Political change in Iraq

Recently, Iraq witnessed important events, that appear to signal a political change in Iraq. Although these changes are unclear yet, some Iraqis are optimistic while others fear for that the new structures might be worse than before with the working poor bearing much of the consequences. Here is our short description, plus analysis of what is happening:

On the one hand, we note that Iran pro-militias are still attacking important buildings and bases of the USA and Iraqi army, thereby threatening the new Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi. According to our understanding, Al-Kazemi is positioned outside of political Islam with strong relations to the US. This is contrary to Iran’s interest and the interest of pro-Iran militias as Al-Kazemi tightens their economic and military sphere of manoeuvring.

For example, Al-Kazemi recently secured control over Iraqi border crossings, as we mentioned in our previous report. At the same time, he went against economic and commercial interests of businesses associated with these militias in the Iraqi market.

Also, he has modified the electricity agreement between Iraq and Iran and linked Iraqi electricity to the Gulf Cooperation Council. This will cause great losses to the Iranian regime which is in a dire economic situation itself.

In return, the pro-Iran militias responded to these actions with more shelling and missiles that targeted Baghdad airport and government buildings. They also assassinated many activists and journalists and attacked the demonstrators more than once in a bloody and dangerous manner.

All this is for the sake of spreading terror in Iraqi society and mobilising public opinion against “Al-Kazemi”. Not only that, but these militias kidnapped a German citizen in Baghdad and released her only as part of a prisoner exchange deal and a large sum of money paid by the Iraqi government.

Today, the Iraqis are in a state of panic because of this conflict between both colonial powers of the USA and Iran while trying to assure the world that they want an Iraq free of violence. Iraq shall not be an arena for global conflict.

The criminal acts that have happened in Iraq largely affect Iraqis themselves since the US embassy has installed a sophisticated air defence system.  While this embassy is the only one in the world that protects itself with an air defence system, Baghdad’s buildings remain vulnerable targets. 

This conflict does not adhere to any international norms and laws. As we have mentioned, pro-Iran militias have bombed military bases in Baghdad with a major bombing in the Dora city, south of Baghdad. This bombing sparked the anger of Iraqis on social media. People have demanded to remove the military bases outside the cities so that ordinary citizens will not be affected or become targets of a political conflict.

Overall, ordinary Iraqis reject these forces that aim to control and loot Iraq’s wealth, killing people and carrying out criminal acts whether these forces belong to the US, Iran or regressive parts of Iraqi society themselves.

Early Election

In a blow to political Islamic parties, Mustafa al-Kazimi announced the date for early elections to be the  6/6/2021.

In response to this, early in the morning, government buildings were shelled by missiles.

But how do these news impact Iraqis, and specifically the demonstrators?

The impact on protesters has to consider the evolvement of the protest movement from the beginning, understanding the suffering, sacrifices achievements but also problems. 

The news have created a rift among demonstrators, where some want to oppose the elections, vowing that the only solution is to pull down the system. Others see that the revolution is impossible without any political organisation capable of containing the masses and carrying out the revolution.

This tendency also believes that a period of 6 months is sufficient to organise the masses and produce a beneficial outcome, which maybe a political party to participate in the elections.

We at WAS believe that there are two ways for political change to happen in Iraq.

The first way is the revolutionary option, which means to organise the masses in residential areas and work places, thereby forming a political party with a mass base through which it can seize political power and establish the new Iraqi republic.

The second way, which is the democratic way, would be to form a political party by demonstrators. This party could then set conditions for participation in the elections, for example:

1. Dissolve all militias.

2. A trial for the killers of the demonstrators.

3.  International protection and supervision of the elections.

4. Fair election law.

5.  Fair parties law.

6.  Fair financial and media financing between the parties for the election campaign.

Realistically, we believe that this system will not respond to any of these demands. Therefore, the only option remains of boycotting elections with the revolution as the only option for Iraqi society to free itself from this system.

Therefore, the coming days will be very intense security wise, and we may witness another uprising, larger even than the October uprising.

Workers against Sectarianism

30 July 2020