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| Proletarian issue 2 (October 2004) |
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| Iraq: resistance gains unstoppable momentum |
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| As the sham elections planned by Anglo-American imperialism for occupied Iraq loom closer, or disappear over the horizon, depending on which government minister’s leak to which national newspaper you subscribe to, only one thing is certain; the resistance of the Iraqi people to both the forces of occupation and their puppet government has grown into an irresistible force. |
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Both the British and US imperialists are re-learning lessons that they have already been taught throughout their history during other occupations, ie, that the only way to suppress opposition to your occupation is to use increasingly violent and sadistic methods against the occupied and these increasingly violent and sadistic methods lead to increased resistance up to the point where the occupiers are unceremoniously kicked out!
The problem for the imperialists, of course, is that they have no choice but to hold on in the hope of winning even though they are aware that a point will be reached when it is financially and politically impossible for them to carry on. Why? Because they need the oil! The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) predicted in a recent study that world oil demand would reach 112m barrels per day (bpd) by 2020 (in 2001 the demand was approximately 76.8m bpd).
The US uses over a quarter of all the oil produced in the world and in 2001 had to import 54 percent of its ‘needs’. The annual domestic oil production in the US declined from a maximum of 4.1bn barrels in 1970 to 2.8bn in 2000, and as they only have 21.8bn barrels of reserves (just two percent of the world’s proven oil reserves), which at current production will last no more than 9-10 years, the need for an extremely cheap and guaranteed flow of oil into the US is paramount to the imperialists – their very survival at the head of the imperialist banqueting table depends on it.
In the last month, the increased violence of the imperialist occupiers and their puppet regime has seen US snipers gunning down civilians in Ramadi, where, it seems, medical staff and patients, in and around hospitals or in ambulances, were the main targets. There were more air strikes in Fallujah, where dead and wounded civilians included many children, medical staff and ambulance drivers. According to the Director of Fallujah hospital, Dr Rafia al-Isawi: “Every time we send out an ambulance, it gets targeted.” Fallujah also came under artillery and tank fire from US forces deployed around the city.
The liberation war
But every blow that the imperialists land brings a greater response from the growing resistance. Its targets include:
- the occupation forces;
- all foreigners in Iraq who are there to assist the imperialist occupation, whether by cooking, building, translating, mending oil pipelines, or as mercenaries/security guards;
- the collaborators who don police and national guard uniforms to act as lackeys of the occupation forces;
- the members of the puppet government of Allawi;
- the pipelines (cutting off the supply of stolen oil which is, of course, imperialism's sole reason for being in Iraq).
The resistance comes in the form of roadside bombs, car bombs, open warfare with guns and rocket propelled grenades, and the capture and execution of enemies. The imperialists will not listen to reason or even the pleas of their own people. In Britain, according to The Times (9 September), 56 percent of voters now believe it was wrong to invade Iraq (only among the dwindling number of those describing themselves as Labour voters was a majority to be found supporting the invasion), but the British government will ignore them until they do more than just fill in petitions and march to parks to hear Labour Party members of government say that the present Labour government is wrong!
The only people at the moment giving the imperialists cause to doubt their wisdom, and even their political survival, are the heroes of the Iraqi resistance who, by their selfless sacrifice and daring deeds, are hastening the day when the supposed invincibility of imperialism is seen for what it is, nothing but the fairy tales of the upper sections of the working class in (mainly) imperialist countries who have been bought off and who try to keep the masses of workers politically uneducated and pliant in the interests of their masters.
Some of these traitors are now trying to tell us that Iraq is slipping into a civil war of Iraqi against Iraqi, religion against religion (you can almost hear the imperialists' sighs of "if only") and therefore we must not now think of the rights and wrongs of why we are there but only of what is best for the Iraqi people (Irish comrades may recognise this spurious reasoning). Indeed, the Prime Minister himself is now putting forward this very idea of a "second war in Iraq" - not, it seems, to combat the Iraqis (heaven forbid) but to 'save' them by combating 'global terrorism'.
Iraq is not slipping into civil war, it is in the midst of a war of liberation against Britain, the US and their allies. The only Iraqis who have anything to fear from the liberation forces are those who collaborate with the occupation forces, and it is only right and proper that such people are dealt with in the time honoured way that collaborators have always and everywhere been dealt with.
Opportunism in the peace movement
The peace movements in the imperialist countries (especially Britain and the US at this time) need to learn what imperialism is and why there will always be wars while it is the dominant political system in the world. In Britain, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) (led by the Labour 'left' aided and abetted by the CPB and NCP) and the Stop the War Coalition (led by the SWP), being, as they are, controlled by these opportunists of either the social-democratic, revisionist or Trotskyist variety, invariably pull their punches in the struggle against imperialism. Typically, they direct the struggle against Tony Blair rather than the whole system he and his party represent, and they oppose all solidarity action that would cause any real obstacles for imperialism's pursuit of its predatory wars of aggression.
There are many well-intentioned people within the peace movement, but until they get rid of the political charlatans riding on their backs and involve themselves in political education so that they understand first what imperialism is and then how to defeat it, the peace movement will remain loud, colourful, diverse and totally unheeded.
As for the parties mentioned above, and various other so-called ‘socialist’ parties, they all wring their hands about Iraq and suggest trying Blair and Bush (without overthrowing imperialism of course, rather like the police investigating the police) or call for the troops to come home, but since none of them have any analysis of imperialism, they are unable to see the logical outcome of these demands.
Defeat for British imperialism
The fact is that the government will not bring the troops home because we ask them nicely; British troops will leave Iraq when they have been kicked out by the Iraqi resistance. We must accept and explain that truth and call for, and where possible work for, the defeat of British and US imperialism in Iraq and the victory of the Iraqi resistance.
That means supporting the actions of the resistance and not dodging the issue. We in the CPGB-ML are proud to say that we support the Iraqi resistance and whatever methods of struggle they choose in their just struggle against imperialism. For our part, we are determined to do everything in our power to help bring about the defeat of our own imperialists!
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