Press release from the Basra Workers' Conference

Iraqi Oil Union Rejects Privatisation; Calls for Cancellation of all
Odious Foreign Debts

** International conference delegates available for Interview**

Iraq, May 25-26 The General Union of Oil Employees, Basra held a
historical conference on the privatisation of Iraq's public sector.

The conference took place under the banner 'To revive the public sector
and to build an Iraq free of privatisation'.

150 trade union activists, mostly GUOE members and union council leaders
from Nassiriyah and Amara and Basra, plus Iraqi Federation of Trade
Unions reps and local party political party activists attended.
International delegates, organised by Iraq Occupation Focus, and
representing civil society organisations in the UK and USA also
participated and spent a further four days touring oil sector locations
and interviewing oil workers and trade unionists. They were:

Ewa Jasiewicz, Delegation co-ordinator, joint UK Representative for
General Union of Oil Employees and activist with Iraq Occupation Focus.
Topic: International Solidarity, lessons from 'Solidarnosc' in Poland
and plans to impose the Polish free-market model on Iraq.

Greg Muttitt, researcher from PLATFORM. Organisation campaigning for
social and environmental justice. Topic: Plans to open Iraq's oil
reserves to multinationals, and ways certain oil production contracts
deprive host governments of revenue and control over their industry;

Justin Alexander, coordinator of Jubilee Iraq, organisation focusing on
cancellation of Iraq's foreign, regime incurred debts. Topic: The IMF's
role in using Iraq's foreign debt as a lever to prise open the economy
to privatisation, and the moral and legal arguments for the
unconditional cancellation of the debt.

David Bacon, US photojournalist, representing the million-strong
anti-war trade union organisation US Labour Against the War. Topic:
experiences and effects of privatisation in Mexico and how Mexican
workers in the electrical power and oil sector successfully prevented
the sell-off of their industries.

Dr Martha Mundy, Reader in Anthropology at the London School of
Economics and co-convenor on British Committee for Universities of
Palestine (BRICUP). (Personal capacity).


Contributions from instructors and professors from Basra University
focused on different aspects of privatisation, including: Iraq's current
industrial capacity; the need for new technology, construction, and
capital; shareholder systems; efficiency building; social welfare;
Iraq's debt; competition from cheap imports; monopolies, and state and
private sector corruption risks.

GUOE organisers and leaders repeatedly voiced their experiences of
independent reconstruction efforts, affirming that Iraqi workers had
defended and rehabilitated their industry despite mass looting and
deliberate degradation under the eyes and de-facto permission of the
Occupying forces.

As yet, no democratic debate has taken place regarding privatisation
within parliament and no commission has been established to publicly
discuss the issue - ­ in contrast to procedures in other countries in
the Middle East.

The Union states in its' final conference communiqué (attached with this
release): 'The present conjuncture of Iraq is one where the country
lacks a stable political infrastructure and a clearly defined economic
system on which the people can rely. This being so, the conference
participants believe that the privatisation of the oil and industrial
sectors, or of any part of them, will do great harm to the Iraqi people
and their economy'.

International Solidarity messages were sent from the following trade
unions and organisations: the South Africa Anti-Privatisation Forum,
Liga Manggawaga (Philippines), the Canadian Autoworkers Union, Fiom-Cgil
(Italy), Patagonia oil workers (Argentina), National Union of
Journalists (UK), UNISON (UK), the Iraqi Union Solidarity Group (UK),
the Offshore International Liaison Committee (Scotland), The Stop the
War Coalition (UK), No Sweat (UK), Nova Scotia Government and General
Employees Union (Canada), US Labor Against the War (USA), Bridges to
Baghdad (Italy), University Council ­ American Federation of Teachers
Local 2199, Santa Cruz (USA), SEIU, Local 415, California (USA),
Groundwork and the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (South
Africa), Iraq Solidarity Campaign (Philippines), NATFHE (UK), TGWU (UK),
International Confederation of Energy and Mining (ICEM), Trade Union of
Chemical Workers for Solidarity, Unity and Democracy and it's unions
branches in TOTAL group (France), UNT (Venezuela), Peaceworks (Canada),
ZZG - National Union of Miners (Poland), Inicjatywa Pracownicza
(Poland), Canadian Peace Alliance, Corporate Watch (UK), Voices of
Conscience (Canada), Asian Peace Alliance (Japan), Collectif Echec a la
guerre (Montreal, Canada), Swedish Workers' Centralorganisation
(SAC-Syndikalisterna), Fédération nationale des enseignantes et des
enseignants du Québec (Canada), Sjukvården Inte Till Salu - Healthcare
Not For Sale (Sweden), Pan Hellenic Federation of Employees in Petroleum
Products - Refineries & Chemical Industry (Greece).

