Forward interviews Khasro Saya, the head of abroad organization of the Worker-communist Party of Iraq on the position of the Western left

Forward: Now that nobody can hide the crimes and reactionary nature of Islamic groups, including those in Iraq there are people among the Western left who are saying that it is right for the Iraqi communists to fight against these groups, but it is not right for the communists in the West to fight against them, because for communists in the West, the priority is to defeat their own country’s Imperialism. What is your response to this?

Khasro Sayia: Despite the fact that the views of the left and the right in the Western countries toward Eastern societies such as Iraq are two different views, nevertheless the policies and  analysis of both are in essence the same; they are based on denying the political and social realities of these countries.

The Right holds an oriental-Easternist and post modernist view which holds that Iraq and the countries of the East are backward societies consisting of many ethnicities, nationalities, religions and sects and that monarchism is still an influential force in these societies.  However, what stands behind this view is a political project, which wants to justify installing a pro-US, and pro-Western government, which complies with the foreign policies of America and other western countries under the rubric of democratization of the society. Therefore  "Iraqi Kurds", " Iraqi Arabs" " Sunni", " Shia, " Arab tribes", Assyrians", " Turkmans", "remnants of Monarchy" and others have been terms extensively used in regard to the Iraqi society and its future from the very early days of the Gulf War in 1991, through the second Gulf War and the occupation of Iraq.

From the Left's point of view, imperialism which is a key concept, instead of being viewed as the capitalism of corporate and monopoly era and bourgeois reaction, is seen as an idol that we have to launch an all out war against. On this basis, "anti-imperialism" and " anti-America" is the axis of the political thinking and analysis of the Left which effectively sees "imperialism" and America per se as the source of all hardships and tragedies of the Iraqi and Eastern societies. Therefore, the left does not want to see workers, bourgeoisie, capital, capitalism or even the civil society and all movements which face each other and which are the real outcome of the capitalist system and the struggle between the main classes. They see all people as one bloc standing in the anti-imperialism and anti-foreigners front.

In this framework, it’s quite obvious that both views, the Western Right and the Western Left's views share one fundamental point which is denying the capitalist nature of the Eastern countries and failure to see the working class,  class struggle and the movements which represent the conflicting interests of the two major classes. Based on this denial, they formulate their policies toward the Iraqi and Eastern societies.  The bourgeois pro-state academics and intelligentsia shape the views and beliefs of the Western Right by distorting the progressive human philosophy so that certain philosophical beliefs that emanate from the very modern Western society dominate. The Western anti-imperialist left presents itself as the manifestation of the backward beliefs of the nationalist Left and populism which emerged in the Eastern countries after the colonial era.

The anti-modernism and anti-progressive populism and left nationalism which has dominated in the Eastern countries, hijacked the struggle of workers and toilers for years, and has taken “standing up foreigners and Imperialism" as the philosophy for its existence.  It called on workers and toilers to defend the "myth of the progressive and revolutionary national bourgeoisie" to achieve a political objective. That objective was building a national, native and advanced capitalism- a capitalism which would have had the same oppressive essence and character of the capitalism of imperialist era in the Western countries and would have relied on the oppressiveness of the wage-labour system.The Western anti-imperialist left is inspired by the views of the same left nationalism and populism of the East in dealing with the bourgeoisie and its movements in today's world.

The social bases of the Western left is standing in the periphery of the society, severing all connections with the society and with political and class realities of contemporary capitalism.  It is attempting to clean the name of the leftist groups against the colonial past and oppression of the bourgeoisie in the countries of centre. Thus, this left is engaged in defending the bourgeoisie of the Eastern countries and its movements.

In the terminology of the Western left, “Imperialism- the greatest evil" is the source of wars and destruction in the East and today's world, however, nationalism, political Islam and capitalism of the East are positive phenomena and therefore, must be supported. Politically, imperialism for them is more used to show its innocence and differentiate itself from the bourgeoisie in the West at the expense of denying the capitalist nature, class struggle, the existence of working class, progressive and civilized social movements that represent this class and stand up to the reaction, violence, and lack of rights produced by the bourgeoisie and its movements in the society.

