[Marxism] The Workers Communist Party of Iraq on a course that only helps imperialism and domestic reaction

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The plain truth has to be stated.  The WCPI,  regardless of its
sincerely "internationalist" and workerist intentions, is carrying out a
line that aids imperialism internationally and reaction domestically.
 
In the interests of protecting the workers' right to unionize,  they are
setting that right on the road to sure isolation in Iraqi society and
destruction no matter who wins.  They are making sure there will be no
working-class force in the current national movement against occupation
that represents and defends the unions.  They are making sure that it
will be easy to identify the unions in broad public opinion with the US
and the occupation.  They are putting the unions in a position of
hostility toward the great mass of the people -- the peasants, the urban
poor, the middle classes, the unemployed by their opposition to the
struggle in Fallujah and elsewhere.  Their opposition  to the fight in
Fallujah dooms the WCPI, very possibly beyond saving.  But worse, it may
doom the layers of workers they have pulled in their wake.
 
Its very easy to say that we shouldn't be quick to judge currents in
other countries who operate under difficult conditions.  Everybody in
Iraq operates under difficult conditions.  But those who act, in effect
no matter how radical and anti-occupation they are in official
statements, as though the occupation protects them and their
organizations against the national movement -- basically a bureaucratic
posture of viewing the unions as a special interest separate and
counterposed to the Iraqi masses and their fight for independence --
are a disaster for Iraq today, and above all for the working class in
Iraq.
 
This situation has to be faced harshly.  Unless the WCPI changes course
radically and does so now, it is finished as a progressive force in
Iraqi politics, and its trade unions -- unless they can break away from
its grip and join the national struggle as workers fighting for their
class interests -- are doomed along with them.
 
If they continue this studied insensitivity to the national movement in
their own country in the face of the confrontation between imperialism
and Fallujah, only those who break with them over this issue will be
worth talking to.
 
That's the way it is.  They are going the way of the Mujahedeen in Iran
-- the road to reactionary-sectarian isolation under the protection of
some alien power for themselves and destruction for the unions they
lead.  The fact that they have some following among workers only makes
them even more dangerous than the Mujahideen to the struggle for
national liberation and socialist revolution in Iraq.
Fred Feldman

I want to highlight this response to Peter  Boyle from the wcpi
spokesperson:
"Give me the resource and i will promise you that within 3 months i will
control entire cities in Iraq."
 
This is unadulterated sectarian fund-raising hype.  And it is a wretched
substitute  for solidarity with Fallujah in a war with imperialism right
now.  
 
It reminds me of the scene in the Beatles' movie Help, where the mad
professor proclaims, "With this ring, I could -- dare I say it -- rule
the world, if I can only get a grant!"
 
 A statement like this throws a shadow on all that the WCPI claims to be
accomplishing in the working class in Iraq.  
 
I am sure there is a kernel of truth to it and maybe more -- the
Healyites in Britain held and misused a real working class following for
some years, and the SWP in the United States has recently led a couple
strikes.  None of this justifies sectarian self-isolation and boastful
attitudes and, more importantly, a betrayal of basic class solidarity
and internationalism in the current struggle in Iraq.
 
A crackpot sect that has won a following among workers is just a more
dangerous crackpot sect.  The workers they follow have to be told what
they have gotten into.
Fred Feldman
 
Peter Boyle <peterb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: 


farooq sulehria wrote:

> Toma wrote IN RESPONSE TO MICHELL:"What you do when a right-wing force

> like liberals win the majority? What do you do if you are in a westen 
> country where there is a strong racists movement? I guess you need to 
> fight against them and that is what we are doing in Iraq
>
> Michael, there is no dilemma."
>
>
> MY COMMENT: " THIS COMPARISON IS MISPLACED. FALLUJAH OR PRESENT IRAQ 
> RESISTENCE PRESENTS A DILEMMA. MICHELL'S QUESTION NEEDS TO BE ANSWERED

> STILL'.
>
> I think defeat of US impearialism in Iraq is more important than 
> anything else. I have no illusions in fundamentalists. Alliance with 
> them is not possible either. But resistence in Falujah should not 
> merely be supåported because civilians are being killed but also 
> because it will be a blow to occupation.
>
I agree with Farooq. There is a dilemma for the WCPI position. How can 
it be possible for communists not to stand on the side of the armed 
resistance to the occupation, despite the Islamic fundamentalist and 
Baathist leaderships? How will communists win a greater hearing among 
the Iraqi masses without doing this when:

1. On June 15, Newsweek magazine reported that the ?first survey of 
Iraqis sponsored by the US Coalition Provisional Authority after the Abu

Ghraib prison scandal shows that most say they would feel safer if 
Coalition forces left immediately?.

The results of the poll, conducted in mid-May but not made public, were 
leaked to both Associated Press and Newsweek. AP reported that ?92% of 
the Iraqis said they considered coalition troops occupiers, while just 
2% called them liberators?.

The results of the CPA-commissioned poll confirmed the deeply hostile 
attitude of Iraqis toward the US-led occupation forces that was revealed

by a mid-April USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll. That poll found that 57% of 
Iraqis want US and allied troops to leave Iraq. It also found that 55% 
of Iraqis believe armed attacks on the occupation forces are justified. 
This rose to 67% in Baghdad.



2. Rumsfeld Admits Iraqis Favor The Resistance!

November 09, 2004 By Robert Burns, Associated Press

"I don't know how many weeks or how many months" it will take to reach a

point where the weight of public opinion favors the new Iraqi government

instead of the insurgents, he said. "Nobody knows."



3. BBC: Iraq press attacks Falluja assault

Several Iraqi newspapers have criticised the government for sanctioning 
the operation to dislodge rebels in the city of Falluja.



 
 


-----Original Message-----
From: Forward wcpi [mailto:forward_wcpi@xxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Thursday, November 11, 2004 1:19 AM
To: GreenLeft_discussion@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [GreenLeft_discussion] Imperialist propaganda and the petit
bourgeois "Left"


Dear Peter,
 
I have already resopned to the point raised by comrade Farooq.
I agree that the vast majority of people in Iraq are against the
occupation. This is not a secret but this does not mean that this
majority is with the resistance. I will add with confidence that the
current resistance is very unpopular and it is this unpopularity which
force them to use this violence to subject people.
 
Again i will say there is no dilemma whatsoever for the WPiraq and we do
not have any problem with people listening to what we say. However
people do not want just to hear the truth and propaganda from me they
want action. Give me the resource and i will promise you that within 3
months i will control entire cities in Iraq. Secular movement is strong
and communists have a good prestige but its this lack of confidence that
they can not do much which make people passive toward us.
 
What dilemma should i face because i am not  supporting terrorists?
"How can 
it be possible for communists not to stand on the side of the armed 
resistance to the occupation, despite the Islamic fundamentalist and 
Baathist leaderships? How will communists win a greater hearing among 
the Iraqi masses without doing this when:" 
These concerns come because you think that the people of Iraq are one
bloc fanatic and members or supporters of terroristorganizations.. This
is not the truth.
 
You argued against me when i said Sadr is a scum seeking a share in the
pie! tell me where is that anti-imperialist hero? What happened to his
resistance? why he queue like the others waiting what the USA will offer
him?
 
When people are against the occupation it does not automatically make
them for the resistance. When they oppose the attack on Falluja it is
not because they do not want these terrorist Mujahideens to be disloge.
The reason is because they know innocent people will get killed.
 
Toma Hamid






Peter Boyle



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