol, we have metals the situation of women is lamentable. activists have debated the best tactics but the money is taken by the rulers we In big cities in some provinces she can to force out the regime. In the major want to get rid of.” go out, but in the small towns she can’t cities, independent trade unions have This social injustice is a powerful freely, unless her husband accompanies organised general strikes. Henia sees factor driving the mass movement, her or authorizes her. In Tizi, Algiers, civil disobedience, not strikes as the Henia said. “We have misery in our Oran, Constantine, where there are way forward. “In Kabylia we don’t have blood. Abroad, even when misery is Kabyles there is the scent of liberty for factories to close, we have cafeterias to forced upon us, it’s nothing compared women. It’s not total freedom though, close, schools to close, transport. But in to Algeria. That’s why we won’t stop it’s limited.” Algiers it worked for two or three days, hitting back, to shout out against Yet when it comes to the then little by little some shops started repression, against division. After demonstrations, women are often to reopen.” accepting 20 years of nothing, we’re a very visible. “Women are put in the The hirak has raised big questions people that will continue to struggle to forefront, and the men make blocks to for the millions of Algerians who have the end.” surround and protect us from violence.” taken part, Henia told me. Protesters fear the police, who regularly “Nobody can say what is going to Sheila Amrouche is a member of attack the demonstrations and arrest happen tomorrow, or the day after Lewisham NEU. Read a longer activists. “The world should know tomorrow. After Gaid Salah goes, there version of this article online at www. that there are police who are paid a are other Gaids behind this Gaid. We menasolidaritynetwork.com and turn premium, paid money in order to break demand a complete end to the system. to page 20 for more on the campaign in the movement. There are people in But how? As long as the military regime solidarity with political prisoners. prison at the moment.” rules in Algeria, nobody can commit
16 Analysis | Iraq
US troops patrol Iraqi farmland, April 2008 | Photo: US Army sowing the seeds of hunger in iraq of which is from extensive irrigation of targets. Caught in the crosshairs of the Olivia Palmer the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. US Air Force were power generators, analyses the roots In the 1980s, Iraq was a major sewage plants, water purification agricultural market for the US, facilities and the extensive canals of Iraq’s agricultural accounting for 90 percent of American and irrigation systems on which Iraqi crisis in war, rice exports and wheat exports worth agriculture depended. half a billion dollars a year. Declassified Pentagon documents occupation and Oil exports and government show that the US had studied Iraq’s subsidies in food products sustained water-drinking system, assessed its neoliberal reforms. conditions of food security until weakness and intentionally bombed it. raq is the birthplace of agriculture. Its the early 1990s. According to a After the war, the US then shaped the Iwheat, legumes and other seed crops World Health Organisation (WHO) post-war United Nations sanctions to have been developed and refined for report, before the Gulf War, “calorie prevent its repair. As a result, 1990- local conditions over a period of 10,000 availability was 120 percent of actual 91 agricultural output was 80 percent years. requirements.” lower than the previous, pre-sanctions It is also unique among Middle Iraqi agriculture was devastated by production in 1989. Eastern countries for its water the 1990-91 Gulf War, the ensuing Additionally, the UN Oil for Food resources and thus in its potential to sanctions and the “Shock and Awe” of programme (1995-2003) was prohibited be self-sufficient in food production. the 2003 US-British invasion. from purchasing Iraqi-produced food, Indeed, it was up until the 1970s. The United States began bombing creating food dependency on imports. Approximately 27 percent of the Iraq in January 1991, with extensive The UN sanctions were specifically country is available for agriculture - half strikes on civilian infrastructure designed to exacerbate hardship and to
17 Campaign reportsAnalysis | Palestine | Iraq & Bahrain reduce Iraq’s ability to feed itself, if not the US invasion, beginning with Alternatives (DAI), for “the transition to eliminate it outright. looting, at an eventual cost of $12 from a command and control Among the US’s primary motivations billion - equivalent to as much as one- production and marketing system to a in seizing control of Iraq and creating third of Iraq’s annual gross domestic market-driven economy.” a free market, neoliberal client state product - and accelerating the collapse The immediate focus was on in Iraq was to extend global capital of the state. expanding Iraq’s wheat crop via penetration into the largely closed- The Ba’ath party was disbanded in high-grade imported wheat seed. off Middle East via the US-Middle May 2003. Anyone in the top four levels Traditionally, wheat is the country’s East Free Trade Area and to expand of the party was banned from holding most important crop. the American agribusiness model of government jobs, driving out the However, rather