Building solidarity with Iraqi workers

LFIQ continues to develop links with the trade union movement in the UK with a view to building solidarity between British and Iraqi trade unions.

Chair of LFIQ, Clive Furness attended the conference of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers in April 2009 to build on links with activists and officials in the ATL.

Discussions ranged around how the ATL might offer practical support in the form of training and equipment for the teaching unions in Iraq to how they might engage in solidarity activities over issues of concern where unions in Iraq find their freedom of action under threat.

Iraqi CP celebrates 75th anniversary at mass rally in Baghdad

See this report for photos

Thousands of Iraqi Communist Party members and supporters celebrated the 75th anniversary of the party at a mass rally held in the Peoples Stadium in central Baghdad on Friday 3rd April 2009.

The main sports hall was packed with jubilant people, waving red flags, chanting and singing. The event opened with the national anthem which was recited by the Friendship Group. Comrade Hamid Majeed Mousa, the Secretary of the Central Committee, delivered a speech that saluted the party's heroic history of struggle and sacrifices for the cause of the people and the homeland. The speech dealt with the political developments and the recent provincial elections that were marred by violations and irregularities.

The program of the event included recital of poetry and songs. The candles of the anniversary cake were lit by young children, celebrating the party's foundation on 31st March 1934, while white doves were released along with red balloons. The audience enjoyed a lively carnival atmosphere, with people of all ages joining in the celebrations, singing and dancing, full of hope and looking forward to achieving Iraqi Communists' goal: "For a Free Homeland and Prosperous People".

Visit to Baghdad

Charles Clarke MP, Lord Falconer and myself have just visited Baghdad to meet leaders of the Islamic Dawa Party as part of a continuing dialogue between moderate Islam and social democracy.

LFIQ has good relations with other Iraqi parties such as the Communist Party and with the Kurdistan Regional Government. We seek relations with other parties as time goes by.

We also met the head of the Commission on Integrity which leads the drive against corruption and had talks with British Embassy officials.

As a strong supporter of the Iraqi labour movement, I was very keen for LFIQ to emphasise our view that Iraq should comply with International Labour Organisation standards and that Iraq should scrap Saddam’s ban on public sector organisation and the more recent freezing of union funds and to urge a settlement of the dispute with the Teachers’ Union.

I raised these issues with Dawa leaders during a meeting at the Prime Minister’s residence and was promised a reply.

Unfortunately, we were not able to meet the Prime Minister due to the surprise visit of President Obama but LFIQ will continue to raise the need for full union rights through our contacts with the Dawa Party and others.

Charles Clarke, Charlie Falconer and myself (in a personal capacity) issued the statement below on our return on 9th April.

Gary Kent
Director, Labour Friends of Iraq

Statement on visit to Baghdad

Today is the sixth anniversary of the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

That event was of central significance to the future of Iraq itself, to the future of the Middle East and peace in the region, to the domestic politics of the United Kingdom and the United States and to our current ideas about the use of military force in a globalised world.

We were invited to visit Iraq by the Islamic Dawa Party, led by the Prime Minister and have returned this morning.

There has been enormous controversy about many aspects of the invasion itself. We continue to believe, as do many in Iraq, that without the invasion Saddam Hussein or one of his sons would still be ruling the country with murderous terror for Iraqi citizens and a continuing very real threat to the region.

However our focus now has to be upon strengthening the growing democracy of the country, promoting economic growth and resilience and encouraging a political climate in the region which can help these things.

Britain has to do all it can to sustain and support the emerging Iraqi democracy. The departure of British troops must not mean the end of British engagement in the future of the country. Our support has to be political, economic and diplomatic rather than military.

We drew three main conclusions from our visit.

First and foremost the commitment to democracy is strong amongst Iraqis. There was specific criticism of those who maintain that somehow democracy is an inappropriate form of government for countries in the Middle East. Democracy and stability were seen as opposite sides of the same coin rather than competitors.

This is the strand of thinking, particularly in the lead up to the forthcoming General Election in Iraq, that Britain must support. We should stand ready through a variety of means, such as the Westminster Foundation for Democracy and training for those in the criminal justice system, to provide practical help as requested.

