BASRA, IRAQ (04/11/05) - The cracking towers and gas flares of the al-Daura oil refinery rise above the neighborhood on Baghdad's outskirts that bears its name.
On February 18, Ali Hassan Abd (Abu Fahad), a leader of the refinery's union, was walking home from work with his young children, when gunmen ran up and shot him. Abu Fahad had been one of 400 union activists who emerged from the underground or returned from exile in May 2003, and at a Baghdad conference formed the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions. Afterwards, he went back to the refinery and urged his fellow workers to elect department and plant-wide committees. That, in turn, became a nucleus of the Oil and Gas Workers Union, one of the twelve industry unions that make up the IFTU.
Less than a week after Fahad was killed, on February 24, armed men gunned down Ahmed Adris Abbas in Baghdad's Martyrs' Square. Adris Abbas was an activist in the Transport and Communications Union, another IFTU affiliate. The murder of the two followed the torture and assassination of Hadi Saleh, the IFTU's international secretary, in Baghdad on January 4. Moaid Hamed, general secretary of the IFTU's Mosul branch, was kidnapped in mid-February, as was Talib Khadim Al Tayee, president of the metal and print workers union. Both were later released.
The targeting of trade unionists is a particularly alarming feature of life in occupied Iraq. According to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, "the torture and murder of labour leaders in Iraq has become a troubling trend in a country where trade unionists still operate under anti-union legislation which dates back to the Saddam era." Despite these assassinations and the deterioration in security, however, the effort by Iraqi unions to win legal status and recognition has grown stronger over the past year. From the increasing power of the oil workers in the south to the campaigns in factories in Baghdad and the north, Iraqi workers continue to organize unions and strikes in the face of attacks from the insurgency on the one hand, and by the occupation forces on the other.
At the same time, the political jockeying produced first by the January elections and then by the referendum on the proposed Constitution have had an impact in unions. As new political coalitions are being formed, some unions hope to parlay political connections into government recognition for their legitimacy. The debate over federalism - the relative power Iraq's central government should have in relation to that of the Shiite region in the south and the Kurdish region in the north - is reverberating through Iraq's labor movement, leading to a new source of division.
Iraq is growing more dangerous for labor and civil society activists. Even the southern region around Basra, which was relatively free from bombing attacks for the first two years of the occupation, is suffering from rising violence. Hassan Juma'a, head of the General Union of Oil Employees at Iraq's huge oil installations in the south, predicts that "an attack on myself will take place, but I'm not afraid. I expect the terrorists will strike everywhere." Juma'a, like most Iraqi unionists, attributes the January murder of Hadi Saleh and other leaders to remnants of Saddam's secret police, the old Mukhabharat. "They seem to be able to operate freely," he says.
The Federation of Workers Councils and Unions of Iraq (FWCUI) reports that it recently discovered a plot to bribe relatives of its leaders in Basra, and to eventually kidnap and kill them. Harry Barnes, a left-wing Labour Party Member of Parliament in the UK who maintains with close ties to Iraqi unions, charges that "the so-called resistance is deliberately targeting leaders of the Iraqi labor movement in order to prevent the growth of a new civil society in Iraq."
IFTU leaders are being singled out in the broader context of anti-union violence, in part a probable response to the union's position on the January elections and subsequent political process, one of the issues on which Iraqi unions disagree. "The IFTU supports democratic principles," explains Ghasib Hassan, head of the IFTU's Railway and Aviation Union, "and one of those principles is elections. So we supported them. The IFTU wants to see a democratically elected and accountable government, mandated by the people, so we can raise our legitimate questions and concerns ... This election was also a way of facing head-on those extremists and anti-democratic forces who don't want to see Iraq a democratic and secure state."
Iraq's other unions are more dubious about the current political process. The FWCUI condemned participation in last January's elections. "We called on workers to boycott these elections, because people were divided according to their ethnicity, language and religion," explains Falah Alwan, the federation's president. "Its purpose was to impose the American project on Iraq, and give legitimacy to the government imposed by the Americans and the occupying coalition. The same parties we saw in the old Governing Council will remain in power, and the political balance will remain the same." The union was similarly critical of the constitutional referendum, calling it "another episode of the US scenario in Iraq." The oil workers union took no official position on the January elections, but its leaders estimate that most members voted for the party slate headed by the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which now governs the country.
Iraqi unions do agree, however, on other broad political issues, particularly the occupation itself, which they regard, as Ghasib Hassan puts it, as "brutal." The IFTU, like other Iraqi labor federations, has close relations with a set of political parties, in its case the Iraqi Communist Party (with two ministers in the current government), the party of former Prime Minister Issad al Allawi, and a party of Arab nationalists. IFTU activists say they opposed the occupation before the war, but were forced to deal with it once it began. They call for using UN Resolution 1545 as the basis for insisting that the United States leave once an elected government holds office.
"The war has resulted in extreme destruction in our country," Hassan says. "This is not liberation. It is occupation, and we oppose it absolutely. At the beginning of the 21st century, we thought we'd seen the end of colonies, but now we're entering a new era of colonialization."
