The Morning Star (Saturday 25 June 2005)
KARL STEWART reports from a UNISON fringe meeting on the bloody state of occupied Iraq
KURDISH Iraqi trade unionist Shadya Mohamad told a UNISON fringe meeting on Thursday night of the chilling warning that she had received before travelling to Britain - "Don't get your face on TV while you're over there or, when you come back, someone might try to kill you."
Ms Mohamad received the warning from family friends when she told them that she had been invited to Britain as a fraternal guest of the public-sector union.
She and other union representatives from the war-torn country spelled out the dangers that they face on a daily basis, as they appealed for solidarity and support from their British sisters and brothers.
The ongoing conflict in Iraq is not, they all insisted, a simple matter of "the occupiers versus the resistance."
There is also the developing Iraqi working class movement. A movement which is often, sometimes literally, caught in the crossfire.
Organisations such as the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) and Kurdistan General Workers' Union Syndicates (KGWU) have their own industrial, social and political agenda and work closely together towards their common goal of a "sovereign, democratic, federal and secular Iraq."
As a result of this, the IFTU has been targeted by both the occupation forces - the US military attacked their Baghdad offices last year - and by insurgents who kidnapped and murdered Hadi Saleh, one of their leaders, in January.
However, the unions blame Iraq's mounting death toll squarely on the war and occupation. Speakers called for the removal of all foreign forces and insisted that they neither asked for nor supported the invasion or the continuing occupation.
"It was opposed by the Iraqi working-class movement, as it was by you, right from the beginning," said IFTU executive member Abid Hashim
"And, when over a million of you marched against the invasion, we saluted you for the solidarity that you showed us.
"We wanted the removal of the Saddam regime and the cleansing of the army and security services to have happened at the hands of we Iraqis ourselves, not by the occupiers," he stressed.
Many years of internal repression, war, invasion and now occupation and terrorist attacks have all, in Mr Hashim's words, "impacted severely on the Iraqi working class" and although they are determined to keep fighting for Iraqi workers' rights, they are appealing for support and solidarity from trade unions in Britain and elsewhere.
In response to questions asking what British trade unionists could do to help, Mr Hashim said that their most pressing needs are resources for training and education, which are "absolutely essential."
The Iraqi federation wants to create a workers' academy he said, explaining that this could be used to educate, train and develop a new generation of union leaders, organisers and activists.
UNISON deputy general secretary Keith Sonnett, who has visited Iraq with a TUC-organised delegation, suggested that unions could provide language training and that branches and regions could set up "twinning" arrangements with their Iraqi equivalents.
UNISON delegates at this year’s national conference gave a delegation of Iraqi trade unionists a standing ovation after hearing about the immense bravery they have shown in promoting union rights.
Hangaw Abdullah Khan from the Kurdish General Workers’ Union told delegates how the Saddam regime took all the power away from the trade unions to strengthen their position in power.
“The international rule has been important in helping us have our first free elections and to avoid more disasters we need a federally united parliament,” he said.
“We would like the British people to help restore stability in Iraqi Kurdistan and greater Iraq.”
Bahra Othman, president of the Iraqi Kurdistan General Workers’ Syndicate Union women’s section, said it has not been easy for trade unionists in Iraq with the country recovering from dictatorial rule.
“We are working hard to have relationships with different syndicates across the world as well as nationally,” she said.
Delegates then called for international aid for the reconstruction of Iraq to be provided unconditionally and for the early withdrawal of troops by no later than the end of this year.
They also committed to work with all legitimate, independent and democratic trade unions in Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan.
UNISON deputy general secretary, Keith Sonnet, said that although conference recognises the rights of the Iraqi people to resist the occupation it cannot support the indiscriminate targeting of civilians and the murder of trade unionists.
“We condemn the continuing violence in Iraq and salute the courage of the Iraqi and Kurdish people,” he said.
He also pointed out that in the Iraqi election campaign most political parties campaigned on the basis that the occupation must end.
Carrie Murphy from Glasgow Health branch emphasised the importance of helping with reconstruction.
“We need a sensible approach to the rebuilding of Iraq,” she said. “It must be on Iraqi terms for the good of the Iraqi people so let us support the planned withdrawal of troops.”
People's Weekly World Newspaper: June 25, 2005
Author: Susan Webb
Six Iraqi union leaders touring the U.S. this week called for an end to the U.S. occupation and expressed hope that American workers would support their efforts to protect Iraqi workers’ rights and defeat privatization. U.S. Labor Against the War sponsored the 17-day, 25-city tour by the representatives of three major labor organizations in Iraq.
The delegation met with AFL-CIO President John Sweeney June 14. Earlier, they met with the AFL-CIO’s international affairs staff and were guests at a brown-bag lunch the federation hosted. The AFL-CIO has invited the three Iraqi labor groups to attend its convention in July.
The Iraqi unionists also met with Communication Workers President Morton Bahr and with top Service Employees union officials.
On Capitol Hill, the delegation spoke at a congressional briefing sponsored by Democratic Reps. Sam Farr, John Conyers Jr., Lynn Woolsey, Barbara Lee, Dennis Kucinich and Jesse Jackson Jr.
At a Washington press conference, Faleh Abbood Umara, general secretary of the Basra-based General Union of Oil Employees, said the U.S. occupation aims “to manipulate and control the Iraqi economy in the interests of the American government. We will oppose it all the way.”
Adnan A. Rashed, executive officer of the Union of Mechanics, Printing and Metals Workers, representing the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions, said, “In the Iraqi labor movement, we made it clear that change through war will produce complex issues and not bring democracy.” Addressing the U.S. labor movement, he said, “We expect you to put pressure on your own government, added to what we are doing, to get rid of the occupation forces.”
Falah Alwan, president of the Federation of Workers Councils and Unions of Iraq, noted that, with unemployment as high as 70 percent in Iraq and steep wage and benefit cuts imposed by the U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority, the employers’ strongest weapon against workers seeking to organize is to threaten them with replacement by the unemployed.
