he: The lon g path toward soctalism... By HAROLD. GRIFFIN N THE Baghdad offices of Iraqi Airways the tourist posters proclaim “Iraq — Land of Antiquities.” And this perhaps is the popular image of a country to which Canadian visitors are few. Its full historic import is evoked by the foundations of - Babylon, their original brick Courses laid in the bitumen which now, in the form of oil, _ Provides the economic founda- _ tion for Iraq’s development to- Ward socialism..: In this land of 10 million, as _Traqis will tell you with quiet Pride, civilization had its its be- ginnings. The ancient Greeks called it Mesopotamia — the land be- _ tween the rivers. Then as now, the Tigris and Euphrates were the vital arteries, extended by the veins of- irrigation canals, Nourishing a soil which needed Cnly their water to produce lush Crops — today wheat and barley, _ Tice and corn, dates and citrus fruits, and -vegetables of every Variety. The legacy of the past is everywhere, in the excavated Tuins of Ur and Babylon, Nine- Veh and Hatra, enduring monu- Ments to the magnificence creat- €d by the successive empires of _ Sumerians and Semites, Assy- Tans and Chaldees, Achaemenian €rsians and Seleucid Greeks, Parthian and Sassanid Persians and finally the Ardbs, whose Abassid Caliph, Al-Mansour founded Baghdad in 762 A.D. But the past has left another legacy, of backwardness and il- literacy, the product of six cen- turies first of Mongol and then Ottoman Turkish rule when the Country stagnated in a rigid feu- _-dai pattern. A New Pattern Created _ Modern industrial development Under the British mandate and later the monarchy imposed by the British distorted and. strain- €d this pattern until, in 1958, the _ People rose to sweep away the Menarchy and begin creating a new pattern serving their own Needs. In Iraq when they speak about € revolution they are careful: to distinguish between the revo- lution of June 14, 1958, which: Overthrew the monarchy ‘and the ftom the multinationals. Oil was nationalized. by _ March, 1973. in_ spite of ey preisures In June, Harold (Hal) Gri fin, Vancouver poet, author and labor editor, visited Iraq for three weeks at the invita- tion of the Iraq ministry of information. This is the first of two articles of his impressions. revolution of July 17, 1968 which ousted the rightist dic- tatorial regime of Abdul Rah- man Aref and brought to power the present Ba’th Socialist gov- ernment, under President Ahmed Hassan Al-Bakr. Today that second revolution has progressed to the point where it has brought into being a national front between the Ba’th Socialist and Communist parties. Establishment of the front, formally concluded in the Na- tional Action Charter signed on July 17, 1973 which gave the Communists two seats in the cabinet, the Ba’th Socialist Party as “compatible with our theoretical and political stands. And, as the poet Saa’di Yoosif who inter- viewed me for the Communist ‘daily Tariq ash-Sha’b told me, “Co-operation between Ba’th So- cialist and Communist party branches is developing well.” © The Stormy Decade During the stormy decade be- tween the two revolutions, often marked by bloody conflict and fierce repression, the first natio- nalization and land _ reform measures were introduced. Maladministration and corrup- tion vitiated the nationalization program. Land reform, . which limited rather than abolished is described by the. the feudal structure, gave thous- ands of farmers land they lack- ed the means to work. While agricultural production fell and the country, once an ex- porter of farm. produce, was forced to import food, farmers left the land to -flock to the cities. “Appalling conditions prevail- ed in the countryside” is the way the Ba’th Socialist Party de- scribed the situation during those years in the political re- port adopted at its eighth con- gress last year. As one of its first measures after 1968, the government car- ried through new land reforms, withdrawing compensation for ‘big land’ owners and abolishing the land options allowed under the 1958 law. Farmers were given the land free. Collective and Cooperative ~ Farms But still there’s not enough land for everyone. Not division cf the land into ever smaller parcels but its reassembly into state, collective and co-operative farms is the solution now being pursued by the government. To- gether, state, collective and co- operative farms already repré- sent more than half the land un- der cultivation. It was at once symbolic of how far the country had advanc- ed in a few years and how far it has still to go. Nationalization of Oil Of all the * nationalization measures taken, the most deci- sive was nationalization of the oil industry carried through be- tween June 1, 1972 and March 1, 1973 in what the government recognized as “a direct confron- tation with imperialism at: its nerve centre.” The initial move was conclu- sion of an agreement with the Soviet Union in July, 1969 for co-operation in exploiting Iraq’s oil resources. The next was issu- ance of a two-week ultimatum to the oil companies on May 17, 1972. The multi-national oil compa-- nies used every means to defeat nationalization, for Iraq has the largest crude oil reserves in the werld and the stakes were high. They cut back production, re- ducing the revenue on which the government depended for its de- velcpment program. But in the