Heavens, Yoshie, now I feel as if I have to defend my party against the charge that we have been INSUFFICIENTLY ENERGETIC APOLOGISTS FOR SADDAM HUSSEIN (as they say) :-) At the risk of doing Pugliese's work for him, I'll just say, we've done our best:
Workers World, 11/20/97: Unity among the Iraqi people is evident, and programs such as the country's national food rationing and distribution system, which guarantees a minimum diet, have created a sense of unified struggle.
The IAC group visited the massive distribution warehouse for the 1.3-million Saddam City district of Baghdad. Workers are busy 24 hours a day loading and delivering flour, rice, infant formula, tea, cooking oil, sugar and salt to every person through neighborhood stores at greatly subsidized prices.
"The International Action Center stands with the people of Iraq against this genocide," said delegation member Deirdre Sinnott. "All progressive people must recognize this crisis for what it is-an attempt by the U.S. to crush Iraq." http://www.workers.org/archives/1997/eye_iraq.html
March 13, 2003: But revolutionary Iraq didn't have a moment's peace. The country went through years of upheaval and several coups as U.S. and British covert operations, sabotage, intrigue and constant military efforts attempted to restore the status quo ante. By 1972, however, the oil had been nationalized and the biggest landowners expropriated. With Iraq's vast oil resources in the hands of the state, a spectacular social transformation happened within two decades. Many problems rooted in age-old bias and backwardness were resolved. Iraqi women made the greatest social gains of women anywhere in the Arab world.
Education, including university, was free. Students paid no tuition and even received funds to continue their studies This was a powerful incentive, especially in the education of women. It encouraged families to keep their daughters in school and not pull them out for work or an early marriage. At the same time the government guaranteed jobs for women who wanted to work. Women acquiring professional skills knew they would find jobs in their fields. Equal pay for equal work was guaranteed.
Health care was also free and of high quality. Mothers had pre- and post-natal care. Working women were guaranteed six months paid maternity leave and an additional six months at half pay. Subsidized daycare was available at most workplaces. Basic food and housing were subsidized. http://www.workers.org/ww/2003/iraqwom0313.php
I would say that stuff like this, from the Marxism list, has been pretty much routine:
But what WWP does goes way beyond defense against imperialism. What they do is glorify these states and regimes. In the October 10 issue of their paper, Fred Goldstein wrote: "This war is about destroying the vestiges of Iraq's 1958 revolution, seizing its 100 billion barrels of oil reserves--the second-largest reserve in the world--and beginning the re-conquest of the Middle East by U.S. and British imperialism."
While the oil concerns are obvious, notice the first phrase--they're talking about Iraq as if it were a workers' state. They routinely talk about Iraq's gains (such as free education, health care, etc.) as if it were a living socialist revolution. This is not a Marxist analysis; a Marxist analysis would be to say, "Yes, Saddam's a brutal dictator, but here's *why* he's a dictator and why we defend Iraq against imperialism anyway." Instead they effectively say, "no, he's not a dictator, he's a really nice guy!"
LP