A key demand is revocation of Saddam Hussein’s 1987 law barring unionization of the public sector, which still includes most of the Iraqi economy, notably the oil industry, as well as anti-labor edicts issued by U.S. occupation boss, Paul Bremer. The unions want a labor code drafted by the unions themselves.
Gene Bruskin, a USLAW co-convener, said an emotional high point in Washington was a gathering at Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ, a largely African American church, whose minister, the Rev. Graylan Hagler, is an outspoken peace and social justice advocate. Moved by Hagler’s remarks, the Iraqi labor leaders jumped up with tears in their eyes and hugged him.
In New York, a labor breakfast June 17 with 50 U.S. trade unionists was followed by a meeting with religious and community leaders hosted by United for Peace and Justice, and an evening panel with 250 union and peace activists. The IFTU’s Rashed said the U.S. occupation has brought “the destruction of the Iraqi infrastructure, Iraqi institutions, civil service and the whole fabric of society.”
“The Iraqi people have all the resources, qualities, education, expertise to rebuild Iraq,” he said. “We will not accept the hegemony of a foreign power.”
The IFTU includes 12 unions in 15 provinces and three unions in Iraqi Kurdistan. Besides ending the occupation, Rashad said, “Our three economic fronts are to confront all privatization, the introduction of market economy and the intervention of international institutions like the World Bank.”
In Chicago, Alwan and Amjad Ali Aljawhry of the FWCUI told a June 17 meeting of some 200 labor and peace activists hosted by UNITE HERE that the Iraqi labor movement “has its own alternative” to the occupation. “We are establishing a new labor tradition,” Alwan said. “I will not exaggerate — this is the first time we are electing representatives and leaders. The tradition in Iraq was to have unions under total regime control.”
“In order to build a secular and progressive labor movement,” Alwan said, “we need the world labor movement to stand by us.” He urged an immediate end to the U.S. occupation as an important first step. The Iraqi unionists also spoke at Rainbow/PUSH the next morning.
In Berkeley, Calif., June 19, over 250 people at St. Joseph the Worker Roman Catholic Church heard Umara and GUOE President Hassan Juma’a Awad describe their struggle to regain union rights and conditions. Having reconstituted their union just 11 days after the U.S. takeover of Baghdad in April 2003, the GUOE defeated contracting firm KBR’s effort to take over the worksites they represent. KBR is a Halliburton subsidiary. A three-day strike in August 2003 won the workers a doubling of their wages. Despite the lack of official recognition, the union now has 23,000 members at 10 oil and gas companies.
The Iraqi unionists also spoke before three Bay Area central labor councils and at events organized by International Longshore and Warehouse Union locals.
USLAW’s Bruskin told the World the Iraqi labor delegation “captured the imagination of hundreds of trade unionists” who worked on the many events around the country. The tour “reached out beyond our usual audience,” he said, giving labor activism against the war “some real credibility.” A resolution opposing the occupation is expected to be presented at the upcoming AFL-CIO convention.
suewebb@pww.org
Mark Almberg, Marilyn Bechtel, Libero Della Piana and PAI news service contributed to this story.
Iraq to Resume Flights to Europe
The Iraqi government told parliament today that commercial passenger flights to Europe would resume this month; 15 years after UN sanctions isolated the country under Saddam Hussein.
Transport Minister Salam Al Maliki told the National Assembly that he hoped flights would resume to Frankfurt, one of Europe's main hubs, as well as Middle Eastern destinations.
'God willing, there will be flights to Dubai, Frankfurt, Tehran, Istanbul, Beirut and Cairo by the end of this month,' Maliki said without elaborating which airlines might operate the routes.
State airline Iraqi Airways, which was grounded by sanctions after Saddam's army invaded Kuwait in 1990, has over the past year been rebuilding its operations despite violence which has hampered transport since the war two years ago.
It already flies to Amman and Damascus and this week began domestic flights to Basra in the south for the first time since the US invasion in 2003. Royal Jordanian, the only foreign commercial passenger carrier landing at Baghdad, employs specially trained aircrew and combat zone flying techniques.
Maliki also told parliament that Sulaimaniyah airport, in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, will reopen next month, some months ahead of schedule. The airport at the Kurdish capital Arbil is already open.
Source: Iraqi Media Network
The Washington Times:
By Alexandra Klaren
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
Washington, DC, Jun. 9 (UPI) -- Iraqi labor leaders plan to meet with U.S. lawmakers and other officials to drum up support for greater workers' rights in Iraq, organizers say.
"This is a chance for people in the U.S., especially working people, to hear from Iraqis themselves about what they want to have happen with their country," David Bacon, a labor journalist and co-organizer of the tour, told United Press International. "Unions are a fundamental building block of Iraqi civil society and if Iraq is going to become a democratic country, trade unions must play a very important role in determining what direction that is."
The group, invited by U.S. Labor Against The War, a Washington-based non-governmental organization, arrives in Washington Friday to begin a June 10-24 national tour that takes them to 20 cities. Members from the Iraqi Federations of Trade Unions, the Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq, and General Union of Oil Employees plan to meet with U.S. workers, union leaders, members of Congress and others to seek help for greater rights in Iraq.
"We have more resources than them," Bacon said. "They could use the help of U.S. unions and working people in terms of trying to change their status."
President Bush, in his 2004 State of the Union address, said he would send Congress a proposal to double the budget of the National Endowment for Democracy, a body created in 1983 to work with pro-democracy groups around the world through non-governmental efforts.
"I will send you (Congress) a proposal to double the budget of the National Endowment for Democracy, and to focus its new work on the development of free elections, and free markets, free press, and free labor unions in the Middle East," he said. "And above all, we will finish the historic work of democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq, so those nations can light the way for others, and help transform a troubled part of the world."
Despite his statements, however, laws that prohibit labor organizing still exist in Iraq.
