Will Hutton examines the Euston Manifesto and includes the following perceptive comment on why the liberal press has ignored the rise of the new Iraqi labour movement.
Hutton says – Because Iraqi reconstruction has been a fiasco, the liberal temptation is to side intellectually with the insurgents. But, for example, trade unions are forbidden to organise in the Iraqi public sector because of the Saddam Hussein ban still in force; the comment pages of the liberal press are hardly full of articles insisting that the Iraq government entrenches union rights. Little space is given to arguments about the wider importance of building a sustainable democracy. Rather, there is another piece on why the US and Britain must get out of Iraq now to allow, presumably, the establishment of a theocratic, authoritarian state.