Friday, January 27

OWFI seminar in London

Iraq in the aftermath of the so-called "elections", ongoing terrorism and violation of women's rights under occupation!

This is a London seminar convened by the Organisation of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI)

Date: Sunday February 5th 2006
Time: 2.00 PM-500 PM

Venue:
Union of London University (ULU)
Room 3A Malet Street
London
WC1
Speakers:

Jean Lambert - Member of European Parliament, Green party

Houzan Mahmoud Organisation of Women's Freedom in Iraq

Nadia Mahmood- Iraq Freedom Congress

The meeting will be chaired by Maria Exall, member of executive committee of the Communication Workers Union (CWU)

Come along and find out more about the current political situation in Iraq. Show your support for the progressive, secular forces waging a daily struggle for the ending of the occupation and against Islamism in Iraq!

For further information please contact:
houzan73@yahoo.co.uk Tel: 079 56 88 3001

This event is sponsored by Iraq Freedom Congress

Tuesday, January 24

WOMEN'S ANTI-WAR PETITION CIRCLES THE GLOBE by Haider Rizvi

NEW YORK - Eminent female writers, artists, lawmakers and social
activists in the United States are reaching out to women leaders across
the world in an attempt to forge a global alliance against the U.S.-led
war in Iraq.

A U.S.-based women's group has launched a global campaign to gather
100,000 signatures by March 8, International Women's Day, when they will
be delivered to the White House and U.S. embassies around the world.

"We are unleashing a global chorus of women's voices shouting, 'Enough!"
said Medea Benjamin, cofounder of CODEPINK: Women for Peace, a
California-based rights advocacy group that has spearheaded the global
women's campaign, called "Women Say No to War".


"The administration is trying to get away with it (the war), but we
won't let that happen," Jodie Evans of CODEPINK told IPS. "This campaign
is amazing. This is bringing thousands of women together from across the
borders -- this is creating something that we can't even see."

Describing the initial response to the group's call for signatures as
"overwhelming", Benjamin says that more than 200 high-profile women from
various walks of life endorsed the campaign even before it was formally
launched earlier this month.

The signatories include popular film stars like Susan Sarandon, the
playwright Eve Ensler and comedian Margaret Cho, and award-winning
authors such as Alice Walkers, Anne Lamott, Maxine Hong Kingston and
Barbara Ehrenreich.

"We, the women of the United States, Iraq, and women worldwide, have had
enough of the senseless war in Iraq and cruel attack on civilians
worldwide," reads the call. "We have buried too many of our loved ones.
We have seen too many lives crippled forever...."

"This is not the world we want for ourselves or for our children," it
says. "With fire in our bellies and love in our hearts, we women are
rising up -- across borders -- to unite and demand an end to the
bloodshed and destruction."

Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed fighting in Iraq, and whose
subsequent vigil near U.S. President George W. Bush's Texas ranch to
demand -- unsuccessfully -- a face-to-face meeting garnered widespread
media attention, was one of the first signatories to the campaign.

"The pain that this war has caused for people all over the world is
unimaginable," she said in a statement. "I have met women who are ready
to stand together to make our leaders end this madness."

Urging a shift in the U.S. strategy in Iraq "from a military model to a
conflict resolution model", the organisers say they want to see a
withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq, with full representation of
women in the peacemaking process in that country.

"Iraqi women are devastated now. It will take us decades of struggle to
regain a peaceful and civilised life," said Yanar Mohammed, a signatory
to the campaign and president of the Organisation of Women's Freedom in
Iraq.

"The U.S. occupation has planted the seeds of ethno-sectarian division,
preparing Iraq for a civil war, and has blessed religious supremacy over
and against human and women's rights," she added in a statement.

Since the invasion of Iraq by the U.S.-led coalition forces, tens of
thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians, including women and children,
have lost their lives. Despite criticism from influential human rights
groups, such as the Britain-based Amnesty International and U.S.-based
Human Rights Watch, the U.S. military continues to shrug off its
responsibility to keep a record of civilian casualties, critics note.

However, an independent survey conducted by the British medical journal,
the Lancet, last year concluded that the war has claimed at least
100,000 civilian lives in Iraq.

Some humanitarian groups that are closely working with the U.S.
government have now started asking the Pentagon to compensate the
families of civilian victims of the U.S. aerial bombing in Iraq.

"We have a responsibility to help the victims and their loved ones,"
said Sarah Holewinsky, director of the Washington-based Campaign for
Innocent Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC), a group founded by Maria
Rouzicka, who was killed in a suicide bombing in Iraq while helping
civilian victims of war in that country.

