Internationalism and Iraq

Gary Kent puts forward some personal reflections on the practical meanings of international solidarity.

Internationalism is a key aim of the labour movement everywhere.

It’s sometimes simple to decide who to support. Take the 1973 coup in Chile. We backed those who opposed the dictatorship of Pinochet but, to be frank, it was more complex before the coup when faced with a range of left views, from those using armed methods to the more constitutional left groups and unions.

Take Ireland. In the 1970s, a part of the left foolishly franchised its thinking to either Sinn Fein/IRA. Others cleaved towards the SDLP. Others thought that this was a poor choice and were more open minded towards other forces.

The lesson is that we understand the plurality of views, the balance of forces and side with those we agree with.

Solidarity with labour movement forces in Iraq is made more complicated by the fact that Iraq has been a closed society under tyranny for nearly 40 years, most of us don’t speak Arabic and that the first generation of political leaders have, with great respect, not yet been able to develop political skills and perspectives.

I support the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU). From all that I have seen, it represents an intelligent and brave force of people who have roots in Iraqi society. Their membership has soared from about 200 to 200,000 since the fall of Saddam. Their members will make mistakes for sure but they deserve our friendship.

An odd thing happened in relation to Iraq. Thanks to the misleadership of the Stop the War Coalition, a part of the left came to believe that trades unionism was impossible under occupation. They ignored the evidence and the realities on the ground. This was based on pure theory without practice and then led to Iraqi trade unionists being abused as collaborators and Quislings for taking what opportunities there were to fashion a new movement.

The demonisation of the IFTU has been one of the most shameful episodes in left history in this country.

In any event, trade unions know what has happened, thanks to the intellectually rigorous intervention of Mick Rix (reported on our site and available through the search engine) and the Coalition will degenerate ever more into a ridiculous rump and have nothing useful to say.

It need not have been like this. They could have followed the example of US Labour Against the War (USLAW), which decided to both call for the withdrawal of troops and to raise money for the trade unions.

It’s not my bag but it is reasonable.

The trade union movement would be inviting Iraqi trade unionists here all the time not because the UK is the fount of all wisdom but as a practical sign of solidarity from which we would learn too. And as security allows, there should be more trade union visits to Iraq. And I would increase the teaching of Arabic here too. But that’s another matter.