than utilising Iraqi corporate agriculture. institutional memory and what was left seeds that had been developed to the But US efforts to create the of the state. The US strategy prioritised conditions of Mesopotamia over the conditions for large-scale corporate the danger to American power in the last 10,000 years, or assisting Iraqis agriculture have been at the direct region posed by the Iraqi state’s coercive in ensuring their indigenous wheat- expense of Iraqi food sovereignty. capacity. seed supply was protected and could By eliminating tariffs and other Head of the Coalition Provisional be regenerated, wheat and barley seed protections, the US instantly created Authority (CPA) Paul Bremer stated was imported that could “theoretically” a billion-dollar annual market for its repeatedly that his most important survive in Iraq. own agricultural exports which did not mission was empowering the free exist previously under the UN sanctions market and shrinking the state. The decimation of Iraq’s regime imposed on Iraq. “Getting inefficient state enterprises into private hands,” Bremer said, “is ability to replenish its own US efforts to create the essential for Iraq’s economic recovery.” seed stocks meant that Once established, the CPA assumed new seeds would have to be conditions for large-scale all executive, legislative and judicial corporate agriculture have power over the Iraqi territory. imported. One of Bremer’s economic edicts been at the direct expense In a demonstration of astounding specifically prohibited the Central arrogance, seeds were selected despite of Iraqi food sovereignty. Bank of Iraq from offering financing the US “not knowing the specifics of to state-owned enterprises. The CPA’s Via the WTO and free trade Iraqi production as to soils, rainfall and/ relentless focus on privatisation and agreements, the United States profits or irrigation.” creating favourable conditions for from forcing its own highly subsidised Before announcing his departure international investors in Iraq at the food onto countries that have agreed from Iraq, the CPA’s Paul Bremer issued expense of practical, logical and moral to tariff reductions and the reduction “100 Orders” designed to transfer Iraq’s considerations is representative of this. of impediments to trade. Combined economy and legal ownership of Iraqi The CPA’s mandate to eliminate all with the liberalisation of Iraq’s resources into the private hands of US tariffs, duties and taxes on imports economy to facilitate direct investment corporations. led to Iraq being flooded with foreign by Western corporations, this has Order 81 specifically deals with Plant foodstuffs. directly contributed to destabilising Variety Protection (PVP) – that is, it This created a new and substantial food security, slashing or removing is designed to protect the commercial market for American farmers, with altogether the country’s farm and price interest of corporate seeds companies. $190 million worth of wheat exported support systems. The order aims to force Iraqi farmers in the year after the invasion. From 2003-2007, the US applied a to plant “protected” crop varieties Overseeing Iraq’s agricultural policy of “reforming” the Iraqi state defined as “new, distinct, uniform and reconstruction was Daniel Amstutz, - pushing it out of the economy and stable” - and most likely genetically noted by Oxfam’s policy director at the imposing a radical form of free market modified. time as being “uniquely well placed to economics. This included lowering Iraq’s Order 81 opened the way for advance the commercial interests of corporate tax rate from 45 to 15 per patenting of plant forms and facilitated US grain companies and open the Iraqi cent, permitting foreign companies to the introduction of genetically modified market.” own 100 percent of Iraqi assets, and (GMO) crops to Iraq. Amstutz oversaw the USAID’s for investors to take 100 percent of In the absence of an independent, Agriculture Reconstruction and the profits they made in Iraq out of the sovereign Iraqi government to repeal Development Program for Iraq (ARDI), country; they would not be required to this edict, the US was able to override and quickly began to eliminate the reinvest, and they would not be taxed. Iraq’s original patent law of 1970, which price supports and other agricultural The Bush administration’s first had prohibited private ownership of subsidies that Iraqi farmers had working model for post-war Iraq closely biological resources. received under the government of mirrored World Bank and IMF policies The US did not protect Iraq’s Saddam Hussein. developed over the 1980s and 1990s, national gene bank from post-invasion ARDI was part of a political agenda with the difference being that structural looting, with the national collection within a larger US shock-therapy adjustment would be driven by the of plant genetic resources being lost, strategy for the Iraqi economy. Its power of American weaponry. stolen or destroyed. central objective was to “liberalise” and The implementation of this plan As a result, since 2005, Iraq has only privatise Iraq’s wheat sector. The actual caused a descent into anarchy following been able to provide 4 percent of its work was contracted to Development