When the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority took over Iraq following the ouster of President Saddam Hussein in 2003, chief L. Paul Bremer implemented 100 orders that repealed a huge chunk of the Iraqi legal structure. Not on the list, however - as noted by Matthew Harwood in the April 2005 issue of the Washington Monthly -- was Saddam's 1987 Labor Code, which reclassified workers of large state enterprises, the majority of Iraqi workers, as civil servants, denying them the right to form unions in the public sector.
"Much of the CPA's effort in Baghdad was devoted to helping create a conservative's ideal state, complete with a 15-percent flat tax on individual and corporate income," Harwood wrote.
Gene Bruskin, a USLAW co-convener, said there was some language in the transitional law that says unions should have a right to organize, but there was no implementation.
"Iraq's economy is organized around basic industries that are publicly owned so if you have a clause in the transitional law that says that unions have a right to organize but public employees don't, it's a meaningless clause," he told UPI.
Iraqi labor leaders have made significant efforts in working with the U.N.-backed International Labor Organization to develop a new labor code that they hope will be a part of the new Iraqi constitution, which is still on the drawing board.
"I think it's broadly recognized by virtually every democratic leader and government and society in the world that you cannot have democracy without free trade unions," Bruskin said. "And so we think it's really important for people in the U.S. to hear directly from Iraqis, and these Iraqis in particular, because they represent secular, democratic, progressive voices."
Of almost equal concern to Iraqi workers is the issue of privatization. Later in his article, Harwood wrote, "Bremer's crew was so zealous that they tried, in September 2003, to privatize virtually the whole economy -- 200 state-owned firms."
Since the new Iraqi government has come to power, these ideas have found new life. According to the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Iraqi Industry Minister Mohammed Abdullah, following Iraq's new strategy to create a liberal free-market economy, recently drew up plans to partially privatize the majority of Iraq's 45 state-owned companies, including its lucrative oil sector.
Supporters of the minister's plan say it will help Iraq become a competitive economy.
"I think what they (the new Iraqi government) are talking about is opening up the economy to private investment of Iraqis and foreign investment in order to provide the capital for more rapid economic growth and that would benefit all Iraqis including Iraqi oil workers," James Phillips, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank, told UPI.
The six Iraqi labor leaders who arrive in Washington Friday, say, however, the plan will lead to job losses as new private owners may seek to reduce labor costs by cutting the work force. They argue the money necessary to rebuild Iraq must come from the heart of the country's economy: the oil industry.
"Any funds for the reconstruction of Iraq, everything from schools and hospitals to rebuilding the industry itself, essentially has to be paid for out of that oil income," Bacon said. Privatization, he says, would be disadvantageous because "most of the oil would go to the multinationals rather than to the Iraqis."
14 Jun 2005
Reuters
By Sue Pleming
WASHINGTON, June 14 (Reuters) - Iraqi trade unionists called on Tuesday for a bigger voice in Iraq where they said they were targeted for attacks by insurgents and intimidated by the U.S and Iraqi military.
Six leaders of the Iraqi trade union movement, who said they represent hundreds of thousands of workers in Iraq, are on a two-week visit to the United States to raise the profile of their groups.
"We need to get our voices heard and by coming to the United States we hope this will happen," said Adnan Rashed, executive officer of the Union of Mechanics, Printing and Metal Workers.
"We are trying so hard to organize workers and make our lives better," he said, adding he hoped the new Iraqi constitution would take workers' rights into account.
Brought to the United States by a group called U.S. Labor Against the War, which opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the union leaders also called for foreign forces to leave.
Speaking at a news conference translated from Arabic, the unionists said their attempts to mobilize workers were being thwarted by all sides -- from foreign companies working in Iraq to insurgents and the U.S. and Iraqi military.
Rashed said at least 10 of their unionists had been killed and tortured by insurgents and others were constantly harassed and intimidated for trying to mobilize workers.
Union offices have been shut down and raided, and eight activists were arrested by U.S. forces in 2003 and held for seven months until they were released, said Rashed.
"We have a very difficult time," said Rashed.
Falah Alwan of the Federation of Workers Councils and Unions of Iraq, cited a case where a woman working at a grain silo was labeled mentally unstable for organizing protests.
Faleh Abbood Umara of the General Union of Oil Workers demanded that U.S. forces quit Iraq.
His union has actively opposed the use of U.S. companies in Iraq, such as Halliburton
The unionists are visiting 20 U.S. cities, including Atlanta, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles, before returning to Iraq on June 26.
The Barre Montpelier Times Argus: Commentary
June 19, 2005
Adnan Rashed spent years in exile when labor unions were outlawed in his native Iraq. The 56-year-old was a prime mover in the Workers' Democratic Trade Union Movement, which was a giant thorn in the side of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Rashed returned home shortly after the end of Hussein's brutal regime — which murdered thousands of workers — and promptly got to work organizing fellow laborers. The Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions, on whose executive council he sits, is now 200,000 strong, with workers from all walks of Iraqi life.
It's an impressive accomplishment in an occupied country brutalized first by a madman dictator and now, for three years, by the ravages of war. Organizing labor in a country where 70 percent of the workforce is unemployed, and in which unions had been outlawed for nearly three decades, is a daunting task.
Rashed was in the United States last week to talk about what he and fellow workers face in Iraq.
But, more importantly, his planned visit to Vermont — he was expected to attend a potluck supper in Montpelier on Saturday night — should give us pause about the state of labor worldwide and about the delicate thread by which most of the world's workers hang onto a sustainable livelihood.
"The state of labor has only gotten worse," said Dawn Stanger, vice president of the Vermont Workers' Center, a member of the Teamsters union and a 16-year employee of United Parcel Service. "Someone else has used the line, 'trade unions are the canary in the coal mines.'"
And the canary is dying. In Iraq, the signs are obvious and not wholly unexpected.
According to Vermont Labor Against the War — the workers' center is part of the group — the war and occupation have brought on "the illegalization of their unions, the imminent threat of the privatization of most of the public sector by foreign corporations and a 70 percent unemployment rate."
