[fse-esf] Call for cairo conference: please circulate

[Alex Callinicos]

The Fifth Cairo Conference

Announcement and Call for Participation

 The Egyptian group of the International Campaign against US and Zionist 
Occupation calls upon all groups and fighters against colonialism and 
Zionism, in Egypt and the Arab World, and upon all social and antiwar 
movements world wide to participate in the 5th Cairo Conference under the 
slogan 'Towards an international alliance against imperialism and Zionism'.

We also announce the 3rd Cairo Social Forum under the slogans 'Against 
Imperialism and Zionism...Against tyranny and oppression...Against 
exploitation and corruption'.

Both of which will be held in Cairo 29th March - 1st of April 2007.

The 1st Cairo conference was organized in 2002, as US and British 
imperialism were preparing to invade Iraq. The slogan of the conference then 
was 'Against globalization, US hegemony and war'. The conference was 
organized and called for by a group of Egyptian militants building on their 
previous activism to break the siege of starvation enforced on the Iraqi 
people and in solidarity with the heroic Palestinian Intifada. The 
conference was attended by representatives and militants from various parts 
of the Arab World, Europe and the Americas. It produced the first Cairo 
Declaration, which became one of the documents of the international anti war 
and anti globalization movements.

In subsequent years, three further Cairo conferences were organized, in 
December 2003, March 2005 and March 2006, under the slogan 'With the 
Resistance in Palestine and Iraq... Against Globalization, Imperialism and 
Zionism'. Activists and representatives of many groups and organizations 
from various parts of the Arab World and globally participated in all three 
conferences as well as representatives of the Palestinian and Iraqi 
resistance. All those conferences issued a number of decisions and 
recommendations and called for the participation in all international 
actions organized by the international anti war and anti globalization 
movements against the imperial war in Iraq and in solidarity and support 
ofthe resistance in Palestine and Iraq, starting from the demonstrations of 
the 18th of January and 15th of February and until now.

In all its recommendations and resolutions, the Cairo conferences have 
stressed a number of basic principles which guided its strategies. Those 
included: 1) the unconditional support of all forces of resistance against 
imperialism and Zionism in Palestine, Iraq, and Lebanon; 2) a call for the 
necessary unity of all resistance groups, bypassing their ideological and 
political differences, and considering the struggle against US and Zionist 
colonialism to be the main strategic struggle; 3) supporting the democratic 
demands of the Arab peoples against the ruling dictatorial regimes as well 
as the projects of imperial hegemony, and considering the struggle against
tyranny in the Arab world as part of the struggle against globalization and 
war worldwide; 4) stressing the unity of the international anti war and anti 
globalization movement and the need to collaborate among all its groups 
against globalization and the colonial imperial and Zionist project.

The 1st Cairo social forum was organized on the margins of the 3rd Cairo 
conference (March 2005) under the slogan: 'Against imperialism and Zionism..
Against tyranny and oppression.. against exploitation and corruption', where 
more than 30 entities among political groups and civil society organizations 
in Egypt and the Arab World organized seminars, workshops, exhibitions and 
various cultural activities around battles of political and social 
resistance. The forum also witnessed the organization of forums around 
workers', peasants', students' women's and religious discrimination issues.
The 2nd Cairo social forum was organized on the margins of the 4th Cairo 
conference (March 2006) with the participation of more than 40 groups and 
organizations and witnessed further activities and forums.

The Egyptian group of the international campaign against US and Zionist 
occupation is currently preparing for the 5th Cairo conference and the 3rd
Cairo social forum which will be held in Cairo between the 29th of March and 
the 1st of April 2007. The Egyptian group includes a number of Egyptian 
activists from different national groups and representatives of the 
following Egyptian groups working against imperialism, Zionism and tyranny:

El Karama party, the Moslem Brotherhood, the Egyptian Communist party, the
Wasat (Middle) party, the Labor party, and the organization of the 
Revolutionary Socialists.

For more information and to submit any suggestions please contact  Anne 
Alexander on +447906243381 or email nejmahamra at yahoo.fr