A-Infos (en) Ireland, The Workers Solidarity* # 85 -The Iraqi 'Resistance' A Closer Look at the Forces Fighting the US in Iraq

George Bush declared major combat operations to be over on May
1st, 2003. 139 US soldiers had been killed by that date. Two years
later over ten times that number have died. No one knows how
many Iraqis have been killed, as the Americans aren't even
bothering to count. Estimates like that published in Lancet last
October suggested a likely death toll of around 100,000.
The Socialist Workers Party leadership of the official Irish
Anti-War Movement have become very excited by this - to the
point of putting 'victory to the resistance' stickers all around
Dublin. There is a logic to this as any military defeat for US
imperialism will reduce the ability of the imperialist powers to
engage in future interventions. The intensity of the resistance in
Iraq has almost certainly prevented or slowed down the Bush
administration moving on to its next target whether that be Iran or
Syria. And if the U.S. ends up being driven out of Iraq as it was
driven out of Vietnam, then the willingness of the US public to
support interventions elsewhere would collapse.

So from the point of view of the western left simply cheering on the
resistance might make a certain sense. But for those interested in
freedom for the people of Iraq rather than simply giving the US
army a bloody nose the question is much more complex.

It is clear that there is no single 'resistance' in Iraq but rather a
network of organizations often with conflicting end goals once you
look beyond the question of removing the US presence. Few if any
of these represent anything that would bring freedom to the people
of Iraq. The worst, including those Islamists grouped around Al -
Zarqawi, openly look forward to creating a theocratic state where
women would be oppressed, where there would be no democracy
and where the majority Shia religion would be suppressed. This
'faction' of the resistance is not waiting to take power, they have
already carried out car bombings against Shia religious events in a
bid to stoke up a sectarian civil war.

Over 1,000 Iraqi women have abandoned their university studies.
Hinadi, the star dancer of the group 'el-Portoqala' was killed by
Islamists while visiting her family. Apparently "el-Portoqala sings
modern songs, which outraged some Islamists who said the songs
were pornographic, liberal and 'alien to conservative Iraqi society'.
In reality the songs merely showed women dancing and posing as
lovers"1

The other major factor of the resistance built around the Ba'athist
party would seem to offer nothing but a return to dictatorship - and
the sort of dictatorship that in the past was more than happy to
become a regional ally of the US. At the end of February, Time
magazine revealed that there have been at least two secret meeting
in the 'Green zone' between US military officials and a 'senior
insurgent negotiator'. Presumably the US is trying to ensure that if
they are forced to withdraw they can hand over power to their
preferred faction of the resistance - probably the Ba'athists whom
they previously supported for the decades before the 1991 war.

The role of activists in the west has to be to undermine the war
effort of our governments and thus force an end to the occupation.
In Ireland this means concentrating on the ongoing vital support
refuelling at Shannon plays for the US army's supply chain. But
rather than blindly cheering on a resistance in Iraq which includes
elements that have nothing to offer the Iraqi people we should offer
concrete solidarity to those in Iraq who oppose the occupation and
are struggling for freedom for Iraqi workers and women.

Although it has not received much coverage in either the left or
mainstream press there are significant workers struggles taking
place within Iraq. There is a real attempt to put forward a
progressive agenda in the interests of Iraqi workers. Independent
unions like that of the oil workers in Basra are being built as are
organizations of the unemployed and women. Any real
post-occupation hope for the people of Iraq lies in these sort of
projects.

by Joe Black


    1. It is not just the armed resistance which is behind these acts,
the finger also points at some of the Shia religious parties that did
very well in the elections.


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