Repression in the new Iraq. posted by Richard Seymour

Iraq’s interior minister has told Iraqis not to demonstrate against the regime. Falah al-Naqib told journalists on Monday that protests were among “attempts to destabilise the situation” in Iraq.

Naqib’s comments came after government bodyguards opened fire on an unarmed and peaceful demonstration of workers, killing at least one.

The workers, employed by Iraq’s technology ministry, gathered last Sunday in Baghdad to demand higher wages. Naqib defended the bodyguards who shot at them, saying they were just doing their job.

The minister’s comments came a few days after a leading Shia cleric in Iraq called for a “million strong demonstration to demand a timetable for the end of the occupation”.

Sheik Nasser al-Saedi, a follower of radical Shia leader Moqtada al-Sadr, called on “all political forces to take part in this demonstration” during his sermon last Friday at the Grand Mosque in Kufa.