Interview of Toward Socialism no. 45 (in Arabic)

with Hamid Takvaee, the Leader and head of the Central Committee of the Worker-communist Party of Iran - WPI

 

Toward Socialism:

The situation in Iraq is getting dangerous. Lately there was the upheaval by the Islamists from both sects that almost brought the society to the brink of a so-called sectarian war. What is your evaluation of this situation? What is the role of different factions and the US?

 

Hamid Takvaee:

The sectarian war is a direct result of the socio- political chaos created by US and its allies in Iraq. It is a war between pro-American and anti-American Islamist groups. It is a war between religious sects, not because of their religious differences but because of their different political positions and goals on post-Saddam Iraq. Invasion of Iraq vastly politicized, activated and brought to the fore different ethnic, religious and nationalist factions in Iraq society and now they are fighting each others to have a bigger share in the hand-made Iraqi government and in the Iraq’s political arena in general. Invasion of Iraq created and activated the different factions of Islamist and nationalist groups and now US tries to use these ultra reactionary and anti human forces to control the situation. As a result now we have pro-Us as well as anti-US   Islamist factions. Now the main actors in Iraq political stage are anti-US Baathist Sunnis, pro-US Sunnis, pro-US kurd nationalists, pro-US Shiates, and anti-US Shiates. What is called a civil or sectarian war is nothing but   “practicing politics” by these domestic agents of post-cold war era in post-invasion Iraq.  It is the new world order in action!

 

Toward Socialism

In a previous analysis you mentioned the Dark Scenario in Iraq to describe the situation after the US war on Iraq you drew the tasks of the communists and socialists in such scenario to pull the society out of it into normality. Do you think these tasks still hold true after almost 2 years? How?

 

Hamid Takvaee

The political situation in Iraq has not improved much during the last two years. US-British armies are still there, Islamic terrorism is in full action, and even bombardment of Iraqi cities by US forces has not been stopped! Still the question of state and political power is a totally open question, and after two years the society is still far from being a normal, civil society. The present so to speak “government” of Iraq, which is but a US hand-made coalition of different Islamist sects and Kurd nationalists, is not leading Iraq towards a civil and secular society, but quiet the opposite. It is a recipe for making the already chaotic situation even worse. It is not going to change the present socio-political disaster  to normality, but to “normalize” the disaster. An established religious-ethnic government means an established misery, deprivation and lack of basic social and political rights for people, especially women, in Iraq. It wouldn’t lead to normality, but would stabilize the Dark Scenario situation as “normal”. Iraq society is dragged further away from a modern, civil and secular society and therefore I think our tasks in Iraq remained basically the same. Fighting for a secular and modern civil society still is our immediate task. It is the first step toward freedom, equality and socialism in Iraq.        

  

Toward Socialism

The formation of the Iraqi government is delayed for almost 4 months. There is haggling among the different Islamist, nationalist and sectarian groups while the society is sinking deeper into chaos; terrorism and total lack of security, obscene rises in the prices of fuel, cooking gas, and livelihood of workers and toilers in general, increasing inequality and lack of freedom for women and youth etc. Do you see any prospects for the bourgeoisie factions to answer the demands of the people? Can they further answer the question of secularism & civil society in Iraq?

 

Hamid Takvaee

I think US government and its international allies, along with all the anti- and pro-US Islamist and nationalist groups and sects in Iraq, are part and parcels of the Dark Scenario. The very existence of these forces in Iraq political arena means the absence of civilization, modernism, and secularism in Iraq. Civil society can only be achieved by fighting these forces and getting rid of them.

 

From a broader and more general perspective In Iraq today we are witnessing the confrontation between international bourgeoisie and its New World Order in one hand, with the international working class and it’s socialism in the other. In our time, in post-cold war era, issues like secularism, women rights, modernism, and civil society are at the forefront of class struggle; not only in Iraq but almost everywhere in the world. Bourgeois main stream political forces, in position and opposition, all over the world have abandoned the very concept of civil society (separation of church from the state, equal rights for every citizen independent of his/her religion, ethnicity, nationality and etc.). Even in the realm of socio-philosophical doctrines, under the name of post modernism, cultural relativism and multi-culturalism, we are facing a denial of universal humane values and in fact the denial of the human identity itself. So now it is the task of working class and worker-communism movement not only to raise the flag of socialism, but to represent the civil society and human being’s basic rights and needs of our era. In fact representing and fighting for civilized world, as Mansur Hekmat put it in his brilliant essay “the world after September 11”, is a decisive and urgent task of worker-communism; and today no other society better than Iraq shows the emergency and importance of this historic role of our movement. In other words, the only civilized and humanistic alternative in Iraq is working class alternative, i.e. socialism.

  

Toward Socialism

The Left Worker-communist Party of Iraq is preparing its 1st congress. How do you evaluate the importance of this congress for worker communism at this stage? Especially that worker communism has seen a blow by Rebwar’s party who has completed its turn to the right and started to practically negotiate with the Arab & Kurdish nationalists? 

 

Hamid Takvaee

Left Worker-communist Party of  Iraq is the only hope for Iraq future. Rebwar’s party abandoned the idea of socialism and fighting for socialism. Their excuse is the Dark Scenario situation in Iraq. They want to overcome Dark Scenario by playing politics with the bourgeois forces that created it! This policy would worsen, and not improve, the present situation in Iraq.  The only answer of civilized world to the new world order in Iraq and in anywhere else is socialism. If it is true that   

international and national bourgeoisie have created the current socio-political disaster in Iraq, then the only civil society which is possible and feasible in Iraq is a  socialist society.  There is no other alternative. Socialism is the only civilized and humanistic alternative in Iraq and LWPI represents this alternative. The LWPI first congress is an important political event not only for working class, but for any political party and activist and for majority of Iraqi people who want a secular and modern society in Iraq. It is a congress to declare that socialism is the only alternative for anybody who is against the imported ethnic-religious-nationalistic- sectarian democracy and seeks a civil, secular, free, equal and prosperous society.                                                                   

 

Toward Socialism

What is your message to the communists, socialists, secularists and workers of Iraq regarding this congress and the tasks laid upon them?

 

Hamid Takvaee

My message is simple and straight forward: Join the LWPI! It is a party for anybody who wants a better world. It is the only party representing the civilized world as oppose to all the Dark Scenario forces and their tactical allies and apologists in Iraq. The congress is the first step for uniting all the socialists, secularists, workers movement activists and women liberation activists under the banner of the “better world” program. I have no doubt that the first congress of your party would be a turning point in the Worker-communism movement in Iraq and could be the beginning of a new phase in    raising the banner of Mansour Hekmat’s communism in Iraq society.