The signs are obvious here, too. Union membership is at an all-time low in this country, driven in part by hard-line bargaining by multinational corporations who routinely decide that workers are expendable "assets."
Promised pensions are being yanked, wages are stagnant and government is increasingly hostile to workers.
A perfect example of that right here in Vermont is the recent fight over the elimination of an early retirement program that had been a part of the benefits package promised to full-time faculty at the Vermont State Colleges.
In addition to losing a retirement option — a disturbing and far-too-common trend in American businesses — the professors bore the brunt of name-calling by Gov. James Douglas.
He suggested that professors were receiving a too-generous benefit that was no longer affordable. He called them "big labor" and "special interests." And he excoriated their political benefactors for having the temerity to stand up to the eradication of worker security.
On a national level, the current political leadership is indifferent to labor most of the time, and, when it comes to issues such as wages, benefits and trade, it is downright hostile.
In Iraq, Rashed and his fellow workers are living under the shadow of Washington-forced economic and political policies that are not bringing stability or security to vast swaths of people.
To Stanger, Rashed should not be fighting against the interests of America and its multi-billion dollar corporations. She said, unions should be exploited for what they are best at fostering: a democratic lifting of their members' economic boats.
"I think we've given the troops in Iraq an impossible mission," Stanger said. "You can't push democracy, it has to rise from within. Trade unions are an effective way of doing that."
I think the reverse also is true. In America, ignoring the plight of workers can only serve to weaken our own democracy.
Darren Allen writes weekly about Vermont issues, people and events. You can reach him at darren.allen@timesargus.com.
Political Affairs Magazine: By Joel Wendland
6-17-05
Recent reports by two large trade union federations praised Iraqi workers for rebuilding their labor movement after the collapse of the Saddam Hussein regime, in the face of war and terrorism, and in the face of anti-worker policies imposed by the occupying authorities and the governing coalition.
The first report was prepared by the Trade Union Congress (TUC), the umbrella federation of British trade unions. It was written after a delegation of union leaders traveled to Iraq in March of this year.
Because of security concerns, the TUC delegation stayed in the northern Kurdish region. During the visit, the delegation met with a broad cross section of Kurdish and Iraqi unions and representatives of the main Kurdish political parties and government.
The delegation met with the leaderships of the Kurdish General Workers Syndicate Union in Dohuk, a large number of Kurdish white-collar unions/professional associations including the Teachers Union, the Chemists Union, doctors’, dentists’ and lawyers’ associations. The delegation also visited non-unionized fire fighters.
After this, the delegation met with the national leadership of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU), the largest trade union federation in Iraq, as well as its local leaders from Mosul and Kirkuk who had traveled to Kurdistan.
TUC called for continuing to work with IFTU and urged international recognition of the Kurdish unions. TUC offered training programs for union leaders and rank and file members. The union also called for raising funds to aid the IFTU in opening offices, acquiring technology, and training purposes.
The report by the AFL-CIO came after a meeting with AFL-CIO head John Sweeney by a diverse group of Iraqi trade union leaders who have just launched a tour of the US.
The AFL-CIO, affiliated unions and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) are assisting Iraqi unions in building an effective union movement while trying to create a secure peace under very difficult and complicated circumstances.
The AFL-CIO reports that Iraqi unionists are fighting for labor laws that help workers organize and enable them to win good working conditions and better living standards. Iraq’s union leaders also plan to help ensure a bigger role in the economy and the union movement for working women, who make up 60 percent of the workforce.
Under harsh economic conditions, including an unemployment rate at 50 percent and widespread violence sometimes aimed at workers who are joining or organizing independent unions (such as IFTU), workers are struggling to dismantle the legacy of the Hussein dictatorship. This legacy includes a union movement that in the past served the interests of the dictatorship.
One of the main fights Iraqi unions are leading is to prevent privatization of Iraq’s oil industry. Iraqi workers are calling for solidarity with US workers and are asking for support for their efforts.
Neither report addressed the Iraqi labor movement’s strong opposition, with the leadership of the IFTU, to the occupation of their country by the US and the UK, as well as the violence that targets workers and other non-combatants that has torn their country apart since the US-led war began.
Neither report addressed in much detail the demand that workers in Iraq have made for a sovereign democratic state, a system that respects the diversity of Iraq’s religious constituencies, creates protections for civil rights and liberties, protects the basic social safety net, and institutionalizes worker rights.
For more information on Iraq's labor movement, its history and current activities and views, click here.
--Reach Joel Wendland at jwendland@politicalaffairs.net.
IRAQ: Journalists call for greater freedom
BAGHDAD, 16 June (IRIN) - Iraqi journalists called for greater press freedom and respect for their profession at a conference held in the capital, Baghdad on 14-15 June.
The event was organised by the independent Iraqi National Communication and Media Commission (INCMC), following reported cases of abuse of journalists. The body was formed after the fall of the former government in April 2003.
The conference, entitled "A new future for media in Iraq", involved discussions held under six subject headings; democracy, journalist's rights, security issues, freedom in writing, transparency and the history of journalism in Iraq.
"The rights of Iraqi journalists should be recognised by the government as well as the international forces in the country. This conference is a big step in the search for their rights in a legal way," president of the INCMC, Mufid Jazaire, said.
Documentary videos were shown during the meeting, showing testimonies of Iraqi and foreign journalists, speaking about their experiences of working under dangerous conditions and being targeted by both insurgents and Coalition forces.
According to the INCMC, 29 journalists have been killed since the 2003 war and 56 have been kidnapped by different factions within the country.
The names of those killed in the course of their professional duties were displayed during the conference and were remembered with a one minute silence.
During Saddam Hussein's regime, only five newspapers were printed in the country and then only after approval from the Iraqi government. In addition, reception of satellite TV transmissions was banned.
Today more than 100 newspapers are in circulation and hundreds of TV channels received via satellite. Even so, concerns about censorship were still voiced.
"Dozens of journalists have been censored, especially those that show the reality and bad action taken by security forces in the country," Hashen Mahsen, president of the Organisation for the Defence of Journalists Rights (ODJR), said.
