ninety minute nationalist

Two events connected to the situation in Iraq on the same day in London. At one of these the labour movement in the UK will come together to show purposeful solidarity with its natural constituency, the labour movement in Iraq; at the other, the self-styled anti-imperialists of the Stop the War Campaign (STWC) will prioritise the issue of troop withdrawal and solidarity with the 'resistance'.

So what will the STWC be saying to those Iraqi trade unionists and labour movement activists who will be present at the TUC solidarity conference? Will they tell them how wrong they are to concentrate on 'secondary' issues such as building a new, independent trade union movement, even when one of the aims of that movement is to become strong enough to make removal of the occupation forces possible without that being, at the same time, a death sentence for the labour movement? Will they be saying, first things first, let's get rid of the occupation then we can talk about building democratic structures and a labour movement. How, instead of fighting to get to the head of the queue, they should be giving way to the 'resistance', building links with the 'resistance'; you know, the same 'resistance' that is attacking them, kidnapping them, bombing them, shooting them?