Saddam's landslide election

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

(Over on the alt.politics.socialism.trotsky newsgroup, a supporter of one
of the shards of Gerry Healy's movement posted an article from their
newspaper that opened with the statement "IRAQ'S referendum saw the whole
adult population voting 'yes' to Saddam Hussein, in an absolutely
unprecedented demonstration by the whole Iraqi people of their
determination to defend their national sovereignty and freedom from foreign
aggression." This prompted apst'er and Marxmailer Einde O'Callaghan to
respond: "Opposing the imperialist aggression against Iraq doesn't mean
becoming cheerleaders for Saddam. But it appears that Newsline is going
back to its roots," referring to Gerry Healy's tendency to wax uncritically
about characters like Khaddafi. All that being said, it does raise an
interesting question. To what extent is the referendum backing an extension
of Saddam's presidency an expression of fear, or an expression of something
much deeper? Our tendency in the USA is to view this in the same way as
most media figures do, as either a joke or a sign of a totalitarian
dungeon. I went into Lexis-Nexis to find a different slant on things, which
not surprisingly comes from a media source outside the USA.)

Toronto Star, October 14, 2002 Monday Ontario Edition

Why Saddam's a shoo-in

Olivia Ward, Toronto Star

'Everybody will be (at the polls). It will show the Americans how the Iraqi
people feel about our country'

In the courtyard of the Dia Qar high school for boys a dozen 18-year-olds
are laughing, joking and jostling as they head out for a lunch break. All
are wearing neat white T-shirts emblazoned with portraits of Iraqi leader
Saddam Hussein.

"I put this on because I'm going out to vote for our leader," says Gassan
Walid, a polite young man with steel-rimmed glasses. "Like all of us, I'm
ready to sacrifice myself for the president." A murmur of approval goes up
from his friends. They, too, are going to cast their ballots in Iraq's
one-man referendum tomorrow, giving Saddam another seven years in office.

And, they say, they need no coercion to head for the polls.

"Everybody will be there," says Walid's friend Yasser Jabar, cheerfully.
"It will show the Americans how the Iraqi people feel about our country."

Caught between a hostile West and a system that leaves little room for
compromise, Iraqis have already made up their minds.

When the 1,905 polls open tomorrow in 72 electoral districts across Iraq,
the vast majority of the country's 11.5 million eligible voters are
expected to be there with the campaign slogan on their lips: "Yes, yes to
President Saddam Hussein."

The answer to the single question, "Do you agree (Saddam) should remain
president?" is a foregone conclusion.

With aplomb that would confound any Canadian leadership candidate, Saddam's
supporters have already decreed that "celebrations and festivities will
take place in Baghdad and other provinces to celebrate the glorious day and
express the loyalty and devotion of all Iraqis to President Saddam Hussein."

It is no secret that the voters will not disappoint him, as they didn't in
1995, when the turnout was 99.4 per cent, and he was re-elected by a
staggering 99.9 per cent.

The fact that the ballots are registered in the voters' names gives a
strong impetus to go to the polls.

But this time Iraqis are also driven by a feeling of being under siege.
Fear and defiance are accompanied by the unsettling knowledge that before
long they may be plunged into yet another war not of their making.

Protestations that America is not planning to wage war on the Iraqi people,
but only their leader, cut little ice in sizzling Baghdad.

Saddam's victory, says the government-run Iraq Daily, will be "a blow to
(President George W.) Bush's explicit determination to launch aggression on
Iraq with all the tools at his disposal."

The teenagers in the courtyard agree.

So do a wide variety of Iraqis in the capital that is a stronghold of
Saddam's Ba'ath party, and the home of many of the dominant Sunni Muslims
who form a minority in other parts of the country.

The tiny fraction of Iraq's new rich are also supporters of Saddam, making
escalating profits from sanctions-busting businesses that could otherwise
collapse.

But in this referendum, Saddam is also taking pains to extend the vote to
Kurds who live in an autonomous northern enclave protected by no-fly zones
established after the 1991 Gulf War.

For the first time, the Revolution Command Council declared that they can
cast ballots anywhere, rather than inside their own electoral district >>
an unlikely occurrence for people who have made it clear they want only to
see the back of Saddam.

The Iraqi parliament, the National Assembly, currently has 30 seats vacant
for the autonomous region.

In other parts of Iraq, though, the election bandwagon is rolling on.

Behind the banners and slogans, however, there is little excitement in the
streets where many Iraqis are fighting daily battles for survival. After
years of war and sanctions, their emotions are of weariness and despair.

"America wants to replace Saddam, but with who?" asks one elderly man. "Are
they going to come in here and give us prosperous, democratic lives? I
doubt it."

Meanwhile, the buses carving their way through Baghdad's infernal traffic
are decorated with Saddam posters.

Schools, hotels and public buildings carry election portraits and slogans;
daily broadcasts on three state-run television stations feature the words
and many faces of Saddam Hussein.

In the lobby of the country's largest hotel, the Al Rasheed, where
journalists and visiting delegations congregate, large oil paintings of
Saddam in a variety of costumes stand on easels, and local galleries offer
them for sale.

Campaign speeches by Saddam's supporters are boosted by the strains of
Whitney Houston's musical hit "I Will Always Love You," along with Iraqi
tributes sung by choirs and audiences.

In the dusty grounds of the Ba'ath party last week, thousands of supporters
gathered for a pre-referendum pep talk, with explanations of voting
procedures and slogans chanted by the enthusiastic crowd.

"We're showing solidarity at a time of conflict," said Abdul Amir Manha, an
Iraqi airline steward who regularly flies through the prohibited southern
no-fly zone to Basra, its airport recently bombed by Western warplanes.

"This is something that warms people up for voting >> it's like a wedding
party," he said.

"At a time like this people's nerves are on edge. They want to let out
their feelings."

A group of middle-aged members of the Federation of Iraqi Women stood on
the sidelines approvingly.

"My mother sat at home with no job, no rights and no future," said Khowla
Al Kazragi, a tourism official.

"Now things have definitely improved for women. We have the right to
education, and an equal role in the workplace. Unlike my mother, I'm my
husband's equal."

Whether from voters' defiance, approval or resignation, Saddam is headed
for a victory tomorrow, emerging once more as head of state,
commander-in-chief of the military, chairman of the ruling Revolution
Command Council and secretary of the Iraqi Command of the Ba'ath party.

And for both his supporters and opponents, as well as the beleaguered Iraqi
people, there is no doubt that at this moment, Saddam and the fate of Iraq
are intertwined.


Louis Proyect
www.marxmail.org


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