18 Analysis | Iraq & Turkey seed requirements. The decimation of Iraq’s ability to replenish its own seed stocks meant that new seeds would have to be imported. These were in the form of wheat and barley seed developed to “theoretically” survive in Iraq by scientists from the World Wide Wheat Company (WWW). The intellectual property rights established through the WTO’s TRIPS agreement defines genetic materials, seed plasmas, and all manner of other products as private property. Rents for use can then be extracted from Kurdish YPG fighters in northern Syria, 2018 | Photo: Kurdishstruggle populations whose practices had played a crucial role in the development of Syrians to Idlib. these genetic materials. WWW’s seeds Syrian refugees This brutal plan by the Interior would not work without dependency face disaster as Ministry was executed by the police, on pesticides, herbicides, fungicides who deported an Egyptian and Afghan and fertilisers readily available from Turkey prepares refugees to Idlib alongside Syrians! Western agricultural firms Monsanto, The leadership of Erdoğan’s party, Dow and DuPont. for war the AKP, are telling us that they are Despite doubling the area sown over "aware of the economic, cultural and the project’s first three years, Iraq’s Ozan Tekin social problems caused by the refugees." national wheat production dropped They say that the operation will ensure from 2.6 million tonnes in 2002 a "safe region" where refugees will be to 2.2 million tonnes in 2006. The f the result of the war in Syria is sent. monoculture and reduced biodiversity Ithe stabilisation of an autonomous They are planning to build 10 towns encouraged by GMO-based agriculture region, resembling the one which each with a population of 30,000, and can only diminish an Iraqi environment emerged in northern Iraq following the also around 140 villages. This means already polluted by the detritus of US invasion of 2003, Turkey will have that around 2 million Syrian refugees the US invasion - including “depleted” all her southern borders surrounded by will be forcibly removed from their Uranium dust - napalm, chemical Kurdish regions. current locations in Turkey to the weapons and phosphorus bombs. This will increase the danger of the region set up by the Turkish military. Allowing ancient varieties of seeds to 15 million Kurds in Turkey launching The radical left in Turkey opposes be genetically manipulated or otherwise a campaign to unite with them. That the war efforts alongside the HDP, a modified and then “registered” under is why for the Turkish state this is coalition party mainly controlled by the corporate ownership involves the theft a "problem of survival" and why the Kurdish national movement in Turkey. of inherited intellectual property, whole of Turkish politics during the But there is the confusion caused by the loss of farmers’ freedoms and the last 4 years has been shaped by efforts the stance of the main opposition party destruction of food sovereignty in Iraq. to stop the emergence of a Kurdish CHP as well, which supported the war According to a Focus on the Global autonomous region in Syria. bill in parliament. South and GRAIN Report, “Iraq has the Turkey’s army leaders and current The very poor stance taken by CHP potential to feed its people. But instead Recep Tayyip Erdoğan say they will not and also the racist Iyi Parti (a recent of developing this capacity, Washington “repeat the same mistake” as 2003, split from the fascist MHP on the basis is shaping the future of Iraq’s food and when they were unable to prevent the of opposition to the government) has farming to serve the interests of US creation of Iraqi Kurdistan. helped Erdogan divide the opposition corporations.” The peace process between Kurdish formed against him in the latest local The intent behind American efforts groups in Turkey and the Turkish state elections. to revitalise Iraqi agriculture was clear: was abandoned in the summer of 2015. This war effort has also given to hook Iraqi farmers on a path of This question has also reshaped Turkish Erdoğan a chance to manoeuvre and corporate dependence that facilitates politics in other ways: Erdoğan is now regain popularity. But nobody expects the consolidation of small farms into allied with the generals who previously that it will last long and stop his larger agribusiness entities specialising tried to overthrow him, and also with terminal decline as he has been in a in monocrops, which can be owned and the fascist party MHP on the Kurdish very difficult situation in the past few manipulated by western agricultural issue. months and all the opinion polls show giants such as Monsanto and Cargill People in Rojava will probably be that his electoral support is collapsing to create a dependency on Western fleeing from war to the southern cities rapidly. fertilisers, tractors and carbon-intensive in Syria - or possibly to the east into practices. the Iraqi Kurdish region. For 4 million Ozan Tekin is a revolutionary socialist Olivia Palmer is an investment analyst Syrian refugees inside Turkey this will activist living in Turkey and a member and studied international political create a disastrous situation as well. of DSIP party. economcy at KCL Last July the Turkish state started operations in big cities to deport some
19 Campaign reports | Algeria
Crackdown in Algeria sparks global solidarity campaign Sheila Amrouche
