==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==
I thought Vijay's article was overall very good, and although I agree
with Andy about the importance of us broadcasting any working-class
non-sectarian actions/messages coming out of Iraq, I think Vijay is
probably right at this moment on how weak such forces are likely to be.
But I certainly agree with Andy about what Vijay says about a possible
non-sectarian role for al-Sadr, Hezbollah and even perhaps Iran - this
seems tacked on the end of the article as it it was written by someone
else, a different article. It is certainly true that al-Sadr has
condemned the Maliki regime for years and has advocated a more
non-sectarian approach to the Sunni, but this shows his relative
independence from Iran which is strongly aligned to Maliki, and any
Iranian thrust into Iraq will solidify sectarian lines like nothing else
will, especially given Iran's decisive role in the al-Nakba of Syrian
Sunni. As for al-Sadr himself, we'll see, but his first reaction to the
combined Sunni revolt was a call to arms to the Shia - not exactly the
strategy to split the Sunni from the criminal ISIS.
In particular, Vijay's intriguing line that al-Sadr is interested in
the creation of an Iraqi version of Hezbollah, rooted in the Shia
community of Lebanon but with pretensions of being an Arab nationalist
force which might contribute toward a non-sectarian platform sounds
like something written about half a decade ago, or perhaps in 2006;
since Hezbollah's invasion of Syria on behalf of the regime, no-one in
the region views it anymore as an Arab nationalist force but as a
violent Shiite sectarian army. Its role in the subjugation of the Sunni
town Qusayr last May, turned to rubble by the regime, was a point of no
return; the Sunni of that town and that region had in the past been
strong supporters of Hezbollah and had even opened their homes to
Hezbollah fighters during its 2006 war with Israel. Betrayal is not
something easily forgotten. Frankly, in current circumstances, we can
only hope that all-Sadr doesn't become any more like Hezbollah and
retains an modicum of decency.
-Original Message-
From: Andrew Pollack via Marxism
Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2014 3:36 AM
To: Michael Karadjis
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Iraq's Night is Long.
==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==
Lots of useful facts here. But the perspectives for possible action are
politically off.
On the one hand, Vijay puts faith in Iran and/or Hezbollah and/or
Muqtada
al-Sadr to form Shia-based but Sunni-inclusive fighting forces to stop
ISIS
(quotes below). On the other hand, he is dismissive of independent
unionists' claim that Iraqis are mostly nonsectarian, and so rules them
out
as actors with any potential.
One would think Iran and Hezbollah's participation in the genocide in
Syria, and the simple fact that they're both bourgeois political forces,
would have dispelled illusions in their capacity, not only for uniting
Sunni and Shia, but more generally for playing any progressive role in
the
region. As for al-Sadr, on top of his sectarian base must be added his
long
history of selling wolf tickets.
Even if it's true that the unions are exaggerating Iraqis'
nonsectarianism
-- and we have no evidence that that's so -- OUR job, besides demanding
no
US intervention, is to do everything we possibly can to help the
unions --
and women's groups etc. -- to get out the word about their activities,
to
help them stay safe, even to help them get their own arms if need be.
From Vijay's article:
Calls from the trade unions of Iraq that the people are ready to resist
ISIS on a nationalist platform, such as by Falah Alwan
http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/18143/on-recent-events-in-mosul-and-other-cities-in-iraq
of the Federation of Workers’ Councils and Unions in Iraq, will go
unheard.
Few can appreciate it when Alwan says that 'demands to be rid of
sectarianism are clear and direct' – noble statements no doubt – but
inaudible before the harshly sectarian guns of ISIS
US promises to bomb ISIS from the air are not a tonic. They would only
stop its advance, but not break its power, which stretches from parts of
Syria’s Aleppo to the outskirts of Iraq’s Baghdad. It is Iran that has
the
most to lose here. It has already sent sections of its Revolutionary
Guard
Corps to help form a line of defense in the province of Diyala, whose
main
city Baquba was the origin of the Islamic State of Iraq. This is a part
of
Iraq where Shias and Sunnis live, and it would be a test of their unity
against ISIS and for something other than
