The conditions exist for an open social movement, which can defeat the manipulated sectarianism and economic imprisonment of the occupation, argues EWA JASIEWICZ. AT THE BEGINNING of the occupation, when anybody could have their own political party, militia or NGO, those who had skills or capital to form them reproduced the Ba'ath system of privilege in the process.
Even if those who profited no one nor aca rejected the regime after his fall, the perpetuation of their privilege was re-affirmed through interaction with certain foreign NGOs and the occupation's funding bodies. This became a source of gnawing injustice for many poorer onlookers.
The Ba'ath dictatorship's b current use by the occupation is evident in the employment of government ministers, civil servants and military commanders. The dictatorship's apparatus of repression has been key to the occupation's military and economic survival.
The occupation also orchestrated institutional sectarianism. The seeds of sectarwere cultivated through the Interim Governing Councils, through tribal-based appointments in local government and minISUICS.
Millions of dollars were pumped into creating proOccupation civil society organisations, all in an effort to impose a top-down exileled whitewash over bloodshed and state terror.
So where are the spaces for creating alternative. representative power structures in Iraq? The mosque is one. It was traditionally independent of the regime, and is now independent of the occupation. The mosque provides refuge and a meeting place, so much so lal even seculai activists go there to organise.
The market place another. Sami Ramadani sees it as a political space - where people can converse in both open and camouflaged ways. I don't believe it was an accident that the occupation used to target these places.
Hospitals too have traditionally been politically autonomous. Saddam tried to torce doctors to cut ott the ears of dissenters and army deserters and hundreds threatened to leave the country as a result; they rejected political interterence. And hospitals have been attacked now in Haditha, Qaim and Fallujah.
As well as being spaces for documenting the crimes of the occupation, hospitals save life in a non-discriminatory way that cuts across class, religious and political boundaries.
They are a source of collective consciousness, not just of the brutality and ruthlessness of the forces the community is up against, but also of the heroism of civilians and medical staff, attempting to heal people with limited supplies.
Ismaeel Dawood, the founder of Messalla Human Rights Organisation in Baghdad, argues that "a Saddamist strategy appears to be in place, as with the past where one group of people were granted the power.
The violence of the Occupation, concentrated on the "Sunni centre" has not just displaced tne innabitants of towns like Fallujah and Ramadi, pushing them into desert refugee camps, but it has also isolated them from the rest of Iraq.
This is a conscious strategy of division which prevents solidarity forming between "The divisions in Iraq are not about religion or politics, they are the same all over the planet. They are about who has economic and social power." people - a dynamic which was alive after the first siege and massacre of Fallujah in April 2004 when Shia and Sunni innabitants marcnea togetner on the devastated town with water, food, medicines and blankets chanting slogans of unity and resistance to the Occupation.
The Muslim Peacemaker Teams, founded in November 2004 by Iraqi-born American citizen Sami Rasouli, also challenge the sectarian divisions. Rasouli has organised delegations of Shia volunteers to help to reconstruct Fallujah and in the process, relations between the two communities and religions.
On May 6 2005, 18 men and
from Najaf and Kerbala and three Christian Peacemaker Team activists went to Fallujah and started to clean up the waste and the rubble. were surprised to see us. When they asked us who we were, we said ' We are your brothers and sisters from Kerbala and Najaf.' And they cried. Then they said 'Please don't do this, we get the message, lets go to the mosque and pray.
The occupation brought psychological barriers to the idea of one nation and our trip was recognition and acknowledgement that we would overcome those."
The Iragi National Foundation Congress was formed in May 2004 as a nation-wide alliance of tribal authorities, mosques, Islamic scholars, parties and civil society organisations.
It encompasses every creed within Iraq, including secular and communist forces and links together progressive social forces on the basis of an immediate end to the Occupation and opposition to the former regime.
Led by Sheikh Jawad al Khallassi, the INFC represents a growing organised antidote to the imposed structures of Occupation government, and Ba'ath-style repressive power in Iraq.
Arkam Al Baghdadi, Al Khallassi's representative in Baghdad explains: "We are not a political party and we don't want to be the government. Our goal is to liberate Irag.
We the people have the potential to administrate our own economy and we will organise ourselves to do this. We will organise a real form of government with real elections and get rid of the structures of the occupation including Bremer's Orders."
In the economic sphere, the Iragi Federation of Oil Unions, formerly known as the General Union of Oil Employees, prides itself on its ponnical independence
As the backbone of the conomy: it was the only industry that carried on functioning throughout The decades of war, sanctions and dictatorship. This created a form of civil society in a country where there was none.
Hassan Jumaa Awad al Assadi, President of the IFOU, sees the struggle to defend Iraq's oil as a catalyst to create unity throughout the country and undermine secLarlalisin
"Iraq has nothing but oil and America wants to control it. But we in the union will destroy the plans of the capitallsts ana coloniallsts. It 1s impermissible for anyone to sell any part of Iraq's public sector - this belongs to the
"We built it and it represents the collective efforts of generations of Iraqis. We in the union will fight to defend our common wealth. Irom The north to the south because i represents our common interests and destiny which know no religious, tribal or ethnic boundaries.
"Under occupation, where official civil society spaces are receding into sectarianism, another politics pushes up trom the grassroots.
"The divisions in Iraq are not about religion or politics, they are the same all over the planet. They are about who
_economic and social power. In Iraq, this power is still being heavily contested." • Ewa Jasiewicz is a human rights activist, writer and union organiser living in Manchester. She has a long-term involvement in solidarity with Iraq and Palestine and is active in STW and Iraq Occupation Focus. She is particularly involved in working with the Iraqi Federation of Oil
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Terry Conway from spoke to Alda Sousa (pictured right) from the Left Bloc in WWW.FL2006.NET