Algerian Trotskyists

Scan page 7

ELEVEN members of the (SWO) - a group of Algerian Trotskyists - are on hunger strike in Barboraisse prison in Algeria.

They were imprisoned on 23 December last year, apparently simply for belonging to the SWO. The SWO is in opposition to the Algerian government and has put forward a programme for freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and organisation, and for a democratic Constituent Assembly.

The eleven prisoners have not been awarded political status by the Algerian authorites, and so have not been given the rights of political prisoners. The eleven demanded the right to be regrouped together in a single room; the right to communicate without limit on the number of visits; the right to receive books and newspapers; and improved sanitary conditions.

On February 13, two weeks after making their demands to the authorities, and having received no reply, the prisoners went on hunger strike. They deserve our support. Two of the jailed militants

Scan page 8

anoments war THE Iranian revolution of 1979 was a great insurgent masses whose weapons included popular revolution shanghaied by a viciously reactionary caste of Shiite muslim priests. The religious leadership gained enormous From late 1978 to February 1979, a wave of authority within the mass movement that enormous popular demonstrations rocked, and united different classes opposed to the old finally toppled, the regime of the Shah of Iran. regime. The aims of that movement were conThat regime had been pumped with arms and fused; and the politics of the various left wing military aid by the US - which had seen Iran as parties (some of which had some influence in one of its main 'policemen' in the Middle East the powerful Iranian working class) were So, by relying partly on religious feeling, The Shah had been overtly backed by the partly on its revolutionary record, the new US since 1953, when a CIA-organised coup Shi'ite regime of Ayatollah Khomeini was able overthrew the nationalist government of Mossa- to base itself on mass forces that it could deq. Right up to the moment when the Shah mobilise against the more secular or radical finally fled the country, US intelligence could opposition that began to emerge. The opposinot believe what was happening, that their well- tion is a mass movement as well: but the ruling fed, corrupt and repressive ally was really on Islamic Republican Party still has a great deal of authority and maintains itself in power five years after the revolution by a regime of repression which slaughters men, women and children strikes and factory seizures. (along with Israel). equally confused. the way out.

The Shiite muslim clergy organised like a tight religious party opposed the Shah as a moderniser of Iran and took the lead of the without scruple.

FIGHTING in the Gulf War between Iran and Iraq has recently reached a new pitch.

The Iraqi regime has been attempting - so far unsuccessfully - to attack the Iranian oil terminal on Kharg (Gulf) Island. It is from this island that Iran's oil is exported, and the Iranian 'Islamic Republic' has threatened to close the Straits of Hormuz if an Iraqi attack is successful. Since the Straits are vital for Western oil supplies, the US and Britain (despite mutual recriminations and the occasional statement to the contrary) have threatened to intervene against Iran to keep the Straits open. If they do so, there is the obvious danger of superpower confrontation.

Iraq is attempting this action because its war efforts have come into major difficulties. Sadam Hussein's Ba' athist regime launched the war in September 1980, believing that it would be able to swiftly topple the Khomeini regime in Iran, and establish itself as the major power in the Gulf. Three and a half years later, it has failed miserably to do either; and for the last year or so has been visibly losing the war.

Its economy is consequently collapsing. The costs of war are huge - running into billions of dollars a year. The Iraqi economy is based on oil production, but as a result of the war its oil exports have dried up completely, and the regime is now enormously indebted to other Arab Gulf states, especially Saudi Arabia. The reactionary Arab oil states have been footing the bill for the Iraqu war effort in the fear that if Saddam falls, their own regimes may come under threat.

For the Iranian regime, the war is also costly, but has been politically to their benefit. Early in the war Khomeini commented that "We must thank Allah for this war which has united our people" , and the war has been consciously used by the 'Islamic Republic' to suppress internal dissent.

The fact that it has survived the Iraqi attack and turned the tables has been in the interests of Iran's reactionary rulers, and there is every indication that it sees its own interests best served by prolonging the war as long as possible.

