The western capitalist media is full of reports of acts of ‘resistance’ by Iraqi fighters. Every day American soldiers are gunned down in isolated acts of violence. The knee jerk reaction for many who opposed the war is to support these acts, but in reality, what are they doing to build a better future for Iraq? Are they really going to end the imperialist occupation?
Probably not. Sporadic assassinations are not going to change the world. The working class, however, is. And it’s beginning to organise in a big way in Iraq. Funny, really, how the media seems blindly unaware of this.
Organisations like the Unemployed Union of Iraq – set up to represent the thousands made jobless by the war – now represents tens of thousands of workers. It organises large demonstrations and some of its members have been arrested by US forces.
Iraqi socialists are also beginning to organise trade unions and workers’ councils, in an attempt to cohere a dynamic, class-based resistance to the imperialists that can actually change things.
The Stop the War Coalition has organised another demonstration on September the 27th, under the headline ‘end the occupation’. That’s fine – all socialists want to end the occupation. But who should end it? What should it be replaced with?
One of the organised anti-war movement’s main failings was that it never had anything significant to say about what should happen in Iraq after the war. Okay – it said ‘we want democracy,’ but it never really thought about how this would be achieved, and who would get achieve it. If it had, it might have turned itself into a pro-democracy campaign by now, and it might be supporting initiatives like the UUI and feminist campaigns like the Organisation for Women’s Freedom in Iraq. Campaigns like this are really important – they’re campaigns that working class people are actually building on the ground in Iraq now. Helping to raise awareness of them and building their cause is much more effective than just marching from A to B.
So go on the demo on September 27th, but do more than that; get involved with building solidarity with Iraqi workers who are fighting for democracy.
It’s easy to travel down the road of supporting any and all forces who declare themselves ‘anti-imperialist,’ but we have to think what such forces – Islamic fundamentalists in Iraq, for example – actually represent. They just want to replace one form of oppression with another. We shouldn’t support their ‘resistance’ at all – as Iraqi communist Nadia Mahmood says, “they have no brighter agenda than the US has for Iraqi people.”
Things are happening in places other than Iraq, too. In Iran, a protest movement comprising largely of students and workers is burgeoning. The people have had enough of the repression enacted upon them by Iran’s religious dictatorship, and they’re fighting back. Students have been fighting physical battles with the police in the streets, as well as having to deal with gangs of armed religious thugs working for the state. This is the type of repression a fundamentalist dictatorship brings; we have to back the workers and students who want to tear it down. Workers all over Iran are striking and demonstrating at low wages, mismanagement and proposed privatisations. Some workers have not been paid for over two years! Iranian workers and students need our solidarity too.
There’s talk of Iran being America’s next target for war. If this happens, some people might get sucked into a position of ‘defending Iran’ (i.e. the regime) against American invasion. It’s vital to avoid that trap. If such a war is proposed, we have to fight tooth and nail to oppose it. But if it happens, we can’t side with the Iranian state. We have to back the workers and students against both US imperialism and the Iranian dictatorship.
Bolshy – along with No Sweat (www.nosweat.org.uk) is involved in campaigns to build solidarity with Iraqi workers, and with Iranian students. Why not get involved? Get in touch with Bolshy by sending an email to bolshy_03@hotmail.com or by ringing us on 0115 9101631.
Get down to the STWC demo on September the 27th – Bolshy will be there too – but make sure that your activity doesn’t end with the demonstration. If you want to ‘end the occupation,’ then get involved with the campaign to build solidarity with the people who are doing just that!
By Daniel Randall
Editor, Bolshy