Iraq

Report from Baghdad and Basra

1 May 2009

Iraqi trade unions once famously celebrated May Day in 1959, with a million people on the streets of Baghdad to celebrate the fall of the monarchy. This year, 50 years later, the celebrations were smaller, but the trade union movement and the Iraqi Communist Party are rebuilding.

Teachers' union threatened by Iraqi government... Send an email to show your support...

On August 24, 2008 the General Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq (GFWCUI) called for a mass demonstration against the recent decree issued by the Minister of Finance in which he ordered a significant reduction in the wages and benefits for workers.

Government officials asked the workers to send their representatives for negotiations with the minister's representatives. Subhi Albadri, President of the GFWCUI, was elected to head a delegation of labor leaders to represent workers who took to the street in the thousands.

After the meeting Subhi Albadri was stopped at the exit door of the ministry by a number of guards who belong to the Badr militia. The guards confiscated his personal belongings, beat him up and attempted to kidnap him. The kidnap attempt was thwarted by other workers. The guards, however, shot at brother Subhi, who miraculously escaped the bullets.

Please see postings regarding Iraqi Oil Union activists being forcibly removed, in Iraq plus details of Iraqi asylum seekers being deported from this country - some of whom have now disapeared. You can help, so read on.

Leader of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions Hassan Jumaa Awad has sent the following message urging action against the decision of the Iraqi Oil Minister to transfer 8 union activists - a move which has been defined as 'a human rights crime'. This marks an escalation in repression against the Union which is a potent anti-occupation and anti privatisation force in Iraq This comes at a time when serious military, economic and political pressure is being exerted by occupying powers for the ratification of the Oil Law. More moves such as this can be expected and must therefore be resisted now.

From US Labor Against War www.uslaboragainstwar.org

U.S. Labor Against the War is pleased to be able to share with you two important communications from the working people of Iraq to the workers and people of the world. The first is a statement of solidarity from the General Union of Port Workers in Iraq to the members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) in support of the decision by ILWU members to shut down all the ports on the West Coast as a demonstration of their opposition to the war and occupation of Iraq.

The second message is a May Day greeting from a broad cross-section of union leaders from many different unions and labor federations in Iraq as an expression of their appreciation for the solidarity demonstrated by organized labor, working people and all peace-loving people of the world in support of their efforts to end the foreign occupation of Iraq and the sectarian violence that occupation has spawned.

The big oil multinationals thought the prize was theirs under new production-sharing agreements in the war-torn country. But the 'Iraqi wealth for the Iraqi people' movement is growing amid internecine conflicts and trade union resistance. Ewa Jasiewicz reports

Union news connecting UK unions with the new unions in Iraq

A video of demonstration can be seen at
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=cee_1184590207

Eye witness and news reports follow of a demonstration of hundreds of Iraqi workers, protesting at the proposed oil law which seeks to privatise and sell off the massive Iraqi oil fields to wetern corporations.

Oil workers in Basra in southern Iraq are on strike demanding local control of oil resources and back pay, targeting the central oil minister. However, the US puppet regime has issued arrest orders against union leaders, threatening to break the strike "with an iron fist". The reports here include a press release by the union, supportive coverage from a solidarity group and a news report from Reuters.

Condemn the brutal stoning to death of Doa - a young girl whose only crime was to fall in love

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The independent Iraqi union movement, often under attack from the so-called 'resistance' has been raided by US and Iraqi state force.
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