Personal Greetings and solidarity: Prof Noam Chomsky (USA), Film Makers
and Writers Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein, Writer and Author of 'It's the
Crude Dude' Linda McQuaig (Canada), Zbyszek Marcin Kowalewski, former
Solidarnosc leader in Lodz and editor of 'Rewolujca' (Poland).







Notes:

The GUOE grew out of the Southern Oil Company Union which was
established a month after the invasion of Iraq.

It has 23,000 members in Basra, Amara and Nassiriyah.

The Leadership has a history of opposition to and imprisonment by the
Baath regime.

The Union does not belong to any trade union federation in Iraq. It is
not organised through or controlled by any political party in Iraq. It
is an independent trade union.

Trade union members expelled Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and
Root from oil sector locations in June 2003. KBR are still banned from
worksites.

The Union carried out strike action which has shut down oil exports in
2003 and 2004.

The Union successfully raised workers' occupation-set wages from a
69,000 ID minimum to 102,000 ID minimum in 2004 through negotiations and
threats of industrial action.

The Union is working to establish homes for oil workers, return workers
sacked under the regime for belonging to banned political parties,
protect pipelines from sabotage, and find jobs for graduates from the
Petroleum Institute.

Contacts

Ewa Jasiewicz, Iraq Occupation Focus and UK Representative, GUOE 0044
7749 421 576 freelance@mailworks.org www.iraqoccupationfocus.org.uk

Munir Chalabi, Iraq Occupation Focus and UK Representative, GUOE 0044
7952 683 415 munir@chalabi.screaming.net
www.iraqoccupationfocus.org.uk

Farouk Muhammad Sadiq, Secretary for International Affairs (Mobile)
00964 7801 094 635 (Union Landline) 0096440 319 310 ext 45
farouk101small@yahoo.com

**Photographs available from David Bacon, dbacon@igc.org 001 510 851
1589**

**Footage also available from Ewa Jasiewicz freelance@mailworks.org 0044
7749 421 576**

A website for the GUOE with full conference feedback, papers, photos and
general union info will be up and running shortly.




Background on International Delegates:

Ewa Jasiewicz UK rep GUOE, Iraq Occupation Focus activist, freelance
journalist (Big Issue, Red Pepper, Pride Magazine, Voices in the
Wilderness), NUJ Freelance Branch member. Nine months experience living
in Iraq June 2003-February 2004 working with trade unions, Palestinian
refugees, women's groups, the Unemployed, Iraqi families, and human
rights groups. She has spent six months working as a human rights
activist in occupied Palestine. freelance@mailworks.org 0044 7749 421
576

David Bacon, a US photojournalist. Has written extensively on Iraqi
labor for US publications for the last two years, and has received
awards for his coverage
of the threats to Iraqi workers from privatization and continued
enforcement of Saddam Hussein-era anti-labor laws. Worked for more than
a decade covering Mexico's corrupt and disastrous experience with
privatization. Bacon travelled to Basra to document in photographs and
interviews the work and home
lives of Iraqi oil workers. dbacon@igc.org 001 510 851 1589

Greg Muttitt is a researcher at PLATFORM, a London-based organisation
working on issues of environmental and social justice. Greg specialises
in the impacts of multinational oil corporations of human rights,
development and environment. Since 2003 he has monitored and worked to
expose the hidden plans to open Iraq's oil reserves to western
corporations for the first time since 1972. Greg has also researched and
campaigned on BP's Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, including
co-authoring the 2002 book 'Some Common Concerns', on Shell's Sakhalin
II oil and gas project in Russia's Far East, and on a number of other
oil industry activities around the world. greg.muttitt@pobox.com 0044
7970 589 611

