What forces will defeat the occupation of Iraq.

international | anti-war / imperialism | opinion/analysis Wednesday September 17, 2003 04:55 by john throne - labors militant voice loughfinn at aol dot com

The occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan are not going according to the Whitehouse plan. A quagmire and defeat is increasingly looking to be the fate that faces imperialism. For the international working class and anti capitalist movement a victory for ther islamic fundamentalists in these countries would enormously complicate the world situation. In this statement from Labors Militant Voice we argue that the working class movement internationally should be linking with the workers movement in Iraq with the view to help is to take the leadership of the struggle to defeat the occupations and to build a new middle east free from imperialist domination and based instead on societies where the wealth is owned and utilised collectively and where decisions are made on the basis of the needs of the population and taken collectively and democratically.

The US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan are not going according to the script written for them by the Bush regime. The objective of this crowd in the Whitehouse is to directly control the worlds oil supplies, to decisively establish their dominance over their rivals, and to take forward their offensive against the working class both at home and internationally. With every day that goes by the opposition to them grows in Iraq, Afghanistan and throughout the
Muslim world. The occupation forces are becoming bogged down in Iraq, while in
neighboring Afghanistan no progress is being made in extending the Karzai government’s rule outside Kabul. More soldiers have now been killed in Iraq since Bush declared the war over than were killed in the war.

The staggering arrogance of the Bush/ Rumsfeld/Cheyney team and its capitalist backers led them to believe that they could go in to Iraq, knock out the Hussein regime and then after a few minor mopping up details tell the Iraqi people what they were to do, what day they were going to do it on and how they were going to do it. A crucial part of this was to privatise Iraq’s oil which would allow the US oil corporations to buy up the country’s oil supplies. Bush and co are now learning that things are not so simple. Every day there are new shootings and bombings targeting the occupation forces and anybody who works with them. And with the majority Shia population now set to move into open
opposition the Southern part of the country is becoming hostile territory. The PKK in Turkey have declared their cease fire against the Turkish regime over, and a few days ago there were clashes in Northern Iraq between the Kurds and the Turkumen. Things are looking very bad for the occupiers.

Unfortunately it is the working class Iraqi people and the working class US and British soldiers who are paying the price for the ambitions of the Whitehouse regime. This is being increasingly reflected at home in the US where there is already an anti-war bring- them-home group of families of soldiers openly campaigning. There are also daily reports of soldiers in Iraq demanding to come home. One soldier when interviewed in Iraq openly said he would be in favor of criminal proceedings against Rumsfeld. And the cost of the war at a time of major cuts and deficits is becoming an issue. If this process of rising
opposition in Iraq and Afghanistan combined with rising opposition in the US continues then a crisis of major proportions will develop for US capitalism and its allies in the rich capitalist countries.

If they try to stay in Iraq and Afghanistan they will increasingly be targeted by militant Islamic groups from other countries as well as Iraqi fighters. As the Financial Times said fighters from all over the Muslim world are moving to Iraq because of the “abundance of American targets”. Staying there and taking increased casualties will lead to a powerful and sustained mass movement in the US and throughout the entire world against continued occupation. It is likely to be like the anti-Viet Nam war movement only it will develop much
more quickly, it will be more widely based and opposition in the occupation forces will develop much more rapidly.

A serious crisis can develop within the US army who can on occasion now apparently hook up with home, indymedia, anti war web sites, activist groups etc, by the inter net and cell phone. The home front and the realities on the ground are no longer so separated as in the past. The information and images between the battle ground and the home front is no longer so exclusively controlled by the government and the military. This is a change that weakens the ruling class control of the army and the situation at home and can contribute very quickly to an organized demand within the troops themselves to be brought home. This will be facilitated by the knowledge that the Bush regime lied about the reason he was going to war and now US soldiers are dying daily as a result of these lies.

While all anti capitalist activists want a withdrawal of the occupation forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and a withdrawal of Imperialism in all its forms from the region, the manner in which the US and British occupation forces would be driven from Iraq is of great importance for world events. If they have to
pull out defeated from Iraq and Afghanistan on the basis of the military efforts of Islamic militant groups then a powerful impetus will be given to Islamic fundamentalism throughout the entire Muslim world from North West Africa to Indonesia. Listen to what Kissinger, the war criminal and mass murderer of the Viet Nam war has to say. Quoted in the Financial Times of August 27th, 2003 and now pleading for the rest of the imperialist powers whose help they scorned a
few months ago to come to US assistance in Iraq he said: “We have to start from the assumption that whatever the previous debates, there is no exit now in the form of a retreat that would not cause a catastrophe for the west in the Islamic world.”

The question now for the capitalist war mongers like Bush and Kissinger and co is can this “catastrophe” be avoided. If it is not, and it is a rising fundamentalist Islamic movement, that is a reactionary movement, which would be seen to have defeated the US occupation then this would tend to give a powerful impetus to Islamic fundamentalism throughout the Muslim world. This would
enormously complicate the world situation for the anti-capitalist movement and the working class movement in general. A mass reactionary movement over a vast region of the world would be on the march. This would most likely also increase the forces of militant Hinduism in India with all the dangers inherent in that in relation to possible war with Pakistan.

And of course the most important result of such a development would be that this would further obscure the existence of the international working class as a force for change. US imperialism would have been seen to have been defeated not by the international working class or the international anti-war movement but by Islamic fundamentalism. In this regard one issue, the implications of which are difficult to see, and which could be a mitigating factor in the event of the Islamic fundamentalists winning a victory in Iraq, would be a successful overthrow of the Islamic regime in Iran. Such an event could possibly take some of the wind out of the sails of militant Islam.

