Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 17:48:11 -0000 From: "mletwin2001" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: IFTU & UFPJ The following was written by Jennifer Horan, of UFPJ-affiliate Boston United for Justice with Peace. Stan Goff's comments on this issue are posted at: <http://stangoff.com/index.php?p=130> . A more general summary of the debate is posted at: <http://blog.lib.umn.edu/sigal003/sharpleft/> . ------------------- From: jennifer horan [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, June 13, 2005 2:34 AM Subject: re: National Tour of Iraq Trade Unions Dear Judith, Someone has shared with me your letter to the UfPJmay1listserv, and I thought I would respond with some concerns that I hope you will, in turn, share with the United for Peace listserv. After all, your email marks the second time that United for Peace has asked progressives to support and assist a tour delegation that includes the US regime authorized Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU). None of the material I've seen put out by either USLAW or United for Peace mentions crucial facts about the IFTU. I realize some of these facts, such as IFTU's alliance and words of praise for the former Saddamist agent and CIA `asset' Iyad Allawi may cause some groups to not support the IFTU tour, but that makes it all the more incumbent upon United for Peace and USLAW to share this information, not withthold it. Otherwise United for Peace and USLAW can be accused of having gained support for the IFTU tour under false pretenses. 1. The IFTU is largely controlled by the Iraqi Communist Party and backed by Allawi's Iraqi National Accord; both parties collaborate with the American occupation regime at the highest political levels, and benefit, politically and financially, from that collaboration (Allawi `s slate of candidates for the Jan 2005 elections, which included the ICP, was heavily funded by the US; the ICP and INA enjoyed tremendous media exposure on the US controlled television and radio; former proconsul Bremer appointed reps of both parties to the 25 member Iraqi Governing Council) 2. The IFTU says that US troops must not be withdrawn till US forces have restored order, via a US trained police and army. Their position is thus identical to that of Bush and Blair's. If USLAW is going to say that IFTU wants to end the occupation, then they should be fair and say that Bush and Blair do also. (I realize this statement may sound sarcastic: what it underscores is that if USLAW is going to fundraise and promote the IFTU, then it should so on grounds other than that IFTU is against the occupation, and it should state what those grounds are.) 3. In England they have championed Blair's Iraq policy, and lobbied delegates at a Labor party conference to drop a plank calling for immediate or one facilitated through a definite, internationally guaranteed timetable. 4. The President of the IFTU is Rasim Alawadi, deputy premier of the INA, and second�in-command to Allawi. The INA is composed of disaffected former leading members of Saddam's regime and military. It worked closely with British and US intelligence after its 1992 founding to overthrow Saddam. Allawi's 40 year+ career of supervising state and NGO apparatuses of repression and surveillance is widely known. The IFTU backed Blair in his attempt to have then Interim premier Allawi address the Labor party conference in the fall of 2004. More recently, in a 3/31/05 interview their rep. has said of him "We do support and respect him". 5. The IFTU speaks of the armed resistance in the exact same way that Bush, Blair and the neocons do: fantatical fundamentalists or Saddamist remanants; in stereotyping the resistance they ignore the evidence that the percentage of foreign, Al-Quaeda-associated fighers in Iraq is quite low,and the observations from such credible journalists as Robert Fisk and Patrick Cockburn that the resistance is popular, decentralized, and often provoked by the brutality of the US occupation. Anthony Cordesman, the military analyst who serves US imperialism by giving its administrators tough love reality checks, corroborates Fisk and Cockburn's analysis. 6. In its press releases, opeds, and interviews the IFTU frequently and emphatically denounces the violence and suffering inflicted on Iraqi civilians from the insurgents; it rarely mentions the deaths and injuries Iraq's people suffer at the hands of US soldiers and weapons, tho the former greatly ouweighs the latter. 7. The IFTU presents itself as "the real democratic resistance" inside Iraq. This presentation, its call for the US military occupation to continue, and its frequent condemmnation of all armed resistance inside Iraq as "talibanist" or "Saddamist," has been cited by pro-war, pro-occupation journalists and politicians inside England as a) proof that all armed resistance inside Iraq should be condemmed b) proof that the occupation should continue and c) reason to condemm the antiwar, anti-occupation left for not agreeing with a) and b). USLAW is quite right to admonish us not to engage in Cold War unionism, and of course we have no right to choose for Iraqis who they want to have represent them, or even to judge the political choices of Iraqis inside Iraq, given the politically harsh terrain they must navigate. But we are obligated to be as responsible and conscious as possible in deciding what forces we ally ourselves with in Iraq. We are obligated to act in ways that that will empower our efforts to end this occupation, and to help Iraqis resist it. And so I ask you again, as someone whom I assume is committed in the struggle to end the nightmare of US imperialism, to share this email, so that people can decide for themselves what action they should take in respect to IFTU, and to USLAW's support for it. Sincerely, Jennifer Horan
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