By Mick from No Sweat
So the bombs have stopped dropping, the "boys" are coming home and "liberation" has been brought to Iraq. The Guardian - in between bravely backing Blair over Iraq, the fire-fighters, immigration, any old anti-working class "tough decision" he can come up with - featured a cartoon by Martin Rowson showing two Iraqis celebrating their liberation in the rubble of Baghdad and commenting that, "if I just sew another thirty trainers by lunchtime, I'll earn a dollar".
And that is basically the liberation the war will bring. Religious bigots and trans-national corporations are the big winners. Shia fundamentalists, organised by the only movement tolerated by the old Baathist regime - the church, are marching and attacking progressive Iraqis. And union-busters and environmental degraders are snapping up multi-million dollar contracts to rebuild Iraq. Much can be learned about the war aims of the US and UK forces by taking a peak at these contracts. Bechtel and other big backers of the Republican Party are picking the cherries. UK companies are scrabbling for the valuable crumbs. The real big contracts are to modernise the oil industry. Dubya even made a presidential address during the war, during which he said, "and now I want to speak to the Iraqi people. Do not attack the oil fields". Subtle as ever!
During the war, while many just wanted to say "stop the war" and nothing else, some of us wanted to try to reach out to Iraqi workers, to try to make solidarity and to oppose all oppressions they face - from the old regime of Saddam, from the US / UK forces and from the religious bigots. There were practical points to this. If we could really build a movement big and strong enough to stop the war - i.e. to change the international policies of the US and UK ruling classes - why stop there? Would we just want the old regime to carry on oppressing the Iraqi workers or its national minorities like the Kurds? Or would we want to help the Iraqi workers throw off all their oppressors? Given the way the Iraqis greeted the downfall of their old dictator, might this approach have given us a stronger voice with both Iraqi and British workers? Now the invasion stage of the war is over it is even more important that we do this.
There is a gaping vacuum in Iraqi politics now. The old regime allowed no dissent. Organisations like trade unions or a political party of the workers were not allowed. The Communist Party and the Worker Communist Party of Iraq were banned, many of their comrades were tortured and worse. The vacuum is being filled by the US Army and Shiite bigots.
If the Iraqi workers are to escape a fate of religious fascism at the hands of the church or corporate exploitation at the hands of US / UK TNCs they will need all the help they can get to develop their own unions and fighting organisations. No Sweat and others will be doing all we can to try to help this vital movement develop. Martin Rowson has kindly donated his cartoon for No Sweat to auction as part of this campaign. Get in touch to find out how you can help.
No Sweat: PO Box 36707, London SW9 8YA. 07904 431 959. www.nosweat.org.uk admin@nosweat.org.uk
