Abdullah Muhsin interview

Alternet interviews the IFTU’s Abdullah Muhsin, who says “Our priority is to keep Iraq together, and make sure that extremism does not take hold in Iraq – especially after the borders were left open and the police and the army were dismantled, which were disastrous policies in our view. We need to move forward, keep Iraq together, and to build a lasting democracy.” He also says that “The peace movement should help us and other genuine democratic Iraqis who want to build a genuine democracy in Iraq” which “will benefit the Middle East.” He also says that “What's important to us is how to [utilize] some of the operations of the market for the benefit of working people. While you have a free market economy, one should recognize that social provisions are necessary. So while we think foreign investment is something good, privatization is something else. We do not support privatization, specifically in areas such as education, health, and oil. Oil represents 97 percent of the Iraqi economy. In order to rebuild Iraq and feed the country, you need that income and it should remain publicly owned.” He criticises the “resistance” and remembers the brutal murder of Hadi Saleh: “This is a man who fought all his life for the right of working people to have a genuine free trade union movement. A man who was imprisoned by Saddam Hussein in 1969 for seven years, and who spent five years of his life on death row for his belief in trade unions. A man who spoke out against the occupation of Iraq and the war at every international meeting that he attended. A man who escaped Saddam Hussein in 1974 to be killed by the same forces, the remnants of Saddam's Mukhabarat.” He rightly concludes that “We want the good things that people in the West take for granted.”