Unemployment Union of Iraq

International Campaign Against the Occupation and For Labour Rights in Iraq

Supported by Torbay & District Trades Union Council

Write to: CLRI, P.O. Box 394, Torquay TQ1 3ZR

e-mail: labour-rights-in-iraq@runbox.com

www.torbaytuc.org.uk

REPORT ON PUBLIC MEETING

Torquay, 26.5.04

A public meeting attended by 30 local trade unionists and labour activists was held at the Belgrave Hotel, Torquay, on Wednesday, 26 May 2004, to call for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq and in support of labour rights for Iraqi workers.

The meeting was organised by Torbay & District Trades Union Council as part of its support for the International Campaign Against the Occupation and For Labour Rights in Iraq, which was launched in June 2003.

The meeting was chaired by Charlie Charalambous, Vice President of Torbay & District Trades Council, who read out messages of support from the journalist John Pilger, and Alan Benjamin, a member of USLAW’s leadership council. He also drew attention to the many documents which were available at the meeting, most notably copies of the appeal by US and Spanish trade unionists for an immediate withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq, and the complaint that has recently been submitted to the ILO by the Iraqi trade unions. This complaint details the violations in Iraq of the provisions of ILO Conventions 87 and 98.

He then presented the background to the International Campaign [see box below], and spoke of the common issues facing trade unionists in Britain and Iraq. He pointed out that the call to apply ILO Conventions 87 and 98 in Iraq, which respectively provide for the right to join the trade union of one’s choice and the right to negotiate collectively without hindrance from employers or the authorities, as well as the other core ILO Conventions, is equally valid in the UK today. For example, the anti-trade union laws passed by the Thatcher government have been kept in place and added to, and the FBU [the firefighters’ union] is facing a violation of ILO Convention 98 in the form of the intention of the employers and the Blair government to impose regionalisation and therefore to refuse to negotiate nationally.

He also highlighted the need for the real facts of the situation in Iraq facing ordinary Iraqis to be discussed widely, on the basis of challenging the definitions of “freedom” and “democracy” as used by representatives of the British and US governments. When Blair says “the Iraqis want this”, or “the Iraqis want that”, we in the labour movement should remember that this is no more meaningful than saying “the British want privatisation”. We should remember that in a capitalist society, there are antagonistic interests at play, that what we want is not what the Blairs and the Bushes of this world want, and that the interests of trade unionists and workers in Iraq are no different to the interests of trade unionists and workers in Britain, in the US, or anywhere else in the world.

The main speakers were Muayad Ahmed, representing the Union of the Unemployed in Iraq (UUI) and the Federation of Workers’ Councils and Trade Unions in Iraq (FWCUI), who only last week was in Baghdad, and Jean-Pierre Barrois, a member of the independent trade union delegation which visited Iraq in October 2003 on a fact-finding mission.

Brother Ahmed explained that despite the appalling conditions which still prevail in Iraq, the FWCUI has succeeded in organising 300,000 members so far. The UUI has registered 150,000 unemployed workers, but for now the registration process has been made more difficult due to a lack of resources mainly due to the non-recognition of the union.

Brother Ahmed called on the meeting to endorse and support the complaint lodged by the FWCUI and the UUI with the ILO Committee on trade union freedoms, so that all unions in Iraq are granted full recognition in application of ILO Convention 87.

The main reason for organising the unemployed workers was the recognition of the need to articulate collectively, on an organised basis, the fundamental demands for unemployment and other social benefits for the 70 percent of the Iraqi population who are unemployed.

He emphasised that the whole population rejects the occupation because there cannot and will not be any solution to the situation in Iraq without the prior withdrawal of the foreign troops. He called on the meeting to endorse and support the international appeal launched by US and Spanish trade unionists to withdraw the troops immediately.

He pointed out that the international press emphasises the role of the Islamic militias to justify the occupation while ignoring the rejection of the occupation by the whole population. The foreign troops must be withdrawn immediately, in order to allow the Iraqi workers to shape their society on their own secular basis. The question is often asked: won’t there be chaos in the immediate period after withdrawal? This would be no worse than the chaos currently being imposed under the occupation, and would be resolved on terms decided by the Iraqis themselves, who must be a sovereign people.

Jean-Pierre Barrois spoke mainly about the delegation of independent trade unionists sent jointly by USLAW, the International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions and the ILC on a fact-finding mission to Baghdad in October 2003.

He pointed out that the delegation had a clear mandate to meet all the trade unions and to report to the international labour movement. They met both existing federations, the IFTU and the FWCUI/UUI. The delegation noted the will expressed by the Iraqi working class to rebuild its trade union organisations, as illustrated by the fact that the first thing the railworkers of Baghdad did after the bombing stopped was to hold a meeting among the ruins of the central Baghdad railway station in order to elect their representative and affiliate to the FWCUI.

