Iraq

Kino Eye: Putting Blair "on trial"

In June 2003, Reg and Sally Keys sit down to watch the news on TV. Six British soldiers have just died that day in Iraq and one of them is Tom, their 20 year old son. Reg is told by Tom’s commanding officer that prior to the fatal operation his unit had been “descaled” (vital equipment had been removed). Reg then hears that the so-called “weapons of mass destruction” do not exist, and he decides to stand against Blair in the 2005 general election, to expose the war that was “based on a lie”.  Jimmy McGovern adopted Reg’s story for the BBC with Tim Roth playing the bereaved father. The film Reg...

Protesters shot down in Kurdistan

The Worker-communist Party of Kurdistan (Abroad Organisation) reports (9 December 2020): "These last days, people have taken to the streets in many cities and districts in Iraqi Kurdistan. First, demonstrators took to the streets in Sulaymaniyah demanding their wages or salaries and betterment of their lives. The authorities used tear gas, shot demonstrators, and arrested some people. Another series of demonstrations and protests began in Chamchamal, Saydsadq, Penjwen, Takya, Kalar, Halabjay, Taza, Kifir, Darbandikhan, Khurmal, Zarayan, Sharazur and Qasre. The security forces attached to the...

Once Upon A Time In Iraq

The five-part BBC series Once Upon a Time in Iraq is interesting, and worth watching. And that is despite its peculiar omissions. Where is the struggle of the Kurds for freedom? Why no consideration of the fact that the state which benefited from the US war was, ironically, Iran? Once Upon a Time is, instead, a story of the grandiose hubris of the US political elite, their political stupidity, their glib carelessness, their lack of concern for working-class Iraqis, and about the devastating impact of the disaster on the Iraqi people. Certainly, that is part of the truth. Paul Bremer, George...

Iraq: class struggle in the pandemic

We were in the middle of the uprising in Iraq, the “October uprising”, when the Covid-19 pandemic began to spread... A lockdown, which meant staying home and not going to work... a wave of lay-offs or private sector workers. And some workers in the public sector did not receive their wages, specifically in the health sector, or their wages were delayed, and some civil servants of a certain age were forced into retirement... All these factors led to an economic crisis... People who rely on daily wages... had two options... to die of hunger or coronavirus. This situation caused people to have a...

What alternative in Iraq?

The protests in Iraq are not just around a particular demand, but against the whole governmental system. How can an alternative government be won, and what sort of government? We talk about councils – in place of bourgeois parliamentary democracy, we want councils which establish direct democracy in neighbourhoods and workplaces. When there is a political vacuum, these bodies can take control of cities. However, this kind of idea is unfamiliar to the younger generation in particular, who know little about socialist traditions. The young people in the protests we discuss with often think we...

The uprising in Iraq

Iraq is in a constitutional limbo. Adil Abdul-Mahdi has resigned as prime minister, but he is still in office, as a caretaker. On 26 December Barham Salih, the president, refused to accept the nominee of the ruling bloc of Islamist parties. Salih threatened to resign himself. There is deadlock, and both Abdul-Mahdi and Salih are still in office. The entire ethno-sectarian political regime of Iraq is in a deep crisis though the power is still in their hands. The ruling Shia political Islam parties and their militias and intelligence forces have so far killed hundreds of the people of the...

Noori Bashir's speech at the 11 January 2020 meeting

On Saturday 11 January 2020 Workers' Liberty hosted a meeting in London on the conflicts in the Middle East following the USA's 3 January assassination of Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Iranian state's "Quds Force". The chair was Maisie Sanders, and the speakers were Morad Shirin (Iranian Revolutionary Marxists' Tendency), Noori Bashir (Worker-communist Party of Kurdistan), Azar Majedi (Worker-communist Party of Iran Hekmatist), and Muayad Ahmed (Organisation of the Communist Alternative in Iraq). See here for statements from IRMT, WCPIH, and OCAI , and see here for our Solidarity editorial...

US-Iran: a clash of imperialisms

The conflict between the USA and Iran in the Middle East which has now flared hot again is a conflict between two imperialisms. They are two different sorts of imperialism. The USA is a world power, Iran, a regional power. The sway of the Iranian state over the oppressed nations within its own borders (Kurds, Azerbaijanis, Baluchis, etc.) is directly political and military. Its less direct sway in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, etc. is also politico-military. Being much less strong economically than US capital, Iranian capital has to rely on such politico-military methods. The USA, for decades...

Uprising sweeps Iraq

A joint report by the Iraqi interior and defence ministries has confirmed that 104 people are dead and 4000 injured; but according to other sources more than 150 people have been shot dead in the recent protests, and 6000 injured. Hundreds are in jail. It's a very brutal response to the peaceful protests of the people in the cities of Iraq, and it was executed according to a plan. The government and the militia forces associated with it know that they face a very explosive situation. They want to use force to suppress the people. It's a fascist way of reacting to demonstrations. Some of the...

A working-class agenda in Iraq

Muayad Ahmed Muayad Ahmed is an Iraqi revolutionary socialist, and former secretary of the Worker-communist Party of Iraq. He and other activists recently parted ways from the WCPI. On a visit to London, Muayad spoke to Solidarity about what they are doing. We have formed a new organisation, called the Organisation of the Communist Alternative in Iraq, OCAI. In July we issued a founding statement, in which our main programmatic aims and tasks are formulated in 34 clauses. The document will be available in English shortly. We stressed that we get back to Marx and the Communist Manifesto, to the...

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