|
Agitating for Workers' Rights in Iraq
Where the Livable World Order Begins http://www.counterpunch.org/moses06042004.html
By GREG MOSES Greg
Moses writes for the Texas
Civil Rights Review.
He can be
reached at: gmosesx@prodigy.net
Wouldn't it be a profound retort to empire if Iraqis
led a global movement for worker's rights? Next Friday in fact, June 11,
a coalition of labor groups will stand behind an Iraqi appeal for the
right to self-organize. "Workers are in urgent need to build strong and
broad-based organizations which are not based on language or
religion," says Aso Jabbar, international spokesperson for the
Union of Unemployed Iraqis, one of several worker-based groups organized
in the aftermath of the recent US invasion. This June marks the second year in a row that
international labor groups are gathering in support of Jabbar and other
Iraqi labor organizers as the United Nations convenes its annual meeting
of the International Labor Organization (ILO). Next Friday, Iraqi labor representatives plan to
deliver formal complaints to the ILO, protesting the labor policies of
provisional authorities in Iraq. In effect, Iraqi labor organizers accuse US-backed
authorities of setting up the national equivalent of a company union,
ignoring the rights of workers to organize their own shops and elect
their own leaders.
According to materials posted at reputable labor
sources, such as Eric Lee's LaborStart, Iraqi labor organizers waded
right into the chaos of war and began organizing unions as early as
March 2003. At a decisive March 16 conference (in 2003), a dissident
labor movement, WDTUM, that had been opposing Saddam Hussein's labor
practices since 1980, was folded into an exploratory organization called
the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) with newly elected officers. From May to December, 2003, numerous independent unions
were organized under the IFTU umbrella. The organizing campaign was
formally announced on May 10, 2003. One of the independent unions that
emerged was UUI. "UUI is a strong organisation of unemployed people
that raises the banner of jobs or unemployed insurance to confront the
massive unemployment," says Jabbar. "It was the first union to organize demonstrations
to end the occupation in Iraq. As a result UUI organized more than 13
demonstrations and a sit-in strike for more than 48 days in Baghdad and
other cities in Iraq, and held more than 13 sessions of negotiation with
the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) for the demands of unemployed
people in Iraq. Tens of thousands of people joined UUI and
internationally it became a well-known union." The 2003 organizing drive culminated on Dec. 8 with an
Iraqi Labor Congress held in Baghdad. At the Baghdad congress (did we
hear about this on Fox News?) the exploratory umbrella group was
formalized into an organization called the FWCUI or Federation of
Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq. "They
elected the leading committee and Falah Alwan as general secretary of
FWCUI," says Jabbar. "Alwan published the first independent
workers newspaper named 'Workers Council,' depending only on the energy
and donation of workers themselves. In a short time this paper became a
well known source of news about workers' struggle and strikes." UUI
is one of the member unions of FWCUI. But this worker-organized movement was shoved aside by
provisional authorities who announced their own top-down leadership,
drawing on labor leaders who had served under the old state-run system. On March 15, 2004, an international delegation of labor
representatives joined Jabbar in delivering a memorandum to the ILO
office in Geneva. Says the memo in part, "the reconstruction of Iraq
and the introduction of democratic self-rule will only succeed if the
Iraqi people themselves exercise their sovereignty to develop the
reconstruction process as they see fit.this is especially true with
regard to Iraq's workers, most of whom are currently unemployed and who
fear that their economic well-being has been taken out of their control and in fact depends on the
occupying forces." The memo goes on to argue that the ILO should enforce
the right of Iraqi workers to organize themselves, elect their own
leaders, and in effect, begin to connect the dry bones of Iraq's
democracy. Meanwhile, Jabbar argues that the structure of the
emerging Iraqi government, "based on ethnic and religious
considerations is an obstacle in the face of building strong and
wide-boarded labour unions which would not recognise people according to
their ethnicities or religious identities." "I will summarise the practical meaning of
democracy
"It is occupation of Iraq, establishment of a
puppet government with the ethnic and reactionary Islamic groups,
unconditional support of US government to Israeli aggression in middle
east, 13 years of economic embargo and killing as a result of sanction
more than 1.5 million people in Iraq. The double standard of US
democracy has removed any illusion about that calling for democracy in
Iraq; it's only war propaganda, and has nothing to do with real
democracy and freedom for Iraqi people. Even today we must determine and
redefine democracy because of the abuse of this word. For us freedom is
the main object There you have it. Bush's campaign for democracy in
Iraq has ruined the very term democracy as a tool of progress. Next
Friday in Geneva, the movement continues. Can the ILO enforce the rights
of Iraqi workers against the forces of OIL? Can workers of the
[note: Jabbar quotes taken from materials emailed to
the author, available to editors on request]
|