Faleh A. Jabar, a former member of the Iraqi Communist Party writes that since 1979, Saddam’s totalitarian Baith regime has “tortured, raped and assassinated thousands” of the political activists, among them “the organized movements of the left, the nationalist Kurds and the liberal Shid movements” (The Progressive, Madison, USA, Jan. 2003: 20 & 21). In the words of Joe Stork, the Washington director of the Middle East/North African division of Human Rights Watch, the government of Saddam Hussein “has imposed mandatory death sentences for nonviolent political ‘crimes’ such as recruiting a current or former Baith Party member into any other political organization, or publicly insulting the president of the Party”. Since 1998, the regime “has conducted mass summary executions of political detainees (ibid: 18). In regard to the situation of democratic rights in Iran, it is enough, just to remind everyone that only in the summer of 1998, as Amnesty International reported, a few thousand political prisoners were executed in less than two months. Since its beginning, the Islamic Republic has imprisoned, tortured and executed thousands of the opposition activists and certainly the people’s basic civil and political rights have been continually suppressed. Atrocities such these are also common in the rest of the region. Let’s not forget the Iran-Iraq War (1980 – 1988), which was on their people by both reactionary regimes, in which more than a million lost their lives.
At this juncture that the Middle East region faces war, correct analysis and actions are imperative. In this regard, the Iranian democratic and left opposition should strongly welcome the efforts of these progressive individuals (e.g., Noam Chomsky, Edward Said, Michael Albert and Howard Zinn) and groups around the world, who although rightfully oppose the American war policy in Iraq, at the same time, they forcefully denounce the repressive regimes in Iraq and in the rest of the region. Certainly, it is right to actively defend the oppressed people of the world against both the external imperialist forces and the internal reactionary regimes. Unfortunately, not everyone among the activists and progressive groups approaches these questions in a balanced way. There are those who consider foreign (mainly American and British) intervention in Iraq a necessary preemptive war to disarm Saddam and bring about “democracy”. This line of thinking is false for the simple reason that a legitimate change in the political power structure can best be done by the people of Iraq. It is difficult to explain the occupation of the oil-rich Iraq by the imperial foreign powers and their corporate allies in the world oil industries as an act of humanitarian favor to the Iraqi people.
From a different point of view, some among the left and the anti-imperialist camp concentrate their condemnation only on the American- British policies without mentioning anything about the criminal and terrorist regimes in the region. Certainly, participation in the anti-war movement and demonstration of solid resistance to the U.S.-led militaristic adventurism is a must. But, isn’t taking a comprehensive and multi-angled approach, in order here, specifically, for the Iranians and Iraqi democratic and left opposition that had bitter experiences with their regimes. During the 8 years of the Iran-Iraq War, the prevailing view among the Iranian progressives was to remain silent about or less critical of the Islamic Republic’s violent suppression of the opposition. One reason for such incorrect positions, they claimed, was that the anti-war front against Iraqi aggression should remain intact. Consequently, the reactionary theocratic regime was able to crush the opposition in its totality.
Right now, inside Iraq, the people live in a hell that has been created mainly by Saddam. At this juncture, giving exposure to the crimes done by its dictator and other tyrannical cliques in the region should be of high priority for the democratic and socialist oppositions. Taking stands on the despotic regimes, at this time, not only doesn’t diminish a bit from the intensity of struggle against the onslaught of international capital and its imperialist military powers, but instead a simultaneous condemnation of both internal and external reactionary forces would distinguish the liberating democratic aspirations of the masses from both the aggression of the global capital and the oppressive agenda of the local tyrants. The above two-fold approach would certainly be beneficial to the secular democratic and left movements in their pursuit of freedom and justice, independent of both reactionary camps.
Thus, one cannot blindly join the anti-war rallies without critically assessing the “fashionable” slogans and demands. There are those mottos that, uncritical of the imperialist forces only, denounce the despotic rulers and the reactionary religious groups in the region and concurrently those that remain silent on the atrocities done by the local tyrants, suggesting that the imperialist interventions are primary factors contributing to the people’s miseries and sufferings in forms of war, political repression, economic injustice, etc. Such one-sided accentuations of the present crisis not only obscures certain aspects of the obstacles facing the people of Iraq and the Middle East in particular and the humanity, in general, but, it also hinders the necessary bonds of solidarity between the democratic and socialist movements around the world.
As Noam Chompsky writes, disarming Iraq is important and “nobody doubts that the world would be better off if Saddam is eliminated”, but military intervention is not the way to proceed with this problem (etehadchap.com, 1/24/03). And in the words of Joe Stork of the Human Rights Watch who opposes the American-British war policy, the anti-war and pro-peace movement should make clear that “it is a movement that supports the Iraqi people…(by)…explicitly opposing the Iraqi government and condemning its many crimes” (The Progressive¸ January 2003: 19).
It is only, then, with giving the deserving exposure to existence of correlation between many aspects of global socio-political impediments and specifically the actions of the U.S.-led imperialist powers and the local repressive regimes that one hopes the world-wide people’s collective struggle for freedom, justice and peace will invigorate immensely.
LONG LIVE FREEDOM, JUSTICE AND PEACE!
Workers Left Unity - US
Feb,2003