Warsaw 1944, Baghdad 2004?

Submitted by AWL on 15 August, 2004 - 9:47

Letter from August Grabski, Warsaw

The evaluation of the Iraqi armed resistance has started to be discussed in detail among Polish radicals after a small demo organised by a left-wing group on 1 August in Warsaw, with the slogans: "Remembering the Warsaw and Iraq uprisings", "1944: against occupation of Poland! 2004: against occupation of Iraq!"
The Warsaw uprising of 1944 was ordered by the right-wing generals of the underground Home Army, linked to the Polish émigré government in London. The pro-capitalist politicians and the command of the Home Army wanted to welcome the Red Army in the Polish capital as representatives of the London government (which was not recognised by Stalin). The uprising broke a few days after Stalin's decision to set up his own puppet Polish government (the Polish Committee of National Liberation).

Stalin decided that the Soviet troops should stand idly by on the East side of the Vistula river as Germans massacred the inhabitants of Warsaw on the West side of the river. (The Hitlerites killed about 17,000 underground soldiers and over 120,000 civilians, and destroyed almost all the city.)

Although the uprising was ordered by the right-wing generals of the underground Home Army, for the majority of the Polish population it was a people's revenge on Hitler's troops after the five years of bloody occupation. (Hitlerites killed six million Polish citizens, including three million Polish Jews.)

For this reason - seeing the uprising in national liberation and anti-Nazi terms - Communists, the small unit of the Jewish Fighting Organisation, Socialist Fighting Organisation, Polish People's Army (left-reformists), etc, took part in the uprising.

A recent demonstration made the link between the Warsaw uprising and the armed resistance in Iraq. My description of the 1944 uprising does not compare to what is happening today in Iraq. I am not alone in this view.

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