The FWCUI is affiliated with the Workers' Communist Party of Iraq, which has taken a much more distant attitude toward the occupation authorities. Alwan says UN forces should replace U.S. troops. "We call for a congress of liberation, including all the powers in Iraq, to end the occupation and rebuild civil society," he explains. The General Union of Oil Employees wants the troops to leave right away. After surveying its members, "almost everyone [told us] they want the occupation to end immediately, and the immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces from Iraq," says Juma'a. In August he emphasized that the GUOE "demands the immediate departure of the occupation forces from the country, because we are capable of administering the state as Iraqis,
whatever the consequences ... The current divisions are caused by the occupation."
Following a June tour of the United States organized by U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW), the three unions agreed on a statement. It was the first time Iraq's major unions have developed a common position on the two key issues that confront them - the occupation and privatization. "The occupation must end in all its forms, including military bases and economic domination," the statement said. "The war was fought for oil and regional domination, in violation of international law, justified by lies and deception, without consultation with the Iraqi people. The occupation has been a catastrophe for both our peoples."
The statement condemned the occupation's economic program. "The national wealth and resources of Iraq belong to the Iraqi people," it emphasized. "We are united in our opposition to the imposition of privatization of the Iraqi economy by the occupation, the IMF [International Monetary Fund], the World Bank, foreign powers and any force that takes away the right of the Iraqi people to determine their own economic future."
There are many reasons why workers and unions hate the occupation. Iraqi unemployment, according to the economics faculty of Baghdad University, has been at 70 percent since the occupation started. Among U.S. occupation czar Paul Bremer's extreme free-market-oriented orders was number 30, issued in September 2003 and still in force. It lowered the base wage in public enterprises (where most permanently-employed Iraqis work) to $35/month, and ended subsidies for food and housing. Most of all, workers hate Law 150, issued by Saddam Hussein in 1987, which prohibited unions and collective bargaining in the public sector. Bremer chose to continue enforcing this measure, and bound the transitional governments which followed him to do the same. Bremer backed up the edict by issuing Public Order 1, banning even advocacy leading to civil disorder. He arrested IFTU leaders, expelling them from their Baghdad offices. He also put down some of the first street protests in Baghdad, organized by the Union of Unemployed of Iraq (part of the FWCUI) and arrested the union's head, Qasim Hadi, many times.
Iraqi unions see these moves as a way to soften up workers to ensure they don't resist the privatization of the country's economy. Interviewed at the Al-Doura refinery in October 2003, manager Dathar Al-Kashab predicted that in the event of privatization, "I'd have to fire 1500 [of the refinery's 3000] workers. In America when a company lays people off, there's unemployment insurance, and they won't die from hunger. If I dismiss employees now, I'm killing them and their families."
Privatization defies the tradition of social solidarity in Iraq, which favors using oil revenues to industrialize the country, creating a public sector that can put people to work and ensure a self-sustaining national economy. Hassan Juma'a says workers at the Southern Oil Company began organizing their union as the troops were entering Basra because of "our fear that the purpose of the occupation was the oil, that they've come to take control of the oil industry. Without organizing ourselves, we would be unable to protect our industry." In May, the GUOE organized a conference in Basra opposing the privatization of the oil industry. The union seeks to initiate a political front in the south to stop the occupation from placing transnational corporations in control of oil resources. The gathering featured presentations by academics at Basra University, speeches by GUOE members and leaders, and participation from the IFTU, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and the Iraqi Communist Party.
The IFTU also opposes privatization. "Iraqi publicly owned enterprises should stay publicly owned," says Ghasib Hassan. "We will never accept the privatization of oil. It is the only source of wealth we can use to rebuild our country." Alwan and the FCWUI have organized worker committees in a number of Baghdad factories, and opposition to privatization has been a major motivation there also. Interviewed in October 2003, at the Mamoun Vegetable Oil Factory, manager Amir Faraj Bhajet observed that "there's no private person in Iraq with enough money to buy this place. It would have to be a foreign owner. They would like the assets, but would they want the workers?"
Despite facing a hostile occupation with a vested interest in their suppression, and an armed insurgency targeting unions and civil society, Iraq's labor movement has made remarkable progress in organizing workers and challenging free-market policies. This past February, as IFTU leaders were being killed, Baghdad's hotel workers belonging to the federation struck first the Sheraton, and then the next-door Palestine Hotel. Both are luxurious establishments behind high blast walls, housing U.S. journalists and administrators. The IFTU managed to force de facto recognition and bargaining in some workplaces, and now claims 12 national unions, and 200,000 members. Metalworkers at Baghdad's Al Nassr molding and car parts factory won a minimum wage of 150,000 Iraqi dinars (about $100) per month. The Rail Workers Union forced a wage increase at Railways of the Iraqi Republic from 75,000 to 125,000 Iraqi dinars per month, and equal pay for men and women.
In May 2004, Basra's power station workers, a hotbed of union activity, elected the first woman union president in Iraq's history. Hashimia Muhsin Hussein says the Electricity and Energy Workers' Union "will continue to struggle for workers rights' to union representation, social justice and a stable, pluralistic and democratic Iraq." In May, 2005, she threatened to call a strike in the country's power plants if the government didn't stop replacing longtime workers in the state-owned industry with private contractors.
