with resistance •..
a quick profit abroad, whilst home markets
remain stubbornly protected from the
threat of outside influence.
Poverty in a sea of plenty
A few days after privatisation was
announced, a report was published by the
United Nations World Food Programme,
detailing how almost half of all Iragis are so poor they are in need of food assistance, despite a good cereal harvest this year and the lifting of economic sanctions.
A fairly well known fact is that the Iraqi economy was heavily weighted towards the public sector, with over a third of Iraqis working in that sphere.
All these sectors - health, education and transport, not to mention oil - are either already in the hands of the US or are currently being auctioned. This is what George Bush and his neo-con friends mean by free through German mediators a possible swap of Hizbollah's four Israeli captives for about 15 Lebanese and as many as 400 Palestinian and other Arab detainees in Israel.
Why the Israeli government has suddenly chosen to negotiate with Hizbollah, usually portrayed by them as a terrorist organisation, is far from clear. Perhaps they believe Hizbollah may be able to. exert greater pressure on the Islamist organisations like Hamas and Islamic Jihad than the more secular Palestine Authority. Perhaps they are hoping to use Hizbollah to play one group off against another.
In an atmosphere of continued Israeli attacks, yet more land grabs, the rise of murder gangs in the illegal settlements and the refusal to free more than a handful of prisoners it is hardly surprising that Abbas was not able to carry out the west's bidding and clamp down on the militants.
I he had tried to disarm Hamas and Islamic Jihad in such circumstances, this would have led not to Abbas's resignation but his death. It didnt require any manipulation by Arafat - disarming the most militant factions in a situation of continued Israeli
recent history. Russia's economy after the
collapse of Stalinism in the early 1990s was
an experiment in the rapid imposition of
neoliberalism, with disastrous conse
quences for ordinary people. Overnight,
industries which previously had guaranteed
employment for workers were privatised,
'efficiency' measures were imposed to raise
profits, and workers were sacked.
In Latin America, Bush's attempt to
impose a Free Trade Area of the Americas
(FTAA) has met with opposition. It has
fuelled radicalisation, resulting in huge anticapitalist movements in those countries.
The same model is about to be imposed on
the people of Iraq.
No justice, no peace
History is not repeating the experience of
Russia in the early 1990s. The imposition of free trade in Russia did not result in a wave
of protests against the imposition of west
ern-style capitalism. The brutality of the bombing and occupation of laq the attempt to impose globalisation in its purest form, without even a veneer of democracy, has met with resistance.
US and British troops are constantly under attack, and have no solution to the problem of establishing security - a pre-req uisite for foreign investment. The business. men who dare to go to Iraq employ armed militias to protect them.
Even commentators sympathetic to neoliberalism are expressing doubts that aggression was never going to be popular.
The new Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia has so far avoided any confrontation with Arafat over control of the security forces. It is, however, unlikely he will continue the attempts to clean up corruption begun by Abbas
Qureia has been linked to a number of corruption scandals within the Palestinian Authority. He was in charge of the PLO's business enterprises in Lebanon during the exile years, but has not been able to account in full for the tens of millions of dollars raised. Some of Qureia's close relatives have even made money from construction of illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank
The response in Israel and the west to the fall of Mahmoud Abbas has not just been to blame Arafat. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has vowed to remove Arafat and has made it plain that this could be by assassination rather than forced exile
At the United Nations a resolution condemning this terrorist threat against an elected representative of the Palestiniar people was vetoed by the United States.
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soclalist resistance October 2003 17 International resistance