All working class activists and anti capitalist activists outside Iraq have a special responsibility in the present situation. Our task is to try and assist the Iraqi working class organize itself as a class and take the lead in the battle against the occupation. Our task as well as opposing the war in our own countries is to link up with and work with the small working class forces trying to organize in Iraq. The unemployed workers, the small unions trying to organize, and to help these with material and political aid. Along with assisting the Iraqi working class organizations materially as much as possible our approach should suggest that the way forward should be to help develop a mass movement of working people united throughout all the regions of Iraq, Shia, Sunni, Kurdish, Turkumen, etc. and throughout the area as a
whole and for this united movement to take up the battle for the withdrawal of the occupying armies and imperialism in general from the middle east and for jobs, decent wages, homes, the restoration of electric power etc. For this united movement of the working class to take the lead in the struggle against the
occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and to reconstruct these societies.

It would be vital that this working class movement would fight for the right of self determination of all the nations in the region. This would mean putting forward the idea that if successful the Iraqi working class will defend the right of the Kurdish people and all the oppressed nationalities in Iraq and
throughout the region to form their own countries if they so wished. At the same
time putting forward the idea of a socialist united states of the middle east. It would also be vital that this working class movement would take up the rights of women throughout the region, and that while standing for full
religious freedom for all it would oppose the domination of any one religion over any other. And of course that this movement would assist the Palestinian people in defeating the US backed Israeli occupation and winning a viable secure state of their own which would exist side by side with the Israeli state within
the 1967 borders.

Our suggestions should include the idea of organizing workers and farmers councils in all areas to work towards getting the basic infrastructure of society, electricity, water, etc functioning again. These councils would also take up the task of ending the looting and insecurity that exists. The working class
are the force that can do this like no other. At the same time these councils to organize as a mass movement and with the methods of general strikes and mass mobilization to defeat the plans of the thugs in the Bush Whitehouse and its corporate masters to control Iraq and to force out the occupation forces. A vital part of this process would be to appeal to the rank and file of the occupation forces on the ground and explain what they are doing and link with the rank and file of the occupation troops to force the occupation to end.

If such a movement can be built and were to take the lead in the struggle and to be seen to be the force that defeated the occupation and rebuilt Iraq, gave all nationalities their rights and women their rights, and if this movement
were to be seen to have been the force that defeated the occupation forces this would not only be a major defeat for the capitalist offensive, not only would it change the mass consciousness world wide but it would do so in a way that would make clear that it is the role and the methods of the working class that are most effective. It would help place the role of the international working class center stage
once again. Throughout the region it would evoke a massive movement of support in Iran and throughout the Arab world as the working people in these countries are disgusted with the corrupt regimes and enraged at the poverty that they are forced to live in while the oil and natural wealth of the region is shipped off to the imperialist countries with the connivance of the leaders of the oil producing countries. Out of this defeat of the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan could arise a revolutionary working class movement that could change the face of the globe.

The return of occupation forces to their home countries radicalized by such events would open the door to changing the situation in their home countries along the lines of developing working class movements to solve the problems. The entire world situation would be changed dramatically for the better. At the
moment due to the betrayals of the labor leaders and the failure of the left to build a mass base workers feel there is nothing they can do to stand up to and defeat the attacks they face every day. But if the Iraqi working class were to take the lead in the battle against the occupation and were seen to be the force that defeated this occupation this would create an alternative throughout the Islamic world to Islamic fundamentalism and it would put the working class and the methods of the working class, organization, mass mobilization, collective united action, general strike, internationalism, center stage once more.

However while working for this and helping our Iraqi brothers and sisters take the leadership of this struggle we have to also consider that a defeat of the occupation forces by Islamic fundamentalism is a very real possibility. And while in the US itself and throughout the non Islamic world a defeat for US Imperialism would tend to strengthen the rising opposition to capitalism's offensive and to the attempt by US imperialism to rule the world as never before, this would take place at the very high cost of strengthening the reactionary ideology of Islamic fundamentalism throughout the entire Islamic world.

Whichever way a defeat would be inflicted on the occupation forces in the US this would weaken Bush and the Republicans and probably open the way for the Democrats to return to the Whitehouse. Most likely it would also lead to an open split in the US ruling class over whether it should go back to the foreign policy of the Clinton regime which was to “police the world” in the interests of US capital and as much as possible do this in cooperation with the other major capitalist powers, or to continue with the Bush policy of “changing and remaking the world” in line with the interests of US capitalism and with little regard for any alliance with the other major capitalist powers. Such a split would help give confidence to all anti capitalist globalization and all anti war forces internationally.

#Unity with and assistance to the Iraqi working class movement.

#For the building of workers and peasants councils in Iraq and Afghanistan to take leadership and to organize the rebuilding of the country.

#For the Iraqi working class and the working class in the region to take the leadership of the fight against the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.

#For the withdrawal of all occupation forces and for the right of the soldiers to organize themselves to deal with the problems they face.

#For the withdrawal of imperialism in all its forms from the region and for a socialist united states of the middle east within which all nations will have the right of self determination and within which there will be full equality between women and men.

#For a middle east in which the regimes which are puppets of the imperialist countries are overthrown and in which the wealth would be owned collectively and society organized democratically and collectively in the interest of peoples’ needs not in the interest of the profit mad corporations in the imperialist countries and their flunkies in the region.

Labors Militant Voice.