he rising repression in Algeria has Tsparked an international campaign in defence of political prisoners. Trade unionists, MPs and activists in Spain, France, Portugal, Peru, Brazil, South Africa and Germany gathered outside Algerian embassies in September to condemn the arrest and sentencing of Louisa Hanoune, general secretary of the Workers Party and other political prisoners. The regime in Algeria has hit back hard at opponents as it tries to contain the mass movement for democracy Dozens have been seized by police during protests | Photo: courtesy Henia Sadi which erupted earlier this year and is still bringing tens of thousands onto morale of the troops” of the army, the streets. according to the article 75 of the Penal On 8th October the 33rd students’ Code. He was arrested without warrant march in Algiers was brutally attacked or explanation. Tabbou recently took by police, anti-riot and plain clothes part in a conference which called police, with dozens of arrests of for the rejection of the upcoming students, passers-by and journalists. presidential elections. Most have been released, but some have been charged with “unarmed Elected members of assembly, disobedience and breach of public order”. provincial parliaments, Karim Tabbou, a national leader political activists and of the Democratic and Social Union protesters have been party, is one of the major opposition seized by the police Photo: Free Louisa Hanoune leaders arrested in September, while Louisa Hanoune, has been condemned On 30 June police arrested 87-year ousted president. to fifteen years in prison in a trial by old Lakhdar Bouregâa, one of the few She was charged with “conspiring a military court. Elected members surviving commanders of Algeria’s war against the state and the army” and of provincial parliaments, political of independence, four days after he held in solitary confinement before activists and protesters have been said at a public meeting that Algeria’s being sentenced to a fifteen year jail seized by the police for carrying the army is a collection of “militias.” He is sentence on 24 September. Amazigh flag on demonstrations. being investigated for “weakening the In a statement, the Workers Party Over 100 protesters remain in morale of the troops,” which could lead called her trial a “judicial farce riddled custody, most in Algiers. Some are to a prison sentence of up to 10 years. with lies. Louisa Hanoune has been under investigation for “harming the Bouregaa is a founder of the condemned in order to terrorise and integrity of the national territory,” opposition Socialist Forces Front try to silence all the voices that oppose which carries sentences of up to 10 party and was a political prisoner in those in de facto power. The same years in prison. They include Samira the 1970s under President Houari goes for Lakhdar Bouregâa, Samira Messouci, elected to the provincial Boumedienne. Messouci, Samir Benlarbi, Foudil assembly of Tizi-Ouzou, activist in the Louisa Hanoune, general secretary Moumala and dozens of political RCD (Rassemblement pour la Culture of the PT (Workers Party) since 1990, prisoners and prisoners of conscience.” et la Démocratie), who was arrested on was arrested on 9 May after being the 21 June demonstration for being summoned to the military court as a Go to www.menasolidaritynetwork. in possession of the Berber flag. witness during the investigation of com to take solidarity action. Karim Tabbou was arrested on two ex-intelligence chiefs as well as 12 September for “undermining the Saïd Bouteflika, younger brother of the
20 Campaign reports | Arms fair & Palestine Creative resistance greets DSEI “death market” Miriam Scharf
he Defence and Security TEquipment International (DSEI) arms market has been called “a shameless marketplace for global death and destruction” and “the most awesome glamorisation of death on the planet”, as it fuels conflict and repression around the world. From 9-13 September 35,000 delegates from 68 countries traded bombers, drones and vanity warships. The UK government and companies were amongst those weaponising regime defence and the suppression of dissent in Egypt, Bangladesh, Colombia, Uzbekistan, and Saudi Arabia. Even the UK Foreign Office describes these states as “human rights priority” countries. But this hasn’t stopped the British government wholeheartedly backing sales to them. Of the record £14bn UK Direct action targets DSEI 2019 | Photos: CAAT government sales last year 80 percent were to the Middle East. The tragedy countries of the global south, is a Campaign president calling for an being inflicted on Yemen led to the rich and growing market for arms arms embargo. 32 Israeli companies, court of appeal ruling in June that equipment, as the rich world tries to including Elbit with its ‘battle-proven’ arms sales to the Saudis are illegal. But contain and suppress the poor. technology, were exhibiting. they go on. Despite the catastrophic The 9-day protest against the arms Local and national groups are devastation in Afghanistan, Iraq, fair were organised and determined. starting now working to oppose and Libya and Syria military interventions One hundred and sixteen protesters aiming to stop the next DSEI, planned continue. The ‘securitisation’ of were arrested attempting to stop for September 2021. borders, no longer defined by a thin equipment getting in. The first day line but stretching across whole focussed on ‘Stop Arming Israel’ Search ‘Stop the Arms Fair’ for more with Ben Jamal Palestine Solidarity information
