Saddam’s Fight Against Workers
Democratic trade unionists in Iraq have called for increased solidarity with Iraqi workers in the wake of dictator Saddam Hussein’s latest decree ‘abolishing’ workers.
Saddam first announced his decision on 11th March 1987 during a televised meeting with the “leaders” of the General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU) and the members of the “Central Workers Office” of the Ba’th Party.
During the meeting Saddam asked his astonished audience “instead of calling those who work for the state ‘workers’, why not call ALL who work for the state ‘civil servants’, and get rid of the term worker?”. He then continued his argument saying “from now on the Labour Law is annulled and the Civil Servant’s Law takes its place”. So now the wife of a worker is the same as the wife of a general manager, and the same as the wife of the President”!!
The dictator then announced that “the term ‘worker’ is abolished, the Labour Law is abolished, GFTU is abolished and all workers become civil servants@. He saw no need for trade unions now that, in his view, workers did not exist any more!
Saddam’s audience lost no time in praising his latest orders. In the days following the meeting the announcement was trumpeted in the press, and by the GFTU “leaders” themselves, as a “revolution” that was removing class structures from Iraqi society. Telegrams of congratulations poured into the Presidential Office and numerous public celebrations were held. Writing in the regime’s daily newspaper Al-Thawra on 13th March, GFTU “President” Ahmad Dulaimi proclaimed that they were “celebrating this great historic achievement”, and he thanked God and Saddam Hussein for it.
Decree No. 150 from the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) followed on 19th March to formalize Saddam’s decision. This decree, in addition to the measures described above, also announced that the Labour Pension and Social Security Fund was to be handed over to the treasury – i.e. workers had even been robbed of their pension funds! Workers in the state sector (“civil servants”!) were also decreed not to be eligible for resolving their disputes in the Labour Courts.
The decree announced the annulment of Labour Law No. 151 of 1970. This law contained many provisions to safeguard worker’s rights and was passed as a result of the pressure put on the regime by the worker’s struggle. The regime never implemented this law fully.
Saddam Hussein, in an article published by the Iraqis press on 31st March, said that he abolished the Labour Law because it was “causing serious problems to production”.
Since them the working day has been extended to 12 hours in many civilian and military factories. Travel and food allowances have been stopped.
Trade union organization was also decreed to be confined to the “private, mixed and cooperative sectors”. This only covers 20% of Iraq’s workforce. Since then the regime has reorganized GFTU as the trade union for the private sector. “Elections”, directly supervised by the security apparatus, were held on 26th July for the “new” GFTU “leaders”. This move was taken purely for international consumption in order to maintain international trade union contacts.
Saddam’s solution has revealed the nature of his regime quite clearly. In one fell swoop he has abolished an organization that was no longer useful to him. He has unmasked the puppet organisations he has tried to present to the world as genuine trade unions. His actions are also a desperate attempt to trample the growing opposition of Iraqi workers to his brutal rule.
One of the very first actions of the Ba’th regime after the 1968 coup was to arrest trade union leaders, occupy their headquarters and impose its grip on the organisations through its own appointments.
In this way it succeeded in converting GFTU into a yellow trade union structure, whose job became to police workers on behalf of the security services, and to act as a conveyor belt for the management and Ba’th Party decisions.
Workers were thus deprived of effective organisations to defend their interests. The situation became more acute as Ba’thist terror worsened in the late 1970s. GFTU was turned into a systematic information-gathering centre for the security services - indeed, its own leaders perished in the purge of Ba’thist officials after Saddam Hussein came to power in 1979.
Workers have suffered terribly over the last few years. Wages have been frozen and the working hours extended while the cost of living has increased dramatically. ‘Donations’ for the war effort were extracted forcibly from workers’ wage packets. About 60% of the Iraqi workforce was at the warfront. Their places in the factories were taken up by women forced into becoming bread-winners through the loss of their men folk in the war, as well as by migrants who number over 2 million. These have been used as a source of cheap labour.
Against this background the underground Worker’s Democratic Trade Union Movement in the Iraqi Republic (WDTUMIR) was formed in Iraq in 1980. It has become increasingly successful in organising workers clandestinely and in the organisation of actions to defend worker’s rights.
Solidarity with the trade unionists is all the more vital in the present situation. One of the GFTU “leaders” remarked to Saddam during the March 11th meeting: “Sir… your historic decision has rid us of the problem of the British T.U.C. not working with us. They always told us that we were working for the government”. There are many in the British trade union movement who have campaigned actively in solidarity with the Iraqi people.