But despite the administration's refusal to commit to a schedule for
withdrawal, a majority of the U.S. public has turned against the war,
and many former U.S. army generals and previously pro-war lawmakers are
loudly demanding a concrete exit strategy.

Recent opinion polls also show a continuous decline in the popularity of
Pres. Bush, who has sought to bolster his image as a "wartime
president".

Meanwhile, the global women's campaign against the war is growing every
day. By Monday, a week after the campaign's launch, the number of
signatures on its website had already hit 21,326.

(Copyright 2006 IPS - Inter Press Service)

Friday, January 20

Statement regarding Nassirya crime from the UUI

When the local government of Nassirya announced that they will create job opportunities for the unemployed people in the city, thousands of applicants stepped forward to get a job. But the opportunities were given to those belong to the parties in power only, which created a huge resentment among the people who took to the streets in thousands demanding equal opportunities. The protesters formed a negotiation team to discuss the issue with the local government however the police couldn’t stand the demonstration and began firing upon the people randomly murdering 4 and injuring 40 others some of them are in serious conditions.

The quota system that carries on even in the hiring process is largely condemned by the Iraqi people. The local government however carries out its attempts to empower the parties’ authorities not to mention the massive corruption that is prevalent in almost every office.

The UUI warns these administrations that they will not get a way with this criminal act. Also UUI will hold demonstrations and protests in a wider scale and will never back down until its demands are met. The UUI caution the authorities of forming a pseudo inquiry committee that will do nothing but mislead the people therefore we demand the criminals to stand a public trial especially among the dead people is a 13 years old boy.

UUI offers its deepest condolences to the victims’ families for their big loss



Qasim Hadi

Secretary General

Union of Unemployed in Iraq

January 5th, 2006

Slaying the Unemployed People Reveals the Real Face of the US Occupation and Its Appointed Government

Thousands of people took to the street demanding job opportunities; they marched towards the city hall building in a peaceful demonstration, denouncing the unemployment and its impact.

The current authorities who promised a lot during the election campaign such as delivering better social services and job creation, have revealed their real faces and the extent of human hatred they stock up, giving the fact that they responded with opening fire on the people for the second time in one week (the first one was in Kirkuk, when 4 people were killed in a demonstration against the decree issued by the government to pump the price of fuel up three times the previous one).

The police opened fire on the unarmed people in a barbaric act killing 4 among them 13 years old boy and injuring 36 others, just because they demanded job opportunities.

The current government and the occupying troops have proven their incompetence in terms of creating jobs, not to mention other areas of poor performance in a course of almost 3 years. In fact the parties in power had no interest but securing their share in the government and forced the people to get involved in their endless conflict, while the people needs and aspirations were totally unthought-of. They promised to do well in their campaign and did completely otherwise after the election.

Killing the unemployed people will not back us down, however it strengthens us to expand and extend our struggle.

We call upon all workers to stand by the cause of the unemployed. We call upon the labor movement in all over the world to support our cause by all means. And stand against the US policy and its appointed government.

Long Live People Will

Federation of worker Councils and Unions in Iraq (FWCUI)

www.uuiraq.org

January 7th, 2006

The oil workers in Basra started off their New Year with a sit-in demanding their rights, awaiting pay cheques, and against KBR Company.

More than 200 workers began a sit-in on Monday January 2nd, 2006 for 4 hours demanded the negotiation with the company to address their problems. The pro management trade unionists attended to negotiate the issues on their behalf; however they attempted to end the situation without any promises or solution. The workers insisted on getting an immediate response to address their issues however they didn’t find any one to listen even among the oil trade unionists.

Federation of worker councils and unions in Iraq works towards enlarging the sit-in and empowering it. Also it calls upon all workers in different sectors to stand by the oil workers until their demands are met.

Long live workers unity

Federation of worker councils and unions in Iraq

January 3rd, 2006

Wednesday, January 18

A Joint Statement Issued by the Iraqi Trade Unions Concerning the Policies of the IMF and the World Bank

The Iraqi economy has been severely affected by decades of sanctions,
wars and occupation. The Iraqi trade unions and federations believe in
the capacity of the country with all its oil and mineral resources to
provide a decent living standard for Iraqis.

The federations and unions consider that the wars and occupation have
caused a dramatic decrease in the living and social standards of Iraqis
and especially of workers.

The federations and unions stress the importance of complete sovereignty
for Iraq over its petroleum and natural resources so as to develop them
in a way that assures a complete reconstruction of the country. We wish
to stress the following points in regard to the policies of the IMF and
World Bank in Iraq:

1) Increasing transparency and additional representation for Iraq
in the decision-making structures of the IFIs.

