Against All Odds: Voices of Popular Struggle in Iraq is being co-published with the War Resisters League.

by Tadween – Ali Issa

Jadaliyya (J): What made you write this book? 

Ali Issa (AI): I wrote this book to remedy the glaring lack of awareness of progressive political work and dreams on the ground in Iraq now. This desire came about after I got the chance to be an interpreter for an Iraqi labor delegation that came to New York City in 2009 and only grew in 2011 when social media coverage of the Iraqi protest movement seemed so disconnected from popular and scholarly perceptions of what Iraq is, including understandings within my own family. Having a Father from Baghdad means I have relatives and Iraqi friends scattered all over the world, and a focus on what is hopeful in Iraq amidst mass violence from multiple sides seemed a very necessary thing for the Iraqi diaspora as well as many other communities.


J: What particular topics, issues, and literatures does it address?

AI: The book attempts to bring into English a wide cross section of Iraqi political analysis, organizing strategy, and recent history from several social movement sectors. This includes: worker-led organizing most often through unions and union federations, women-led organization through organizations, safe-houses, and conferences, protest movement organizing against the U.S. occupation and for self-determination, campaigns that focus on Iraq’s fragile environment and challenging threats to it, the list goes on. Important to note here is that very often these groups and issue areas do not see themselves as isolated. Two organizations prominently featured in the book, the Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq and the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, work very closely together. Underlining this connection, Jannat Alghezzi of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq says in one of the book’s interviews “the first step for the liberation of women is economic liberation.”

Relatedly, the perspectives in the book address, at times head-on and at times more indirectly, the central lens through which much of the world, including many Iraqi and regional elites, view Iraq: that of sectarianism. That there are many other ways that Iraqis identify, form community, and act culturally and politically is something that progressive Iraqis have been insisting on for many years. That there have been concrete successes rising above the sectarian discourse, such as blocking the “oil law” in 2007, or gaining support for the Save the Tigris campaign across Iraq, shows that despite the great and increasing power of the sectarian line, it is neither inevitable nor invincible. Of course historical events like the emergence of ISIS/IS in Iraq and the rise of hyper-sectarian militias of various ethno-religious stripes — often with direct ties to the central Iraqi government and regional powers — makes the work to challenge this frame all the more difficult.

A Night Celebrating Iraq: Against All Odds (June 25, 2015)

Read more from the source: Tadween Publishing