Report on the recent visit to the UK of the head of the Teachers Union in Baghdad.
Abdullah Muhsin
11 April 2005
Mahdy Ali Lafta, the leader of the Teachers' Union in Baghdad, Al Risafa (east of the river Tigris) has just concluded a successful week-long visit to the UK, during which he was a guest of the National Association of School Masters/Union Women Teachers (NASUWT) at their national conference from 27 March-1 April in Brighton. He was also a guest of the TUC from 1-7 April 2005.
Mr Mahdy Ali Lafta, along with Abdullah Muhsin of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) and the Iraqi Teachers' Union (ITU) representative in the UK, attended the NASUWT conference and the TUC Young Activists' Conference in Newcastle.
The IFTU and ITU representatives addressed NASUWT delegates and informed them of the current political and industrial struggle of workers as they strive to build a free and democratic unions while campaigning alongside other independent Iraqi civil society organizations and patriotic political parties to end the occupation, restore Iraq's full sovereignty and build a lasting genuine and democratic federal Iraq.
Mr Mahday Ali Lafta and Abdullah Muhsin also met Owen Tudor, the Head of the TUC European and International department as well as Tom Wilson, the Head of the TUC's Organisation and Services Department.
Both Mr Lafta and Mr Muhsin met Mary Senior, the Assistant General Secretary of the Scottish TUC, in London in the office of Owen Tudor.
Mr Lafta met Harry Barnes MP, who is retiring as an MP, and informed him of the political situation in Iraq and how best the teachers are functioning. Gary Kent, Harry Barnes, Secretary and political adviser was present at the meeting and later interviewed Mr Lafta, for the web site of Labour Friends of Iraq, of which he is the Director.
Mr Lafta met also with head of education at the Department of Work and Pensions. The meeting was informative and useful. An official of the Foreign office attended the meeting.
Before leaving for Iraq on the 7 April 2005, Mr Lafta had a very constructive and business like meeting with Paul Mackney, the General Secretary of the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (Natfhe) and Owen Tudor at the NASUWT London region office.
Both the Guardian and the Morning Star interviewed Mr Lafta. The Guardian interview 'We want to build our nation' by Polly Curtis can be found on the IFTU and the Guardian websites.
Posted at April 11, 2005 11:10 AM