Middle East Studies (BRISMES), the with Palestinian students and faculty Academic scholarly association representing who face Israel’s institutionalised boycott of Israel academics who work in Middle East racism, armed raids on campus, Studies in the UK. military checkpoints and systemic boosted by win The Palestinian Campaign for the attempts to undermine Palestinians’ Academic and Cultural Boycott of basic right to education.” in Middle East Israeli, PACBI welcomed the vote Academics have also stepped up Studies in a statement: “Israeli academic a campaign targetting Israeli higher institutions play a well-documented education institutions in illegal Anne Alexander role in not only justifying but settlements, such as Ariel University. also planning, implementing and Exeter UCU branch overwhelmingly maintaining Israel’s system of passed a motion calling on the upporters of the academic and oppression that denies Palestinians’ university not to recognise degrees Scultural boycott of Israel scored basic human rights, including the right from Ariel to avoid “complicity in a victory in June by winning an to education. breaking international law”. important vote at the Annual General This historic vote gives us hope. It is Go to www.bricup.org.uk for more Meeting of the British Society for a beautiful act of meaningful solidarity information on the Ariel campaign.
21 BACK THESE CAMPAIGNS Stop academic collusion with military regime
he revelation that University Tof London and University of Hertfordshire are opening for business in Egypt’s New Administrative Capital (NAC) has prompted an angry reaction from academics. More than two hundred have signed a letter of protest at these The planned “City of Knowledge” in the new capital | Photo: Screengrab new ‘franchises’ offering UK degrees through Egyptian partners based in which was led by the UCU branch. first eight years of the university’s the New Administrative Capital at the However, Coventry University has existence. same time as the military regime is since announced that it is opening a Dr Hashem himself was captured on engaged in a ferocious crackdown on branch in the NAC in collaboration camera in 2015 allegedly instructing protests. with El Sewedy Education, a private his driver to run over students who “UK universities are showing their education firm funded by a major were protesting over the GUC’s willingness to put potential revenue electrical cables manufacturer. response to the death of 19 year from student fees before commitment University of London has old Yara Negm who was killed in to human rights and academic designated the European Universities an accident involving two of the freedoms,” the letter states. in Egypt (EUE) as a “recognised university’s buses. The NAC is a prestige project for teaching centre” the Founder and The government in Egypt is clearly the military regime, and has attracted Chairman of the Board of Trustees at keen to associate the global reputation vast foreign investments. A business- EUE, University of London’s partner, is of University of London institutions park style “City of Knowledge” has Professor Mahmoud Hashem. as centres of excellence in research and been planned for campuses and local Professor Hashem was previously teaching with the New Administrative partners of global universities. the president of the German University Capital. The most recent deals follow a in Cairo (GUC), a private university set On 11 September this year the succession of similar agreements up in 2002. Ministry of Foreign Affairs put out a signed or proposed between UK Students at GUC repeatedly press release claiming that the London universities and Egyptian institutions. protested over the failure of GUC’s School of Economics was opening University of Liverpool’s attempt to leadership to uphold their rights to a “branch campus” in the NAC, open a branch campus in the NAC freedom of expression on campus and prompting LSE to issue a clarification was halted last year after a campaign the university’s refusal to allow them contradicting the Ministry’s statement. supported by hundreds of academics to organise a student union for the
What you can do: Support Egypt’s • Sign the open letter condemning the crackdown and calling for an end to universities in the UK political prisoners whitewashing the al-Sisi regime’s human rights record. Over 2500 people have joined the • Organise a meeting on your ranks of Egypt’s political prisoners campus or invite a speaker to your since 20 September, while hundreds union meeting. more have disappeared. According to the Egyptian Commission for Rights •Spread the word on social media and Freedoms, detainees appearing check out Egypt Solidarity Initiative before prosecutors are being charged on Facebook and Twitter. with “helping a terrorist group achieve • Write to the Egyptian embassy its goals, illegal protest, misuse of Photo: FreeMahienour in the UK calling for the immediate internet and social media to spread jailed multiple times in the past, such release of all political prisoners. false news undermining national as human rights lawyer Mahienour Download resources and find out more security and calling for protests”. el-Masry, and blogger and activist Alaa at www.egyptsolidarityinitiative.org Some of those detained have been Abdelfattah.