We were impressed by the extent to which Dawa politicians wanted to focus on the public’s driving issues such as electricity and water supply, housing and unemployment, rather than security or particular ethnic or religious issues.

Secondly we were impressed by the readiness of the Iraqi government to welcome investment and to promote economic development. We were glad that the visit of Lord Mandelson and a range of business people had been a success. The commitment to economic progress is essential. However a truly business-friendly environment can only be achieved if the British and Iraqi governments work closely together to overcome serious practical difficulties like visa issuing, transportation to and from the country and a flexible security regime.

Finally we were impressed by the vast improvements in the security situation which many people reported to us. However security does remain a significant impediment to normal life and priority needs to be given to this.

The economic and political success of democratic Iraq is central to the future of the country and the whole Middle East. Britain must do all in its power to support it.

Rt Hon Lord Falconer of Thoroton
Rt Hon Charles Clarke MP
Gary Kent

Hold out hope

Ranj Alaaldin in Progress gives an overview of the new Iraq. He concludes that 2009 should be a year of promoting Iraq and Iraqis rather than holding Iraqis back because of our prejudiced views and their past misfortunes; otherwise, we play our part in sustaining an environment which is conducive to violence and radicalism. Whatever our position on the war, grudges against the governments that took part in it, and an Iraq war enquiry or not, it is imperative as progressive internationalists to recognise the indisputable fact that there is light at the end of the tunnel for Iraq, and to celebrate it rather than just make a passing reference to it. It is incumbent on progressives to assist Iraq towards that light but to do so in an unblinkered, honest and proactive, rather than reactive, fashion.

Text of article

President Obama has announced the withdrawal of nearly 100,000 troops from Iraq by 2010, with possibly 50,000 troops remaining in the country until 2011. British troops are expected to depart by the end of the summer with all but a small number of personnel remaining.

There was once a time when talk of withdrawal would have been dismissed as reckless and immoral (though some still called for it anyway, particularly within the anti-war left). The year was only 2005/06 when the military might and sophistication of US and British forces was being undermined; we were losing the war and with it our respect within the international community. Iraq was a country suffering from ethnic and religious fragmentation, a ferocious Sunni insurgency and a radical Shia insurgency, both united in their attacks on coalition forces but enemies within their own sectarian war. Iraqi civilians meanwhile were the ultimate casualties being butchered at the hands of an elusive Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The miscalculated post-war plan guaranteed that things were not going to be easy. The Coalition Provisional Authority made a shamble of governance, crippling Iraq’s civil and local institutions, wrongly assuming US personnel would be able to carry on the business of governance after Saddam and creating thousands of jobless angry Iraqis, in effect a cesspool of potential insurgency fighters. Expectations were therefore high and misplaced: the ability of Iraq’s ethnic and sectarian groups to unite and govern after decades of totalitarianism was overestimated.

Disastrous decision making has cost Iraqis dearly. Millions of Iraqis are displaced, internally and externally. Estimates put the civilian death toll in Iraq beyond 100,000, while the injured extend towards the 1 million mark. These figures account for the Arab-dominant parts of Iraq, since the Kurdistan region in the north has been relatively secure but nevertheless paid the price for its current successes during the tyrannical rule of the Baath regime.

Despite the less than perfect start, Iraq it seems has defied the odds against it and has made a tectonic shift from the brink of destruction. The year is now 2009 and law and order, together with accountability, has arrived in Iraq. Violence and civilian casualties have dramatically reduced. The Iraqi army is maintaining a stable security environment, an environment, that is, where vibrant nightlife has replaced night-time kidnappings and curfews. Menacing violence still remains, particularly in the disputed territories of Kirkuk, Mosul and Diyala. Iraqi and US forces are now committing a surge of troops to those provinces to fight off the depleted numbers of terrorist jihadists and remnants of the Sunni and Shia insurgency.

