This text has been written for a space that has the Blog Platform Aturem War in http://eltriangle.eu
has recently been published a declaration, signed by a long list of people the world of culture, politics, social movements and universities against the war in Afghanistan. According to this
statement: "Some try to submit the US-led occupation as a peace and reconstruction mission, but the sad reality is different. Last year, more Afghan civilians were killed than in any year since the occupation began in 2001. "
After reviewing the catastrophe for the Afghan people is the military occupation of their country, says:" We ask the government to annul the sending troops, and to immediately withdraw troops currently engaged in the war in Afghanistan. The one million euros per day that the English government currently spends on the occupation must go for social purposes. "
Finally
expressed support for the Campaign for the withdrawal of English troops from Afghanistan and mobilizations driven by it .
Among the signers of the declaration are many artists, such as Pilar Bardem, Miguel Rios, Jose Sacristan, Juan Diego, Gran Wyoming, Monica Cruz, Willy Toledo, Juan Diego Botto, Bebe ... -, prominent political figures, Cayo including Lara, Gaspar Llamazares, Joan Herrera and Santiago Carrillo, and personalities academics and social movements.
For the press, of course, the highlight is the support of artists.
The truth is that most of them are not very different from the rest of us: a few enjoy succulent income, the majority is more or less pulling, while some live in more precarious conditions.
Still, the fact that so many of them are not interested only in their careers, and others dreaming of Oscars, but who care about the civilians who died under the bombs of NATO in Afghanistan, or those experiencing crisis in the English state as the government spends our money on the war, only can be positive.
Or so I thought. It turns out that I am naive.
Press cave, which was already on the offensive against Willy Toledo because, beyond any misunderstanding, he dared to point out prevailing hypocrisy regarding the rights of political prisoners could not stop.
The new attack was led the wrong named Reason, in this way: "Nothing less than eight years behind the" Union of Zeja "[sic] just discovered, Pilar Bardem in the lead, which Afghanistan is a war pure and simple. "
He joined Digital Journalist: "The artists 'No war' have waited for 90 English soldiers die in Afghanistan to demonstrate." And so on, with increasingly more insulting expressions.
night sky turns out that the Internet has a new constellation, we might call the Finger of Aznar. The form many stars, but all together they provide little or no light.
I miss is the fact that mistake in the basic facts. For example, attribute the text to the antiwar platform in Madrid alone, when in reality it is a statement of support for the Campaign for the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan state level, not a call for local action in Madrid. But from the Finger of Aznar, the world begins and ends in the imperial city.
The real question is what to look for in their anger and insults? Apparently, wished that the rejection of the Afghan war had come much earlier. The poor writers Reason, "have all this time fighting alone against the massacre in China and in solidarity with Afghan civilians ...? Well not exactly.
As we know, these same media are the ones who in 2003 held the photo of the Azores, those who assured us there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and who invented links between Saddam Hussein and Bin Laden, when all they had in common is that both had been U.S. allies.
Today we can not rely on them for Afghanistan.
On July 31, 2009, Reason said in an editorial that "Spain has an obligation ... to contribute to international efforts in Afghanistan ... ... Therefore, Zapatero is right to assume a greater degree of commitment."
is, indeed, agree with the government, but this does not help them in their crusade against the few things that Zapatero has done well.
addition, it is obvious that still Outraged by the "big mistake" of voters to oust the PP from power in 2004, mainly due to the Iraq war. Seem to want to realize the irony of Bertolt Brecht commented, led the government of East Germany: "Would not it be simpler for the Government to dissolve the people and elect another?"
In fact, this does not only apply to the right but also to the PSOE.
According to latest data from the Real Instituto Elcano , only 5% of the English population is in favor of sending more troops.
Zapatero's government, instead of applying the principle of "no war" it came to power, spends huge amounts on advertising to try to convince us that the deadly presence in Afghanistan is a "mission of peace." It's just one of the serious contradictions.
But tengámoslo clear contradiction of the PSOE are participating in a war once and call it peace-and right-to attack the government for participating in a war they support, "and not the antiwar.
The antiwar movement was active in 2001, against the war in Afghanistan, many of the people who have signed the statement now also participated in the protests then. The movement grew dramatically in 2003 against the Iraq war. After 2004, fell a lot, but it has never ceased to exist, or to require the withdrawal of troops and to express solidarity with the peoples of the Middle East.
A minimal journalistic investigation would have revealed these facts, but facts do not matter much to the constellation of Finger Aznar.
Sadly, the progressive media, those specific facts do not interest him much. For while the right was trying to take advantage of the "scandal" of the opposition of artists to the war in Afghanistan, to El País, El Periódico and Public this opposition does not exist.
The press could have explained the reasons for their rejection of war, which could have room to answer the attacks from the right, as did Public Willy Toledo with respect to Cuba has been silent.
seems that for them, maintain the fiction promoted by the government is more important than the lives of Afghan civilians. One of the reasons for the invisibility of motion media against the war in Afghanistan. This happens not only here, in Britain there is also a huge rejection of war, but the issue will be ignored in the upcoming legislative elections, because the two major parties support the war.
What can we do then?
All we can, continue to present arguments and continue to mobilize.
If we are not as many as in 2003, so be it. If they insult us, it is unpleasant, and even more so when you customize.
But look on the bright side. If the right is so angry, something we are doing well. If your salary columnists attack Bardem, Toledo and others for his opposition to war, they do only for fear of these individuals. They do it to try to help his "mini me", the pundits front of each bar and tavern in the country, to feel stronger to the ordinary people who oppose to war. By attacking artists, want to intimidate these basic voices, people who suffer layoffs and ERE, people who are asking a simple question: why money is not dedicated to social purposes, and not war?
This is a question that Reason and company can not arise, and for his "mini me" would not answer. So bark.
What about us? Ride. As I said, we may not be many, but we are growing.
The Campaign for the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan has very broad support of antiwar movements and social forums around the state other movements and parties like IU, Verds Initiative, Esquerra Republicana, Aralar, and now, as we have seen many personalities from various fields.
This is good news, real news. But who cares? The press, no, but people on foot, maybe. David Karval
activist Aturem War Platform, Barcelona
March 17, 2009
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