Nearly 200 journalists attended the event, which also included proposals for a quality control commission to be established to monitor reports and prevent the media from transmitting inaccurate information.
Journalists from northern Iraq asked for a review of press laws in the region, saying that they were still being censored. The Commission promised to assist and increase press freedom in the north of the country.
The conference ended with an address from the director of the BBC's Arabic service in Iraq, Safa'a Saleh, who brought to mind the suffering and terror experienced by many journalists working in the country.
"Iraqi and foreign journalists have been suffering with attacks and threats from many sources. It's the biggest opportunity for them to call for their rights and bring a brilliant and free journalism to the new democratic Iraq," he said
INTERNATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF FREE TRADE UNIONS - ICFTU OnLine: 081/170605
ILO commitment on youth employment and rights
Brussels, Friday 17 June (ICFTU online): The ICFTU warmly welcomed the adoption on Tuesday in Geneva of the conclusions and report on the discussion on youth employment held by the International Labour Conference (ILC).
Of the world's more than 1 billion young people, 85 per cent live in developing countries with a high incidence of poverty and inadequate employment opportunities. Young women generally, and in particular those with children, are more prone to unemployment, discrimination, sexual harassment, underemployment and poor working conditions.
Following the discussion on youth employment that was on the ILC agenda in recent days, the governments and social partners committed themselves to meeting the challenge of youth employment by fully involving young women and men in this struggle. The ICFTU strongly supports this call for urgent action to enhance the involvement of young workers, workers' organisations and their specific organisations in the development, implementation, and monitoring of youth labour market policies and programmes.
As the ILO report states, achieving decent work for young people is a critical element in poverty eradication and sustainable development, growth and welfare for all. The ICFTU regards the forthcoming review of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in September 2005 as providing an excellent opportunity to assess the extent to which national, regional, and international policies and strategies address the promotion of decent work for all with a focus on young people.
"It is extremely important that the Report recognizes specific problems of youth in the informal economy, where young workers are facing super-flexible arrangements, inadequate income, little or no social protection, no possibility of personal and professional development, no representation and poverty. Millions of young workers are trapped into the informal economy", added Evelyn Toth, of the Croatian union centre UATUC.
Toni Moore, of BWU-Barbados, welcomed the fact that "these conclusions clearly emphasise the quality of jobs and the rights of workers", in line with the approach demanded by the international union movement. And Alex Dias, 34, the youth coordinator of UGT-Portugal, added: "The challenge we face is to create conditions to enable young people to lead decent lives through decent work". This was the first time that young trade unionists were able to address the plenary of the International Labour Conference directly and this enabled them to present their own conclusions on the debate on youth employment.
Together with the fact that better account was taken of young people's rights in the debate on creating youth employment, the ICFTU welcomes the agreement reached to launch a campaign aimed at young people, under the auspices of the ILO, with a view to promoting decent jobs for young people and, in particular, creating jobs whilst promoting labour rights and employability. The trade union movement also fully supports the ILO action plan to promote pathways to decent work for youth. This plan is specifically aimed at developing countries and will focus on three priorities: building knowledge, advocacy/promotion, and technical
assistance.
CENTRE FOR PSYCHOSOCIAL HEALTH- IRAQ/CPHI & CENTRE FOR PSYCHO-SOCIAL CARE FOR SURVIVORS OF TORTURE IN BAGHDAD/ CPCST
Statement by the management committee and staff of Baghdad Centre for Survivor’s of Torture (the first of its kind, established in January 2004).
On the 21st June every Year the world community will be united in their recognition of the suffering of torture survivors. Various activities take place across the globe in expression of support to torture victims and their families and to condemn regimes, political groups and individual who practice such barbaric act for political purposes.
Physical, psychological and social consequences of torture are well recognised by research and tens of thousands of cases have been documented by human rights organisation, all of which contribute to the challenge of raising awareness about this criminal practice and increase resolve for a united international effort to expose countries and political groups that subject their citizens for torture as the first step toward complete ban.
Unfortunately Iraq is one of those countries where torture reached "epidemic proportions” during the 35 years rule of the deposed regime. Moreover the prospect of a democratic Iraq that respects and protects its citizens following 2003 occupation was replaced by the reality of terrorism, kidnapping, rape, sectarian violence and illegal detention. The scandalous abuse and torture of Iraqi detainees in Abu Garaib prison was the hallmark of the way Iraqis suspected of illegal activity are dealt with.
The promised rule of law was replaced by codes of the jungle where the weak and the vulnerable become the prey. Moreover, while recognising the right to deal and respond to the clear and present danger posed by terrorist groups who been targeting innocent civilian increasingly, this has to be within the context of rule of law that respects international codes of human right.
Even the long awaited political processes were overshadowed by political and sectarian violence and allegation of torture and abuse of human rights.
21st June will be another great memorial day of world support to victims of torture. Indeed, Iraqi victims will be remembered world wide. Such moral support is vital and important, albeit not enough. Iraqi society requires NGOs and voluntary organisation to support and provide practical help to torture survivors. Such help would include medical, psychological, legal and most of all recognition by current and future Iraqi governments to acknowledge the suffering of the victims by deeds and not words.
The well supported process of reconciliation and tolerance should not forget the actual victims of the past horrors, the citizens who been tortured and lost decades of their lives and often their loved ones too. They have the right for their suffering to be acknowledged, the perpetrators should apologise and receive the punishment according to codes of law. Victims should be compensated for their losses.
Finally all Iraqis who aspire to a free, democratic and prosperous Iraq wish to see the abolition of torture and that a commitment of such will be included in the new Iraqi constitution.
