Tim Lezard on Iraqi trade unionism

An Article by The Former President of the British NUJ, Tim Lezard on his Recent Visit to Iraq

The New Statesman

A struggle to exist

Monday 1st May 2006
New Statesman

Tim Lezard on Iraqi trade unionism

Bakar Hussein shrugs his shoulders and looks embarrassed when asked
about his stint in his namesake's jails. The political researcher, who
looks older than his 37 years, spent a year inside the notorious Red
House, a purpose-built torture centre in Sulaymaniyah, in Iraqi
Kurdistan.


"We've all suffered," he says. "What makes my story special?" His tale
of hour-long sessions with his hands bound tightly behind and above
his head, his body suspended from a meat hook and wired up to an
electricity generator is, he insists, not unusual. "I'd pass out
because the pain of the torture was so great," he recalls. "Then I'd
be taken down, unconscious, and thrown back into my cell with my
friends. I didn't expect to leave the Red House alive."

Now free from the Red House and from Saddam Hussein's regime, Bakar
and his fellow trade unionists face a different, but no less deadly,
enemy: suicide bombers. "There is a genocide of working people," says
Adnan al-Safar, the media officer for the Iraqi Federation of Workers'
Trade Unions. He is speaking to a delegation of British politicians
and trade unionists who have travelled to Iraqi Kurdistan on a
fact-finding mission.

"Our main problem is terrorists because they are targeting workers
every day, especially labourers queuing for work." As he says this,
there is a murmur of agreement from the other Iraqis gathered round
the restaurant table, together representing more than a million Iraqi
workers. One of them adds: "The terrorists are killing poor people;
wealthy people are safe."

The five-hour meeting, half of it held in the dark because of the
power cuts that plague the city, is believed to be the first such
gathering since the fall of Saddam three years ago. Apart from
terrorism, the 22 Iraqis present agree that their single largest
problem is Decree 8750. Passed by Iraq's ruling body last August, this
decree permits the government to "take control of all monies belonging
to trade unions and prevent them from dispensing any such monies".

The British government, while publicly praising the new democracy in
Iraq, has done nothing to prevent this attack on the independent trade
unions that should be playing a vital role. "We've tried to build new,
independent trade unions, totally different from the old ones, but
Decree 8750 is stopping us," says the vice-president of the Iraqi
workers' federation, Hadi Ali. "We struggled to beat Saddam. Now we
are struggling to build a strong, federal and democratic Iraq."

The generosity of our hosts belies the poverty of a country starved of
investment. They need money to help them rebuild their society - many
workers are not paid even the minimum wage, earning just 70,000 dinars
(£27) a month. While being wary of the consequences of opening their
markets to foreign companies, they accept they cannot resist the
overtures of global capitalism for much longer. "Privatisation gives
us new challenges," admits al-Safar. "We need to learn how to face the
multinational companies without letting them violate legislation and
workers' rights."

But before then, they need to be free to organise their independent
trade unions. Despite the security situation, they are optimistic, and
look forward to the day when Decree 8750 is repealed. Al-Safar says:
"I hope the new government - when it comes - brings a national unity
that sees unions as friends and supporters of democracy."

That is a hope shared by the Labour MP Dave Anderson, who was part of
the UK delegation. "Iraq may be on the knife-edge of full-scale civil
war," he says, "but there is another Iraq and a non-sectarian future
through its growing labour movement, which could hold the key to
uniting the country in peace and prosperity. Iraqi unions want urgent
assistance to retrieve their independence and to boost their clout as
a social partner in reconstructing Iraq, and we'll do all we can to
help them get back on their own two feet. We're already hoping to set
up a trade-union radio station, and now we're raising funds to help
them print a newspaper, too. They need only £900 a month, and we're
hoping trade unionists in the UK can help that dream come true."

Tim Lezard

The writer is a former president of the NUJ. More details of the
campaign to repeal Decree 8750 at:
[http://www.labourfriendsofiraq.org.uk and to make a donation to the
TUC's Aid Iraqi Unions Appeal, go to
http://www.tuc.org.uk/international