Basra is the scene of Iraqi workers' biggest victory so far. At the Southern Oil Company, the union first took on KBR, a division of Halliburton Corp., which was given a no-bid reconstruction contract to repair oil facilities. In the first months of the occupation, KBR tried to bring in a Kuwaiti contractor, Al Khoraafi, along with workers from outside the country. The newly-reformed oil workers union struck for three days in August, 2003, and forced KBR forced to renounce its plans to take over reconstruction work and replace Iraqi workers. Then the union directly challenged the Bremer wage order. "We managed to get the minimum salary up to 150,000 Iraqi dinars, or about $100," Hassan Juma'a recalls. "This is a beginning of the struggle to improve the income of the oil workers."
Similar fights broke out in the electrical stations around Basra, and Juma'a and the Basra head of the IFTU, Abu Lina, went to the deepwater port of Um Qasr to help dockworkers get organized and begin their own push for better wages. In April, the port workers union, supported by the oil workers and others, blockaded the port of Zubair, and forced out the Danish shipping giant Maersk, which had taken over the terminals at the start of the occupation. In mid-2004, the U.S. multinational Stevedoring Services of America was also forced out of the port of Um Qasr.
While the oil workers and the two Iraqi labor federations are organizationally independent from each other, in the past they have cooperated on the ground in Basra and the south. According to Juma'a, "we're still looking to see which unions, at the end of the day, are the legitimate ones representing the interests of the workers."
That cooperation, however, is becoming much more strained. The IFTU, which has been accused in the past of trying to claim status as Iraq's sole officially-recognized labor federation, entered into a controversial pact with its former Ba'athist adversaries in September. The IFTU's new partners are the General Workers' Federation of Iraq and the General Workers' Federation of the Republic of Iraq, both remnants of the state-sponsored General Federation of Trade Unions under Saddam Hussein. This agreement, brokered by the International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions, gave the new General Federation of Iraqi Workers the right to represent the country's labor movement internationally (specifically, at the ICATU) "until circumstances allow the holding of general union elections."
The agreement calls for rejection of the occupation as its first point. It is possible, some observers believe, that the IFTU is preparing for the end of the occupation, and seeks to break a "nationalist" element away from the insurgency. Some also speculate that the agreement is evidence of a decline in the influence of the Iraqi Communist Party (historically subjected to bloody repression by the Ba'athists) in the union federation.
In a second controversial move, the IFTU in August made a scathing condemnation of Juma'a and the leadership of the General Union of Oil Employees, saying "it doesn't represent the union work of the petrol sector." The oil workers shut down oil exports for a day in August, 2005, to demand that a greater share of the oil revenue be spent on rebuilding the south. The rift reflects the sharp debate over the country's newly-approved draft constitution and structure. The IFTU's political allies accuse the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq of supporting secession, under the guise of a federalist structure in which Iraq's central government would have little power. They accuse the oil workers of entering an alliance with the governor of Basra province towards that end.
Contradicting this claim, however, the GUOE moved in October to establish an Iraq-wide union for workers in the oil industry. On October 10 it announced "with God's blessing the formation of the Federation of Oil Unions in Iraq, with its centre in Basra, composed of unions representing the oil sector in Basra, Meisan, and DhiQar." Iraq's other primary oil fields are located in the north, around Kirkuk, where workers also organized an independent union in the wake of the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime. Production from the northern fields, which are older and smaller, has been constricted by attacks by insurgents on oil pipelines. The GUOE and the Kirkuk union have had informal contacts, and the announcement from Basra emphasized that the new federation's doors "are open to all workers in the oil sector throughout Iraq from the
north to the south.." The new federation views itself as "part of the movement of Iraqi labour unions.".
As a result of almost three years of union activity, a high percentage of factories in Iraq have worker-based organizing committees and fledgling unions (probably a greater percentage than factories in the United States). To consolidate this progress, however, Iraqi unions need political unity. Without it, it will be difficult to confront the occupation and defeat its privatization program, which is supported, not just by the US and Britain, but by the many returned exiles who now control Iraqi ministries. That unity is clearly in jeopardy.
Taking advantage of this situation, in August the interim Iraqi government issued Decree 875, revoking the limited rights unions won under the Transitional Law of June, 2004. That law supposedly granted workers the right to organize without state interference. The new decree, however, says the government will "take control of all monies belonging to the trade unions and prevent them from dispensing any such monies." According to the FWCUI, the decree signals "a continuation of the intervention of the authorities in thee unions' business." The IFTU reacted more strongly, accusing the government of "unjust attacks and clear open interference" intended "to prevent working people from organizing free and democratic unions. Saddam Hussein's anti-union Law 150 is still being applied."
