Mr Hadi Ali, the Vice-president of the IFTU and Abdullah Muhsin, foreign representative of the new and independent Iraqi trade union movement, addressed MPs and journalists at a successful cross-party briefing meeting in the House of Commons on the 18th May.
The briefing was organised by Labour MP Harry Barnes, who has long championed workers' rights in Iraq and the new democratic trade unionism of the IFTU.
Mr Ali extensively briefed participants on the current political and security situation, the need to transfer power to Iraqis on 30th June and the progress being made by the IFTU in rebuilding itself as part of a wider, secular civil society.
The meetings was chaired by Harry Barnes and attended by the Conservative Shadow Secretary of State Tim Collins, the Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party, Jean Corston and fellow Labour MPs, Jim Murphy (who is part of the Commons soccer team playing the Iraqi side this week), Ernie Ross, Mike Connarty and Louise Ellman.
Also in attendance were a representative of the Foreign Office and the Labor Counsellor of the American Embassy in London as well as John Slinger of Julia Drown MP's office and representatives of the Financial Times and Guardian newspapers.
Apologies for absence were received from several MPs who were elsewhere on parliamentary business.
The meeting stood in silence in memory of the head of the Iraqi Interim Governing Council who was killed in a car bomb earlier in the week.
The IFTU representatives later held talks with Foreign Office Minister Dennis MacShane who led the Foreign Office initiative in support of independent trade unions in Iraq.
Mr. Ali, Mr Muhsin and Mr. Majeed held a fruitful meeting with TUC's assistance General Secretary, Kay Carberry on 17th May in which the TUC pledged continuing support for the IFTU.
Mr Ali was interviewed on the Politics Show on Sunday 16th May and made the point that the trade unions are helping to rebuild civil society from below and this was echoed in adebate on the Today programme on Monday morning.
Abdullah Muhsin was later interviewed on several local radio programmes.
Abdullah Muhsin commented: "it was very important to make sure that parliamentarians and journalists alike are made aware of the work we are doing to rebuild a decent civil society and to understand the vital need for power to be transferred to Iraqis on 30th June. This was the second of our briefings and we will continue to make sure that the trade union perspective is made a bigger part of the picture in parliament and elsewhere. We are grateful to Harry Barnes MP for all his assistance"
posted by abdullah 20 May 2004