Ensure that Memory of Hadi Saleh Endures
Tribune 28 July 2006.
Abdullah Muhsin says that trade unions can be the bulwark of a democratic and inclusive Iraq, but they need international support.
In January last year, Hadi Saleh, international secretary of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Union was tortured and murdered in his own home by assassin loyal to Saddam Hussein. The British TUC recently published a history of Iraqi trade unions to commemorate Hadi’s brave fight for the working people of Iraq and raise funds for its young trade union movement.
Unions in Iraq, united in the Iraqi workers Federation (IWF), seek economic growth and equality jobs in a democratic society rooted in human rights. As the main secular force in Iraqi society. We are crucial to making this happen, but we need the help of trade unionists around the world.
Many of us were force into exiled during Saddam’s reign returned, as Hadi did, when the dictator fell, in order to form free trade unions. Independent unions were suppressed for four decades under Saddam’s brutal regime and because his “ yellow unions” were an arm of his terror machine, the very word “union” evokes suspicion among some Iraqi workers.
This culture of fear is being dismantled through our work with many global unions but it is not over. Hadi’s murder sparked a wave of assassinations.
Terrorists who wanted to prevent civil society from functioning also target workers in key areas, such as teachers who are spreading the values of human rights and women’s equality.
Ali Hassan Abd of the Oil and Gas Workers Union was shot in front of his children in February 2005. Ahmed Adris Abass of the Transport and Communication Workers Union was shot dead in Martyr Square in Baghdad. Talib Khdim a leading IWF official was attacked and kidnapped, as was saady Edan, the head of our Mosul branch. In May this year Thabit Ali of the Health Sector was murdered in Baghdad.
Last month Shukry Al Shakhly a founder member of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions, was murdered in Baghdad, 85 workers were kidnapped from Al Nasa complex. In Taji seven workers were executed. At least 10 members of the Union of Mechanics, Printing and Metalworkers were killed. A few weeks ago, as suicide bomber killed Hassen Nassar, a leader of the Agricultural and Foodstuff Workers Union.
Terrorism is not the only attack Iraq unions face. The new Iraqi Government has demonstrated that it will not free unions from the suppression they faced under Saddam. It refuses to lift his ban on public sector or adopt a labour code that conforms to the International Labour Organisation core conventions.
Last year the Government introduced powers to exercise detailed control of unions and freeze our meagre assets. The TUC has led global protest against these restrictions and the Government has signalled a review, but pressure must be maintained.
Iraq’s needs jobs, Iraq’s economy was pulverised by Saddam’s wars, bled by unjust United Nations sanctions and further devastated by the invasion, looting and rampant corrupation. Iraq’s national economy needs emergency investment and widespread reconstruction, not privatization. And Iraq’s economy must be diversify, as more than 95 per cent of the country’s income derives from oil, which will not last forever.
We are fighting to strengthen the capacity of unions so that workers are not left on the sidelines as new elites restructure the national economy on neo-liberal lines. Without economic growth twined with social justice, democracy will not take root.
Iraqi unions can also be one of the most important independent centres in the formation of our democratic future. The unions can be a home to all Iraqis, irrespective of gender, ethnicity and religion. They can help promote social inclusion, prosperity and citizenship. Unions are the antidote to the sectarian poisons of extremism in iraq.
Hadi gave his life to the Iraq trade union movement. Please support our efforts in his memory.
Hadi Never Died: Hadi Saleh and the Iraqi trade Union Movement by Abdullah Muhsin and Alan Johnson is available from www.tuc.org.uk/publications or 020 7467 1294, for £10 (bulk discounts). Profits will go to the TUC Aid for Iraq Appeal.