Making the occupation's stance towards unions even clearer, a US military helicopter fired on the headquarters of the IFTU-affiliated Transport and Communications Workers Union in Baghdad's Al-Hilla district on August 15. Twenty-six workers and unionists were wounded and taken to the hospital. Despite their advances, Iraq's unions face greater dangers than at any time since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Saturday, November 19
Monday, November 14
Campaign against arrest and trial of workers activists in Iran
Borhan Divangar, Mohsen Hakimi and Mohamad Abdipoor have been sentenced!
The Revolutionary Court of the Islamic Republic of Iran has announced the sentences passed on the remaining 3 workers who were arrested following the 2004 May Day commemorations in the city of Saqez. All three, Borhan Divangar, Mohsen Hakimi and Mohamad Abdipoor, were sentenced to two years imprisonment by the regime's courts.
As we had announced earlier, on 9 November 2005, Mahmood Salehi was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment and 3 years exile, and Jalal Hosseini to two years imprisonment.
The court in Saqez passed the above sentences for the "crime" of organising independent May Day commemorations in 2004. Moreover, the case of Borhan Divangar, the Chair of the National Organisation of Unemployed, is still open for the crimes of workers' activities and defence of the rights of children.
Please write letters of protest to the following adresses, and send copies to us.
Your solidarity with Iranian workers in this critical time is very crucial to their struggle.
In Solidarity
Mahmod Kazvini
Please send your protest letters to:
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
the Presidency
Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection
Tehran
Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: 98-21-648.06.65 http://www.president.ir/email
Head of the Judiciary
His Excellency Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Ministry of Justice, Park-e Shahr, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: irjpr@iranjudiciary.org (mark 'Please forward to HE Ayatollah Shahroudi'
Please send a copy of your protest letters to:
mkazvini@hotmail.com OR houzan73@yahoo.co.uk
The Revolutionary Court of the Islamic Republic of Iran has announced the sentences passed on the remaining 3 workers who were arrested following the 2004 May Day commemorations in the city of Saqez. All three, Borhan Divangar, Mohsen Hakimi and Mohamad Abdipoor, were sentenced to two years imprisonment by the regime's courts.
As we had announced earlier, on 9 November 2005, Mahmood Salehi was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment and 3 years exile, and Jalal Hosseini to two years imprisonment.
The court in Saqez passed the above sentences for the "crime" of organising independent May Day commemorations in 2004. Moreover, the case of Borhan Divangar, the Chair of the National Organisation of Unemployed, is still open for the crimes of workers' activities and defence of the rights of children.
Please write letters of protest to the following adresses, and send copies to us.
Your solidarity with Iranian workers in this critical time is very crucial to their struggle.
In Solidarity
Mahmod Kazvini
Please send your protest letters to:
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
the Presidency
Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection
Tehran
Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: 98-21-648.06.65 http://www.president.ir/email
Head of the Judiciary
His Excellency Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Ministry of Justice, Park-e Shahr, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: irjpr@iranjudiciary.org (mark 'Please forward to HE Ayatollah Shahroudi'
Please send a copy of your protest letters to:
mkazvini@hotmail.com OR houzan73@yahoo.co.uk
Tuesday, November 8
GUOE Becomes Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions
Public Announcement
All are aware of the role that Iraqi labour unions have played in the previous and present phrases of Iraq's history as the most important basis of Iraqi society for development and construction. Unions continued with their work until they became the object of a conspiracy on the part of the despotic regime, which stripped them of their rights in 1987. After the dictator fell, on 20/04/2003, that is eleven days after the entry of the occupation forces, activists formed the oil Union, the first nucleus of which was the Southern Oil Company and the other oil companies.
The Union masterfully led the process of building and reconstruction and equipping of the plants and oil installations and the process of improving living conditions and obtaining the rights of its members. The Union has participated in many international conferences and enjoys extensive links with international organisations.
The Union has taken a courageous stand on many sensitive issues related to the capacities of the Iraqi people and has a clear position vis-à-vis the occupying forces. Building on what has gone before and in accordance with present experiences of Iraqis as part of embodying the practice of democracy for the new phase, we announce with God's blessing the formation of the Federation of Oil Unions in Iraq, with its centre in Basra, composed of unions representing the oil sector in Basra, Meisan, and DhiQar, as a Federation specialised in all aspects of the oil sector and part of the movement of Iraqi labour unions.
At this moment as we announce the establishment of the Federation, its doors are open to all workers in the oil sector throughout Iraq from the north to the south and we welcome the support of all civil society organisations to this federation which is in the service of the public interest.
God disposes,
The Executive Committee of the Federation of Oil Unions in Iraq Basra
12/10/2005
All are aware of the role that Iraqi labour unions have played in the previous and present phrases of Iraq's history as the most important basis of Iraqi society for development and construction. Unions continued with their work until they became the object of a conspiracy on the part of the despotic regime, which stripped them of their rights in 1987. After the dictator fell, on 20/04/2003, that is eleven days after the entry of the occupation forces, activists formed the oil Union, the first nucleus of which was the Southern Oil Company and the other oil companies.
The Union masterfully led the process of building and reconstruction and equipping of the plants and oil installations and the process of improving living conditions and obtaining the rights of its members. The Union has participated in many international conferences and enjoys extensive links with international organisations.
