https://themilitant.com/2019/02/16/baghdad-book-fair-organizers-we-wont-be-stopped-by-terror/
Baghdad book fair organizers: ‘We won’t be stopped by terror’
By Ögmundur Jónsson
Vol. 83/No. 8
February 25, 2019
Thousands flocked to International Book Fair in Baghdad in February. At
left is photo of Alaa Mashzoub, well-known Iraqi novelist who was
murdered just days before start of book fair.
Militant/ Ögmundur Jónsson
Thousands flocked to International Book Fair in Baghdad in February. At
left is photo of Alaa Mashzoub, well-known Iraqi novelist who was
murdered just days before start of book fair.
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Thousands of people here are flocking to the 46th
Baghdad International Book Fair, which began Feb. 7, seeking out Iraqi
and world literature, and books on everything from science and
technology, languages and art, to religion, history, philosophy and
politics. For years book fair organizers have fought to maintain the
event in face of political repression, regional conflicts and U.S.
imperialist intervention.
These clashes include the 1980-88 war against neighboring Iran launched
by Iraq’s tyrannical Saddam Hussein regime, with the combined aims of
crushing the 1979 revolution by Iranian workers, farmers, and youth, as
well as occupying and annexing rich oil fields and strategic waterways
and port facilities there. The war coincided with murderous assaults
against the oppressed Kurdish people in Iraq.
On top of that devastating war, which took hundreds of thousands of
lives on both sides, there have been the 1990-91 and 2003 invasions by
U.S. imperialist-led coalitions; repeated attacks on Kurdish uprisings
for national rights; a 15-year-long terror campaign by al-Qaeda in Iraq
and others, culminating in the 2014 collapse of the Iraqi army and
seizure of large parts of the country by the reactionary Islamic State
sect; and ongoing thuggish militia activity and attacks on Sunni and
Kurdish areas by Iranian government-sponsored armed groups, above all
Hashd al-Shaabi.
Mohammed Zaki Ahmed, one of the fair organizers and co-owner of Al-Aref
publishing house, told the Militant that the company took over
organizing the fair in 2012, together with the Iraqi Publishers
Association. “In 2015 publishers were scared of coming and shipping was
hard because of the war with Daesh. We couldn’t do it,” said Zaki. “But
in 2016 we insisted on holding it. It was small, but we sent a message
that we wouldn’t be stopped by terrorism.”
Fair has expanded since 2016
Catharina Tirsén discusses books by Socialist Workers Party leaders with
Iraqi youth at Baghdad book fair Feb. 7. Event attracted thousands
seeking reading after years of wars and repression.
Militant/Pat Nixon
Catharina Tirsén discusses books by Socialist Workers Party leaders with
Iraqi youth at Baghdad book fair Feb. 7. Event attracted thousands
seeking reading after years of wars and repression.
Since then, the fair has blossomed, he said. “The book fair in 2018 was
the biggest in modern Iraqi history, and this year is one-third bigger.
There are 15 Arab and 10 other foreign countries represented. Over 300
publishers are participating directly, with books from 700 publishers
altogether.”
In opening the book fair, Iraqi President Barham Salih condemned the
assassination days earlier of prominent novelist and writer Alaa
Mashzoub. The fair itself has become a tribute to Mashzoub, whose
portrait appears prominently in the hall’s central square (see
accompanying article).
Pathfinder Books in London is participating in the book fair for the
first time. Volunteers staffing the booth from the U.K. and the U.S.
have been received with appreciation by the many people, young and old,
who are seeking lessons from working-class struggles around the world
and from history, as they look for a way to rebuild their country and
put an end to the devastating economic and social conditions faced by
Iraqi working people.
As of Feb. 12, 798 Pathfinder books have been sold, including 200 of the
six Pathfinder titles in Arabic translation. Books on working-class
struggles and politics in the United States are in high demand. These
include Are They Rich Because They’re Smart? Class, Privilege, and
Learning under Capitalism and Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road
to Workers Power, both by Socialist Workers Party National Secretary
Jack Barnes, as well as Pathfinder’s most recent title, In Defense of
the US Working Class by SWP leader Mary-Alice Waters.
Many head straight for titles on roots of women’s oppression and the
fight to end it, with Is Biology Woman’s Destiny? by Evelyn Reed
topping the list.
Issue no. 7 of New International magazine has generated a lot of
interest. Its lead article, “Washington’s Assault on Iraq: Opening Guns
of World War III,” by Jack Barnes, describes the SWP’s working-class
campaign opposing the 1990-91 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. It also
describes the growing instability and conflicts between and within
capitalist countries across the Middle East and worldwide coming out of
the war.
Former soldiers visit booth
Former rank-and-file soldiers visiting the booth have been surprised and
pleased to find that there are people in the U.S. and U.K. who get out
the truth about the brutal slaughter organized by the U.S. rulers.
Several said they or their fathers had been on the road from Kuwait to
Basra in southern Iraq in February 1991 when tens of thousands fleeing
soldiers and civilians were massacred in what Washington called a
“turkey shoot.” The Saddam Hussein dictatorship had invaded Kuwait and
sent troops into battle with no preparation to confront the U.S. rulers’
military onslaught.
Another popular title is The Jewish Question by Abram Leon, which
explains how anti-Semitism is bred by crisis-ridden capitalism. Leon
puts forward a class-struggle road to end scapegoating and repeated
persecution of Jews. There is also keen interest in a December 2017
statement circulated by the SWP, “For Recognition of a Palestinian State
and of Israel.”
For centuries, Iraq was home to a thriving Jewish community, but the
majority left in 1948-52, when persecution organized by the Iraqi rulers
was stepped up following the establishment of the state of Israel. All
but a handful of Jews who had remained ended up leaving the country
following the 1963 coup by Saddam’s Baath Party, whose anti-working
class “Arab socialism” included virulent Jew-hatred.
Like many others at the fair, Dina Al-Aoube, from Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi
Kurdistan, was pleased to discuss the fight against anti-Semitism and
the political course laid out in the SWP statement. “The Jews are very
welcome to come back to Iraq,” she told volunteers at the Pathfinder stand.
Others have said it was refreshing to hear a “different view,” opposed
to the anti-Jewish demagogy peddled for decades by bourgeois governments
and political forces in the Middle East. A handful of people at the fair
have echoed those reactionary views.
The fair ends Feb. 18.
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In This Issue
Front Page Articles •US troops, warplanes, bombs out of Korea now!
•‘Amnesty for immigrants in US, unify the working class’
•Rally protests attacks on abortion rights in Kentucky
•Baghdad book fair organizers: ‘We won’t be stopped by terror’
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Feature Articles •Cuba and Algerian revolutions: an intertwined history
Also In This Issue •Readers help ‘Militant’ zero in on $10,000 appeal
•Capitalist crisis blocks ‘affordable family formation’
•Iraqi protests condemn assassination of novelist
•The Algerian Revolution and its impact on popular struggles in Africa,
worldwide
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•Join the Socialist Workers Party campaign!
On the Picket Line •Chicago charter school teachers strike over pay,
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