Now that the Iraqi Parliment has passed the Status of Forces Agreement the US occupation has been 'legitimized' until 2011. As you probably know the US forces will withdraw to firebases by June 30, 2009 and the Iraqi government will have some authority over US Military opperations. The question of what kind of a society will exist as the US Military is on their bases (read: only guarding oil?) is open, but the various mainstream factions amongst the Sunni, Shia and Kurds have spotty, to say the least, human rights records by the standards we have come to enjoy in the West. Wouldn't it be great if there was a domestic movement within Iraq that supported womens and gay rights and resisted, by force of arms if necessary, the barbaric religious sectarianism that can be all too prevalent? Oh wait ... there is. You just won't hear about them in the US media.
The Iraqi Freedom Congress fights to keep basic human rights for women, for the right of labor to organize, for basic religious freedoms and is entirely against the illegal occupation of Iraq by the United States. They patrol portions of certain cities and their neighborhoods are oases of tolerance. Current actions by the IFC include an open letter to our President Elect and organizing labor actions. Why this movement has gotten no exposure in the US media is left as an exercise to the reader, but with an administration coming in that is not the military wing of big oil, for a change, and in all likelihood the US maintaining a military presence for a while, the time is here to raise the profile of these progressives who operate and organize under what amounts to an armed state of siege.
My apologies for the shortness of this diary. The western journalist that covers and has interviewed the IFC is at ww4report.com, and the link above tells the story. Anything I would add would just be rewriting that information.
The Iraqi Freedom Congress page is here. I'm in awe at their bravery in the face of religious, sectarian and imperial extremism.