By preserving the strike ban introduced by Saddam Hussein in 1987, and by recognising just one trade union federation via a decree passed in January 2004, the Governing Council – in fact the occupation forces who dictate IGC policy – were telling employers that they could hire and fire any member of that union with impunity and could impose any pay and conditions they choose, on the grounds that this trade union was not legally recognised.

This is what the campaign is about, said Brother Barrois. It is not about saying which trade union Iraqi workers should join. This is the prerogative of the Iraqi workers themselves, who must have the sovereign freedom to choose. But in order to be able to join the union of their own choosing as stipulated by ILO Convention 87, they must have a choice. All the trade unions, not just one, must be granted recognition. It is as simple as that.

As a clear demonstration of the Governing Council’s cynical intentions towards the Iraqi working class, it had “asked” a firm of US lawyers to draft a new Labour Code. In contrast, the FWCUI had produced their own draft for a new Labour Code, which expresses working class interests as they see them.

Brother Barrois pointed out that the intention of the occupying powers is to carve up Iraq into three micro-states on ethnic lines (Kurds, Sunni and Shia), which in the first place in intended to carve up the Iraqi working class, and which can only lead to ethnic cleansing.

A full discussion from the floor followed the main speeches, with questions to the platform and contributions on, amongst others, the relationship of the Islamic religion to state structures, the role of women, the role of the ILO, the role of the Blair government, the trade union traditions of Iraq, the daily economic realities of 70 percent unemployment.

In his concluding remarks, the Chair emphasised that the decision by Torbay & District Trades Council to become fully involved in the international campaign for the enforcement of ILO Conventions 87 and 98 in Iraq is in line with the tradition of the TUC, and of the ICFTU of which the TUC is an affiliate. The right to join the union of one's own choosing is pivotal to our tradition and we have always supported it in numerous countries around the world.

Finally, the meeting voted to approve the following resolution:

Having heard the contributions from the representative of the UUI and FWCUI, from the member of the independent trade union delegation to Iraq and from other participants in this meeting, and having noted that trade union rights are under threat in the UK as in Iraq:

- we agree to promote the International Campaign Against the Occupation and For Labour Rights In Iraq throughout the British labour movement;

- we support the appeal by US and Spanish trade unionists for the immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq;

- we call for the immediate application of ILO Conventions 87 and 98 in Iraq;

- we support the FWCUI and UUI complaint to the ILO;

- we call on all British trade unions and all British members of the ILO Workers Group to support the FWCUI and UUI complaint; and

- we call for the application of the Core ILO Conventions guaranteeing trade union freedoms and democracy, which include Conventions 87 and 98, in both the UK and Iraq.

The Chair invited financial donations to the campaign and specifically to the costs of the Iraqi delegation to Geneva in June 2004. A total of £65.66 was raised.

He then closed the meeting by inviting those present to travel on the Torbay TUC coach to the annual Tolpuddle Festival in July 2004, to celebrate the memory of the men who set up the first trade union in Britain – a tradition which must be defended in Britain, in Iraq, and everywhere in the world.

The background to the International Campaign Against the Occupation and For Labour Rights in Iraq:

The International Campaign Against the Occupation and For Labour Rights In Iraq was jointly organised by US Labor Against the War (USLAW), the International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions (ICATU), and the International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples (ILC).

It was launched in June 2003 in Geneva through an international appeal which has since been taken up by trade unionists and labour activists in several countries around the world.

In October 2003, the Campaign sent an independent delegation of trade unionists on a fact-finding mission to Iraq. They met with various labour organisations and individual Iraqi workers and trade unionists, and compiled a dossier on the real situation facing Iraqi workers.

On the basis of the information gathered in that dossier, USLAW organised the National Labor Assembly for Peace, held in Chicago, USA on 24-6 October 2003, which decided to start a campaign to inform US Congress on the violation of union rights in occupied Iraq.

The dossier also provided the basis for an international delegation from the Campaign to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Geneva, on 15 March 2004. The delegation comprised representatives from US Labor Against the War (USLAW), the International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions (ICATU), the International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples (ILC), the Federation of Workers Committees and Trade Unions in Iraq (FWCUI), and the Unemployed Union in Iraq (UUI). Its aim was to inform the ILO of the situation of the labour movement in Iraq, and more specifically to inform the ILO that the provisions of ILO Conventions 87 and 98 are not being enforced in Iraq.

The delegation was received by representatives of the ILO Workers Group in Geneva, and as a result of that meeting, the FWCUI and UUI has lodged a formal complaint with the ILO regarding the violations of ILO Conventions 87 and 98 in Iraq. They will be meeting representatives of the ILO Workers Group in Geneva on 11 June 2004, to discuss the complaint.