The Union has taken a courageous stand on many sensitive issues related to the capacities of the Iraqi people and has a clear position vis-à-vis the occupying forces. Building on what has gone before and in accordance with present experiences of Iraqis as part of embodying the practice of democracy for the new phase, we announce with God's blessing the formation of the Federation of Oil Unions in Iraq, with its centre in Basra, composed of unions representing the oil sector in Basra, Meisan, and DhiQar, as a Federation specialised in all aspects of the oil sector and part of the movement of Iraqi labour unions.
At this moment as we announce the establishment of the Federation, its doors are open to all workers in the oil sector throughout Iraq from the north to the south and we welcome the support of all civil society organisations to this federation which is in the service of the public interest.
God disposes,
The Executive Committee of the Federation of Oil Unions in Iraq Basra
12/10/2005
Monday, November 7
Iraqi oil union leader to visit Britain
Hassan Jumaa Awad, leader of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions, has been invited to the UK for Iraq Occupation Focus' ˜Voices from Occupied Iraq" Teach-In on November 26th and the Stop The War Coalition's International Peace Conference on December 10th. Read his itinerary here.
The Union has stated that ˜The privatisation of the oil and industrial sectors is the objective of all in the Iraqi state/government. We will stand firm against this imperialist plan that would hand over Iraq's wealth to international capitalism such that the deprived Iraqi people would not benefit from it:we are taking this path for the sake of Iraq's glory even if it costs us our lives.
The IFOU is the most powerful trade union in Iraq representing over 23,000 oil workers across 3 provinces in nine state oil and gas companies. It is independent of all current trade union federations in Iraq.
The Union has consistently held a ˜Troops Out Now" policy, calling for an immediate withdrawal of all occupation forces from Iraq. Many of the Union's executive committee were persecuted by the Baath dictatorship. Awad himself was jailed three times by the regime.
The Union has on two separate occasions halted oil exports through strike action over unpaid wages, repressive Baathist managers and officials in the Ministry of Oil and land allocations for employees. It has successfully reconstructed infrastructure, port equipment, drilling rigs and pipelines without the help of foreign companies. It also succeeded in cancelling the last two tiers of the Occupation's Order 30 wage-table and raising the minimum wage for Iraqi oil workers from 69,000 Iraqi Dinar (£20) per month to 102,000 ID (£35) per month. It has also negotiated the return of 1000 foreign workers in favour of the employment of local Iraqi workers.
Ewa Jasiewicz, Co-Convenor of the IFOU Support Committee Naftana (meaning Our Oil) said, ˜Hassan's second visit to the UK is a wake-up call. Iraqi oil has not yet been privatised, and the IFOU are in a position, physically, strategically and historically to make sure that it never will be. This union needs our maximum support.
Notes
The GUOE became the IFOU on October 12th 2005 after the affiliation of further oil unions from Maysan and Dhi Qar provinces. They are currently still in talks with an independent oil union in Kirkuk.
Contact
Ewa Jasiewicz or Sabah Jawad, Naftana, UK Support Committee for the IFOU
07749 421 576 freelance@mailworks.org or 07946 334 238 sabah.jawad@idao.org
See www.basraoilunion.org for more information and background on the union
The Union has stated that ˜The privatisation of the oil and industrial sectors is the objective of all in the Iraqi state/government. We will stand firm against this imperialist plan that would hand over Iraq's wealth to international capitalism such that the deprived Iraqi people would not benefit from it:we are taking this path for the sake of Iraq's glory even if it costs us our lives.
The IFOU is the most powerful trade union in Iraq representing over 23,000 oil workers across 3 provinces in nine state oil and gas companies. It is independent of all current trade union federations in Iraq.
The Union has consistently held a ˜Troops Out Now" policy, calling for an immediate withdrawal of all occupation forces from Iraq. Many of the Union's executive committee were persecuted by the Baath dictatorship. Awad himself was jailed three times by the regime.
The Union has on two separate occasions halted oil exports through strike action over unpaid wages, repressive Baathist managers and officials in the Ministry of Oil and land allocations for employees. It has successfully reconstructed infrastructure, port equipment, drilling rigs and pipelines without the help of foreign companies. It also succeeded in cancelling the last two tiers of the Occupation's Order 30 wage-table and raising the minimum wage for Iraqi oil workers from 69,000 Iraqi Dinar (£20) per month to 102,000 ID (£35) per month. It has also negotiated the return of 1000 foreign workers in favour of the employment of local Iraqi workers.
Ewa Jasiewicz, Co-Convenor of the IFOU Support Committee Naftana (meaning Our Oil) said, ˜Hassan's second visit to the UK is a wake-up call. Iraqi oil has not yet been privatised, and the IFOU are in a position, physically, strategically and historically to make sure that it never will be. This union needs our maximum support.
Notes
The GUOE became the IFOU on October 12th 2005 after the affiliation of further oil unions from Maysan and Dhi Qar provinces. They are currently still in talks with an independent oil union in Kirkuk.
