The IFTU mourns the loss of comrade Hadi Saleh who was assassinated last night (4 January 2005) at his family home in Baghdad in a cowardly act carried out by elements loyal to the fascist-type dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussein.
This is a tragedy for Saleh’s family, the IFTU and the Iraqi working people.
Iraqi working people have now lost a brave trade union leader who dedicated three decades of his life to fighting against Saddam’s dictatorship. He fought for a democratic peaceful and federal Iraq, which would unite all Iraqis regardless of their background, ethnicity or religion. He championed workers’ rights to organize and strike to achieve decent jobs, pay and working conditions.
Hadi Saleh was a key activist known as Abu Furat, in the clandestine Workers’ Democratic Trade Union Movement (WDTUM) which was established in 1980 to keep alive an independent labour movement in Iraq during the years of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship. He was hunted by the regime for his trade union activities and forced into exile. Hadi Saleh was 56, and was a former printing worker.
Under Saddam Hussein's regime, Hadi Saleh was imprisoned for five years for his labour activism. After fleeing Iraq, Hadi became a political refugee in Sweden.
Hadi Saleh opposed Bush’s illegal war against Iraq. He returned home to Iraq after the ignominious collapse of the disgraced Saddam Hussein dictatorship. Hadi worked tirelessly to end the occupation and set about the task of re-building independent trade unions in Iraq resulting in the formation of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) of which he was a founder member (May 2003).
The IFTU denounces this murder as an act of cowardice, which follows a well-orchestrated programme of intimidation against workers and trade unionists and indicates a well-established pattern of targeted campaigns of assassination and terror waged by Saddam’s loyalists.
The IFTU therefore is calling on the international labour movement, the ILO and peace movements across the globe to deplore and denounce this heinous crime. We ask for messages of condolence to be sent to comrade Hadi Saleh’s wife and family (through the IFTU office at the top of this press statement) and for statements of support to be sent to the IFTU and the working people of Iraq for whom Hadi Saleh worked tirelessly.
Furthermore we ask the international labour movement to demand that Iraq’s interim government provide adequate protection for workers and their legitimate trade union representatives as they carry out their jobs.
The IFTU demands that the perpetrators of this vile crime be arrested and brought to trial and to prevent the attempted intimidation of trade unionists through foul acts such as the murder of comrade Hadi Saleh from happening again.