George Bush's re-election brings us four more years of the 'war on This begins with the assault on Fallujah.
Since April this year the people of Fallujah have been subjected to daily bombardment; hundreds have been killed. In Vietnam American troops used to say in order to save the village we had to destroy it, now we have the same explanation for Fallujah - 'to liberate the city we had to destroy the city.
Fallujah will be the warning to all who resist the occupation in Iraq. Once more Bush and Blair show contempt for the United Nations, which has warned against the
Since the initial invasion, the Stop the War Coalition has campaigned for an immediate end to the occupation -under the slogans 'end the occupation' and 'bring the troops home.
Such has been the strength of the anti-war SHOVENCIE that this position is that of the majority of the people in Britain; it also won unanimous support at this year's TUC Conference.
However at the Labour Party conference the Blair leadership were able to convince many of the union delegations break their mandates and vote to continue the occupation.
This was made possible by the role played by the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions [IFTU] at conference. The IFTU representative lobbied the trades union delegations to oppose a resolution calling on Blair to set an early date for troop withdrawal.
The IFTU did this while still claiming to be opposed to the occupation and wanting the troops to be withdrawn. However they argued that the establishment of a democratic Iraq required that the US/UK forces remain in the country for the time being.
The troops out resolution Over 100,000 civilians have now been killed by the US/UK forces in Iraq. More than half have been women and children and most have been killed through aerial attack. As Stephen Hawking said in Trafalgar Square on November 2: 'this is a was thus heavily defeated with major unions such as UNISON and the TGWU [both affiliated to STW] following the advice of the IFTU.
Some in the trades union movement [notably Mick Rix, former Gen Sec of Aslef] have tried to argue that no lobbying took place, but no objective observer now disputes the role that the IFTU played and was allowed to play.
Others say that as trades unionists they have a responsibility to listen to what workers in Iraq are saying [Tony Woodley Gen Sec TGWU]. This is a more serious argument. The IFTU has worked hard within the British trades union movement to portray itself as the sole legitimate representative of Iraqi workers.
The IFTU has this year addressed both the RMT and UNISON conferences and it is now being funded both through the labour movement and by the British Council to attend union meetings throughout the country.
After the Labour Party conference STW issued a statement that detailed the role the IFTU played at Labour conference:
1] the IFTU had supported the invitation to interim Iraqi PM Iyad Allawi to attend the Labour party conference. Bush's main man: İyad Allawi ation of the Allawi government was 'an important development' that they supported and that opposition was confined to criminal and terror elements. do they criticise the datemeBi the occupation forces. Their only concern is 'in coordination with the interim government to confront criminal and terror elements.
This is the same language used by Allawi, Bush and Blair, and can only be taken as support for the massacres in Fallujah and elsewhere.
Sami Ramadani, an Iraqi exile, has written extensively on the role of the IFTU and the ICP His articles are widely available and should be read, especially by the executive of the Communist Party of Britain who published a statement in the Morning Star which said that the executive supported the strategic political line of the ICP
The central question for the anti-war movement is how to maintain the unity of the mass movement around the call for an end to the occupation and support for self determination for the people of Iraq.
Small sectarian groups [Workers Power] believe that this is achieved through ritual denunciation. They helped disrupt the plenary session at the European Social Forum on ending the occupation of Iraq because a representative from the IFTU was on the platform. Shamefully they put meetings of the ESF, never once raised the question of the IFTU.
Perhaps Workers Power organised a similar protest when the IFTU spoke to UNISON conference, but 1 STW and have a steering committee position but not once have they raised the question of the IFTU.
On the platform with the IFTU representative, Subhi Al Mashadani, was Lindsey German from STW, Tommy Sheridan from the SSP, Sabah Jawad from Iraqi democrats and Jeremy Corbyn.
All speakers would have made clear their opposition to the role played by the IFTU at the Labour Party conference and detailed the work of the IFTU in the interim governHowever because of the activities of a small group, a meeting of over a thousand was unable to continue -allowing those supporting the IFTU such as Alex Gordon from the RMT to write, as he did, that 'this assault on a trade unionist's free speech reminded Iraqis of the fasciststyle tactics of Saddam's Ba'athist thugs'.
Clearly the Blair government had hoped that they could divide the anti-war movement. And their representatives within the trades union movement have worked to this end.
But Tony Woodley's timely intervention against splits and resignations and calling for most rapid possible withstanding of the role of the IFTU both in Iraq and here.
Moreover we will seek to establish contact with other unions in Iraq, such as the oil workers in southern Iraq, who stopped work in solidarity Najat eather 4A8% attack in
Iraq is and will continue to be the central question in British politics. Over a long period we have managed to sustain a campaign of mass activity against the war on terror and the subsequent occupation of Iraq.
Such campaign is unprecedented ranging from eleven national demonstrations which includes the largest in British history, 15 Feb 2003 and last November the largest weekday, the Stop Bush demo, to countless smaller pickets and rallies around the Hutton and Butler enquiries and the attacks on Najaf and Fallujah to events such as the Naming the Dead UH November 2, which brought Stephen Hawking, Nobel prize winner Joseph Rotblat, Juliet Stevenson, Katherine Gunn, Daniel Ellsberg and many others together to oppose this war.
There is now a campaign of military families working with STW. There is near mutiny in some sections of the army. There-deployment of the Black Watch may be the straw to break Blair.
Strong links have been established with the Scottish campaign; Tommy Sheridan spoke at the ESF demo and Andrew Murray at the Justice for Gordon Gentle demo in