Iraq lurches towards civil war: Support the Iraqi labour movement!
By Martin Thomas Since a Shia mosque in Samarra was bombed on 22 February, Iraq has taken a new lurch towards sectarian civil war. Over a thousand people have been killed, dozens of mosques bombed. Three more mosques were attacked over the weekend 4-5 March. For the present, it looks as if the call for restraint by Shia-Islamist leaders such as Ayatollah Sistani has held back escalation into full-scale civil war. Sectarian polarisation has been pushed to a higher stage. The Shia-Islamist leaders are in, or close to, government, and would rather try to stabilise their government than pitch into...