Subhi Al Mashadani, the IFTU General Secretary came to Britain at the end of June at the invitation of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) to address their 2004 Annual General Meeting in Portsmouth. He attended the RMT's AGM together with the IFTU Foreign Representative in the UK, Abdullah Muhsin.
Bob Crow, RMT General Secretary emphasised in his welcoming speech the Rail, Maritime & Transport union's commitment to assisting Iraqi trade unionists in building a democratic, independent labour movement in Iraq.
RMT Delegates received the IFTU General Secretary's speech with great enthusiasm, while the IFTU praised the internationalist position of the RMT in supporting the IFTU's struggle in the inauspicious circumstances which currently exist in Iraq.
David Cockroft, General Secretary of the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) was also invited to address RMT's national conference and asked for a meeting with the IFTU delegation.
Mr Cockroft invited the IFTU unions in the transport sector (the Railway Workers' Union and the Transport and Communication Union) to attend the forthcoming ITF International Conference in Jordan, Amman in October 2004. The IFTU General Secretary on behalf of the federation was pleased to accept his invitation.
Also on his visit Subhi Al Mashadani was invited to meet a number of leading figures in the British labour movement, notably Jeremy Dear, General Secretary of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) several of whose members have been killed reporting on the illegal war and subsequent foreign occupation of Iraq.
Subhi Al Mashadani outlined recent trade union developments in Iraq referring
specifically to conferences held recently between 1-19 June 2004 in Baghdad by four different trade unions; the Public Service Union, the Mechanics, Printers and Metalworkers' Union, the Agricultural and Food Products Workers' Union and the Leather Products and Textile Workers' Union.
The NUJ questioned the IFTU General Secretary closely on the current situation for workers in Iraq and in particular on the formal transfer of sovereignty on 28 June 2004, the continuing presence of foreign troops in Iraq and the IFTU's view on the potential for worker organisation.
The NUJ GS asked the IFTU delegation to keep him informed of developments and stressed his Union commitment to assist Iraq's fledgling labour movement and pledged the NUJ's continuing practical and media support for the IFTU.
The IFTU General Secretary also had productive meetings with Owen Tudor, International Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) which pledged continued support for Iraq's fledgling independent Labour movement and with Harry Barnes Labour MP for North East Derbyshire and a long-standing supporter of independent trade unions in Iraq, in order to brief him on latest developments.