Mick Rix was right

When the veteran left-wing union leader Mick Rix resigned from the Stop the War Coalition, he said of the controversial statement issued by the Coalition's leaders, which attacked the IFTU that: "The language that was used was deliberate, archaic, violent, and plain downright stupid and dangerous if you happen to be an Iraqi at this present time. Then again you are not".

At other points he is even more prescient regarding the threat: "a few words in a press release" place Iraqi trades unionists and socialists in danger. This took place at a time when StWC and its allies were mounting a concerted attempt to pin tags such as "collaborators", "quislings" and "fake union" on the IFTU (essentially for supporting the UN backed election process) – this is the language to which Rix refers. Articles to this effect in the Guardian by Sami Ramadani have had particular international impact.

In any event I am certainly not sure how clear my conscience would be if I had "fingered" the IFTU as "collaborators" in a situation I compared to Vichy France, having also stated that I support the "resistance" to use "any means they deem necessary".

Simon Pottinger