Iraqi union leader: "Devastation, death, instability--this is the occupation"

by Kathleen Wilkes
June 23rd, 2005


MADISON, WI--Amjad Al-Jawhary is a man with one heart divided between two nations: Canada, his adopted country, where he can keep his family safe; and Iraq, his homeland, where he and his fellow trade unionists are challenged by insurgents, occupation forces, corruption and greed in their pursuit of economic justice through union organizing.

It's an uphill battle, and it shows. At Monday's noontime gathering at the Madison Labor Temple, the 100 or so who came to hear him saw a brave, dedicated, frustrated and tired man who spoke eloquently about the harsh realities his people face every day in occupied Iraq.

"The occupation has achieved nothing but devastation, death, instability, and economic devastation" he said. "Human value is down the drain... Soldiers raid homes, take people captive, hold them captive for a month, a year, two years... There is no court. This is the occupation."

Al-Jawhary is one of six Iraqi labor leaders currently touring the United States at the invitation and sponsorship of US Labor Against the War, a coalition of labor unions opposed to the invasion and occupation of Iraq. He represents the Federation of Workers Councils and Unions of Iraq, as well as the Union of the Unemployed in Iraq for North America.

Blacklisted by Saddam Hussein's regime for his political and union activism, Al-Jawhary could not work in any of the vast enterprises run by the state. He fled with his family to Turkey in 1995 and got involved in helping Iraqi refugees. A year later he moved his family to Toronto, Canada, where he continues to speak out on Iraqi issues and works with the anti-sanctions and anti-war movements. He's been to Iraq and back several times since the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime; he arrived in the US just days ago after four months in his war-torn fatherland.

Clamping his hands firmly on the sides of the podium and leaning forward toward the crowd, Al-Jawhary declared: "No matter whether it is legitimate or illegitimate, war is war. And paying the price of the war is the workers."

The minimum wage for public sector workers, he said, has hit rock bottom--a mere $45 a month--as a result of decrees issued by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), headed by Paul Bremer. The CPA's been replaced by the Iraq Governing Council, yet the minimum wage is still in effect, as is Saddam Hussein's repressive labor laws banning unions for public employees.

With high inflation, "massive" unemployment and skyrocketing rents--"$90 is the cheapest," Al-Jawhary noted--children are laboring as street vendors to help support their families. Meanwhile Iraqis are scrambling to cope with directives from the World Bank and the IMF forcing the Iraqi government to eliminate food and other subsidies and "leave it to the free market. For thirteen years we had coupons for rice, tea, sugar... More than 75 percent of Iraqis relied on this. Now, people will kill each other for food."

Privatization of the once-mighty public sector--a key component of the Bush Administration's economic revamping of Iraq--means even more unemployed. "Only 40-60 percent of the public sector are needed to work there," Al-Jawhary said. "The rest will be laid off...7.5 million"--bad news for both Iraqi and American workers. Iraq may well be the next offshore haven for outsourcing US jobs:

"Unemployment is high, poverty is high, there are no benefits. This creates a market of cheap labor. Businesses here [in the US] will shut down and move to Iraq. People here will lose jobs."

Al-Jawhary and other Iraqi trade unionists have been working to reverse the trend, but they face tremendous opposition. "The labor code is as it was under the former regime. We can't form federations freely. In 1987, the government banned unions in the public sector. After the fall of Saddam Hussein, we thought maybe now we would have the right to organize, the right of association. But the Iraq Governing Council issued decree Number 16 and gave official status to one union and derecognized the others. We have to go through that union. They support the occupation."

Lack of official status hasn't stopped Iraqi unions from agitating for change. And that's put them dead in the middle of the conflict between the insurgents and occupation forces. The insurgents oppose them because they support a non-sectarian approach to government; the occupation thwarts their efforts to organize and has jailed and harassed union leaders and destroyed union offices.

Still the unions persist in their advocacy of workers and are attempting to incorporate various proposals into Iraq's Constitution--for labor rights, human rights, women's rights, children's rights, and freedom of association. The Iraqi government "has not responded," Al-Jawhary said.

Formed along religious and ethnic lines, the new government, he said, has caused even greater division among Iraqis. It may have even fueled the insurgents by favoring the occupation. "Iraq is on the verge of a civil war," Al-Jawhary warned, noting that his union and others support a secular state and "have condemned the elections" in Iraq. They also adamantly oppose the US/British occupation.

"We want to end the occupation. Some are making money from it, but ordinary people don't want it. It has caused violence, killing and crime. If we get rid of the occupation, these groups of terrorists lose their ground. Some say if the occupation ends, there will be chaos. But we have chaos now."

Insurgents, occupation forces, unemployment, food shortages--all are problematic, but they are not the only challenges the Iraqi people face, Al-Jawhary points out. "There is no good water purification, no good water to drink. The water is turned on two hours a day, from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m.; if you miss it, you miss it. Electricity, only four hours a day. Sewers: instead of treatment, it just goes into the river. If it's raining, we get a flood of black water.