end, faced with overwhelming popular support for nationaliza- tion, they had to yield. With that one stroke, Iraq at- tained an economic and political independence -the benefits. of which are beginning to trans- form the country. ~ After oil, sources are crude sulfur and ‘phosphates. For years foreign monopolies tried to get control of the sulfur resources and one, Pan American, almost succeeded during the Aref regime. For the past six years, how- ever, following an agreement with Poland for cooperative de- velopment, ‘sulfur too has been _ nationalized, with several plants in operation and others under construction. Iraq’s major re- . Monument to the Revohniba in Baghdad. France has agreed to build a 400,000-ton steel plant for Iraq, the raw materials for which will be -imported from India. An aluminum smelter is planned for the Basrah area. Over the next five years $2.5- billion will be spent on the transportation system, including extension of the rail network linking the gulf ports with Bagh- dad and Mosul, expansion of air services, truck transport, deep- sea and river transport. In all of this, the training of scientists, engineers, technicians and workers in every modern industrial field is of first impor- tance. Education for All All university education in Iraq is free. Students who pass the entrance exams pay no fees, get all their books free and, if they come from outside the city, receive their board and lodging. Traditionally the emphasis has been on the humanities, but increasingly the need is for the sciences. The other side of the problem _is the widespread illiteracy in the country, despite compulsory elementary education and adult education programs. Suiting the action to its own words that nothing less than a national program will overcome it, the government is now in the midst of this campaign, in which the trade unions, through 750 anti-illiteracy centres, are taking a major part. To talk to Bedan Fadhil, gene- ral secretary of the General Federation of Trade unions of Iraq, as I did one morning in Baghdad, is to grasp something of the strength and purpose Iraqi workers have acquired since they organized their first unions in 1936, maintaining them much of the time under conditions of illegality. “There’s hardly a unionist in Iraq who has not been in jail be- ‘ fore the revolution at one time or another,” Fadhil said as he told me about the 1974 strike in Basrah, the great oil workers’ strikes of 1948 and 1952, the cigarette workers’ strike of 1955. Today the General Federation of Trade Unions has 1.2 million members and is represented on the World Federation of Trade Unions executive. Its members sit on govern- ment central planning bodies. It maintains its own technical training institute which sends graduates where they are need- ed. Two hospitals in Baghdad constitute the beginning of a program to establish its own hospital system. Housing schem- es for workers in conjunction with big industrial projects have been added to its widening area of responsibilities. “And now. that peace has come to the north,” Fadhil con- cluded, ‘“‘we are- preparing to es- tablish trade union vacation centres.” Helsinki—a blow to China's foreign policy While progressive humanity hails the achievements at Hel- sinki, note is taken in the world press of the negative reaction tcward steps to detente on the part of China. The Soviet press observes that the voice of Peking is especially strong among the minority who oppose the agreements and are trying hard to belittle the results of this cooperative effort. - The results of the Conference “are of no importance whatever for ensuring European security,” comments the China News Agency (Hsinhua). Soviet writ- ers point out that Peking has been doing its utmost to ham- mer the process of detente and have been particularly active in Europe. As the process of nor- malization began to take hold, Chinese leaders began warning their Western counterparts against the “Soviet menace” and urged them to prepare for war with the USSR. Similar articles appear in the Hungarian press reminding its readers of China’s hosting last year of British premier Heath (whom they urged to allow British foreign policy to be led ‘by the U.S.) and later, of Franz Joseph Strauss, leader of the West German right-wing Chris- tian Socialist Union where they tried to establish doubts about GDR-FRG relations. Following a trip to Peking in ‘mid May, reports the Hungarian press, an Agence France Press — correspondent concluded, ‘Pek- ing will not condemn the return of France to NATO...” - “The Chinese stand on all cru- cial matters is aimed at hinder- ing detente,” states the Soviet press. “They oppose the Vienna’ talks on armament reduction, they attack border agreements reached between socialist and capitalist states — especially be-. tween the two Germanys — and — urge the West Germans to dis- regard the accords on West Berlin. “Peking’s plan is to achieve hegemony by touching off a massive war between imperial- ism and socialism which the Maoists will sit out.” The steps achieved at Helsinki, concludes — the Soviet press, dealt a severe blow to such plans by China. ok * & Readers wishing more back- — ground should read “Evolution cf China’s Foreign Policy” by — Ben Swankey in ae Communist Viewpoint, PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 15, 1975—Page 5 — =