In solidarity

ANTI-WAR demonstrations and events have become a regular item in Egyptian activist circles.. For the third consecutive week, thousands of worshippers demonstrated against the expected war on Iraq following the Friday prayers at the historic Al-Azhar Mosque. On the same day, another demonstration was staged in the Nasr City-based Cairo International Book Fair.

Obviously planned to take advantage of the high visitor turnout for the fair, the demonstration organisers -- solidarity committees, representatives of various political parties and syndicate members -- probably chose the wrong location. Thousands of anti-riot police were assembled inside and outside the grounds of the fair, virtually controlling the exit and entrance gates in anticipation of the planned demonstration. The result was a few hundred demonstrators separated by what seemed like an army of anti-riot police. Police succeeded in dividing the protesters into two small groups, surrounded by tightly wound concentric circles of anti-riot police.

Security presence not only grossly outnumbered the protesters, but also visitors to the Book Fair itself. As a result, the demonstration was cornered away from the eyes and ears of the fair's visitors. Passages leading to the small demonstration were blocked by more vigilant rows of anti-riot police and it was only possible, through persistent negotiations with high-ranking police officers, for the media to even come close to the rally.

Protesters waved black-and-white images of Gamal Abdel-Nasser, the Palestinian flag, and anti- war banners equating the Jewish Star of David and the American flag with the swastika. In addition to Iraq and Palestine solidarity slogans, they chanted anti-US and anti-Israel slogans.

Observers attribute the exaggerated security concerns to a noticeable shift in official circles toward intolerance of anti-war activities. To illustrate this point, observers referred to the unprecedented cancellation of a number of even remotely political forums that were scheduled at the Book Fair.

ON 30 January, the press syndicate's Arab Affairs' committee held a solidarity rally at the syndicate's downtown headquarters under the title "Together against an American aggression on Iraq ... No to US 'hooliganism' ... No to Arab silence." The seminar was attended by representatives from the Nasserist and Tagammu' parties, the frozen Labour Party and the banned Muslim Brotherhood. Speakers attacked the US administration, describing the leadership as "thuggish" and accused it of intervening in the affairs of the Arab world to "impose its will on Arab leaders".

Participants voiced similar criticism for the deafening silence of Arab regimes and called for larger massive demonstrations to protest the war. An anti-war demonstration is scheduled at Al-Sayeda Zeinab Square on 15 February at 12.30pm.

FOLLOWING an outcry over a decision by Britain's Royal Parks Authority that turned down a request for an anti-war rally in Hyde Park on 15 February, Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell announced on Tuesday that the decision had been reversed as no alternate venue could be offered. The protest, which is being organised by the London-based Stop the War Coalition, in cooperation with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and the Muslim Association of Britain, is expected to draw half a million people and park officials have expressed concern that soft ground and wet conditions could transform the park into a muddy nightmare, both in terms of safety for protesters and for the state of the park itself.

Jowell maintains that the issue was always about safety and never about stymieing the voices of anti-war sentiment, but Stop the War Coalition founder John Rees called the reversal a success for people power. "Freedom of speech in this instance was only defended by the actions of the people," he said. "The minister wanted to abrogate this fundamental liberty and we have prevented her from doing so."

US POETS are gearing up for a nation-wide protest against the war set for 12 February. The "Day of Poetry Against the War" is the remains of a killed poetry symposium that was originally to be held by First Lady Laura Bush at the White House on the same day. When it became clear that the event would take on a political and anti-war flavour, the event was cancelled indefinitely, rousing anger among the nation's literati, notably poet Sam Hamill, founding editor of the noted poetry publisher Copper Canyon Press.

Hamill seemed baffled that a gathering of poets was expected to be anything but political. "Although poetry is written in solitude, it is social language, and all poems are political in one way or another," Hamill said last week. "So why they thought they could have a symposium on Whitman and Hughes and Dickinson and have no politics involved is utterly beyond me." Former American poet laureate Rita Dove agreed. Having declined to attend the symposium, Dove said that its subsequent cancellation was a sign that the Bush administration was openly hostile to internal dissent. "This White House does not wish to open its doors to an 'American Voice' that does not echo the administration's misguided policies," she said.

The day of protest will involve poetry readings across the country and the compilation of an "anthology of protest" that will be sent to the White House. Overwhelmed by the response, Hamill says that so far he has received some 3,000 poems and the missives are still coming.

A TEAM pulled together by the New York-based Centre for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) released a report underscoring the humanitarian impact of a war in Iraq. The report, issued in Baghdad last week, warns that the war the US is planning in Iraq will violate international laws and calls on the "global civil society" to hold the Bush administration accountable to the laws it flouts.

From 19-29 January, a team of 16 humanitarian experts toured all of Iraq and spoke with both UN and Iraqi officials dealing with the gamut of public health and social issues, from electricity and water sanitation, to hospitals and public markets. "In some ways, Iraq has become a vast refugee camp," says Ronald Waldman, a professor of public health and a member of the CESR team. "The population survives largely on food rations and depends on a fragile public health system. They are extremely vulnerable."

Also on last week, a team of 10 Canadian health experts, covering nutrition, child psychology and emergency preparedness, returned from a one- week investigative tour of Iraq forecasting a "grave humanitarian disaster". The report, "Our Common Responsibility: the Impact of a New War on Iraqi Children" was produced by the International Study Team (IST) and backed by a number of groups, among them War Child Canada, Oxfam Canada, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) and its Canadian affiliate Physicians for Global Survival (PGS). The team interviewed more than 100 families and some 300 children, finding that children as young as four years old have "clear concepts of the horrors of war".

Compiled by Nyier Abdou