Justin Alexander is Coordinator of Jubilee Iraq - a network of groups
and individuals (business people, lawyers, economists, politicians, aid
workers and others) working to ensure that the Iraqi people - emerging
from decades of war, oppression and sanctions - are not unjustly forced
to pay Saddam's bills. Justin has spent over six months living in
occupied Iraq and has participated in Christian Peacemaker Teams
projects in both Iraq and occupied Palestine. justinalexander@gmail.com
0044 7813 137171

Dr Martha Mundy is Reader in Anthropology at the London School of
Economics. As an academic she is a specialist in studies of kinship,
law in society, and the anthropology of the Arab world; she taught at
Yarmouk University, UCLA, Universite Lyon 2 Lumiere, and the American
University of Beirut before joining the LSE. As a UK and US citizen she
has long opposed her governments' policies with regard to Iraq and
Palestine, belonging to several civil society associations working for
social justice in Iraq and Palestine. Currently co-convenor on BRICUP
(www.bricup.org.uk). M.Mundy@lse.ac.uk 0044 207 955 6242



Translation of the Final Communiqué of the Basra Conference on
Privatisation of the Public Sector by Dr Martha Mundy

Bismillah al-rahman al-rahim

"Wa-inna li-`l-insan illa ma sa`a wa inna sa`i-hi saufa yura" Sadaq
allahu al-`ali al-`azim From the holy Koran: "Indeed man has only what
he works and his work will be seen." OR "Indeed man has only his
struggle and his effort will be seen"

To the Parliament, the Iraqi government, the Ministry of Oil, the
Ministry of Industry:

The General Union of Oil Employees in Basra held its first scientific
conference on the topic of privatisation of the public sector between
25-26th May 2005 in the auditorium of the Cultural Centre of the Oil
Sector under the banner: "To revive the public sector and to build an
Iraq free of privatisation". Sixteen studies were presented and debated
during the conference sessions, eight studies by professors of the
University of Basra, four studies by figures from the oil sector, and
four studies by representatives of civil society from the USA and
Britain.

The papers, debate, and opinions expressed in the course of the
conference led to the following conclusions and recommendations:

1. The public sector economy of Iraq is one of the symbols of the
achievement of Iraqis since the revolution of 4th July 1958. It
represents the common wealth of all Iraqis who built this sector. Hence
it is impermissible that a Ministry or other party effect any change in
this sector without consulting the people through the Parliament or a
general referendum.
As for the oil sector, it could be said that the Iraqi economy and
people breathe with two lungs, in the north the Northern Oil
Company - and it is scarcely functioning for known reasons - and
the Southern Oil Company. In short at present the economy and
people breathe with only one lung. Therefore the conference
participants judged it inconceivable that this structure, so
central to the life of all Iraqis, be tampered with.

2. If certain of the public industrial plants suffer from problems and
faults, there are a variety of possible solutions and means, notably
with regard to machines, technology, and human resources required to
renew these plants. Iraqis have the capacity to do the work if given
the chance.

3. The present conjuncture of Iraq is one where the country lacks a
stable political infrastructure and a clearly defined economic system on
which the people can rely. This being so, the conference participants
believe that the privatisation of the oil and industrial sectors, or of
any part of them, will do great harm to the Iraqi people and their
economy.

4. It is Parliament, as representative of the Iraqi people, that we hold
responsible for preserving the wealth and achievement of Iraqi people
gained through long struggle. The conference participants call upon the
members of Parliament as representatives of the people all to take a
firm stand against political currents and directives calling for the
privatisation of the public sector in Iraq. It is the view of the Iraqi
people which must decide this vital matter.

5. The conference participants call upon all States to remit the odious
debts undertaken by the previous regime, without condition and without
infringing the independence, sovereignty and economic self-governance of
Iraq.

Wa-allahu al-muwaffiq


Committee of Presidency of the Conference

The first conference on privatisation
Basra 26th May 2005


Ibrahim Muhammad Radiy Faruq Muhammad Sadiq Dr. `Abd al-Jabbar
al-Hilfi

Falih `Abbud `Amarah Hasan Jum`ah `Awwad