The original issue over which Iraq declared war -sovereignty over the Shalf al-Arab waterway which connects the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to the Gulf - has long since been lost sight of in the fighting.

In 1976 Iran and Iraq agreed to a mutual br order Khomeini running down the middle o the waterway (i.e. effectivi joint sovereignty). It was :

stitched up deal by whick Hussein's regime in Trac agreed to stop opposing Iranian activities in the Gull region, in return for an end to support for Kurdish rebels in Iraq by the Shah's regime in Iran. The Kurds are a stateless nation spanning (and oppres sed within) Turkey, Iraq and Iran. The immediate result of the at the 1976 agreement was the defeat of the Kurdish resistence in Iraq, and an unhindered intervention by Iran (with British backing) to crush the Dhofar Liberation Front in Oman.

The fall of the Shah in 1979 fundamentally altered the status quo between Iran and Iraq. The 'Islamic Republic' in Iran clearly posed a threat to Hussein's regime -it toppled the main 'policeman' of the Gulf, and the new rulers in Iran had a stated intention of spreading their "Islamic' revolution.

Shi'ites

In Iraq there is probably a majority of the population who belong to the Shi'a Muslim sect that predominates in Iran, and the Iraqi regime clearly believed that there was the possibility of the Iraqi Shia following the hanian example.

The abrogation of the 1976 agreement was completely arbitrary: the declaration of war that it entailed was an attempt to head off opposition within Iraq and remove the threat the Iranian regime posed. As we have seen, it turned out to be a disaster for the Iraqi Ba'ath, and a boon to the Islamic Republic.

Both regimes are equally reactionary. The Ba'ath Party in Iraq took power in a coup in 1968. It had previously held power briefly in 1963 -and on that occasion slaughtered tens of thousands of their opponents, in particular dealing heavily with the Communist Party. By 1968, the pseudo-radical elements in the Ba'ath Party had been defeated, and the Hussein al-Takriti family had consolidated their hold on the party apparatus.

From the outset the Ba' athist regime was viciously repressive. For a while it expended a lot of energy in radical and 'anti-imperialist' rhetoria, and nationalised the Iraq Pätroleum Company in 1972. It was also one of the loudesth voices in the Arab 'Rejection Front' after some forces in the Arab world moved closer towards accommodation with Israel.

But its internal policies, despite being " frequently dressed up as social reform, were essentially the methods of a police state. It had a policy | of "Ba'athisation" (especially in the late "70s): to get anywhere, a person had to be a member of the Ba'ath Party and preferably from Saddam Hussein's home town of Takrit) or be fiercely discriminated against.

Iraqi Kurds It also had a policy of Arabisation: that is, Iraq's large Kurdish minority was denied elementary national rights (the right even to speak their own language, for example) - never mind the right to autonomy or their own state. The Ba'athists carried out forced population transfers to alleviate the 'demographic problem' (too Iranian casualties

Scan page 9

THE stated intention of the Reagan administration to intervene militarily to keep the Straits of Hormuz open should the Iranians try to close it poses an Since 1978, the US has been developing what it calls a 'Rapid Deployment Force' to intervene in the Middle East - especially the Gulf - to defend its 'vital strategic interests'. The idea is to be able to swiftly intervene in the event of insurrection or war that might endanger its regional allies or Western oil Apart from the threat this poses to revolutionary struggles in the region, it is also a threat to us. The Rapid Deployment Force has a nuclear capacity, and Pentagon policy is based on the idea of threatening to use nuclear weapons - or even using them in a 'theatre' nuclear war the US along with the rest of . The Kurds THE Kurdish people is one of the most savagely oppressed peoples on earth. There are approximately 15 million Kurds in the Middle East, mainly concentrated in Turkey, Iraq and Iran.

They are Muslims. In all three of these countries the Kurds have suffered terribly. In Turkey their language has been suppressed and their national identity denied - the word 'Kurd' is considered treasonous, and Kurds are referred to as 'mountain Turks'. Over the last century many thousands of Kurds have been massacred, or ignored oppressed nation who have never had their own state - except for a brief republic in Mahabad, Iran in 1946 - and who have been denied even limited autonomy in the and Iran are all waging war against their many Kurds in one area).

