Appeal to international labour organisations:
Iraqi workers need your support
Iraqi workers find themselves in exceptionally difficult circumstances.
On top of the war, bombing and carnage, the massive unemployment and
months of unpaid wages have brought them much hardship and distress.
Their protests for jobs, unemployment benefit and basic rights have
come under attack by the US forces. After 35 years of repression under
the Baathist regime, they are faced with new repression and new repressors.
The US administration and local reactionaries are united in their
opposition to workers' rights. In July a peaceful sit-in of the unemployed
was attacked by the US military forces who arrested Qasim Hadi, the
President of the Union of the Unemployed in Iraq (UUI), as well as
54 other demonstrators. Only after strong protest by international
labour organisations were they forced to release the detainees. Also,
in a raid recently on the headquarters of the union, US soldiers arrested
the union's president and another leading member of the union, but
were forced to release them under international pressure. UUI has
also been the target of attack by Islamic groups, who find the growth
of a strong labour movement inimical to their reactionary plans for
Iraqi society. They have used physical violence and death threats
to undermine the struggle of the unemployed. In July a march of the
jobless in the city of Naseriye was attacked by Islamists with stones.
Iraqi workers need the support of international labour organisations
in their fight for their rights. This support is crucial not only
in helping them win their justified demands, but also in order to
help avert the nightmare scenarios in the making by both the bullying
US administration and political Islam. A stronger Iraqi working class
can save Iraqi society from the hands of the likes of Bush, Blair,
Bin Laden and Saddam. A stronger labour movement in Iraq can ensure
that Iraqi society follows a better, fairer and more humane path.
As shown by the history of the labour movement, any society's degree
of respect for justice, fairness and freedom is in direct proportion
to the social weight and presence of its working class. Today, a strong,
assertive and organised working class in Iraq is the absolute need
and hope of Iraqi society.
The Union of the Unemployed in Iraq is one of the first attempts of
Iraqi workers to organise themselves to defend their rights and livelihood.
With over 100,000 members, it is a strong voice for welfare and freedom
in Iraq today. For the past six months, it has been waging a vigorous
fight for jobs and unemployment benefit for the millions of Iraqis
made unemployed as a result of the war. It deserves the wholehearted
support of the international labour movement.
The USA is the natural ally of the upstart bourgeois and reactionaries
in Iraq. Their representatives have already taken their seats on the
handpicked Iraqi Governing Council - an oppressive and reactionary
assembly of religious mafia, political charlatans, despots and misogynists,
ethnic and tribal chiefs and criminal bandits.
In their fight for their rights, Iraqi workers have their own natural
allies: international labour organisations, socialists, civil rights
activists and the rest of civilised humanity. Your solidarity is crucial
for saving Iraqi society from the nightmare of life under US-sponsored
despotism or political Islam and ensuring a better future for Iraqi
workers and people and their children.
Contact :
UUI, CP 325
CH-3000 Bern 11,
Tel :0041 78 882 55 89
Email::asojabbar@yahoo.com