Interview with Dorte Grenaa, Chairman of the Workers' Communist Party of Denmark (APK)
From Kommunistisk Politik, No. 3, February 2, 2002
KP: How do you evaluate the development of the new peace movement in Denmark?
D. Grenaa: There is no doubt that the anti-war movement, the new peace
movement, has taken some important steps at the right moments, steps bringing
the movement forward.
It has been decisive that the peace movement took to the streets at once, thereby
manifesting itself. This was happening not only in Copenhagen, but also in many
other cities around the country people were coming forward, protesting the war
against Afghanistan. And ever since, there have been demonstrations and people
holding torches for peace. Why has this been important? For a number of reasons.
It has given voice to the heartfelt opposition of many people to a new big war
and its inhuman consequences. And it has given voice to the deep and widespread
concern among people. It has contributed to break the state of paralization
and shock in which it was meant to keep the world's populations by the well-prepared,
fast war that was launched following September 11. It is important to be able
to go from powerlessness to action, and to make the opposition to the war visible.
I also believe that this is an essential reason why so many new people, who
had not participated in anti-war work before, have joined the anti-war initiatives.
Original ideas and new actions
What we are seeing today is a new peace movement creating its own image by
introducing original ideas and actions like the Peace Guard in front of Christiansborg
(the national parliament, translator's note). I can say that Ramsey Clark, who
participated in the international peace conference, stated as he heard about
the Peace Guard: "Such an action should be made all over the world, a peace
guard in front of all parliaments against the war policy of the governments."
Another of the speakers at the conference, Sharon Ceci from the US-based International
Action Center, participated during the peace weekend in a party celebrating
the first 100 days of the Peace Guard and greeted it by saying: "I am looking
forward to tell others in the US peace movement about your action when I return
to Baltimore and Washington because I know that it will be an inspiration to
us."
Perspectives for the movement
KP: Some people have been saying that the war in Afghanistan is apparently over, and therefore there is no need for such an intense activity for peace any longer. What is your opinion about that?
D. Grenaa: The whole peace weekend that we have just held here in Copenhagen
has been a roaring success in itself; the demonstration on January 26 against
Danish participation in the US war and the celebration of the first 100 days
of the Peace Guard were successful. By holding the international peace conference,
another very important and necessary element was stressed: the perspectives
of the peace movement.
It is a prolonged and extensive war that the world is now facing. This war is
something on which everybody will have to take a stand. The struggle for peace
is a concrete struggle, which must be directed against the massive US military
machine of destruction that cynically is rolling forward for its own interests,
as well as against its necessary war allies.
Ramsey Clark stressed a very important point, saying: "The US is not able
to wage its war alone. The US needs NATO and war allies like the Danish government,
which are willingly delivering the cannon fodder."
It is absolutely necessary for the peace movement to consider this.
All these perspectives and discussions are important for the peace movement
right now, and we must not, as some people have been putting forward, wait for
better conditions for the peace movement because "we are so few and so
weak". We, ourselves, are the ones who must create the conditions - and
we can do it. To us, it is not the number of active people, which is decisive,
but the quality, seriousness, and perseverance.
A global peace movement
KP: What is the importance of the peace conference?
D. Grenaa: The conference clearly showed that the peace movement is
part of a new global peace movement containing many different social, political
and ideological forces from all countries, from belligerent countries and countries
under attack or being "neutral" so far. It was fantastic to see a
former US Attorney General and a former Afghan minister, coming from two countries
at war, but standing shoulder to shoulder for peace. By its composition of the
speakers, the conference underlined that it is important that the international
peace movement does not develop from a Western, American or Western European,
point of view, but really develop from an international point of view. All the
speakers stressed this, and their dialogue expressed this effort.
In this way, the conference was unique. Seeing and listening to speakers from
the US, Afghanistan and the Middle East, each with their distinct and different
cultural, religious and political way of expressing their common message, namely
that all peoples in the world have the same right to respect, freedom and to
live in peace, and that it is our joint responsibility, regardless of which
continent we come from, to fight and stop the US war, was a huge inspiration
of a rare kind.
It is based on the experiences that we have done now that the new peace movement
must develop deeply as well as broadly. And this is where we stand at the moment.
We must continue making opposition to the war visible. At the same time, the
peace movement must take upon itself the task of ensuring that real information
and facts about the so-called "War on Terror" reach the people.
Denmark is participating in this war, and it is obvious that a real, although
not official, war censorship exists in the mainstream press. The peace movement
must find its own channels of getting out the truth.
The international peace conference was an important step in this direction.
The two famous Danish musicians Thomas Koppel and Annisette from the Savage
Rose called it "a harbinger of spring" in their beautiful greeting
to the conference. I think that is true. The reactions among the several hundred
people, who participated in the conference, show that it has caused a lot of
thinking.
The US military machine can be stopped
The "War on Terror" is developing all the time, explosively and in
a dangerous direction. The US has now intervened militarily in the Philippines.
We are seeing how the US is using its military power against the independence
and liberation movements as well as against the countries which will not follow
the US baton. The Palestinian people are among the enemies of the US, and therefore
they are being repressed. Somalia and Iraq have been mentioned as future targets
for a long time, and the military build-up for such attacks are showing that
the threats are real.
In his State of the Union speech, Bush specifically mentioned Iraq, Somalia
and North Korea as future targets for the aggressive policy of the US. It is
not because these countries are "terrorist states", threatening the
US with war, or are preparing terrorist attacks against the US. It is pure and
simple because they, differently and to a different extent, are obstacles to
the present objective of the US, which is to get control of Central Asia, the
Middle East and Caucasus.
In the same way, the US labels any force, any organization - and Bush specifically
mentioned the Palestinian and Lebanese liberation movements as Hamas and Islamic
Jihad, which he promised to annihilate - which resist US world hegemony whatever
their content: anti-imperialist, revolutionary, socialist, communist, secular
or religious. They must be destroyed if they dare to resist US policy is the
message from Bush.
But no matter how barbaric and invincible the US military machine seems right
now, it is not stronger than its backing. When the peoples really oppose being
used as cannon fodder, spreading death and misery among other peoples, when
they say "no" to pay the economic expenses of the war, then the military
machine can be stopped.
War, xenophobia and budget cuts are connected with each other
Therefore, in order to develop the struggle against the war, it must not only
be directed against the warmongers: US imperialism and its allies and agents.
The struggle must also reveal the connection of what is happening. When the
Danish government cuts the aid to developing countries, the budget for education
and social security and deteriorates the life conditions of the unemployed,
then the money are spent on the trades and industries and the war they are waging.
When the IMF and the World Bank force through economic dictates in the "holy"
name of neoliberalism, resulting in disasters for the peoples, then they get
money for financing the war of the monopolies. The war cannot be seen isolated
from either the social and political agenda or from the class struggle; the
war cannot be put to its own "corner of peace". When the Danish government
takes over the EU Presidency in the summer of this year, the struggle against
the war must be in the centre, just like at the last EU Summit in Laeken, Belgium,
where the opposition to the war policy of the EU and its participation in the
war were massive.
The peace movement has to take some important steps now - and the possibilities
for doing that exist.