The AWL opposed the US-led war against Iraq in March-April 2003. We did so because of the record and nature of American and British imperialism.
We were opposed to the Ba'thist dictatorship in Iraq, and welcomed the fall of that regime; but we wanted it overthrown by the working class and peoples of Iraq.
The AWL helped build the anti-war movement. We intervened in the movement with the slogan "No to war, No to Saddam" and the perspective of a "third camp" - the camp of the working class, opposed both to US/UK invasion and to Saddam's dictatorship.
The AWL is for self-determination for the peoples of Iraq - that is, for the independence of Iraq, and the right of the Kurds to separate if they wish. We are for free elections to a constituent assembly and for a democratic, secular constitution.
The so-called "resistance" to US/UK occupation - meaning the armed insurgency - is reactionary. It is split along sectarian lines. Its most active elements are Sunni supremacists, fighting for the hegemony within Iraq of the country's long-dominant 20% Sunni Arab minority. It is definitely not a national liberation movement.
We oppose the US/UK occupation of Iraq, but we do not want the troops forced out by a victory of the "resistance". We want to help the Iraqi workers' movement defeat both the US/UK forces and the "resistance".
The AWL helped initiate the Iraq Union Solidarity campaign, to build support for the new Iraqi labour movement, in all its tendencies. We are for class solidarity irrespective of our political disagreements with different trends in the Iraqi labour movement such as the reformist Communist Party of Iraq and the Iraqi Workers' Federation.
The AWL gives special support to, and has political dialogue with, the Worker-communist Party of Iraq and the organisations connected to it (FWCUI, UUI, OWFI), which represent the most revolutionary current in the Iraqi left.
Further reading:
The AWL pamphlet, Solidarity with Iraqi Workers
