Inside the Current Issue

Neither Occupation Nor Political Islam: A Secular, Democratic, and Progressive Alternative in Iraq?

Robert Augman

After three years of war and occupation in Iraq, many Americans across the political spectrum are having a difficult time finding a constructive position. According to media reports, one would think there is only a choice between two sides: you either support the U.S. occupation and the Iraqi National Congress, or you support the armed groups opposing them. For those who want to support the freedom of Iraqis, neither side of this constructed conflict seems to be legitimately working toward such a goal.

On the one side, the U.S. occupation has turned Iraqi society into a war zone, which lacks the most basic forms of security and sustainability. On the other side, the same is the case. On top of the chaos brought about by the war and occupation, violent factions are making life even more unbearable for ordinary Iraqis. Following mainstream media reports - National Public Radio, independent media sources, and Left media included - Iraq appears to be a society whose fate hangs in the grips of these two competing sides. They seem to be the only recognizable social actors. The future looks grim. It is with great inspiration, therefore, that a secular, democratic, and progressive alternative appears on the horizons.

Speaking to a small audience at The New School for Pluralistic Anti-Capitalist Education (The New S.P.A.C.E.), on the Lower East Side, Houzan Mahmoud, an Iraqi organizer and journalist told about Iraq's civil resistance to U.S. occupation and political Islam. Mahmoud co-founded the Iraqi Freedom Congress (IFC), a broad organization of progressive and civil society groups. And she also co-founded The Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), a group working for equal rights and empowerment of women.

"We are the opposition to power in Iraq. We're the third pole, the alternative to the occupation and the so-called 'resistance,'" Mahmoud said. "The IFC is trying to mobilize communities to defend themselves, by building a democratic, secular, and progressive movement."

On March 8, The Organization for Women's Freedom mobilized nearly 1,000 people - mostly women - to an International Women's Day Rally in Baghdad, in defiance of the curfew. The demonstration was to "support female prisoners who've been tortured, raped, and denied their political rights," Mahmoud explained. It was "to publicly oppose 'Honor Killings' which legally allow women to be killed by men."

With demonstrations and grassroots support, they have influenced policy and helped turn down Sharia Law, which Mahmoud says would have meant forced marriage, no divorce rights, and other unjust policies. The women's movement has also opened up women's shelters to protect women from violence.

In addition to women's groups, the Iraqi Freedom Congress also includes labor organizations. In opposition to the state-run labor organizations controlled by the former Ba'athist regime of Saddam Hussein, which weakened workers by criminalizing strikes and political activity, organizations which are now being recreated by the Iraqi National Congress with U.S. backing, independent worker's organizations have been formed by worker's themselves. They formed The Federation of Workers' Councils and Unions in Iraq, and The Union of Unemployed in Iraq. These groups have been fundamental in fighting for rights, and for improved living and working conditions. Mahmoud told of worker's mobilizations that ejected occupying forces from an electrical facility so that the workers could restore electricity to Iraqis.

Mahmoud argued stridently for a secular, democratic, and progressive Iraq. Those who are angered by the collapse of Iraq ought to stop lending tacit support to the occupying forces on the one hand, or the political Islam groups on the other. Instead, it ought to lend explicit support morally, politically, financially, or otherwise to the civil resistance.

The Iraqi Freedom Congress is an open membership organization, open not just to Iraqis, but to people in every country. "We want to mobilize a civil resistance movement in Iraq and across the world," Mahmoud argued, "If we can't have socialism, we'll at very least fight for a secular, democratic, and egalitarian government. We are the alternative in Iraq."

The event was co-organized by a new anti-war group, the National Organization for the Iraqi Freedom Struggle (NO-IFS), which seeks not only to oppose the war, but to make links with progressive movements in Iraq. While the IFC has received support from groups in Japan, France, and England, it is seeking support in the U.S. as well.

The position of NO-IFS, along with the IFC, is an immediate end to the U.S. occupation. "Only then can Iraq decide on its own future," Mahmoud argued.

In the U.S., supporters of progressive politics at home and abroad need to do more than present their opposition to the occupation. They need to connect with progressive movements that can fill the vacuum, and organize society differently. A progressive politics must be vocal about its opposition not only to the occupation but also to political Islam, which, according to Mahmoud, seeks to turn back the clock and rule Iraq not according to people's needs, but according to oppressive religious views.

Progressives in the U.S. ought to consider these social movements working to build a secular, democratic, and progressive future in Iraq, amidst the turmoil. While there's no question as to the ongoing destruction the occupation is creating in Iraq, it is still a question of how an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops will help or harm these social movements establish a progressive society. In the meantime, supporters of Iraqi freedom could lend support to these movements, revealing to the world that there is not just a choice between occupation and political Islam. Alternatives exist, and they're worth fighting for.

To learn more about the civil resistance in Iraq:

• Iraqi Freedom Congress:
  www.ifcongress.com
• Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI):
  www.equalityiniraq.com
• Union of the Unemployed:
  www.uuiraq.org
• Worker Communist Party of Iraq:
  www.wpiraq.net
• Iraq Freedom Congress:
  www.ifcongress.org
• World War 4 Report:
  www.ww4report.com

U.S. groups supporting the civil resistance in Iraq:

• National Organization for the Iraqi Freedom Struggle:
  www.no-ifs.org
• U.S. Labor Against the War:
  www.uslaboragainstwar.org

For a list of upcoming events at The New S.P.A.C.E.:

• The New S.P.A.C.E.:
  new-space.mahost.org.

Robert Augman is studying Social and Historical Studies at the New School, and is a Board member of the Institute for Anarchist Studies (www.anarchist-studies.org), a non-profit organization supporting critical scholarship on social domination and the reconstructive vision of a free society.