The occupation of Iraq by US and British imperialism and the steadfast resistance by the Iraqi people is creating a huge, and ever growing, crisis for reformism.

Already at this year’s Labour Party conference, Tony Blair faced defeat on a motion calling for a date for withdrawal of British troops, a defeat that would have certainly forced him out of office.

As is well known, only the block vote of four big unions saved Blair, but the fallout from this vote continues to haunt the Stalinists of the British Communist Party (CP) and is plunging them into an unprecedented crisis.

The excuse used by the Trade Union bureaucrats for treacherously reversing the democratically agreed policies of their unions to vote against the Iraq motion and ensure Blair’s survival, was trotted out by Tony Woodley, General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU), in an article which appeared in the Stalinist paper, the Morning Star, on the 26 October. Woodley wrote: ‘I will not weary readers with the whole story, because for me our voting decisions were influenced by one factor above all others – the representations made to us by the spokesman for the Iraqi trade unions.’

Woodley drove this home later in the article: ‘It was the clear advice from Abdullah Muhsin which tipped the balance.’ Muhsin is the British representative of an outfit called the Iraqi Federation Of Trade Unions (IFTU) and the counter-revolutionary role played by Muhsin and the IFTU at the Labour Party conference was so blatant that even erstwhile supporters of this organisation were forced to condemn its intervention.

In particular, the Stop the War Coalition (StWC) issued a statement condemning the activities of the IFTU, this statement was published in the Morning Star on Monday 11th October.

The Stalinists, who have several prominent members in the leadership of the StWC, published the statement with no editorial comment, just as they did not comment on Woodley’s justification for his treacherous behaviour.

At the time, the News Line analysed the crisis facing the Stalinists of the Morning Star, pointing out that historically the CP in Britain had been the most loyal and obsequious followers of the Stalinist bureaucracy in the Kremlin.

When this same bureaucracy around Yeltsin declared the end of the USSR the Morning Star switched from being the mouthpiece of the Kremlin to becoming the in-house paper for the British trade union bureaucracy.

The contradiction tearing the Stalinists apart is that they are caught between the millions who oppose the war and who will have nothing to do with those, like the IFTU who openly support the occupation and the puppet ‘interim government’ of Allawi, and the requirements of this trade union bureaucracy.

As was so graphically demonstrated at the Labour Party conference, this trade union bureaucracy is the main social prop of the Blair government, without their continued support Blair would not last five minutes.
To try to maintain this balancing act the Morning Star has resorted to the most blatant trick in the arsenal of political dishonesty.

Forced to print the StWC statement, which correctly condemned the IFTU, they followed this by publishing a letter from Muhsin defending his position, again without any editorial board comment.

The tactic was clear, the Morning Star desperately hoped that the furore over the actions of Muhsin and the IFTU at the Labour Party conference would be forgotten and they could go back to being the main cheer-leaders for this counter-revolutionary outfit and it would be business as usual, uncritical support for the union bureaucrats.

It has long been a truism that to read the Morning Star one has to have either a very strong stomach or a very short memory. In this instance, the Stalinists clearly hoped that their readers had a short term memory equal to that of a stunned haddock.

Last week they returned to puffing up the IFTU as a legitimate trade union organisation with a vengeance.
On December 4th they printed a full page piece of puffery headlined ‘Learning the tricks of the trade unions’ which recounted that last November, to quote the Morning Star, ‘Six representatives from the occupied country’s largest trade union force, the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU), visited Britain as guests of UNISON.’

The article continues: ‘Since its formation in the wake of the Ba’athist regime’s collapse, the IFTU has been fighting on meagre resources to unite Iraq’s workers and get rid of the legacy of the country’s collaborationist “yellow unions”.’

Note the IFTU have most emphatically not been fighting to unite Iraq’s workers to get rid of the imperialist occupation troops, on the contrary, their activities have been directed against the influence of the legitimate trade union movement in Iraq like the General Federation of Trade Unions (Iraq), which the CP and the Morning Star continue to slander as a ‘yellow’ union.