Contact
Ewa Jasiewicz or Sabah Jawad, Naftana, UK Support Committee for the IFOU
07749 421 576 freelance@mailworks.org or 07946 334 238 sabah.jawad@idao.org
See www.basraoilunion.org for more information and background on the union
Sunday, November 6
The Murderous Gangs of Political Islam Commit a Heinous Crime Against our Comrade Maitham Najah
The murderous hands of Political Islamic gangs, have assassinated, last month, our party member comrade Maitham Najah while spreading the words of socialism and equality among workers, youth, women, and students of Baghdad. The brutal crime was committed in Al Sifina neighborhood. After killing the comrade, the Islamic gang dislodged his family to an unknown destiny.
Our party strongly condemns this atrocious Islamic terrorist crime and pledges to do its best to hand the criminals to justice. It is the intrinsic tenet of Political Islam to use assassinations and coward elimination of communists, libertarians, and all freedom loving people.
The tragic situation in Iraq, created by the terrorist struggle between the US occupying forces and the gangs of Political Islam, as well as the lack of security, are all but results of the criminal war launched on the people of Iraq causing the collapse and destruction of its civil society. The killing of our brave comrade is part of the bigger crimes committed daily against the people of Iraq by the two sides of international terrorism; the US and Political Islam.
Our party offers its warmest condolences to the comrades, friends, and acquaintances of our dear Maitham. We specially offer our cordial condolences to the family and brothers of our comrade and wish them to endure the pain of these sad moments. Comrade Maitham has paid the utmost price for the most noble and humane cause and sacrificed his life in defense of all the deprived people of Iraq.
Our struggle for socialism, equality, and freedom will strongly continue. Such coward crimes will never stop our humane trend from bursting on.
Long live the memory of the brave comrade Maitham Najah !
Long live the memory of all those who sacrificed their precious lives for socialism. !
The Left Worker-communist Party of Iraq – LWPI
30-10-2005
Our party strongly condemns this atrocious Islamic terrorist crime and pledges to do its best to hand the criminals to justice. It is the intrinsic tenet of Political Islam to use assassinations and coward elimination of communists, libertarians, and all freedom loving people.
The tragic situation in Iraq, created by the terrorist struggle between the US occupying forces and the gangs of Political Islam, as well as the lack of security, are all but results of the criminal war launched on the people of Iraq causing the collapse and destruction of its civil society. The killing of our brave comrade is part of the bigger crimes committed daily against the people of Iraq by the two sides of international terrorism; the US and Political Islam.
Our party offers its warmest condolences to the comrades, friends, and acquaintances of our dear Maitham. We specially offer our cordial condolences to the family and brothers of our comrade and wish them to endure the pain of these sad moments. Comrade Maitham has paid the utmost price for the most noble and humane cause and sacrificed his life in defense of all the deprived people of Iraq.
Our struggle for socialism, equality, and freedom will strongly continue. Such coward crimes will never stop our humane trend from bursting on.
Long live the memory of the brave comrade Maitham Najah !
Long live the memory of all those who sacrificed their precious lives for socialism. !
The Left Worker-communist Party of Iraq – LWPI
30-10-2005
Thursday, November 3
Student support for Organisation for Women's Freedom
The Monash Student Council recently passed a motion
authorising the donation of $3000.00 to the
Organisation for Women's Freedom in Iraq.
MSA President Nick Richardson stated, "The donation we
have given to the Organisation for Women's Freedom in
Iraq will make a contribution to the struggles of the
Iraqi people for control over their own lives, and
against the US and Australian imperial occupiers as
well as the political Islamists. This donation can be
used in any way that the Organisation of Women's
Freedom in Iraq believes is necessary to defend the
Iraqi people, and women in particular, from the
violence and oppression of the occupation and its
consequences.
In 2005 the Monash Student Association made the
following financial commitments to other organisations
and non-student individuals in the pursuit of
progressive social change and in efforts to counter
the regressive policies of the Government:
$3000.00 for Organisation for Women's Freedom in
Iraq
(To assist an Iraqi Organisation affiliated with the
Iraqi Freedom Congress struggling against the US and
Australian occupation as well as Political Islamists)
$700.00 for the Melbourne Stop the War Coalition
(To assist in the organisation of political action
against the occupation in Iraq)
$400.00 for the Black GST campaign
(To assist in the campaign calling for a boycott of
the Commonwealth Games and addressing the
'stolenwealth?as a symptom of the continued genocide
of Indigenous peoples)
$6600.00 for legal fees for two asylum seekers
(Covering the costs of migration legal fees to assist
in their bid for freedom from detention)
$300.00 West Papua National Authority
(To assist in the efforts to gain West Papuan
independence)
Mr Richardson further said, "It is the ability of
student organisations to fight and assist others in
their battles against those who dominate over people
that makes student unions so important. Moreover, this
makes them the target of the Liberals, Barnaby Joyce
and the Australian Vice Chancellors Committee. They
want us to stop because we threaten their privileged
positions.
For further information contact
Nick Richardson
President
Monash Student Association
0405364230
authorising the donation of $3000.00 to the
Organisation for Women's Freedom in Iraq.
