During the last three years, the Iraqi Resistance has been the front line of the anti-imperialist struggle in the world.
Thanks to the Resistance, the powerful US war machine is in difficulty, in a way which has not happened since the days of Vietnam.
This fact has given new hope to the struggles of all the peoples who are fighting against oppression, from the Palestinian people who are fighting against Zionist occupation, to the struggles taking place in many Asian and Latin American countries.
The Iraqi Resistance has also allowed the anti-war movement in the West to hold its ground, despite its obvious limits as it avoids taking sides.
Today, the Iraqi Resistance has to face the US attempt to unleash a civil war, in order to mask the failure of "normalization" while at the same time justifying the stay of its troops of occupation. This is an insidious attempt, which must not be underestimated, but which can be defeated if the Resistance can manage to add to its undisputable popular roots, a process of political unification. The anti-imperialists, those who support the Iraqi Resistance in Europe, have another task: that of working for full political recognition of the Resistance.
This means that we must move on from support -which we have been engaged in during these years, often in conditions of extreme isolation and also exposed to risks of repression- to a more ambitious political action.
This is the purpose of the International Conference which was to be held last year in Italy, and prevented by the denial of visas to the Iraqi delegates on the part of Berlusconi's government. We now intend to propose the Conference again, also on the basis of the new political situation in Italy. It should be clear that we can harbor no delusions about this. For months, we have been seeing a progressive alignment of all Europe with the US positions (Iran, closure to Hamas, etc.). However, we think this is a further reason why it is necessary to challenge the new Prodi government and all Europe, which has gone so far as to deny a visa to Haj Ali, the symbol of those tortured in Abu Ghraib.
The proposal, therefore, is to launch the International Conference again as a tool for political recognition of the Resistance, calling on all those Iraqi forces which unhesitatingly reject the occupation and the process of tri-partition of the country willed by the occupiers to attend.