In January, Iraqis voted in peaceful provincial elections that selected governing councils in 14 of Iraq’s 18 provinces. Door-to-door campaigning and party political posters, as part of an electric electoral atmosphere in which 14,000 candidates were competing for only 440 seats, replaced the blood and bombs of the 2005 elections; this time round the Sunnis participated, in contrast to the previous elections which they boycotted because of security fears and out of protest against what was by then a UN mandated foreign presence in Iraq.

Improved security therefore means the democratic process in Iraq has become a more respectable affair. Violent radicalism is waning in the face of security and democracy: political groups like the Awakening fronts and Baathist group al-Hadba previously comprised the Sunni insurgency but are now contesting democratic elections. In similar fashion, militias belonging to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have ostensibly transformed into a social services organisation, ever since it became the target of government crackdowns.

But while it is the democratic institutions that dictate who holds power at federal, regional and provincial levels, they are nevertheless institutions that operate in a sensitive environment. The aforementioned groups still command a large army of loyal and heavily armed men that can revitalise the insurgency at any point. The Sunni insurgency may have come to the political realisation that its post-war dream to restore Sunni power is all but dead but, like the Sadrists, it can still seek reparation through violent means and pose a security headache for the Iraqi government and US forces.

Relations between the central government and the federal Kurdistan government continue to deteriorate. Prime Minister Maliki has been criticised for over-concentrating power, deploying the use of armed support councils and the Iraqi army to further his own political interests. The deployment of Iraqi forces in Kurdish dominated areas in one instance nearly led to full war with Kurdish security forces. Moreover, the status of the oil-rich Kirkuk governorate remains unresolved. Article 140 of the constitution provides for a referendum to be held to determine the status of the governorate but voting has been delayed out of fears it would stir tensions and lead to ethnic war.

What the exact posture of any remaining US troops in Iraq will be is not clear at this point. But retaining 50,000 troops, or more depending on the circumstances, makes any withdrawal a responsible one; one that puts Iraqi lives in the hands of war-scarred on the ground commanders and away from the mercy of the “quick-exit” coalition.
It would be complacent to argue that Iraq has become a flourishing state. But it does have all the necessary ingredients to become one: since 2005 it has had a constitution that 4 out of 5 Iraqis voted for and which accommodates the interests of the country’s myriad of ethnic and religious groups; it is nurturing an effective army that has the respect of the Iraqis; it has produced a democratic process and culture that sets the bar for others in the region; and political disputes are being resolved through democratic and constitutional means, for the time being at least.

They are of course achievements that have come at great cost to Iraqi civilians. This, together with the failure to find any WMDs, the shame of Abu Ghraib, and the controversy surrounding flawed intelligence, meant that general public opinion towards the Iraq war was going to be an uncompromisingly negative one. It still continues to be, and Iraqis continue to pay the price for this too.

Iraqis are being failed because their achievements in the “new” Iraq are not being recognised and celebrated. They are optimistic for the future but their optimism is clouded by this outdated fixation with the rights and wrongs of the war and because this, after all, was a war that many rendered illegal and synonymous with an American imperialistic conquest unrelated to, and serving in no way, British security interests.

Obama retracted from his skeptical outlook on Iraq when he told US forces with an underlying sense of achievement that they “got the job done” at Camp Lejeune in February. Tolerable conditions mean that we can now become engaged in developing Iraq by – to borrow a phrase from Obama – extending our hands to the desperate unclenched fists of the Iraqi trade unions, the NGOs and women's organisations, among others. Our human rights and charitable communities should extend to Iraq that same level of solidarity and compassion they devote to other enterprises like urging debt relief and aid for Africa.

2009 should be a year of promoting Iraq and Iraqis rather than holding Iraqis back because of our prejudiced views and their past misfortunes; otherwise, we play our part in sustaining an environment which is conducive to violence and radicalism. Whatever our position on the war, grudges against the governments that took part in it, and an Iraq war enquiry or not, it is imperative as progressive internationalists to recognise the indisputable fact that there is light at the end of the tunnel for Iraq, and to celebrate it rather than just make a passing reference to it. It is incumbent on progressives to assist Iraq towards that light but to do so in an unblinkered, honest and proactive, rather than reactive, fashion.