The Union of the Unemployed, and its Role in the Shaping of Iraq's Political Milieu

By: Issam Shukri*

The Union of the Unemployed in Iraq UUI is a protest organization for the unemployed workers in Iraq. It was established by a group of workers and political activists shortly after the toppling of Saddam's regime in Baghdad on May 1st. 2003.
The union was founded by a group of 20 unemployed revolutionary workers gathered in the looted and abandoned building of the previous infamous Ba'athist "General Federation of Trade Unions in Iraq". In a democratic
process, they had elected their leadership committee, which, in turn, had elected Qasim Hadi to be its leader. The committee had immediately put forward the demands of the unemployed and its mission statement. Since that date, UUI has been involved in a series of struggles for the cause of millions of unemployed women and men in Iraq, who found themselves in the middle of a horrifying and unprecedented chaos and destruction caused by the US war machine. Its demands were "Jobs or Unemployment Benefits for All". Through out these struggles, the UUI has presented itself as an exemplary of Iraq's civil society; progressive, civilized, well-disciplined, however, militant and aggressive. After long and crushing years of US-imposed economic sanctions, long and painful years of Ba'ath suppression and tyranny, appalling wars and bombings by the US forces, all means of struggle, and even merely of survival, seemed to be vanished. The UUI was the essential answer to the new Islamic/nationalist bourgeoisie's exploitation of the working class in Iraq backed by the US/ British occupying forces.

The struggles off UUI were revolving around the demand of unemployment benefits for all workers in Iraq, but not restricted to it. In the 1st round of demonstrations organized by the increasing number of members, the union demanded jobs and living security for workers. Then the demands were sharpened to be precise and more focused. 100 US dollars then appeared as a minimum monthly compensation for the unemployed in all of Iraq, and the control of the union over the issue of
unemployment was also forwarded to the US authority(CPA - Coalition Provincial Authority).

The UUI has launched 13 demonstrations in Baghdad, and 7 in the other governorates of Iraq, and
had organized sit-in protests in Baghdad, kirkuk and Nasiriyah, with the first one lasting for 45 days. The UUI had also gone into 3 sessions of negotiationswith the CPA (US civil administration) and 13
interviews with it. It had finally decided to withdraw from these negotiations after reaching a conclusive conviction that the American side is not serious about achieving any of the UUI demands. After a continuous pressure, the Ministry of Labor had asked to work with the union in order to achieve a mutual solution to the crisis.

But the UUI, however, does not merely consider itself as an economically driven organization. It played an important role in shaping the political sphere in Iraq through its continuous intervention in the political events and its analysis of the situation based on its progressive workers platform. It also played, and still is, a vital role in stopping the slipping of Iraq's civil society into tribalism and religious
fanaticism supported by the occupiers. Shortly after its first few demonstrations, the people of Iraq in general started, directly or indirectly, to talk about the union and its "just" cause. The union was the social radical and egalitarian force that opposed not only the US occupation and its puppet "Governing Council", but also the "dark scenario" which has been cooked foot over toe in the kitchens of the Islamists and other rotten fascists and nationalists in Iraq.

The media, national and international, started to highlight the union and presented lengthy reports about its struggles with a lot of sympathy. It started to talk about poverty and robbing people's wealth by the Americans and their allies, rather than about the ugly religious bloody ceremonies!!, about the destitution of Iraqi workers rather than the divisions of Sunni and She'ites, about the emerging forces of radicals and secularists in Iraq rather the rise of ethnic hatred and fascism nurtured by the PUK and the "National Turkman Front" and the "Muktada al Sadr Group"; the ancestors of the old Ba'this.

Journalist, women and men, from all around the world, joined the UUI in its struggles; they sat at the front line with them on the burning asphalt of Baghdad streets, dehydrated as they were, with the knives and guns of the US soldiers pointed at their chests, they called the unemployed unionists: heroes and saviors of Iraq.

World organizations sent their sympathy and delegates to join the struggles. Hundreds of articles and letter of support were written in defense of the workers of Iraq from around the world. The GC (Governing Council) after weeks of neglect was obliged to admit the severe problem of unemployment and was frantically scratching their heads for ways to solve the pressing problem. At least they were pretending to be, all under workers pressure. The whole scene in Iraq changed dramatically.

Today, the UUI has grown to include around 250,000 registered members in its ranks across Iraq. And with the soaring unemployment rate of 70%, the UUI role seems to be as vital and crucial as ever before. Recently, tens of protests have been waged in Baghdad and other cities of Iraq and tens of people are being shot and killed by the occupying forces as well by the Islamists and the Iraqi police. UUI must lead these protests and steer them towards achieving its demands. The union today needs new tactics and strategy to draw thousands of its unemployed members to the streets again.

Without blocking the roads of Baghdad with thousands of people, disturbing the reactionary plans of the GC of turning Iraq into a launching pad for Islamic terrorism against workers and women, and pushing the US forces into seriously considering Iraqi people's political will, thus leaving Iraq, the union would be missing a historical opportunity.

Without a strong plan of action, business would still be "as usual" for the reactionary bourgeoisie, and life would be even more miserable and unbearable for the masses of Iraq than ever before. With the new "appointed" government expected to emerge in June 2004, Iraq is being pushed by the US and its Islamist and ethnocentric allies to the edge of an abyss. The UUI must play its role in bringing the people to the field. The UUI along with the workers' political party; the Worker Communist Party of Iraq, the specter of the "dark scenario", prepared by the US and its local allies, would still be hovering over the lives and destines of millions of Iraqis for an extended unknown period of time. Let's work to alter the dark scenario, let's work for the prosperity, freedom and equality for all the deprived people in Iraq.

* International Relations Coordinator for the UUI, and a member of the Central
Committee of the Worker Communist Party of Iraq- WPIraq.


Address: UUI, Post Box 325,
CH-3000 Bern 11,
Tel :0041 78 882 55 89
Email:asojabbar@yahoo.com