CPHI & CPCST (Iraq- Baghdad)
10th June 2005
Report from the delegation of British trade unionists to Iraq
18-25 March 2005
See full report on:
http://www.unison.org.uk/acrobat/B1882.pdf
Introduction
The delegation, comprising seven people from three British trade unions (FBU, NATFHE and UNISON), as well as the International Representative of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions and a journalist from the Financial Times, visited Iraq from18-25 March 2005. The delegation followed the 2004 TUC Congress resolution on Iraq which called for the exchange of delegations and twinning arrangements between British and Iraqi unions and took place only a few weeks after a TUC organised seminar on Iraq in London at which a number of Iraqi unions had participated and at which it was agreed to organise a return visit.
The trade union context in Iraq
Trade unions began organising in Iraq in the 1930s, initially in the nascent oil industry but later in transport, public utilities and education. By the time of the overthrow of the Hashemite Monarchy in 1958 the unions were a major political force capable of organising hundreds of thousands of workers. Following a coup in 1963 by the Ba’ath party the union movement began to be restricted in its activities, however, it was only after Saddam Hussein seized power in 1979 that the unions ceased to exist as independent organisations and became part of the Ba’athist apparatus. In 1987 a new labour code banned public sector workers from joining trade unions altogether.
Following the 1990-1 Gulf War trade unions began to organise in Iraqi Kurdistan, which was autonomous from the rest of the country. Iraqi trade unionists also founded the Workers’ Democratic Trade Union Movement, which operated underground and in exile.
Following the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003 a number of trade union organisations emerged. The Workers’ Democratic Trade Union Movement re-founded itself as the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) in May 2003. The Ba’athist General Federation of Trade Unions still exists but has sought to distance itself from the past and reorganise, whilst the former General Secretary of the GFTU has tried to set up a new organisation linked to a political party, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution of Iraq. The Kurdish unions are in the process of consolidating themselves. During the period between 1991 and 2003 the Kurdish General Workers Syndicate Union (KGWSU) a federation of blue-collar unions – was divided along the same political/administrative lines as the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG). Following the elections of January 2005 and the moves to create a single KRG the two wings of the KGWSU are also looking to form a single body. A number of white-collar unions, most notably the Teachers Union, also organise in Kurdistan. A similar blue-collar/white-collar divide exists in the rest of Iraq with several white-collar unions, again including the Teachers Union, not belonging to any of the federations. Finally, the Union of Unemployed in Iraq has created the Federation of Workers Councils and Trade Unions.
Security Context
The delegation was only able to visit the territory administered by the Kurdish Regional Government (Dohuk, Erbil/Hawler and Sulaimania provinces) due to the security situation in Iraq. These three provinces have been effectively autonomous of the rest of Iraq since the first Gulf War ended in 1991 and the uprising by the Kurdish ‘peshmerga’ militia. The KRG militia and police are in effective control of all three provinces and there have been relatively few incidents in the area since 2003 compared to the rest of Iraq.
The delegation entered Iraq by road from Turkey. The journey is safe from a security point of view but long (4 hours from Diyakabir in Turkey to the border with at least another 4 hours from the border to Erbil/Hawler). Crossing the border is a laborious process due to the controls imposed by the Turkish authorities. Flights do exist between Amman in Jordan and Erbil/Hawler but are operated by a charter company and fly subject to demand. The flights also stop-over in Baghdad, which poses a potential security risk due to missile attacks on the airport. The Foreign Offices currently advises British nationals to avoid flights in and out of Baghdad airport.
Travel within Iraqi Kurdistan between the three main cities is safe due to the regular controls by the militia, although the roads are often in a poor condition. The delegation felt completely safe walking and driving around in the three main cities.
Travel from the rest of Iraq to Kurdistan remains difficult and potentially dangerous. However, all the delegations we met insisted that they would rather travel within Iraq to meet international visitors than have to travel to Jordan for example, a journey which is equally potentially dangerous.
Meetings
During the visit the delegation was able to meet with a broad cross section of Kurdish and Iraqi unions, as well as representatives of the main Kurdish political parties and government.
The delegation met with the leaderships of the Kurdish General Workers Syndicate Union in Dohuk, Erbil/Hawler and Sulimania provinces. It also met with a large number of Kurdish white-collar unions/professional associations including the Teachers Union, the Chemists Union, doctors’, dentists’ and lawyers’ associations. The delegation also visited several fire stations to meet fire-workers, who are currently not unionised.
The delegation received the leadership of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions from Baghdad as well as the local leaderships from Mosul and Kirkuk who had travelled to Kurdistan. In addition the delegation met the leadership of the Iraqi Teachers Union.
The delegation also met representatives of both the Kurdish Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, including newly elected members of the Kurdish Regional Parliament and the Iraqi Parliament. It also met members of the Kurdish Regional Government in all three provinces: the Governor of Dohuk; the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Housing and Development, Minister of Local Government, and Governor of Erbil/Hawler; and the Deputy Prime Minister in Sulimania.
Recommendations
1. Co-operation with confederations:
* Given the continued allegations of links between the GFTU and those harassing IFTU activists, the TUC should no longer work with the GFTU and should work to see that the ICFTU also ceases to work with the GFTU
* The TUC should work within the ICFTU to recognise the Kurdish unions (once a merger has taken place) as a legitimate confederation. Until such time invitations to ICFTU events should be sent directly to the Kurdish unions, rather than via the Iraqi confederations.
2. Practical support to be given:
* All unions requested training for the members. This ranged from training for branch activists, via training for their leaderships to workforce development for ordinary union members. UNISON has already agreed a capacity building project – the TUC and other affiliates should be encouraged to take part in this and possibly develop their own work, especially where they have expertise in communication skills and work with the media. TUC training material should be translated into Arabic and Kurdish (Sorani) so it can be made available to Iraqi unions. DfID should be approached to see if it would be prepared to fund workforce development projects through trade union run education centres. There was also a need for wider civil society training.
* All unions require basic IT and communications equipment and office facilities. The IFTU in Mosul, for example, said it would cost just $200 a month to rent office space. Iraqi and Kurdish unions could also benefit from foreign language training, especially English, for people in their leaderships to help them develop international contacts.
* Development of sector to sector relationships between British and Iraqi unions through twinning, delegations etc as is already taking place with the teaching unions.
