Denying the Reality of Occupation

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Denying the Reality of Occupation

Illegal Elections in Iraq
End the Occupation Now!

On February 1, the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, made a statement to the House of Commons on the Iraq elections of January 30. It is evident that the government has decided to brazen it out, to ignore the fact that elections were taking place under an occupying power, to ignore the climate of aggression, chaos and fear that pervades occupied Iraq, and stick to the Anglo-American construct of the Iraqi reality. Under this "reality", no one has principles, motives or aims. Under this "reality", the US and Britain have liberated Iraq from a tyranny, despite the fact that 100,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed under the occupation, despite the millions that lost their lives owing to the sanctions that were in place for ten years before that. Under this "reality", Iraq is proceeding step by step according to a Security Council timetable to democracy. Under this "reality", the Iraqi people had a "choice" in the elections from some 8,000 candidates. Under this "reality", a substantial proportion of the Iraqi population took part in the elections.

The reality which is not a construct of Anglo-American pragmatism, which is not seen through the chauvinist spectacles of the monopoly-controlled media, but as reported on by reputable observers and those who feel for the plight of the Iraqi people – this reality reflects the fact of the occupation of Iraq. It is all very well for Jack Straw to bemoan the "insurgents" in Iraq, that but for "terrorist violence" the elections would have run "smoothly", and to commend the "very good process" of the election in these circumstances. The very occupation has seen to it that the January 30 elections were both illegal and undemocratic. Besides anything else, the norms of international law demand that any occupying force must first withdraw militarily, politically and economically before elections can be considered legal and democratic. But let us remind Jack Straw and the US-British occupying forces, that the branding of the insurgents as the terrorists is itself the biggest distortion of reality. The Anglo-Americans have razed whole cities to the ground, they terrorise the Iraqi people, they are totally in contempt of the very values they claim to be in Iraq to protect. This is the daily reality of the Iraqi people, and the context in which these fraudulent elections took place.

It is true the Iraqi people aspire to democracy and freedom, as Jack Straw affirms, but they also aspire to get rid of their terrorist occupiers, to decide their own future free from aggression, repression, dictate and occupation, and they reject the fraud that Jack Straw perpetrates that January 30 represented the exercise of universal values. What could be more of a fraud that supposedly "free" elections were held at gunpoint, just because Mr Straw declares them to be "free".

The historic endeavour that the Iraqi people in their millions are pursuing is to affirm their own civilisation and identity as opposed to the values of the Anglo-Americans that the occupiers declare are universal. WDIE calls on the working class and people to demand an immediate end to the occupation of Iraq, and that Britain end its aggression, intervention and interference in Iraq lock, stock and barrel. We call on the working class and people to step up their struggle to bring this about, and to deal a decisive blow to the warmongering elite in the forthcoming election in this country, and to strike a blow for democratic renewal here also, which will be a sure support to the Iraqi people in their struggle for liberation.

From TML, daily on-line newspaper of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), February 2, 2005

TML condemns the fraudulent elections held in Iraq on January 30. Their sole aim was to identify the foreign occupation by Anglo-American imperialism with democracy while the resistance to occupation is ipso facto an enemy of democracy, terrorist, anti-Iraq, etc.

Based on this illegal and fraudulent election, a 275-seat "transitional National Assembly" will be put in place. It will provide the cover behind which the US occupation forces choose a transitional government and draft a permanent constitution to be endorsed in a national referendum by October 15. It is reported that under the guidance of this phoney constitution a new government and parliament will then be elected by the end of this year. Furthermore, it is an unelected judiciary, not parliament, which will determine what is constitutional, i.e. what can and cannot be done, thereby annulling any attempt by members of parliament to demand an end to the occupation.

In this light, TML condemns the participation of the Government of Canada in this electoral fraud. Elections Canada headed the International Mission for Iraqi Elections which was set up to assess the fairness of the election. It provided training for Iraqi election officials, as well as monitoring of the electoral procedure, such as voter registration and how the candidates’ names would appear on the ballots, as though the various mechanisms of "free and fair" elections could somehow override the fact that the election was conducted in conditions of foreign occupation. Canada’s participation in the election formed part of the Anglo-American effort to give legitimacy to the US occupation based on the disinformation that elections are the antithesis of violence and therefore by their very nature an exercise in democracy.

To shore up the US claim of success and give a veneer of legitimacy to the election, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew and Minister of International Cooperation Aileen Carroll issued a statement of congratulations to the Iraqi people. "This was an important milestone in the transition to democratic self-government, and an important first step in the democratic processes that will unfold in Iraq throughout 2005. The election shows that a majority of Iraqis see democracy as a path toward a more stable and prosperous Iraq," the statement said. "Canada offers its support to the new Iraqi authorities to foster national reconciliation, and to ensure that the democratic transition unfolds in the inclusive manner outlined by the Security Council," it added. "We were also pleased to hear initial reports from the International Mission for Iraqi Elections, headed by Canada's Chief Electoral Officer Jean-Pierre Kingsley, congratulating Iraq's Electoral Commission on having done a superb job in a short time-frame and under very difficult circumstances," the statement concluded.

TML calls on the Canadian working class and people to go all out for the March 19-20 International Days of Action Against the Occupation of Iraq. As of the last count, demonstrations are planned in 29 countries including Iraq and many more are coming on line. An anti-war assembly held at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, which included representatives of the anti-war movement in more than 33 countries including Iraq, endorsed the call for the International Day of Action.

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