The fascist methods and violent suppression of the Baath regime have again become the way the Iraqi authority uses to answers the demands of workers in Iraq.
While thousands of workers of Textile Industry in the Iraqi city of Kut have been asking for their danger allowances which are trivial and not in proportion with the real risk they face at work due to poor safety standards, the administration resorted to procrastination, lying and threatened to sack and imprison the workers and eliminate their activist.
The workers were asking for 12000 dinars (Iraqi currency) as danger money but the administration was trying to reduce this amount even further.
The workers organized a protest against these measures and asked the manager to be sacked who was the key person behind the administration’s misconduct. The manager in cooperation with governor of the city called upon armed groups to suppress the protest. Groups of armed and masked men, allegedly from the National Guards raided the place and started shooting on unarmed workers wounding four workers and then arresting another 11 workers who were later release after interrogations.
Such incidents happen while the Ministry of Industry bans workers from establishing labour organization and the Minister of Industry issues resolution, which bans union activity.
Instead of bringing the manager Mr. Abdulla Alrawi to justice he was transferred to the ministry’s headquarter. By banning union rights in Iraq, the ministry and the current authority bring in the fascist methods of suppression and denying people’s freedoms used by the old regime while their rhetoric about democracy and election deafens people’s ears.
We call on labour organizations and human right organizations worldwide to support the workers of Iraq and support their organization- the Federation of Workers’ Councils and Unions in Iraq, which is considered by the authority illegitimate and unlawful organization and threatens to imprison its activists.
The response of workers to this suppression will be broadening the protest to impose their demands on the puppet authority appointed by the occupation.
The Federation of Workers’ Councils and Unions in Iraq stands in the forefront of workers’ struggle for their fair demands.
It calls on workers to broaden and escalate their protest against the authorities, which understand no other languages.
Long live workers’ protest movement
Long live freedom
Federation of Workers’ Councils and Unions in Iraq
December 25,2004
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