Interview to Sami Adnan, co-founder of “Workers Against Sectarianism”. “The demands of the square – says Adnan – are similar to those of previous periods, but have become more precise and targeted. And they are going beyond religious belonging”

by Maurizio Coppola

Italian version here

Berlin, November 8, 2019, Nena News – The authoritarian government responded to the protests that broke out in early October in the major cities of Iraq with violent repression. In thirty days of demonstrations, hundreds of people have already died and thousands have been injured.

A few days ago the Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi declared that he was willing to resign as his Lebanese counterpart Saad Hariri already did. Not all reactionary forces accept his decision, but this is of little importance given the demands that go beyond personal change in the sectarian political system.

The protesters demand change of the entire political system and radical responses to rampant unemployment, the lack of basic services and a sectarian political system that has filled the pockets of a few despite the vast state revenues from the oil industry.

After a brief truce, protests resumed on 25 October and Iraqi roads filled up again as they had not been seen since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime. Even yesterday, demonstrators took to the streets to block the main roads, a method copied from the Lebanese protests unleashed in mid-October.

The images circulating on social media show a real civil war between two totally unbalanced parties: on the one hand the Iraqi security forces that without any fear shoot tear gas at human height and the Iranian militias that came to help the Iraqi government to “stabilize” the socio-political situation in Iraq; on the other hand a mass movement composed above all of unemployed youth with the only weapon of determination to overthrow a system unable to fill their bellies and a popular solidarity that is expressed in the organization of the squares.

Read more from the source: NENA News