Support the Kurdish Right of Self-Determination against IS! Unite the Struggle against the US Attack with the Palestinian Resistance against Israel!
Statement of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 9.8.2014, www.thecommunists.net
1. The Obama administration has announced another military intervention of US imperialism in Iraq. It has launched air strikes against the advancing forces of the extreme Salafist Islamic State (IS) which are advancing in the North of Iraq. The recent developments are a powerful confirmation of the total failure of the US aggression against Iraq in 2003 and the following occupation which lasted until 2011. The decision of the US government reflects the desperate attempt to stop its declining influence in the Middle East and to regain control over Iraq.
2. The Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) confirms its analysis and tactics as outlined in its recent resolution on the Sunni rebellion (see Iraq: Defend the Sunni Rebellion against the Maliki Regime and US Imperialism! Down with all Reactionary Religious Sectarianism! For a Workers’ and Peasants’ Republic!22.6.2014). We call for the military defeat of US imperialism. We support the military resistance of all Iraqi forces – even of the arch-reactionary IS – against the US aggression. We call the international workers movement and organizations of the oppressed peoples to mobilize against this war with demonstrations, strikes, direct actions against the US military, etc.
3. The RCIT also confirms its support for the Sunni rebellion against the bourgeois-Islamist Shia sectarian regime of Nouri al-Maliki. The past few weeks have underlined the powerful and broad support of the Iraqi Sunnis for the rebellion. However, the past few weeks have also confirmed the reactionary character of the Islamic State. Their brutal repression against religious minorities like Christians and Yazidis as well as against all other trends amongst the Sunni community has provoked the justified hatred amongst many people. We oppose the IS’s advance against the Kurdish territories and defend the Kurds resistance.
4. The opposition against a renewed US intervention in Iraq must be combined with support for the heroic resistance of the Palestinian people against the ongoing aggression of the Israeli state on Gaza. For an international solidarity campaign with the Palestinian people including financial, medical and military aid for the people in Gaza! For international brigades of volunteers to support the Palestinian resistance against the powerful Israeli army – as the workers movement did in solidarity with the antifascist resistance in Spain in the 1930s! For an international boycott campaign against Israel!
5. The looming military strikes of US imperialism against IS show once more the stupidity of various pseudo-“anti-imperialists” who denounce the Syrian resistance (including the IS) against the Assad dictatorship as “CIA agents”. Such conspiracy theories prove once more their incapability to understand the contradictions of the ongoing struggles of the oppressed.
6. While the struggle against imperialism might force socialists to defend even reactionary forces like the IS against the US aggression, it is urgent to call for the formation of independent and non-sectarian workers and peasants militias. They should struggle against the US aggression, the Maliki regime as well as defend other groups against the brutal attacks by the IS. Equally they should strive to unite the workers and peasants from the Sunni, Shia and Kurdish communities. The goal should be the formation of workers and peasants republics as well as a socialist federation in the Middle East. Such a perspective must be a crucial part of the program of revolutionary parties in the region as well as of a new revolutionary Workers International (which will be the Fifth International in our opinion).
* Down with any military intervention of US imperialism! Support the insurgents against any military intervention of US imperialism! For international mobilizations to defeat the US aggression!
* Defend the Sunni popular insurrection against the Iraqi army!
* Down with the reactionary sectarianism! Drive the IS forces out of the resistance movement!
* Defend the Kurdish and Yazidi people against the IS forces! Support the Kurdish people’s right of self-determination! For a united and socialist Kurdistan!
* Defend Gaza! Defeat Israel! For an international boycott campaign against Israel! For a free and red Palestine!
* Victory to the Syrian Revolution against the Assad Regime!
* For joint action councils and militias of Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish workers and peasants!
* Expropriate the foreign owners of the Iraqi oil industry without compensation! Nationalize all oil companies, large industrial and telecommunication enterprises and banks under workers control!
* For a workers’ and peasants’ government! For a socialist federation of the people of the Middle East!
International Secretariat of the RCIT