Despite ten years of crippling embargoes that left the Iraqi populace weakened and malnourished, despite bombings that shattered their infrastructure and destroyed the military, despite a year of occupation by roughly 150,000 soldiers, the Iraqi resistance appears to go from strength to strength, inflicting spiraling casualties on the invaders. The lesson of Vietnam is being learned anew by the armies of imperialism - an army of occupation can never defeat an indigenous national liberation struggle. U.S. soldiers complain over repeated extensions of their time spent in Iraq and their families become increasingly restless and outspoken in wanting their loved ones returned to them; but the Iraqi resistance fighters cannot join in the chorus of complaints. This is because they already are home; they have nowhere to retreat to. They have only the choices of death or victory, because they have already determined that life on their knees is an unacceptable option.

The U.S. imperialists now project that the war in Iraq will cost them over $400,000,000,000 - a cost that is causing deep cuts to be called for in domestic spending. Britain will spend considerably less, but there too war expenditures are using up funds that might be spent on the needs of the citizens. The identification with the imperialist adventure that many have been deluded into embracing - the result of class-consciousness having been impeded by capitalist ideology - will soon be colliding with the reality of the situation. The war only benefits the rich, for working people it spells disaster.

Around the globe anti-imperialists are recognising that the battles being waged in Iraq are central to their own struggles. The occupation and fight against the resistance shackles the armies of imperialism in place in Iraq, limiting their ability to respond to challenges they confront in Venezuela, Columbia, the Basque lands, the six counties, and elsewhere. The costs of the war and occupation prohibit them from purchasing peace in the class war at home through reformist measures. The successes of the resistance fighters help to counter the propaganda image of the imperialists as being impossible to challenge. Accordingly, anyone who opposes the continuation of capitalism at home must support the resistance to imperialism in Iraq.

At this moment in history, it matters little if one is Sunni or Shia, Muslim or Christian or atheist, Arab or African or European. The dividing line is simply this: Are you for or against imperialism? All those opposed must defend the Iraqi Resistance. It is not sufficient to oppose the war. The war is now a reality that cannot be denied. What remains is to choose a side. To support the armies of the occupation is to align oneself with imperialist oppression, capitalist exploitation, violation of national sovereignty, and brutality against humanity. The only option in opposition to these evils is to support the resistance.

How can we support the Iraqi Resistance here in Ireland? We must oppose any attempt by the Irish government to provide support - violating our historic neutrality - to the U.S. or Britain in their military efforts. We must demonstrate our solidarity in the streets and make others aware why we support the resistance. We must oppose the so-called "war on terrorism", including changes in European security measures designed to fall in line with it. We must insist on the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Iraq and we must demand that the U.S. and Britain pay compensation for the destruction and disruption and loss of lives, so that the nation can be rebuilt. We must oppose any attempt to impose a constitution or governing bodies chosen or shaped by any foreign power and insist on the democratic rights of the Iraqi people to create their own institutions and laws. Despite their having been manipulated by the forces of imperialism, we must also insist on the rights of the Kurdish people to national liberation, something the imperialist occupiers have sought to deny.

There is, however, something even more central and immediately present that we must do in support of the Iraqi Resistance -- we must join in a worldwide resistance movement. We must resist the efforts of imperialism to enslave and exploit the working peoples of the world. We must resist the exploitation of capitalism right here at home. We must defend the national sovereignty of Ireland and oppose the continued occupation of Ireland by foreign troops. We must challenge the continuation of religious sectarianism, which is designed to divide the working class of this island.

The struggle against imperialism begins at our own doorsteps and stretches to the battlefields of Iraq and beyond. We do not have to travel thousands of miles to encounter the British Army occupying Iraq; there are nearly 20,000 of them right here on the island of Ireland. The U.S. corporations that have flocked like vultures to pick the skeleton of Iraq clean have operations in our own cities. When we challenge the forces of imperialism and capitalism right here in Ireland, we join in the resistance. There is only one war in which we have any interests and that is the class war, whose front stretches from Baghdad to Belfast to Boston to Beijing. The working class must become a worldwide resistance. When we are, no force on earth can defeat us.

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