* Iraqi and Kurdish unions should be invited to TUC Congress this September and a fringe meeting should be held.
* During our meetings with the professional associations the issue of international links and the lack of international recognition of qualifications was raised. A link was also made to an urgent need to upgrade the teaching syllabus. Approaches could be made to organisations such as the BMA and the Law Society to encourage them to develop links in Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan.
Work to be undertaken by UNISON
* 6 guests ( 2 from the IFTU and 2 each from the Kurdish federations) to be invited to UNISON National Delegate Conference.
* Re-model the ‘organising skills’ training to allow a greater number of trainers to be trained and for training to take place within Iraq itself
* Develop training for the leaderships of the IFTU and Kurdish federations. Training to include; negotiation skills, communications skills, IT and a fact-finding visit to the UK
* UNISON to work in developing language and communication skills of the Iraqi federations to help them communicate more effectively with other unions world-wide.
Delegation
Brian Joyce and Dave Green, members of the FBU Executive Council
Keith Sonnet and Nick Crook, Deputy General Secretary and International Officer of UNISON
Mary Davies, member of the NATFHE National Executive and the TUC Women’s Committee
John Lloyd, Editor of the Financial Times Magazine
Abdullah Muhsin, International Representative of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions
The AFL-CIO has the following report on the Iraqi Trade Union tour of the USA
Iraqi Unionists Rebuilding Devastated Union Movement
June 14—Iraqi unionists are overcoming tough obstacles—including security issues, high unemployment and a lack of strong workers’ rights laws—to rebuild the nation’s union movement, Iraqi union leaders say.
“Our fundamental goal is a progressive, modern, civilized labor law that guarantees workers’ rights,” says Falah Alwan, president of the Federation of Workers’ Councils and Unions of Iraq. “We have an incredible opportunity to build a progressive, independent labor movement that could be a model for the entire Middle East.” “We have modest and simple resources yet an iron will to re-build our labor movement,” said Adnan Rashed, an executive officer and leader of the Union of Mechanics, Printing and Metals Workers of the Iraqi Federation of Workers’ Trade Unions (IFTU).
Alwan, Rashed and four other Iraqi trade union leaders spoke June 13 at the AFL-CIO and will meet with federation President John Sweeney on June 15. The AFL-CIO, affiliated unions and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) are assisting Iraqi unions in building an effective union movement while trying to create a secure peace under very difficult and complicated circumstances.
Unions Seek Increased Role for Women Workers
The new laws must be based on internationally recognized labor standards, such as the freedom to join a union, says Abed Sekhi, a member of the IFTU executive council and a member of the Agricultural Workers’ Union. Iraq’s union leaders also plan to help ensure a bigger role in the economy for working women, who make up 60 percent of the workforce, he says.
Unemployment is high, especially among women, Alwan says. Women play a limited role in the Iraqi union movement, he says, but they must be included if the nation is to throw off the repressive conditions of the previous regime.
Iraq had a thriving union movement several decades ago, but many unions were forced underground in 1987 when former dictator Saddam Hussein outlawed unions representing public-sector workers, who made up 80 percent of the nation’s workforce. Some public-sector unions re-emerged in 2003 after the U.S. invasion. Unions that remained in the private sector were government fronts and oppressed workers, says Alwan. “So we are starting from zero due to a lack of a real trade union culture.”
Workers in Iraq face many of the same issues as workers in other parts of the world, but addressing those issues is complicated by the chaotic situation in the country and the lack of security, the leaders say. Alwan, Rashed and Sekhi and three other Iraqi leaders say Iraqis must be able to build their own institutions and they expressed a desire for a rapid U.S. troop withdrawal, offering a variety of conditions needed that must be in place before they believe U.S. troops should depart.
Iraqi Unions Fighting Privatization of Nation’s Oil Industry
Key issues for Iraqi workers include wages, poor working conditions, lack of safety and health protections and the threat of privatization of the nation’s oil industry, says Hassan Juma’a Awad Al Asade, chief of the executive bureau of the General Union of Oil Workers (GUOW) in Basra.
“Since the re-establishment of our union in 2003, we immediately fought for and got better wages for our members yet the road is still long in terms of meeting the majority of our demands for better working conditions,” said Faleh Abbood Umara, general secretary, GUOW-Basra.
All the leaders agree international solidarity is crucial to their success in building an effective Iraqi union movement. “We can’t do this alone,” Alwan says. “We’re all in the same situation and we need your support and solidarity.”
Updated: June 14, 2005
The perils of translation
Ann Clwyd MP, the Prime Ministers Special Envoy to Iraq on Human Rights and an LFIQ President has successfully challenged an inaccurate BBC report (see below).
Ann told the BBC that "We have well-established contacts with the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU), who inform us that the person arrested was the leader of the General Federation of Iraqi Trade Unions (GFITU). We have reason to believe that this organisation is a newly formed version of the General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU), which was the Ba'athist so-called 'union' organised by the Saddam Hussein regime." The BBC has acknowledged its error and altered the report.
The original BBC report read as follows:
Iraqi trade union federation calls for release of head
Text of report by Dubai-based news channel Al-Arabiya TV on 3 June. The Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions [IFTU] has issued a statement protesting against the arrest by the Iraqi police of IFTU head Jabbar Tarish al-Darraji. Trade union members said that the manner of arrest was similar to the practices followed by the former Iraqi regime. [IFTU spokesman - recording] The Federation strongly condemns this act, which is meant to create conflict among several unions, which has nothing to do with union work. The manner of the storming and arrest
takes us back in time to what the defunct regime used to do. This is because the manner of arrest shows disrespect for the sanctity of the headquarters of the federation, which represents the proletariat in Iraq.
The arrest constitutes a dangerous and unprecedented act against the activity of the unions and civil society organizations. Hence, we appeal to all political forces and civil society organizations to immediately intervene to secure the release of the head of the federation. We call for such acts not to be repeated in the future in order to achieve democratic and independent progress in union work, and have a free and democratic civil society that serves Iraq and the
Iraqi people.