2) To stop imposing structural adjustment conditions for loans.

3) Agreeing to provide funding for public services and state-owned
enterprises without demanding their privatization.

4) Canceling debts owed by Iraq that have resulted from the
policies of the former regime.

5) Rejecting the reduction of spending on social services
especially the elimination of government support for the food
distribution system or the reduction of the number of items covered.

6) Strongly rejecting the privatization of publicly owned entities
and especially of the oil, education, health, electricity,
transportation and construction sectors.

7) Rejecting the increase in the price of petroleum products,
considering the negative impact of the increase on the living standards
of Iraqis.

8) Adopting a new labor law and a pension and social security law
that assure workers' rights and are in conformity with international
labor standards and human rights conventions. The World Bank and the IMF
must also respect these standards.

The unions and federations that have signed this statement announce the
formation of a permanent coordinating committee that will make its
positions known to the Iraqi Government and to the IFIs. They also
demand that the IFIs engage in dialogue, discussion and negotiations
with the trade union federations regarding their policies in Iraq.

Finally, they request the assistance of international trade union
organizations to provide all possible support to the above-mentioned
demands.



General Federation of Iraqi Workers
Oil Unions Federation in Iraq / Basra
Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq
Kurdistan General Workers Syndicate Union / Erbil
Iraqi Kurdistan Workers Syndicate Union

Amman, 16 January 2006

Saturday, January 14

Speech by Hassan Jumaa of the GUOE to the London peace conference, December 2005

In the name of God, The Merciful, The Compassionate,

Dear friends, antiwar activists, and peace lovers,

Allow me to thank you very much for your invitation to join this conference which opposes war and advocates peace. As you know, the occupation of Iraq is one of the most important issues on the current international scene. I believe that conferences of this kind are important and very useful for informing world public opinion about the latest developments in the military actions of the occupation forces. As you also know, we live in a world in which evil forces pursue domination and the usurpation of rights and property. In order for peace to reign over the entire world, we have to stand steadfast against those evil forces, unify our protest and practice solidarity, for it is the unity of peoples that intimidates the forces of evil. To this end, I convey to you the greetings of Iraq's workers, and in particular the oil workers who, by their struggle, have tormented the forces of evil represented by America and its allies. They have stood against occupation forces and confronted them, preventing them from getting to the oil installations, and have stood likewise against foreign companies. Oil workers were the first to stand against these companies by holding out against the monopolist firms that were brought in by America two months after the beginning of the occupation. These firms came under the protection of American tanks; however, our Union's first action was to expel KBR [Halliburton] from our oil sites, thus marking the victory of Iraqi workers against the forces of evil.

Dear friends,

Our Union was reconstituted eleven days after the arrival of occupation forces in Baghdad. That was on April 20, 2003: a number of activists faced up to this task, rendered exceptionally difficult by the state of chaos and security instability prevailing in the country. The main goals of the reconstitution of the Union were well-known: the first was to secure Union members' claims while Iraqi state administration fell under American control; the second goal was to safeguard the oil sector's production mechanism, knowing full well that America's goal is to control Iraq's oil. It is for these reasons that the Union was reconstituted in the oil sector -- because we were aware of American intentions, as oil was one of the main reasons for launching the war on Iraq.

As you know, brothers and sisters, Iraqi oil reserves are considered the world's second largest and that is why the war was launched against the land of the two rivers. Allow me to say a few words about the vicious onslaught that America and its allies launched against our beloved Iraq. The reasons for war that were presented to the world were, first, that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction -- Bush, the criminal, purposely ignoring that [UN] inspection commissions had been roving Iraq north to south since 1991 in search of these weapons and did not find any. The second alleged reason was the war against terrorism, whereas Bush and the U.S. administration knew quite well where terrorism was truly based. We say therefore that these were not the main reasons for launching the war on Iraq, but the reasons were those that I mentioned, to which should be added that one of the main reasons was also that Iraq constituted the major threat to the security of Israel. We know, and everyone here knows, real American intentions. America is fully prepared to annihilate the entire world for its interests, and its interests lie in exerting control over Iraqi oil and putting this wealth at its disposal.

We know, brothers and sisters, how clear are the goals of this war, military occupation being but the first step to be followed by economic occupation. America has destroyed the infrastructure of Iraq -- it destroyed the schools, the universities, the hospitals, the factories, the plants and it has violated human rights. Among these violations stands the fact that the Transitional Administrative Law [TAL, promulgated by U.S. proconsul Paul Bremer] did not allow the formation of unions and other organizations. American and British politicians are claiming that they are establishing democracy in Iraq, since there was no democracy in our country because it lived under a dictatorial regime. But very regrettably, their so-called democracy consists in the [Iraqi] citizens having to stop whenever an American or British military column passes by, for fear of being killed, as everyone knows: this is their so-called democracy. The [Transitional] Administrative Law considers demonstrations a crime punishable by law.

