Mary am Namazie has just about nailed it. As the situation in
Iraq grows increasingly desperate, it becomes clearer and clearer that the best
way to prevent the situation from spiraling completely out of control, into an
open civil war that will involve tens of thousands of deaths (if not more) is
working-class action. It is possible that the American and Iraqi forces could
militarily defeat the Islamist insurgency and the moderately better Shiite
thugs. It's possible.
But it seems much more possible that a popular resistance
against those forces could rob them of most of their power, isolate them, and
crush them. The cautious, bourgeois-democratic solution has been, at best, a
mixed blessing, at worst, a failure. As glad as freedom-loving people and most
Iraqis are to see Saddam deposed, the most generous thing one can say about the
Americans is that we’re all opening flourish, no follow up. I feel certain than
many American soldiers went to Iraq with the best intentions and that many have
risked their lives to improve and save those of people they do not know. That's
commendable, but their actual ability to have any real impact on this situation
at this point seems increasingly limited.
All paths lead back to the workers. If they can get together,
they can save Iraq. If not, the best outcome is a low-grade, contained civil
conflict that would probably end in Iraq divided three ways between a Kurdish
democratic state with some serious problems, a Sunni Arab hellhole and another
Ayatollacracy in the Shiite south. The Americans could have prevented that,
they didn't, and now it's up to the workers to stop it if anybody can.
Serious socialists outside Iraq need to quit debating the
rights and wrongs of the invasion, and start doing their best to support the
Iraqi workers. They need money, they need moral support, and they need us to
put political pressure on our governments to give them assistance if possible.
Personally, I'm not even really sure where to start, but it seems like the only
solution.
The liberation of the working-class will be achieved by the
working-class themselves. Or, in other words, "Stand back and let us show
you how it's done."
