06 January 2005
Further to my e-mail, I now write to express on behalf of NATFHE’s NEC our deepest condolences to the family and comrades of Hadi Saleh. Our thoughts are with them at this terrible time.
It is difficult at such a time to balance our personal solidarity for those who mourn with the need to acknowledge Hadi Saleh’s political and trade union commitment and endeavour.
NATFHE commemorates Hadi Saleh as a founder member and international secretary of the IFTU and condemns utterly his vicious murder which is clearly aimed at intimidating trade union activists and destabilizing the rebirth and development of the Iraqi trade union movement.
We know that Hadi Saleh opposed Sadam Hussain’s dictatorship over three decades, enduring the privations and loneliness of exile for his commitment. We salute him for his vision of a democratic, peaceful and federal Iraq where workers’ rights to organize in unions were fully recognised.
NATFHE opposed the war and opposes the occupation of Iraq but we condemn absolutely the murder of trade unionists in the name of ‘resistance’.
Yours sincerely
Paul Mackney
General Secretary
NATFHE – the University & College Lecturers’ Union