In our experience America has not been honest in any way. Every now and then they declare that the security responsibility has been handed over to the Iraqis, but then we see the occupation forces roaming everywhere. We believe that America deliberately creates crises every now and then in the areas that are somewhat stable and secure, the reason obvious to all being that crises justify extending the presence of the occupation forces. If stability and security prevailed, these forces would have to leave. However, America does not want to withdraw at this time, because it did not complete its operation; it has not yet accomplished the second phase of the occupation, the economic occupation of Iraq. That is why the U.S. administration is currently putting forward its economic plans which include privatization of the oil and manufacturing sectors, and the production sharing agreement [PSA] project.

From this platform, I would like to make clear to all the positions of our Union, which are known to the Iraqi people:

1. Occupation forces must leave the country immediately and unconditionally.

2. We will stand firmly and resolutely against all those who want to tamper with the security and power of the Iraqi people.

3. We condemn terrorist attacks against our people and stress the importance of respecting human rights.

4. We support the honorable resistance that targets and strikes at foreign military forces and seeks to drive the occupiers out.

5. We will not allow the intrusion of foreign companies [in the oil sector] and production sharing agreements, and we will stand with all our force against monopoly firms such as Halliburton, KBR, Shell, and others.

6. We ask the patriotic forces, the antiwar movement and peace-lovers to support our Union in its campaign against privatization and PSAs.

7. We demand the unconditional cancellation of Iraq's [foreign] debts, as these debts never benefited the Iraqi people but served the buried regime.

In conclusion, I wish you good luck and success, and I look forward to meeting you in a free, democratic, and united Iraq that would be a workshop for all free citizens of the world. I offer again my thanks and appreciation to the organizers of this conference.

May peace and God's mercy, and blessings be upon you.


(Translated from the Arabic. Original version posted on the website of the General Union of Oil Employees in Basra.)

Tuesday, January 10

DEFEND IRAQI KURDISH ASYLUM RIGHTS!

PUBLIC MEETING
7PM TO 9PM
WEDNESDAY 11 JANUARY

Hosted by John McDonnell MP

Speakers:Jonhn McDonnell,MP, Jean Lambert MEP Green Party, Dashty Jamal, International Federation of Iraqi Refugees, Emma Ginn, National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (NCADC), CAMPACC, Sawasan Salim Kurdistan Refugee Womens Organsation, George Binette Committee to Defend Asylum Seekers, Burhan Fatah Fedration of Iraqi Refugee Manchester


Boothroyd Room
Portcullis House
Westminister SW1

Wednesday, January 4

Statement of the Worker-communist Party of Iraq on shooting demonstrators in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.

American troops commit another hideous crime.

The enraged masses of people in Kirkuk organized a mass demonstration on January1, 2005 against the poor living conditions, absence of basic services and sharp increase in fuel prices dictated by International Monetary Fund, (IMF.)
The USA troops assisted by the local police, which is controlled by the pro-USA ethnic parties, opened fire on demonstrators killing 4 people including, Yokhana Yaqo Yokhana and Omer Foad Othman and wounding at least 10 others.

This criminal act clearly reveals the UGLY face of the democracy that the USA
administration claims it tends to build in Iraq, as the most basic demands of people in one of the richest cities with oil in the world- Kirkuk in providing basic services and fuel in suitable prices are met with bullets and random killings. The USA and pro-USA ethnic forces frequently reveal their outright antagonism with people. It seems that impoverishing people, denying them their basic rights, jeopardizing their livelihood and destroying the Iraqi society economically and as a civil society is not enough, therefore, the USA troops prevent people from protesting and expressing their sufferings amid the current disastrous conditions.

We in the Worker-communist Party of Iraq express our resentment against
this crime and strongly condemn it and share the relatives of the victims in their pain. We call on the masses to continue their protests and demand that this crime must be investigated and those responsible punished.

The worker-communist Party of Iraq calls on all human rights organizations and all freedom loving forces worldwide to express their disgust, protest against this crime and expose the oppression and terrorism of the USA forces.

The masses of people must escalate; expand their response and protest to all parts of Iraq. We have to expose the USA terrorism all over the world. This revolting crime must not go without proper response.

Worker-communist Party of Iraq
January 1, 2005