The GFTU of course is illegal under the occupation and has a direct policy of supporting the struggle against the imperialist occupation troops and against the puppet regime of Allawi – for this the Stalinists designate them as ‘collaborationist’.

As for the IFTU, which is officially recognised by the Allawi gang as the ‘official’ trade union movement in Iraq, they are presented as plucky little trade unionists struggling along with only the meagre resources of the full support of the puppet ‘interim government’ and US/Anglo imperialism behind them.

The support by the Morning Star for the IFTU was driven home in its edition on December 9th. This contained an article by the notorious Muhsin reporting on a visit made by him and the IFTU general secretary (Subhi Al-Mashadani) along with a representative of the Fire Brigades Union, Brian Joyce, to Iraqi Kurdistan.

This article spelt out clearly the position of the IFTU towards the Iraqi people fighting imperialist occupation. He approvingly informs Morning Star readers that ‘Iraqi Kurds dismiss the perpetrators of numerous attacks as criminals, saboteurs and fundamentalists.’ He even has the gall to announce that the city of Mosul is not a centre of resistance to the occupation.

This city, the third largest in Iraq, it will be recalled erupted in November when US troops stormed Fallujah, but according to this article this situation was being caused by foreigners ‘imported from other countries’ and stirring up an otherwise happy population.

What do Morning Star readers make of the fact that on the 11th October they publish a statement which condemns the IFTU and Muhsin as being ‘in political collaboration with the British government’ and of being ‘supportive of the original invasion of Iraq’ whilst within a few weeks they are pushing the same organisation as an independent trade union?

Clearly this contradiction has not gone unnoticed. On the same page as Muhsin’s article the Star is forced to print a letter from G Bangash headed ‘If you don’t support Iraq’s resistance, you’re imperialist’.
This letter is itself a response to earlier correspondence from Harry Barnes, Labour MP and a former Morning Star columnist. Where the Morning Star remains silent, Barnes has no qualms about nailing his political position to the masthead.

In a letter published on December 6th Barnes, who like the Morning Star initially opposed the war, attacks those who support the right of the Iraqi people to armed resistance, claiming that he could ‘justifiably’ claim that they are ‘four square behind Saddamite and jihadist fighters who murder civilians, children, communists and trade unionists…’ He continues: ‘But the key issue for the left is to recognise is that (sic) whatever their original position on the war, a new democratic Iraqi civil society is emerging in the most awful conditions and requires our solidarity.’ He goes on: ‘These forces include those such as Iraqi trade unionists who fled Saddam’s tyranny and who, like me, marched against the war but were excluded from Stop the War platforms.’

Barnes, of course, is doing nothing but parrot the line being laid down by Blair, ‘forget our differences on the war, draw a line under any disagreements and let’s all agree that the troops cannot be withdrawn’ for, as Barnes puts it, this ‘would create an even more dangerous security situation and derail the election process which has been endorsed by the UN.’ He hastens to reassure his readers that: ‘Such a position doesn’t endorse the use of excessive force in Fallujah.’

Well that’s OK then, we are certain that the 100,000 or so Iraqi people murdered by the troops of US and British imperialism met their deaths secure in the knowledge that Harry Barnes does not support the use of excessive force.

Barnes is open in his reactionary and murderous approval of imperialist barbarism in Iraq.

The Morning Star, which prints this repulsive garbage without comment and which continues to be a main supporter for the IFTU and its pro-imperialist manoeuvrings within the British trade union movement, stands condemned before the entire international working class.

Trade union members must demand that the union bureaucracy break with the imperialist stooges of the IFTU and all those who support the occupation of Iraq behind weasel words or silence. Those trade union leaders who supported Blair at the Labour Party conference and betrayed the Iraqi people must be removed, they betrayed not just the Iraqis but their own members when they broke the democratic decisions of their union conferences, and kept Blair in power.

The only way in which the British working class can assist the heroic struggle of the Iraqi people is to bring down the Blair government and go forward to a workers’ government that will withdraw all British troops immediately.