Opposing the struggle against political Islam and supporting this movement by the anti-imperialist left in the West is the outcome of these views. Assigning the struggle against political Islam to the communists in the East alone and not participating in this struggle, apart from being an absolutely wrong understanding of communism and communist struggle, removes the Western anti-imperialist left from the front of internationalist struggle and puts it in the front of bourgeois reaction beside the criminal political Islam.

Defending the Islamic Republic of Iran and gangs of Moqtada al-sadr in Iraq under the rubric that these are "anti-imperialist" forces, is an example of the inhumane and reactionary policies and stands that the Western left has been showing toward the societies of the Eastern countries.

Forward: Then, can workers and communists recognize themselves as anti-imperialists? In other words, would you define yourselves as a communist anti-imperialist force in Iraq?

Khasro Saya: Yes, we regard ourselves as extreme anti-imperialists, but there are differences between us and both the nationalist left and populism of the East and the Anti-imperialism of the Western left. These two political currents, which separate the concept of “imperialism" from capitalism and fail to see the reactionary character of capitalism and the bourgeoisie of the Eastern countries, reduce the anti-imperialist struggle to opposition to the foreign policies of superpowers. Therefore, they regard national capitalism and the native bourgeoisie, including political Islam and Eastern nationalist movements as being within the anti-imperialist front and as representatives of the masses of people. At best, the anti-imperialism of the Left in the Western countries means opposition to the multinational corporations and the foreign trade of the countries of the center. Similar to the "anti-globalization" movement which has showed that fighting imperialism does not mean fighting the waged-labour system and the exploitation of human beings by other human beings, but rather, leaves the current system untouched and  directs its war against the injustice brought about by the trade of the multinational capital and multinational corporations. In sharp contrast to these views, we believe that anti-imperialism emanates from the fact that imperialism is the very capitalism of the monopoly and bourgeois reaction era which is built on the basis of the waged-labour system and exploitation of workers. War, occupation and bourgeois reaction, as Lenin says, is an inseparable part of the capitalism of our time.

Our struggle against imperialism is a struggle against the capitalist system itself and against the bourgeois class, which protects and maintains this system and against the wars and reaction that it imposes on today's world.  From our point of view, the anti-imperialist struggle is at a stage where capitalism as a political and economic system controls the whole world including Iraq and other Eastern countries. Therefore regarding national capitalism and national bourgeoisie in the Eastern countries as progressive is a blighted myth. This myth not only has no progressive, and humanist essence in favor of working class and exploited people,but it is totally against the political freedoms and civil rights of people.

We believe the colonial era and imperialist betrayal had come to an end and now the bourgeoisie in the East and West and imperialist capitalism in the West and dependent capitalism in the East have the same essence.  They make up the suppressive and exploitative system of waged-labour against the working class of the world. The bourgeoisie in the East and the West share one strategy to maintain this system and keep it under their control.  Therefore, any kind of war and conflict between the bourgeoisie sects or among the various bourgeoisie movements is about which section or bourgeois movement can better protect the capitalist system and maintain the conditions for exploitation and oppression of workers in today's world in best way.  Their war is about dividing the capitalist profit and power in the world.

Based on this view, our anti-imperialist struggle not only opposes the nationalism of the third world and political Islam but also regards these movements as products of the capitalist system in the imperialist era. They are struggling for power and for their "right" to exploit the workers and toilers of their own countries. Political Islam is an extreme and fanatic anti-communist, anti-human bourgeois movement which has come to the fore under the banner of Islam to save the capitalist system after the capital booming period ended and after nationalism and national capitalism in the Eastern countries reached a crisis.  Political Islam is the outcome of the imperialist reaction of  post bipolar world era.

To be continued