Abdullah Muhsin & Iraq's Working Class. posted by Richard Seymour

The intervention of Abdullah Muhsin of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) at the Labour Party conference helped to persuade union leaders to defy their own policies and to vote in favour of a resolution in support of continuing the occupation, indefinitely. He also lobbied to get Allawi, a thug, former Ba'athist , and former terrorist , access to the Labour conference.

These activities raised the ire of the Stop the War Coalition and also, apparently, George Galloway.

Muhsin has responded in an article published by the Morning Star, and I'll draw your attention to this classic:

Mr Galloway's assertion that I offered voting advice to trade unions on the Iraq motions is also untrue. The big four trade unions made their own decisions and, for my part, if and when asked, I confined my remarks to urging solidarity with Iraqi workers.

Well, I would definitely suggest that this consitutes some kind of voting advice to trade unionists at the Labour conference:

You have two options before you this week:

One would give hope to all those in Iraq who want to see free trade unions and political organisation grow and thrive. In line with UN Security Council resolution 1546, it says that the multinational force is there to help our democracy.

The alternative asks for an early date for withdrawal which would be bad for my country, bad for the emerging progressive forces, a terrible blow for free trade unionism, and would play into the hands of extremists and terrorists.

Harry isn't very happy that the antiwar Left have criticised Muhsin for undertaking activities that he now absurdly denies undertaking. Says he:

The key point to me, is that it is not the job of those of outside Iraq, either pro or anti war, to lecture Iraqi trade unions about what is the 'correct' position to take.

The key point is to support the democratic representatives of Iraqi workers, who make their own decisions.

Tautology and absurdity are never far apart in Harry's spiels, but this one takes some beating. Iraqi trade unionists "make their own decisisons". Really? Who would have thought that? Still, accepting that as a perfectly reasonable proposition in the absence of counterfactual evidence, we are still left wondering how this bars us from criticising those trade union leaders who collaborate with the occupation and undermine the work of those opposing it - especially if their stated position is that they are against the occupation. The "key point", for me, is that I couldn't give a flying fuck about Harry's stupid prohibition on criticism . For instance, the Worker Communist Party of Iraq says:

IFTU is this era’s version of state-made, anti-labour Ba’athist unions. They should be denied any kind of support. Workers in Europe should refuse to ally with them, for their opposition to worker rights in complicity with the interim government.

IFTU enjoys the backing of the US/UK governments, as well the recognition and support of Allawi’s interim government. Any support or recognition offered to them will be a direct support for the government of Allawi and against the interests of the workers and people of Iraq.

There are many trade union movements in Iraq, as Hani Lazim from Iraqi Democrats Against the Occupation (IDAO) explains :

THE IFTU claims that it speaks on behalf of Iraqi trade unions. This is not true. They are self appointed leaders.

There are four trade union movements in Iraq. The first one was a coalition of the left. The US, backed up by the interim president Iyad Allawi and his entourage, went in and smashed it.

Abdullah Muhsin lives in Britain. He is a political refugee and a leading member of the Iraqi Communist Party, a party that is collaborating with the occupation. The Communist Party has ministers in the interim governing council.

These people collaborated with Saddam in the 1970s, using violence against anyone who resisted his rule. They shouted their heads off in support of the Soviet Union in the 1980s. When the Soviet Union went, they jumped to the CIA.

Some trade unionists have officially invited Muhsin here. There is a question mark over some of the people who are promoting him and the sincerity of their stand on the war. The IFTU has to be opposed.

If you are part of a government that allows the US to bomb towns like Fallujah and the al-Sadr area of Baghdad, don’t tell me you oppose the occupation.

The occupatiers have coopted , and suppressed Iraq's labour movement, even going so far as to arrest leaders of the IFTU in the past. It whiffs of opportunism and sell-out, to put it mildly, that the IFTU is working so vigorously on behalf of the Allawi puppet regime just because they are now granted legal recognition while no other trade union or workers' organisation in Iraq is .