Before 1976, there was a longstanding state of war against the Kurds (in particular the Pesh Merga guerrillas). The Communist Party, criminally, joined the Ba'athist government and went along with this war. They left the government in the late '70s, after Hussein eliminated all opposition to himself and became president. The CP was forced underground, and is now the major force in the opposition to the Ba'ath.

But now the Ba'athist regime is in trouble. The regime is undoubtedly on the verge of falling. Last month, Khomeini declared, as Iran began its latest offensive against Iraq, "Saddam is on his way out. He is on his way out." Although some of the opposition (notably in Kurdistan) has apparently done a deal with the Ba'ath to unite against Iran, most of the opposition has stood firm, and dissent is rife in the armed forces - including at the top.

As a result, the Ba'ath is moving further and further towards accommodation with overtly pro-imperialist governments in the Middle East.

Last year the Iraqi and Egyptian foreign ministers declared they had total agreement on the Middle East ¡peace process' - that is, acceptance of the US's Reagan Plan. And in May last year, the Baghdad government gave the go-ahead to Turkish troops to invade Iraqi Kurdistan in pursuit i of Kurdish rebels making raids in Turkey. As we have seen, Iraq is almost completely dependent on Saudi financial support.

Aiuough close military ties with the USSR remain, Iraq also has important connections with French imperialism. Britain, too, has supplied it with arms.

The mullahs But the Iranian regime is no less reactionary. Because the mosques were the only place where it was possible to organise opposition to the Shah, the mullahs were able to put themselves at the leadership of the mass movement in 1978-9. In reality, the decisive force that toppled the Shah, along with popular mobilisation on a scale unprecedented in world history, was a strike by oil workers. 'It is the unity of working class in both countries against their respective governments that can put a stop to the fighting' The Khomeini regime was able to curtail the mass movement - all opposition has been dealt with by the most barbaric measures. War was launched against the Iranian Kurds. Religious minorities, women, gay people have all been attacked with genocidal savagery.

The opposition movement is deeply divided, although the main group continues to be the People's Mujaheddin -radical movement that adheres to Islam. The Iranian CP (the Tudeh), along with the so-called Fedayin 'Majority, collaborated with the Khomeini regime, until it turned on them last year. Last week a number of its leaders, including a former head of the Iranian navy were shot. The civilian leaders now face trial and probable execution.

Still equipped with US military supplies it captured from the Shah's army - and apparently still sold arms by Britain - t• Iranian army (and especia its fanatical, semi-fascist Revolutionary Guards' or Pasdaran) proved more effective than their Iragi opponents had expected.

Having turned the tide in the war, the Iranian army has now begun - in contradiction to its previous policy -to bombard Iraqi cities.

Iran is in a position to close the Straits of Hormuz. The Islamic Republic has stated that if the US Seventh Fleet intervenes to keep the Straits open, it will only prolong the closure.

United front

The solution to the war in the Gulf is not US or British naval intervention. It is the unity of the working class in both countries against their respective governments that can put a stop to the fighting. A united front of the oppressed peoples of Iran and Iraq against both brutal dictatorships is desperately needed. We can contribute to that aim by supporting the struggles of the opposition movements already fighting. Iranian fighter in the marshes immediate threat to world peace. supplies.

NATO believes it could win.

BIack Sed SOVIET UNION TURKEY SYRIA Arbil Kirkuk/ Boghdade MIRANI IRAQ JORDAN KU NAII Areas where Areas where Kurds live and others uprooted and forcibly dispersed.

They are an important and often forgotten countries where they live.

Right now the goverments of Turkey, Iraq Kurdish minorities. Kurdish nanonalist fighters

Scan page 10

Page

----- pull-quotes -----

The casualty figures in the Iran/Iraq war, already huge, are rising rapidly - and the war could spread Clive Bradlev reports.

figures in are rising rapidly Bradley reports.

y against barbarit war threat

TO nreat