Date: Sun, 23 Mar 1997 18:26:11 GMT
Subject: M-NEWS: Workers' Movement in Iraqi Kurdistan & Middle East (1/3)


WORKERS' MOVEMENT IN IRAQI KURDISTAN & MIDDLE EAST
These notes on the history of Kurdistan, by ITUSC Committee member Raouf
Fatah (Committee for the Workers' & Toilers of Iraqi Kurdistan)  in his
personal capacity, explain the background to present-day problems of the
workers' movement in Iraqi Kurdistan and the Middle East in general. These
notes will be continued in a further two postings in successive days. They
are part of the preparation of a more comprehensive work, which the ITUSC
will publish as a contribution towards a better understanding of the tasks
facing the workers' movement in this troubled region.  

 'The Kurdish people have lived for nearly 5,000 years in a large area which
is now divided between Iran, Russia, Turkey, Syria and Iraq. Until the
15th-16th centuries, they were organised as a tribal collective society, in
which everybody was a member of a clan and shared with others.

COLLECTIVE
Every state authority in history found it difficult to control these people.
People living in tribal collective society naturally tended to be fanatic
warriors, sticking fiercely to their own culture and isolated from those
outside the collective.

REBELLIONS
When Islam established its authority in the region, the Kurds were more
distant from it than other nations. It was difficult for them to submit to
the new order, which tried to break down the previously-established
relations - the unity of the tribal collective, its clans, its families, its
culture, etc. - and replace it with tyranny and oppression. Consequently the
Kurds played a very important part in the many and widespread rebellions
against Islam, like the Quramita revolution, and the Babaky and Baby revolts.

BREAK DOWN OF COLLECTIVE SOCIETY
After the Magul invasion the Turkish Ottoman empire and the Safawy empire of
Iran came into existence. Kurdistan became a battlefield between these
powers. The empires pressurised the Kurds to take their side against the
others. They took hold of the clan leaders and gave them land and other
riches. The clan leaders became isolated from their people and became
something like feudal lords in the feudal society which was developing.
Slowly and bloodily, the collective society broke down.

KURDISH CULTURE CONTINUES
Right up to today, there are many Kurdish clans that have not been subdued
by Islamic rule, for different reasons. For example, in the early years of
this century, Mam Raza led a group which refused to submit to Islamic rule.
He told his group: `One day a revolutionary movement may emerge alongside
ours, built by students and educated people - communists. We should respect
them and protect them, because we have the same aim. Ours is a common
fight.' There are villages where the Kurdish culture has been continued,
where people have not submitted entirely to Islamic rule, where women have
maintained their freedoms more than in other parts of the region.

REVOLUTIONARIES
For all these reasons, Kurdistan has constantly been under pressure from the
regimes. And it has been good ground for rebels, revolutionaries and heretics.

IMPERIALIST RULE
In the period of imperialist domination, from the beginning of the 19th
century, when all the clan leaders had become tools in the hands of the
above-mentioned states and Kurdistan had been divided between those states,
the situation for Kurds under Turkish and Iranian rule differed from that in
Iraqi Kurdistan. This area was ruled by the new Iraqi government under the
control and protection of British imperialism. The people's conditions were
better than in those other countries.

STRUGGLE AGAINST IMPERIALISM
In the present century, after the second world war, the struggle against
British imperialism intensified and the Kurds played a strong and effective
part in it. By 1952 the communist movement had become very strong among the
peasants in Kurdistan. The communists' influence grew, under conditions of a
mounting struggle between the peasants and their half-feudal, half-bourgeois
rulers - a struggle which culminated in revolt and armed conflict. British
imperialism and the Iraqi government collaborated with the feudal chiefs
against this revolt. The communist organisation was very weak: it followed a
parliamentary policy and condemned all forms of military struggle.

PEOPLE'S REVOLT
In 1958 there was a coup in Iraq, led by officers and radical left generals,
which deposed the king and his family and struck a blow against the feudal
system. Immediately and spontaneously, at the same time as this coup, people
rose up everywhere - in the villages, the factories and the poor districts
they attacked anything and everything to do with the old system. The houses,
villas and castles belonging to the king and his relatives were destroyed.
People stopped paying water bills and electricity bills. Landowners were
attacked and theirpeople or increase rents. The people imposed control over
the prices of consumer goods. For more than six months, everything was
controlled by the people in the streets: there was no legal authority.
Throughout Iraq, all the media and propaganda of religious and superstitious
ideas had been stopped.

TERRORISM BY FEUDAL CHIEFS
Those feudal chiefs who survived managed to escape to Iran, Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait, Jordan, Turkey, London and elsewhere. There they were able to build
up terrorist organisations to fight back against the revolution, against the
communists, and against the people in the villages, towns and factories.

COUNTER REVOLUTIONARY
But the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP), which had attained a great influence
among the peasants, workers and poor at this time, became a
counter-revolutionary party. It helped the reactionary forces and gave them
opportunities to recover what they had lost. The media returned and worked
to stop revolutionary action, persuading people to put trust in the new
government, to make peace with the business compradors linked with the west
and with the feudal chiefs. The ICP compromised with the class enemy under
the slogan of `peaceful co-existence' which was imposed as a result of the
Soviet Union's policy. 

RESURGENCE OF REACTION
In Kurdistan, the result of this was a resurgence of reaction. The KDP came
forward as a leader of the feudal landlords, an umbrella for those who did
not escape the revolution. Together with those in exile it built up
terrorist organisations. The Baath party played a similar part in Iraq; the
KDP and Baathists collaborated together, leading the feudal chiefs against
the communist movement. Behind them stood imperialism.
 
CREATION OF KURDISH NATIONALIST MOVEMENT
The Iraqi government which held power after the 1958 revolution, and was
strongly supported by the ICP,  comprised reactionary nationalist generals
>from powerful feudal and religious families, and the radical left generals.
The latter were under the influence of the Soviet Union and the ICP and
became increasingly disoriented. Because of the divisions in it this
government was not strong. Imperialism wove a conspiracy against it.

 Part 2 continued in further posting tomorrow

____________________________________________________________________
This is from the International Trade Union Solidarity Campaign (ITUSC) at:-
e-mail:        itusc-AT-gn.apc.org
website:  http://www.itusc.org.uk
'snail' mail:  PO Box 18, Epsom, Britain, KT18 7YR
Tel/Fax    ++44 (0) 1372 817 778
The ITUSC is an international and internationalist association of organised
workers and communities, dedicated to rebuilding the workers' movement and
to overcoming sectarianism and division in working class organisations. It
was founded in 1991 on the following principles:
1) trade unions independent of the state and employers;
2) democracy within trade unions, and;
3) workers' internationalism.
Any individuals or organisations that accept these principles and are
prepared to work for them, are regarded as comrades by the ITUSC.
____________________________________________________________________