RE: [Marxism] A Video Message from the Iraqi Resistance

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

Steve says:

> Yoshie said:
> > A couple of people (one at DailyKos, the other at Little Green Footballs
> > (ugh) to which someone linked my blog entry on the resistance video) said
> > that the video has been available on the net for a month or two.   I don't
> > know if they saw exactly the same video, but if that's the case, it's
> > interesting that the corporate media is showing it just now.
>
> Someone posted a url to this video clip to Marxmail in December and
> Fred posted (copied below) a transcript of the text. If these video
> clips aren't identical, they are at least quite similar.
>
> I found it instructive to read the transcript while watching the
> video, and then look over the text closely for content.  The
> military message is clear - it calls for the defeat of the US
> forces, and military victory to the resistance.  And its general
> political message is clear, and indeed stirring - a call for
> solidarity with their just struggle to oust the US-led invaders.  In
> solidarity with these two central messages, the demand for complete,
> immediate, unconditional withdrawal of US and allied forces is, in
> my opinion, and many others, the demand that should be raised by
> antiwar forces around the world.
>
> But looking deeper into this text, what is the
> political-programmatic content of Communiqué  Number 6?  What social
> classes and historical tendencies does it represent and/or orient
> to?  One way to think about this deeper kind of look is to evaluate
> its proposals - it makes a few, such as a boycott of US and UK
> products - and its ideas, such as identifying with "the future of
> every resistance struggle ever in the history of man."   Its call
> for an end to Zionism is also worth noting.  In evaluating the text,
> I think it is worthwhile to look at it critically, from the point of
> view of different classes in different countries.  How would, for
> example, a French or German imperialist, who opposed the US
> invasion, relate to the words and points made in this video?  What,
> if any, is the proletarian class struggle content of this video (or
> other public statements by the resistance and its leaders) -
> "proletarian class struggle content" meaning, how, and does it at
> all, motivate the independent mobilization of workers, call for
> support for the struggle for the democratic rights of women, call
> for support for the struggle for the national rights of Kurds, etc.?

In my opinion, an appeal to US soldiers expresses an incipient class
consciousness.  If the group who issued the video message made no
class distinction between the American power elite and US soldiers,
it wouldn't have said to US soldiers, "This is not your war."

I doubt that any group in the Iraqi resistance is, right now,
committed to workers' rights, women's rights, and Kurds' rights, or
it has even thought deeply about how such political questions relate
to their military struggle.  Eventually, I hope that they will begin
to think in that direction.  The fact that the Communist Party is a
part of the interim government supporting the occupation will,
however, hamper any such development.
--
Yoshie

* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/>
* "Proud of Britain": <http://www.proudofbritain.net/ > and
<http://www.proud-of-britain.org.uk/>

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