Re: [Marxism] Supporting the resistance? To BK

["Calvin Broadbent" <calvinbroadbent@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

I have some questions for the academic liberal defender of imperialism BK.

What are the precise demands of this Islamic ?clerico-bourgeoisie?? Can you
provide some analysis yourself? Are they the emands of Al-Sistani? Which of
the not-so-nice 'Islamist' demands is incompatible with socialism? Are the
owners of the means of production in Iraq exclusively clerics, or are the
clerics in Iraq exclusively bourgeois? Where is your proof of either? Are
the mass of people in Iraq likely to go along with the program of a small
clique of people running roughshod over their rights and interests *without*
the latter having massive military backing by an imperialist power? Do you
know anything about religious traditions in Iraq or their historical
rapprochements and entaglements with secular policies and practices? Are the
professional working class alone strong enough to ?liberate? Iraq from
Imperialist forces that are daily draining it of its resources and further
demolishing its industrial base? Is there an objective basis for worker?s
control of Iraq? What ?point of production? in Iraq do you propose the
struggle for socialism there should begin from? The oilfields? How long will
teachers and journalists be able to force the might of US/UK imperialism to
institute socialism? What support do you propose should be given to
independent Iraqi workers? organisations? Are the resistance organisations
composed solely of clericalist bourgeois, or of thousands of working class
Iraqis? Why might the leaders of IFTU have been kidnapped? Do you know
anything about the Kurdish Worker?s Syndicate or its relation to American
Imperialism? Do you believe that the Sandinistas were not fighting for
socialism 'in the battlefield'? What about Lenin and Bolshevik supporters?
What about the Vietnamese Communists? What about the Irish Republicans? What
about the Chinese Communists? Were all these people *not* fighting for an
advance towards socialism? Clearly, you believe the Usuk army should stick
around to free the Iraqis from themselves; precisely the professed
Imperialist raison d'etre of war and occupation in the first place. Do you
believe Iraqis have ran and can run their own affairs in their own
interests? Do you think the mass murderes in the US/UK army will be accepted
or tolerated in an Iraq being exponentially emiserated? Or do you think the
(likely US/UK/Euro) army of the UN ought to be sent in to militarily
supervise Iraq's further enslavement? Will Iraqis have any memories of
UN-imposed mass starvation in their national consciousness, or will all be
fogotten when IFTU waves its red flag?

I say USUK out of Iraq now. Victory to the Iraqi people and their
representatives, armed or not.


BARNEY KATZ WROTE:

> If socialists in the North choose to engage in the
> struggle for socialism by using Iraq as their
> political terrain I believe they have a responsibility
> to first, ascertain the class character and political
> aims of the various factions that comprise the
> resistance in Iraq, and then to give their support to
> those which have some chance of objectively making
> progress towards socialism. I disagree that the
> overwhelming priority is to demand the withdrawal of
> US troops and their allies. If the reactionary,
> clerico-bourgeoisie of Political Islam were to seize
> power by stepping into the vaccuum caused by a sudden
> US withdrawal, an enormously backward step will have
> been taken.

> Surely, for those of us who believe in the Marxist
> maxim that the emancipation of the workers' must be
> the work of the workers themselves, there can be no
> more important priority than to support the
> independent, secular working class organisations that
> are rapidly proliferating in Iraq: the many trade
> unions and trade union centres, many of whom have
> themselves been the victims of so-called "resistance"
> fighters, not to mention US forces.

> The struggle for socialism begins at the point of
> production, not on the battlefield. The Islamist and
> remnant-Baathist armed "resistance" has as much to do
> with struggling for socialism as does George W. Bush.
> The priority at this stage should be to provide
> support to independent Iraqi workers' organisations,
> to strengthen them, so they will be able to defend
> themselves against Islamist reactionaries in the event
> of US withdrawal.

> Some of these organisations include the Iraqi
> Federation of Trade Unions (whose president and
> secretary have, in separate incidents, been kidnapped,
> tortured, threatened and released by "resistance"
> fighters; another of the IFTU's activists was not so
> lucky: Hadi Saleh was kidnapped, tortured, strangled
> and riddled with bullets), the Kurdistan Workers'
> Syndicate, the Iraqi Teachers' Union, the Iraqi
> Journalists' Union, the Federation of Workers'
> Councils and Unions of Iraq, and the Basra Oil
> Workers' Union (which argues that its role is to
> maintain independence from all political factions and
> to defend Iraq's oil bounty from the US invaders).











--- Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

<snip>

> Fundamentally, the debate about how to characterize
> the resistance is a diversion from a much more urgent task--namely, how
> to achieve maximum unity around the demand for immediate withdrawal.
> Even Alan acknowledges:
>
> "Most antiwar organizations today do agree on an
> all-important demand, at least on paper -- immediate withdrawal of U.S.
> troops from Iraq. This is a solid basis for united action -- one that can
> be
> embraced by both activists who have taken the lead in challenging the
> occupation and people only getting started in activism."

<snip>

If socialists in the North choose to engage in the
struggle for socialism by using Iraq as their
political terrain I believe they have a responsibility
to first, ascertain the class character and political
aims of the various factions that comprise the
resistance in Iraq, and then to give their support to
those which have some chance of objectively making
progress towards socialism. I disagree that the
overwhelming priority is to demand the withdrawal of
US troops and their allies. If the reactionary,
clerico-bourgeoisie of Political Islam were to seize
power by stepping into the vaccuum caused by a sudden
US withdrawal, an enormously backward step will have
been taken.




Surely, for those of us who believe in the Marxist
maxim that the emancipation of the workers' must be
the work of the workers themselves, there can be no
more important priority than to support the
independent, secular working class organisations that
are rapidly proliferating in Iraq: the many trade
unions and trade union centres, many of whom have
themselves been the victims of so-called "resistance"
fighters, not to mention US forces.

The struggle for socialism begins at the point of
production, not on the battlefield. The Islamist and
remnant-Baathist armed "resistance" has as much to do
with struggling for socialism as does George W. Bush.
The priority at this stage should be to provide
support to independent Iraqi workers' organisations,
to strengthen them, so they will be able to defend
themselves against Islamist reactionaries in the event
of US withdrawal.

Some of these organisations include the Iraqi
Federation of Trade Unions (whose president and
secretary have, in separate incidents, been kidnapped,
tortured, threatened and released by "resistance"
fighters; another of the IFTU's activists was not so
lucky: Hadi Saleh was kidnapped, tortured, strangled
and riddled with bullets), the Kurdistan Workers'
Syndicate, the Iraqi Teachers' Union, the Iraqi
Journalists' Union, the Federation of Workers'
Councils and Unions of Iraq, and the Basra Oil
Workers' Union (which argues that its role is to
maintain independence from all political factions and
to defend Iraq's oil bounty from the US invaders).

BK

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