Soula: In answer to your question, no, I don't read Arabic. I wish I had the aptitude for languages of someone like Marx (a belated happy 186th to him) who -- not content with German, Greek, Latin, French, English and Italian --- was learning Turkish when he died.
"I do not think the occupation forces nor their cronies enjoy a lot of support in Iraq. in old societies my friend anonymity is out of the question.. collaboration with the Americans here will not go away for centuries.." We will see. "the place is older than modern imperialism." On the contrary, "Iraq" is a creation of modern imperialism. You said: "the class formation in 'peripheral capitalism developing in severe crisis' is a case of disarticulation wherein economic interests are never so well formed within a class to break the old social bonds." I asked: What is a "class" without "well formed" economic interests? You answered: "that is easy enough: there is so much economic instability in this developing market that taking refuge in precapitalist social organisational forms e.g. tribes etc is essential." Which forgets the fact that pre-capitalist classes often survive a transition to capitalism, utilising tribal links in support of their own accumulation. And that a modern proletariat -- compared to other Arab countries --- is relatively well-developed in Iraq, thanks largely to the nationalist development schemes of the 1960s and 70s. Agreed, the ICP would not be my chosen model for a communist party in the developing word; it was as prone to theoretical blindness and tactical errors as any communist parties during the mid-20th Century. But there is no doubt that they are well-organised and are probably capable of getting at least 10% of the popular vote. If I understand you correctly, the communists are a joke, the Iraqi islamists are incapable of wide support, and you admit that pan-arabism is virtually dead. And I wouldn't bet my life savings on the Ba'ath!!! So what do you see as the dominant ideology in Iraq? "the biggest impedement to any arab cp truly becoming a mass party is its inability to relate culturally to the marginalised and disposessed." Hmmm. In the first place, Arab CPs have enjoyed significant followings in the past; second, they don't need to become a mass party in order to wield the balance of power; third, perhaps the marginalised and disposessed in Iraq will look at the many failures of Islamism and nationalism, and will draw their own conclusions. regards, Grant.
