https://themilitant.com/2018/09/22/iraq-protests-shake-up-moves-to-form-new-govt/
Iraq protests shake up moves to form new gov’t
Rulers in US, Moscow, Tehran vie to protect interests
By Terry Evans
Vol. 82/No. 36
October 1, 2018
Demonstrators Sept. 12 in Basra hold Iraqi flags and images of
protesters killed at previous actions demanding water, electricity, jobs
and an end to Iranian interference in the country.
AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani
Demonstrators Sept. 12 in Basra hold Iraqi flags and images of
protesters killed at previous actions demanding water, electricity, jobs
and an end to Iranian interference in the country.
Following widespread protests by working people and others against the
Iraqi government’s failure to supply basic necessities and the impact of
the Iranian rulers’ military intervention and assaults on Iraqi
sovereignty, talks to establish a coalition government between
U.S.-backed Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Shiite militia leader
Muqtada al-Sadr collapsed.
Al-Sadr’s Sairoon bloc got the largest vote, on a platform that included
opposition to Tehran’s and Washington’s intervention in the country. But
it is now in talks to form a government with Shiite militia commander
Hadi al-Amiri, who is strongly linked to the Iranian rulers.
No new government has been formed since elections were held in May.
Sizable working-class protests in Basra demanded Abadi end a visit there
Sept. 10, blaming his administration for the crises they face. Working
people have been protesting across southern Iraq for weeks against
frequent power cuts during the high heat of summer in this oil-rich
region; persistent joblessness; the government’s failure over months to
provide safe drinking water, resulting in tens of thousands getting
sick; and the impact of the Iranian rulers’ military and political
intrusion.
The recent protests in Basra targeted the Iranian consulate and the
headquarters of the Badr Organization — the largest Shiite armed group
supported by Tehran, which is also the biggest faction within the Iraqi
state security forces. The offices of three different militias, all
backed by Iran’s cleric-led regime, were attacked. Protesters carried a
banner reading, “No to the militias, your militias under our feet.”
Demonstrators also torched government buildings in the city.
These developments take place as the Middle East is at a turning point.
Islamic State has been shattered as a major force in both Iraq and
Syria. Washington and Moscow, as well as the capitalist rulers in the
region, are jockeying for how best to defend their conflicting national
interests in the new situation. The interventions of Moscow and Tehran,
along with Lebanese ally Hezbollah, have enabled the tottering Syrian
dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad to regain control over much of the country.
For Moscow, this means more permanent military bases there and growing
influence in the region. For Tehran, it means a further step in
extending its counterrevolutionary reach to the Mediterranean Sea.
In addition to sharpening conflicts between Tehran and Washington, the
Iranian capitalist rulers expansion has sparked growing clashes with the
rulers in Israel. Tel Aviv’s missiles hit a shipment of arms from Tehran
to Hezbollah at the airport in Damascus Sept. 15, the latest of dozens
of similar attacks this year.
Shopkeepers in Kurdish region in eastern Iran went on strike Sept. 12 to
protest Iranian regime’s execution of Kurdish political prisoners and
airstrikes on Iranian Kurdish groups in Iraq.
PDKI
Shopkeepers in Kurdish region in eastern Iran went on strike Sept. 12 to
protest Iranian regime’s execution of Kurdish political prisoners and
airstrikes on Iranian Kurdish groups in Iraq.
The Iranian rulers intervention deeper into the Mideast goes back to
their efforts to consolidate a counterrevolution they carried out at
home in the early 1980s, aimed at crushing the rising self-confidence of
working people that followed the revolutionary overthrow of the
U.S.-backed shah in 1979. Millions of workers and farmers had taken to
the streets, occupied oil fields, formed workers councils and won gains
for women and oppressed nationalities.
The Iranian capitalists sought to end this and extend abroad the
assaults they carried out on working people at home. They fought to
establish a corridor of military power, political influence and economic
exploitation across the region.
Attacks on Iranian Kurds
Side by side with their intervention in Syria and Iraq, the Iranian
government has stepped up its assaults at home. Over the Sept. 8-9
weekend it launched a bombing raid on Iranian Kurds based just across
the border in Iraq and executed six Kurdish political prisoners
incarcerated for years in Iran.
Shopkeepers in several cities in Kurdish parts of Iran Sept. 12
organized a strike to oppose both the executions and the airstrikes. The
Kurds are a 30 million strong oppressed national minority living in
Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey. They have been fighting for decades for
their national rights.
Events unfolding today in Iraq are built on years of imperialist foreign
intervention, including Washington’s bombing and invasion in 2003. The
U.S. rulers failed to establish a stable capitalist regime and Iraq
increasingly fractured along religious and national lines. This led to
an opening for the Kurds in Iraq to organize and win a measure of
autonomy. The weak government in Baghdad was incapable of organizing
effective resistance to reactionary Islamic State, which overran parts
of the country in 2014 as the Iraqi army bolted.
In addition to U.S. air power, Baghdad relied increasingly on peshmerga
fighters from the Kurdistan Regional Government and Tehran-organized
Shiite militias to combat and defeat Islamic State’s brutal
anti-working-class rule. Thousands of Iraqis, including many working
people, joined these militias and gave their lives to successfully repel
the Islamist sect. But this was achieved at the cost of further
undermining Iraqi sovereignty, bolstering the Iranian rulers’ predatory
foothold in the country and increasing its widely despised influence
over the Iraqi government and state. Tehran-backed militias also built a
reputation for carrying out brutal reprisals against Sunni Muslims and
independence-minded Kurds.
Iraqi government forces have now put Basra under lockdown, deploying
troops with heavily armored vehicles at checkpoints across the city
“We’ll suspend protests now to spare blood and we’ll return,” Naqeeb
al-Luaibi, an organizer of the demonstrations, told the Associated
Press. “We will not give up until our demands are met.”
In This Issue
Front Page Articles •Iraq protests shake up moves to form new gov’t
•‘Militant’ wins a round, fight against prison censors goes on
•‘We need to get a union into the place where I work’
•Protests in Dallas demand cop who killed Botham Jean be fired
•Are frenzied liberals afflicted with ‘Trump derangement syndrome’?
Feature Articles •Social catastrophe from storms are a product of
capitalist rule
Also In This Issue •Great Russian artists of 19th century and 1917
Bolshevik Revolution
•Pa. prison authorities curb letters, books, newspapers
•Colo. meatpackers win suit against right to pray firings
•Manila book fair draws over 100,000 participants
Editorials •Join and build the Socialist Workers Party 2018 campaign
On the Picket Line •SF hotel workers rally, say ‘One job should be enough’
•Striking hotel workers in Chicago rally for yearlong health care
•Industrial glass strikers in Montreal win solidarity
Books of the Month •Imperialism pauses only when it faces a people ready
to fight
25, 50 and 75 years ago
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