"There is no employment insurance. We have the worst health care ever. It was devastated at the end of Saddam Hussein's regime, and it got worse and worse. These are the living conditions of almost every single worker."

Al-Jawhary gave a heart-breaking example of life in the middle of armed conflict: "A person had a heart attack. He was supposed to go to the hospital. There was no ambulance. There was a curfew. His son tried to get a car or taxi--dangerous at night. The route to the hospital was a dangerous risk. It took four hours to get to the hospital. That guy was dead... That guy was my father. Just fifteen minutes earlier to the hospital, he would be alive."

Survival is the name of the game. While issues like privatization, depleted uranium, corruption and rip-off are well known among Iraqis, they are not priorities, Al-Jawhary said. "Because of violence and security the people are more focused on being careful not to get killed... The people are concentrated on violence in the street. The NGOs [non-governmental organizations] try to treat and get help. For the Iraqi people, we don't have time to think about it."

The insurgents, he insisted, are not of nor wanted by the vast majority of Iraqis: "I want you to go and tell the people there are Iraqis who are progressive, who want to live. It's not needed to show religious fanatics and killers. We never had a tradition of suicide bombers; they came from outside Iraq. [Before the war and occupation] there was not one single incident. Today it is the aftermath..."

To skeptics who say that ending the occupation will result in more instability, Al-Jawhary points out that the people of his country have been tested and toughened in one conflict after the other over the last three decades: wars with Israel and Iran; two wars with the US; civil war with the Kurds; thirteen years of sanctions and hardship; and, now, occupation--all resulting in the deaths of millions, including hundreds of thousands of children.

"I sound so hopeless but we, the workers, will rebuild Iraq," he vowed. "Most of us in Iraq have kids. I have a daughter, 13. Tell the parents: you have kids now, you raise them, you grow them up, bring them to school, give them clothes, food... Our kids deserve to live, they deserve a better life and prosperity. Whether our kids or your kids, both are the same. We want to send them to college or university; we want them to build a life. We don't want them dying. We must bring our kids home. We must end the occupation now."

SIDEBAR: Wisconsin labor calls for end to occupation as AFL-CIO balks

The Wisconsin State AFL-CIO has passed two resolutions to be introduced to the national federation convention in Chicago at the end of July. The first calls on the AFL-CIO to demand that the government "end the occupation of Iraq, repeal the Patriot Act and reorder priorities to meet national needs," according to state fed president David Newby.

The second, he said, calls for full labor rights in Iraq, nullification of Saddam Hussein's labor laws (which have been enforced by, first, the Coalition Provisional Authority under Paul Bremer and now the Iraq Governing Council), and freedom of expression for labor rights.

Monday night, delegates to the South Central Federation Labor (SCFL) voted unanimously to approve a similar resolution that "calls upon President Bush and Congress to bring our troops home from Iraq and provide veterans with benefits that meet their needs..."

SCFL, said president Jim Cavanaugh, joins a growing number of labor councils and international, national and local unions that will be pressuring the national AFL-CIO at the July convention to take a "strong position" against the occupation.

Cavanaugh also passed around a petition from US Labor Against the War to the AFL-CIO for delegates' signatures--another effort to get the national federation to take a stand on the war and occupation. The petition states in part:


"It is time for labor to speak out! At this time of discussion about renewing our labor movement, how can we not discuss the most urgent issue facing America and its working families? We ask you to put the issue of the war on the agenda of the upcoming Executive Council meeting. And we urge the national leadership of the AFL-CIO to oppose this reckless, illegal and immoral war.
"More specifically, we ask for action on the following proposals by the Executive Council and the quadrennial convention of the AFL-CIO.


The AFL-CIO should demand an immediate end to the US occupation of Iraq and return of U.S. troops to their homes and families, and the reordering of national priorities toward peace and meeting the human needs of our people; and

Through its community service programs, the AFL-CIO and its state and local affiliates should assist union members and their families who are called upon to serve in the armed forces and returning veterans by identifying and providing information about resources and services available to meet their needs, by advocating for their interests, and by protecting their jobs, seniority and benefits and those of unorganized workers in similar circumstances."

The AFL-CIO's virtual silence on the war and occupation has been a source of division among its affiliates. Iraqi union leaders, scheduled to meet with Federation president John Sweeney in Washington, DC early last week, were told the meeting would not take place if it included a representative from US Labor Against the War. The Iraqis said they could not meet with Sweeney without the very people who invited them to the US and organized and paid for their trip. The Fed relented. The meeting went forward, but Sweeney reportedly was either non-committal or non-responsive.

(Kathleen Wilkes is a longtime labor activist and writer; publisher of Two-Headed Alien Shrinks Labor Movement, a collection of labor and political cartoons by Gary Huck and Mike Konopacki; and former communications director of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union.)