22 Subscriptions & further reading
Disabled activists join a protest in Tunisia in 2011 | Photo: Nasser Nouri
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MENA Solidarity Bahrain Watch menasolidaritynetwork.com bahrainwatch.org MENA Solidarity is a network of Bahrain Watch is an Egypt Solidarity activists from different unions in the independent research and egyptsolidarityinitiative.org UK engaged in building solidarity advocacy organisation Egypt Solidarity launched on for struggle to win social justice and formed in February 2012 11 February 2014, the third workers’ rights in the Middle East. that seeks to promote anniversary of the fall of We are supported by the UCU, PCS and effective, transparent and Mubarak, in order to campaign in NUT unions and a number of other accountable governance in defence of democratic rights in trade union regions and branches. Bahrain. Egypt.
23 Background briefing | Iraq Why are young Iraqis braving bullets to protest? Qasim Muhammad analyses the grievances behind demonstrations in the Iraqi capital and southern cities which have faced violent repression by the security forces. he popular movement which Texploded in early October was driven by young people using social media to mobilise. The scale of the protests took everyone by surprise. People on the left were saying “these are Thousands have taken to the streets in Iraq | Photos: Save the Iraqi People via Facebook Islamists”, but the Islamists themselves, such as the Sadrist current, were also built up by the Americans, but the afraid of the movement, asking “what officers serving there are known for are these spontaneous protests?” “Who their professionalism. In addition, many is behind them?” Iraqis see the CTS as uniquely free from Yet the accumulating reasons behind sectarian infighting and splits. the protest movement are the same as Al-Saadi was considered a hero by the those which drove protests in 2011: people of Mosul, where several months corruption and poverty. ago, a statue of him was erected, but There are also more immediate not unveiled. Government officials triggers. One of these is the came and removed the statue in the government campaign removing middle of the night, prompting protests informal housing. People have been by local people. building small houses in informal Al-Saadi was also seen as one of settlements, and the government has the few figures who could act as a been rapidly clearing them away in counterweight to the influence of Iran inside the Iraqi armed forces. recent weeks. same grievances which pushed people The wave of protests in early Despite the Prime Minister’s to demonstrate in the south were also October was concentrated in the capital announcement of a major national present in Kurdistan, where 200,000 Baghdad, in al-Wasit province and in campaign to build housing, in reality graduates are unemployed. the southern provinces. the government has been knocking The violent response by the state down people’s homes and shops and to the protests has radicalised the destroying their cars. “This government must movement. Initially the demonstrators Graduates have taken to the streets fall, we want to change this had a set of seven demands, but by during the past month: young men and the second day of the crackdown, the women have been holding sit-ins to corrupt regime and get rid young people protesting were calling on demand that the state provides them of its cronies.” the regime to go. “We have no water, with jobs. They have been attacked no electricity, nothing” was a common violently by the police and security The provinces which have a Sunni chant. “This government must fall, we forces, facing beatings and water majority, such as al-Gharbiyya and the want to change this corrupt regime and cannons. city of Mosul remained silent, reflecting get rid of its cronies.” These frustrations exploded with the population’s fears of being accused Qasim Muhammad is the pseudonym of the sacking of Abdulwahab al-Saadi, of terrorism or wanting the return of an Iraqi activist living in France deputy head of the Counter-Terrorism ISIS. Service. Al-Saadi is well-known for his There was little sign of protest role in leading the liberation of Takrit, in Kurdistan, although at least one of Fallujah and of Mosul from ISIS organisation was calling for solidarity fighters. demonstrations. The Movement of The CTS is one of the organisations the New Generation warned that the
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