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conversation | 20 years later: the Iraq war and the aftermath

June 3, 2023 18:30 - 20:00

Failed anti-war movement, instrumental aid and the Iraqi protest movement

Shortly before the start of the Iraq war in 2003, the global anti-war movement mobilized 15 million people. In Berlin alone, more than 500.000 people took to the streets in February and demonstrated against a US-led military intervention. On March 20, 2003, the military intervention began under demonstrably false claims. It led to the fall of Saddam Hussein, cost the lives of hundreds of thousands and, under US dominance, transformed the country's economic and political system. 

At that time, humanitarian aid could only be carried out in consultation with the warring armies and thus became a political instrument in war. The Ba'ath Party was banned, the civil service brutally purged, and the Iraqi armed forces and security services disbanded - this was how Iraq's neoliberal transformation was to be accomplished. 

For the left movements in the Global North, the positions on the war became identity-forming, but decoupled from the Iraqi left. This protested against the neo-colonial war, against Saddam Hussein's regime and was confronted with emerging radical Islamist groups.

Major protests have been taking place in Iraq since 2011. In 2019, there were months of squatting in all major cities in central Iraq, demonstrating against the injustices of the political and neoliberal order. A new generation of progressive forces in Iraq are fighting to reverse the post-2003 imperial order. Nevertheless, the solidarity of the European left remained largely absent. We discuss different perspectives on the military intervention, the anti-war movement and the following 20 years in Iraq.

Tickets: Free entry! 
Registration: Registration here
Language: German/ Arabic with simultaneous translation

Biographies 

Gilbert Accar 

Gilbert Achcar is Professor of Development Policy and International Relations at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. In 2003 he toured France with Iraqi leftists to mobilize against the Iraq war. He is the author of New Cold War: The United States, Russia and China - From Kosovo to Ukraine (2023) and The People Want: A Radical Exploration of the Arab Uprising (2013).

Jamal Al Sayigh

Jamal Al-Sayigh sees himself as a socialist activist from the Harakat Al-Amal (labor movement), which was founded during the October 2019 protests in Iraq. As a movement, they try to create a space for the activists who have been persecuted since the protests to meet and exchange ideas. They also organize young people in their neighborhoods. One focus of her work is political, Marxist education. He grew up in Baghdad's Sadr City district, which is considered the stronghold of Muqtada Sadr, and is politically active there. The consequences of the Iraq war continue to influence the younger political generation in Iraq today.

Katja Maurer

Katja Maurer was head of the public relations department and editor-in-chief of the circular at the Frankfurt-based aid and human rights organization “medico international”. In 2003 she was one of the organizers of the conference “Power and Powerlessness of Aid” which took place at the beginning of the Iraq War and laid the foundations for a critical examination of aid and its embedding in war and post-war contexts. She is co-author of the book "Haitian Renaissance - the long road to postcolonial liberation" and has dealt with the ambivalent effects of aid in many texts.

Shluva Sama

Schluwa Sama grew up between Kurdistan-Iraq and Germany. The doctor of political economy publishes in various media and works at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in Beirut. There she deals with the political economy of food and aid in Iraq. What impact did 2003 have on farmers and agricultural production in the country? She looks at the Iraqi-Kurdish perspective of the US intervention and discusses it in relation to the international anti-war movement.

An event in cooperation with Bildungswerk Berlin of the Heinrich Böll Foundation and medicine international

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Details

Date:
June 3, 2023
Time:
18:30 - 20:00
Event Categories:
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Venue

Oyoun
Lucy-Lameck-Strasse 32
Berlin, 12049 Germany
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Organizer

Oyoun