Sadrist
Ministers Withdraw
From Iraqi Cabinet
By James Cogan
19 April, 2007
World
Socialist Web
Six
ministers of the Iraqi cabinet, members of the Shiite fundamentalist
movement headed by cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, formally resigned their positions
on Monday. The Sadrists declared they were responding to the mass sentiment
among their supporters that US and other foreign troops must be ordered
to leave the country.
At a press conference in
Baghdad, Sadrist representative Nassar al-Rubaie read a statement by
Sadr, which declared that the resignations were in line with the “will
of people” expressed during the anti-US protests by Iraqi Shiites
on April 9. “The main reasons”, Rubaie stressed, “are
the prime minister’s lack of response to the demands of nearly
one million people in Najaf asking for the withdrawal of US forces,
and against the deterioration taking place in security and services.”
Last week’s huge protest
in Najaf has been deliberately downplayed in the US media and political
establishment. It demonstrated, however, the anger and resentment that
has been generated in the Shiite populated areas of Baghdad and southern
Iraq by the escalation in US military activity ordered by President
Bush in January.
The build-up of US troops
has two objectives. Firstly, it is aimed at destroying the insurgent
cells in Sunni Arab areas of Baghdad and western Iraq, which have waged
a guerilla war against the occupation since the 2003 invasion. Secondly,
it is aimed at weakening and, if possible, shattering the Shiite movement
that is loyal to Sadr.
Washington has labelled the
Sadrists as the “greatest threat to stability”—a euphemism
for US control over Iraq. While Sadr has not called for open resistance
to the US military since late 2004, and instructed his followers to
participate in the US-vetted parliament, his organisation has been compelled
to articulate the anti-colonial sentiment of its social base in order
to retain influence. The Sadrist movement derives the bulk of its political
support from the Shiite working class and urban poor, who have consistently
opposed the US occupation and whose desperate living conditions under
Saddam Hussein have only worsened under American rule.
In November, reflecting the
outrage of their supporters, the Sadrist members of parliament walked
out after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki met with Bush. They only returned
to the parliamentary benches in January, where they have opposed the
US-drafted proposed oil law that would open the country’s energy
resources to foreign ownership. They have also opposed the US call for
political concessions to the predominantly Sunni, upper echelons of
the former Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein, who are believed to be
leading significant segments of the insurgency. While Washington views
a potential settlement with the Baathists as a means of lessening resistance
to the occupation, the Shiite masses view it as an attempt to put their
former oppressors back into positions of power and privilege.
Despite their participation
in the government, the Sadrists’ populist criticisms of the occupation
have seen their support grow in Baghdad and the southern provinces of
Iraq. The Sadrist Mahdi Army militia has also grown under the conditions
of escalating sectarian attacks on Shiite civilians by Sunni extremists
over the past two years. Since the destruction of a revered Shiite mosque
in February last year, the Mahdi Army is believed to have conducted
an ongoing campaign of reprisals that have killed thousands of Sunni
men and ethnically cleansed thousands of Sunni families from Shiite
neighbourhoods. By the beginning of the year, the Mahdi Army was estimated
to have as many as 60,000 fighters. It had effectively taken over much
of eastern Baghdad and was competing for control of a number of southern
cities.
Four years after invading
Iraq, the Bush administration is faced with a situation where the most
powerful political force in the country is not its own military or the
Iraqi government it installed, but a volatile Shiite fundamentalist
movement that opposes the selling off the country’s oil industry
and any suggestion of long-term US bases.
The additional US troops
being sent to Iraq are being used to try to fundamentally weaken the
Sadrists. US troops have entered the movement’s stronghold, the
densely-populated working class Sadr City suburb in eastern Baghdad.
Other operations have been launched against the Mahdi Army in cities
where the Sadrists are involved in power struggles with other Shiite
parties.
Until now, Sadr has ordered
his supporters not to attempt to physically resist. In 2004, thousands
of poorly-armed Shiite fighters who rose up in the cleric’s name
were slaughtered by US firepower in Baghdad, Karbala and Najaf. As the
US has initiated operations over the past weeks, the Sadrists have sought
to avoid confrontation in order to preserve their forces. They are also
seeking to avoid giving the occupation a pretext for illegalising their
organisation on the eve of provincial elections in which they expect
to win formal control over much of southern Iraq. The Mahdi Army has
generally obeyed Sadr, although there have been relatively minor clashes
with occupation troops in Diwaniya, to the south of Baghdad, and Iraq’s
second largest city Basra. Sadr and his top leadership have gone into
hiding.
However, the actions of the
US military have led to bitter recriminations in the Sadrist ranks against
the lack of resistance. Hundreds of lower-level Mahdi Army fighters
have been detained by US and government troops on allegations of involvement
in sectarian violence. While the militia that once guarded Shiite communities
has gone to ground, alleged Sunni extremists have seized the opportunity
to unleash a wave of vicious bombings. On Saturday, a car bombing killed
32 and wounded 150 near a Shiite shrine in Karbala. Survivors attacked
government police, accusing them of failing to prevent the attack. On
Sunday, six bombs killed over 50 people in Shiite areas of Baghdad.
The walkout from cabinet,
in the wake of the Najaf demonstration, reflects the tremendous pressure
on the Sadrist leaders from below to allow the Mahdi Army to protect
the Shiite population and fight back against US provocations. The Sadrists
have remained in the parliament and not walked out of the ruling Shiite
coalition. However, the Sadrist balancing act—accommodating to
the US occupation on the one hand, while appealing to their social base
on the other—is becoming increasingly untenable.
The Sadrist walkout is one
more sign that the Maliki government is reaching the point of collapse.
Formally, Maliki still has the numbers in parliament to rule. Politically,
however, he has depended on the Sadrists to provide his puppet regime
some semblance of credibility, particularly among the Shiite masses.
Maliki has been told by the Bush administration that continued US support
depends on carrying out its demands. Yet, as the mass protest in Najaf
revealed, the government confronts widespread popular opposition to
the ongoing US occupation.
The Bush administration has
barely disguised its alternative to the Maliki government. Since August
last year, there have been continuing hints that the US may simply oust
Maliki, install a strongman and intensify its repression against the
Iraqi population. At the same time, however, the US is setting the stage
for a far broader rebellion by the Iraqi working class and urban poor
against the despised occupation and its puppet government.
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