MSA President Nick Richardson stated, "The donation we
have given to the Organisation for Women's Freedom in
Iraq will make a contribution to the struggles of the
Iraqi people for control over their own lives, and
against the US and Australian imperial occupiers as
well as the political Islamists. This donation can be
used in any way that the Organisation of Women's
Freedom in Iraq believes is necessary to defend the
Iraqi people, and women in particular, from the
violence and oppression of the occupation and its
consequences.
In 2005 the Monash Student Association made the
following financial commitments to other organisations
and non-student individuals in the pursuit of
progressive social change and in efforts to counter
the regressive policies of the Government:
$3000.00 for Organisation for Women's Freedom in
Iraq
(To assist an Iraqi Organisation affiliated with the
Iraqi Freedom Congress struggling against the US and
Australian occupation as well as Political Islamists)
$700.00 for the Melbourne Stop the War Coalition
(To assist in the organisation of political action
against the occupation in Iraq)
$400.00 for the Black GST campaign
(To assist in the campaign calling for a boycott of
the Commonwealth Games and addressing the
'stolenwealth?as a symptom of the continued genocide
of Indigenous peoples)
$6600.00 for legal fees for two asylum seekers
(Covering the costs of migration legal fees to assist
in their bid for freedom from detention)
$300.00 West Papua National Authority
(To assist in the efforts to gain West Papuan
independence)
Mr Richardson further said, "It is the ability of
student organisations to fight and assist others in
their battles against those who dominate over people
that makes student unions so important. Moreover, this
makes them the target of the Liberals, Barnaby Joyce
and the Australian Vice Chancellors Committee. They
want us to stop because we threaten their privileged
positions.
For further information contact
Nick Richardson
President
Monash Student Association
0405364230
Wednesday, November 2
Freedom of Expression Under Attack from Islamists in Denmark! (by Houzan Mahmoud, OWFI)
Politicised religion - of whatever denomination - will leave no place for freethinking, reason, or the conscious will of humans. This is a stark truth, but one that needs to be stated. Instead of the conscious ability of human beings to shape their world, we are subordinated to an imaginary "God". In the particular case of Islam, we are meant to live our lives according to a long dead "prophet" who has become a symbol of the oppression of women and a rigid patriarchy.
A Danish newspaper - Jyllends Posten - has recently published a story about 12 different portraits of the prophet Mohammed. This has provoked a backlash from political Islam, from groups and states. The common denominator - whatever the relative size or political weight of these protesters - is that all preach that people cannot use that most intrinsic of human capabilities - our imagination - to depict the prophet. Islamists assert that Mohammed never sat for a portrait, so - by definition - his pictorial representation is an act against Islam, a blasphemy.
The political Islamists in Denmark have not been alone in this: ambassadors of countries including Iran, Turkey, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Pakistan have objected. They have fired off letters of complaint to the Danish prime minister and demanded he condemn this newspaper and clamp down on it.
This is not surprising. For those of us who have bitter first hand experience of Islamist groups and Islamic states in the Middle East, it is a depressingly familiar story. This is a template for how they maintain their ferocious, anti- egalitarian rule over people of that part of the world.
By making Islam the "exceptional religion" - with the clear implication no one has the right to even mildly criticise it, let alone paint a portrait of its prophet - effectively a gag is placed on any radical, dissenting voice. The people who want to raise their voices against the suffocating blanket of religiosity in their societies are silenced.
The brutal truth is that for the last two decades Islam - in the contemporary Middle East - has justified killing, stoning, imprisoning, veiling and forcing women into Borqa's. Women are imprisoned in the name of political Islam - a crime against all of humanity.
Not only women have suffered - progressives and secularists of all kinds have been persecuted simply because they have challenged political Islam's intrusion on the private realm of human beings, their right to decide their faiths and how these might impinge on their lives.
Islamalicists in power rule according to the precepts of sharia law. This institutionalises the oppression of women and the suppression of any kinds of democratic rights. Yet, in Europe, where this reactionary political trend has no opportunity to come to power, so-called 'freedom of choice' is cited to impose the veil on young girls and 'freedom of expression' to open Mosques, religious schools to bring up a brain washed generation of young people, and to silence those of us who want to tell the truth about them to society.
Many of us secular women live with death threats issued by Islamists for the simple fact that we are liberated, secular and use our brain to think, decide and live the way we want. We do not accept their rule, but actually question and challenge their power over us. They attempt to impose their thinking on us even in Europe; if someone dares to say something critical about Islam they are labelled an "islamaphobe" or even a "racist". This is a tactic to silence criticism, not engage in a dialogue.
But now women like us in Iraq have formed a women's organisation that is outspoken against political Islam, despite the daily threats from their terror gangs. Our Organisation of Women's Freedom of Iraq (OWFI) has been exposing the Islamists and their crimes against women in our society. This shows the potential for secularism and free-thinking among our people. Activists of OWFI, inside Iraq and abroad, are pioneering a movement against political Islam and have been exposing it on an international level and telling the whole world about the notorious nature of this dangerous contemporary trend which is political Islam.
The fact that women in our society are standing up against oppression, in the face of political forces that force us to wear the veil at a gun point, is an inspiration to friends of freedom, equality and secularism the world over.
