Re: AUT: Information on Iraq was antiwar movement

[Thiago Oppermann <thiago_oppermann@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I got my information from Jalal Mohamad a representative of the UUI and
Layla Mohammed, of the Organization for Women's Freedom in Iraq. Both are
WCPI affiliated groups. The CPI guy, Kassim Aboud, agreed with their
figures, as did a number of other Iraqis present whose affiliation I do not
know. I have notes, I double checked them with Mr. Mohamad, and there was a
score of left press people there.

I am willing to entertain the possibility that 30,000 people have indeed
been killed by the guerrillas, but those present at the meeting could
provide no source for their claims. Yet neither would they back down from
them. I gather you share my scepticism.

Thiago


On 23/3/2004 8:35 PM, "cerclesocial@xxxxxxxxxx" <cerclesocial@xxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

> A few points abour Iraq :and worker-communist party
>
>>> How seriously can you take a Worker Communist Party guy who
> claims 30k to 50k deaths as a result of the guerilla? That's an obvious fib.
>
> Never read something like this in all WCPI press. They consider nationalist,
> ethnicist and religious groups as reactionnary as imperialism, and oppose
> suicide bombings and things like this. They are also themselves under
> threats of Patrooitic Union of Kurdistan (that tortured some militants, as
> revealed a few yeras ago by Amnesty international) and some Islamists
> groups, who killed two of members at the tribune of a meeting a few years
> ago. As french paper Le Monde exposed in an articles about political parties
> in Iraq, their local is widely open to people, but under stong guard of
> people with heavy guns.
>
>>> As for their representation of workers and the unemployed (the UUI being a
> WCPI front organization), the facts there are also entirely disputable. The
> gentleman on Saturday suggested that 'thousands' were joining the UUI every
> single day. When I pressed him about this, he suggested that such was the
> influx of new members they couldn't give records...
>
> It's the common fate of all organisations that go beyond the small local
> group... but I agree the exact number of militants of UUI is rather
> unprecise. They give various estimations, and after some rather dubbous one,
> suggested it was 130 000 people - this is rather small for an union. This
> doe not means that every people are everyday militants, as UUI seems to do a
> lot of neighborough work, including protecting and distributing humanitarian
> help medics - against their saling by sharks.
>
> One problem is the way western medias present things. In France, sometimes
> Le Monde or L'Humanité (communist daily paper) speaks about social movement
> in Iraq, and recognize the reole of UUI, but this is rather rare. A comical
> example of misinformation was a photography of a demonstration, put in every
> media and told us to be religious shia demo. But why shia would have red
> flags ? and why would them claim  100 $ for all unemployed, an UUI demand ?
> Also, when US soldiers killed unemployed demonstrators in the south, medias
> forgotten to say the demo was called by UUI. Remember the 1991 worker
> insurection in north and east Iraq. No media spoke about it clearly,
> considering there was just a natioanlist and religious movement. Now, some
> 'experts' recognize its  social meaning.
>
>>>>> On a practical level, their policy is to shut out foreign workers to
> give jobs for Iraqis; they
> are nationalists through and through. Perhaps an argument can be construed
> that this is sensible when you have 70% unemployment (another figure that
> would seem  inflated), but I am not so sure.
>
> I wonder to know where you find that ? I had, on contrary, be suprised of
> the strong antinationalism they developpe. Note that UUI is Union of
> Unemployed in Iraq, not of Iraqi Unemployed...
>
>
> - Need to be verified, but some people in Occupation watch are linked to
> baathism. The interest of Occupation watch is theat they expose ''facts''
> in a western style. I tranlsted to Eva's articles in french, that are
> interesting.
>
> More soon.... I must go work...
> Nico
>
>
>
>
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