Re Iraqi CPs position

["Pip, Peter & Zoe" <ppz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Jose

In our discussions we are coming to the same positions as you argued
convincingly in your post EXCEPT for the question of Kurdish
self-determination.

Indeed the issue of the UN role only surfaced in the anti-war
demonstrations around Australia today (which attracted just over 32,000
people - a long way short of the 1 million on Feb 14-16) in the
reactionary form of a call by ALP "left" union leader Doug Cameron who
echoed his party's call for a "greater role for the UN in the
reconstruction of Iraq". This is little more than a formula for giving
cover for the US-Brit-Australian occupation.

I agree that the duty of the anti-war movement in the imperialist
countries should be to demand the immediate and total withdrawal of all
imperialist troops. But the principal that underlies this is the right
of the peoples of Iraq to self-determination. And part of this right of
self-determination is the Kurdish right to self-determination.

The fact that the KDP and the PUK are collaborating with the imperialist
invaders does not negate that right (permanently or temporarily). Of
course, this collaboration gives any forces fighting imperialist
occupation to attack and defeat the aggressors operating out of
Kurdistan. However, in such a struggle the liberation forces would be
wise to recognise the legitimacy of Kurdish national rights.

At least this is my intepretation of the Leninist approach to national
self-determination. I think your position strays in the mistaken
direction of some leftists who try to disappear the national question
during the recent wars in the Balkans.

Practically, by consistently defending Kurdish national rights,
especially against the Turkish army, the US role in accomodating Turkish
oppression of the Kurds will become clearer. This will break down the
Kurdish people's illusions in the imperialists.

As to the NZ Green's position (developed by Keith Locke, formerly of the
SAL when it was an FI section) it probably reflects the pressures from
the Greens middle-class constituency for a respectable solution. Similar
pressures are apparent here in Australia in the Greens and among some of
the conservativised old lefts who still play an influential role in the
anti-war coalitions.

If Mohammed's posting on this list is right, the Iraqi CP position of
March 23 comes from a part of that CP that collaborated with the US. I
cannot confirm this as yet, but that is what he says.

The WCPI is not in this category. Whatever one's analysis of this group,
their call for "UN-supervised" elections may reflect a real concern of
the now small left secular groups in Iraq about the available space for
any real act of self-determination or election without some external
scrutiny or monitoring. But that's their call.

That's all I can think of to say for now. But please keep putting the
arguments. It was the sort of help I was fishing for.

Peter Boyle