In Europe, the Islamists use every possible opportunity to advance their agenda and to de-sensitise people to its reactionary inhumane content. They refuse to accept the fact that in Europe people have won the right to criticize all religions and political ideologies. So far Islam has escaped this. They have used the western states' espousal of "multiculturalism" to inflict violence against women and girls and practise the most barbaric "traditions" within these so-called "Muslim communities". This, we are told, is part of the 'traditions' of people from that part of the world. This must stop! Islam, like any other religion, must be a private matter and separate from politics.
I see no reason why ambassadors of all these countries and Islamic exiles make such a fuss about these portraits in Jyllends Posten. Of course, I don't have to agree with or approve of how artists have portrayed Mohammed - that is not the point. I believe strongly that artists should be free to create art without threats hanging over them.
Freedom of speech and expression should be protected. Criticism of all religions and Islam must be viewed as a normal right of all people. The progress of any human society can be measured by how free it is from religion. Questioning, criticizing and finally separating religions from politics is the only guarantee for a healthy, secular and egalitarian society.
A Danish newspaper - Jyllends Posten - has recently published a story about 12 different portraits of the prophet Mohammed. This has provoked a backlash from political Islam, from groups and states. The common denominator - whatever the relative size or political weight of these protesters - is that all preach that people cannot use that most intrinsic of human capabilities - our imagination - to depict the prophet. Islamists assert that Mohammed never sat for a portrait, so - by definition - his pictorial representation is an act against Islam, a blasphemy.
The political Islamists in Denmark have not been alone in this: ambassadors of countries including Iran, Turkey, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Pakistan have objected. They have fired off letters of complaint to the Danish prime minister and demanded he condemn this newspaper and clamp down on it.
This is not surprising. For those of us who have bitter first hand experience of Islamist groups and Islamic states in the Middle East, it is a depressingly familiar story. This is a template for how they maintain their ferocious, anti- egalitarian rule over people of that part of the world.
By making Islam the "exceptional religion" - with the clear implication no one has the right to even mildly criticise it, let alone paint a portrait of its prophet - effectively a gag is placed on any radical, dissenting voice. The people who want to raise their voices against the suffocating blanket of religiosity in their societies are silenced.
The brutal truth is that for the last two decades Islam - in the contemporary Middle East - has justified killing, stoning, imprisoning, veiling and forcing women into Borqa's. Women are imprisoned in the name of political Islam - a crime against all of humanity.
Not only women have suffered - progressives and secularists of all kinds have been persecuted simply because they have challenged political Islam's intrusion on the private realm of human beings, their right to decide their faiths and how these might impinge on their lives.
Islamalicists in power rule according to the precepts of sharia law. This institutionalises the oppression of women and the suppression of any kinds of democratic rights. Yet, in Europe, where this reactionary political trend has no opportunity to come to power, so-called 'freedom of choice' is cited to impose the veil on young girls and 'freedom of expression' to open Mosques, religious schools to bring up a brain washed generation of young people, and to silence those of us who want to tell the truth about them to society.
Many of us secular women live with death threats issued by Islamists for the simple fact that we are liberated, secular and use our brain to think, decide and live the way we want. We do not accept their rule, but actually question and challenge their power over us. They attempt to impose their thinking on us even in Europe; if someone dares to say something critical about Islam they are labelled an "islamaphobe" or even a "racist". This is a tactic to silence criticism, not engage in a dialogue.
But now women like us in Iraq have formed a women's organisation that is outspoken against political Islam, despite the daily threats from their terror gangs. Our Organisation of Women's Freedom of Iraq (OWFI) has been exposing the Islamists and their crimes against women in our society. This shows the potential for secularism and free-thinking among our people. Activists of OWFI, inside Iraq and abroad, are pioneering a movement against political Islam and have been exposing it on an international level and telling the whole world about the notorious nature of this dangerous contemporary trend which is political Islam.
The fact that women in our society are standing up against oppression, in the face of political forces that force us to wear the veil at a gun point, is an inspiration to friends of freedom, equality and secularism the world over.
In Europe, the Islamists use every possible opportunity to advance their agenda and to de-sensitise people to its reactionary inhumane content. They refuse to accept the fact that in Europe people have won the right to criticize all religions and political ideologies. So far Islam has escaped this. They have used the western states' espousal of "multiculturalism" to inflict violence against women and girls and practise the most barbaric "traditions" within these so-called "Muslim communities". This, we are told, is part of the 'traditions' of people from that part of the world. This must stop! Islam, like any other religion, must be a private matter and separate from politics.
I see no reason why ambassadors of all these countries and Islamic exiles make such a fuss about these portraits in Jyllends Posten. Of course, I don't have to agree with or approve of how artists have portrayed Mohammed - that is not the point. I believe strongly that artists should be free to create art without threats hanging over them.
Freedom of speech and expression should be protected. Criticism of all religions and Islam must be viewed as a normal right of all people. The progress of any human society can be measured by how free it is from religion. Questioning, criticizing and finally separating religions from politics is the only guarantee for a healthy, secular and egalitarian society.
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