Iraq Freedom Congress

The Iraq Freedom Congress (or Iraqi Freedom Congress, IFC) is a libertarian, progressive, democratic, and secularist group. It opposes all forms of sectarian violence, Ba'athism, Islamism, and nationalism, as well as the foreign military occupation. The Congress was formed in March 2005 by members of groups including the Worker-Communist Party of Iraq[1], the Worker-Communist Party of Iran, the Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq, the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq, the Middle East Centre for Women's Rights, the Union of the Unemployed of Iraq, Japan's Movement for Democratic Socialism, and various other activists and university professors [2].

The IFC has organized self-defense Safety Forces that patrol neighborhoods in Baghdad and other cities with a population of around 5,000. They have reduced sectarian violence there to zero.

The IFC founded a satellite television station, Sana TV.

In September 2006, US troops raided the Baghdad office of the IFC, for the crime of putting up posters and banners opposing the US occupation of Iraq. Troops confiscated most of the office's property and destroyed most of what they left behind. [3]

On June 7, 2007, US troops again raided the headquarters of the IFC. [4]

On July 4, 2007, US forces abducted Abdelhussain Saddam, the head of the IFC Safety Forces, from his home, shooting his daughter in the process. His body was discovered at a morgue two days later. [5] [6]

On February 12, 2008, US forces raided the headquarters of the IFC yet again. [7]

After Mohammed Jassim, director of Sana TV, was assassinated on June 2, 2008, members of IFC successfully caught and arrested the criminals involved. [8]

Inspired by the success of democratic revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, the IFC joined with many other Iraqis to stage their own democratic protests. In response, the Maliki regime jailed and tortured many protestors, and Iraqi riot police raided the office of Sana TV, destroying all of its equipment. [9]

The IFC has received very little coverage in both mass media and alternative media.

An American anti-war group, the National Organization for the Iraqi Freedom Struggles, supports the IFC and other freedom-oriented Iraqi groups.

External links

• Official web site
• Manifesto of the IFC
• Statement by the Iraqi Freedom Congress by Samir Adil, February 23, 2006.
• Houzan Mahmoud Interview by Bill Weinberg, April 1, 2006
• "A 'third pole' in Iraqi politics", Workers' Liberty, May 11, 2005.
• Iraq Freedom Congress Rejects Violence of Occupation and Insurgency by Kathlyn Stone, OpEdNews, July 3, 2006
• "In Iraq: A Place to be Human First", by Bill Weinberg Yes! Magazine, Summer 2006.
• Iraq Labor vs ExxonMobil, BP, and Shell by Kathlyn Stone, Truthout, February 21, 2007
• Is Bush Backing Al-Qaeda? by Michael I. Niman, March 2007
• Now the U.S. Military Is Assassinating Iraqi Peace Workers by Kathlyn Stone, OpEdNews, July 9, 2007
• Japanese Anti-War Conference Unites Okinawan, Iraqi Struggles by Bill Weinberg, August 4, 2007
• Iraq's Civil Resistance, by Bill Weinberg, World War 4 Report, December, 2007
• Remember Iraqi Women on International Women's Day by Kathlyn Stone, March 8, 2008
• Moving Against Maliki by Martin Thomas, September 2008
• Iraq Trip Report Back: Humbling by Aaron Hughes, May 2009
• Iraqi Workers and the Occupation by Amjad Ali, May 28, 2010 (Four-part video interview)
• Already People in Iraq Are Taking to the Streets by Nadia Mahmood, Worker's Liberty, February 14, 2011
• Iraqi Crowds Air Grievances by Ben Lando, Wall Street Journal, February 26, 2011
• Iraq: "We Have No Freedom or Justice" by Tony Iltis, Green Left, March 13, 2011
• Iraqis Take to the Streets, Call for Real Democracy by David Bacon, Truthout, March 25, 2011