[Signed] Executive Bureau of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions.
Source: Al-Arabiya TV, Dubai, in Arabic 1414 gmt 3 Jun 05
Iraqi unions claim their voice
David Bacon
Sunday, June 12, 2005
Chronicle Sunday Insight
Baghdad -- For most Americans, the idea that Iraq has unions is a strange concept. We have become accustomed to seeing images of soldiers and bombs, while Iraq's working families have little visibility and are given little consideration in U.S. policy debates.
Yet Iraq, a country of 24 million people, has a long history of civic and labor activism dating back to the 1920s, when the British dug the first oil wells, and oil workers organized their first unions. They weren't legal then - - in fact, the British shot strikers in one of Iraq's first labor confrontations. They're not legal now, either.
Saddam Hussein, fearing a progressive movement to topple his dictatorship, banned unions for public workers in 1987. Iraq's public sector includes all of its largest industries -- oil, railroads, ports and big factories.
When the occupation began, however, U.S. authorities refused to repeal that law, despite promises of democracy. Instead, chief occupation administrator Paul Bremer issued Public Order 30 in September 2003 to privatize Iraq's state-owned industries. Thomas Foley, a fund-raiser for President Bush, drew up lists of factories, airlines, railroads, mines and other enterprises to be sold to private investors, including foreign corporations. Despite last January's elections, that program is still on the books.
Iraqi workers adamantly oppose privatization, since it would lead to massive job loss in a country already suffering 70 percent unemployment, according to economists at Baghdad University. To Iraqi unions, denying them legal status is a way to keep them weak in the face of the occupation's economic program.
Yet Iraqi unions -- despite lacking legal status and often being the targets of the occupation on the one hand and terrorists on the other -- have begun winning better conditions for workers. Hundreds of thousands of workers have joined, according to Iraqi labor organizers, making unions the largest institution in Iraqi civil society.
Oil workers recently held a large congress in Basra to voice their opposition to privatizing oil, or selling it to transnational corporations at discounted prices. Oil income, they said, is needed to rebuild their country. Their union calls for keeping public assets in public hands. It also calls for an end to the occupation, and the withdrawal of U.S., British and other foreign troops. Today, Iraq has several union federations. They don't always agree on everything, but on these two points, they see eye-to-eye.
Most Americans hope that the occupation will end too, replaced by a progressive government that will raise living standards and ensure a democratic and peaceful future. The war deprives working families in the United States of the money needed for education and public services, and it sends their children into harm's way. Yet instead of bringing prosperity and peace to Iraqis, the war has brought the opposite. Working families in both countries want the same thing.
That makes it important to seek out the voices of Iraq's unions, its women's, professional and student organizations, and hear what they have to say. Their voice is missing in the debate over the future of their country.
(1) Defiant: A worker at Iraq's state leather industry factory denounces the ban on unions. Many workers view organizing as their right after years under dictatorship. As Ghasib Hassan, general secretary of the Union for Aviation and Railway Workers and member of the executive committee of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions, explained: "The IFTU was established soon after the fall of Saddam Hussein by trade unionists who had been in exile or prison, who are very well known because of their struggle against the former regime. They paid heavily and suffered terribly. ... We began going out to factories. We formed committees in workplaces, and people nominated and elected their representatives freely. We are building a trade union movement which is independent, democratic and pluralist. Workers should be freee to join the union of their own choice. We campaign for social, economic and political advances in the interest of working people. We want a federal, prosperous and democratic Iraq. Women should take their place in society, government and trade unions. Their wages should be equal to those of men. We've built 12 national unions, and women are leaders of some."
INTERNATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF FREE TRADE UNIONS
ICFTU OnLine:
078/150605
Trade unions welcome G8 action and call for extended debt relief
Brussels: 15 June 2005 (ICFTU Online): The ICFTU, together with TUAC(*), today welcomed the announcement of debt cancellation by G8 finance ministers.
Following a 2 day meeting in London (10-11 June), Ministers announced a package which will mean that 18 countries will have 100% of debts cancelled which they currently owe to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and African Development Bank. The ICFTU has called for debt cancellation for low-income indebted countries for over a decade and earlier this year joined the world's largest ever anti-poverty coalition, the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP), which is campaigning for debt cancellation, more and better aid, and trade justice.
In hailing the development as a "significant step", the ICFTU also recalled that the 18 countries that would benefit from the plan - provided it is approved at next September's annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank -- constitute less than one-third of the low-income countries with an unsustainable debt burden.
For example, Haiti, which is the poorest country in the Americas, is not among the 18. In January 2005, the almost-bankrupt government of Haiti was obliged to reimburse $52.6 million to the World Bank in order to become eligible for renewed World Bank lending.
Therefore, last weekend's debt cancellation plan must be a first step towards further debt relief for an increased of heavily indebted countries.
The G8 plan requires that countries must abide by the terms of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) programme, which includes a requirement to observe the structural adjustment programmes designed by the IMF and World Bank. Such programmes include conditions such as privatisation of public services and rigid ceilings on government expenditures, regardless of the social costs. These conditions, imposed on poor countries on the doubtful premise that they enhance growth, frequently reduce services to the poor and will impede achievement of the UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The ICFTU and TUAC therefore call on industrialised countries to extend full debt cancellation to all low-income countries respecting human rights that have a shortfall of resources to meet the MDGs. The debt write-off should not be dependent on structural adjustment conditionality and should not reduce the aid they receive from multilateral donors or other sources. Furthermore, debt relief must be accompanied by the adoption of new mechanisms to increase financial
flows to developing countries, for example through international taxation such as a Tobin tax.
All these proposals were highlighted in the trade union statement to the G8 Summit, which an international trade union delegation will be discussing at an upcoming meeting on 28 June in London with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, host of the 2005 G8 Summit.
(*) TUAC is the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD
The ICFTU represents 145 million workers in 233 affiliated organizations
in 154 countries and territories. ICFTU is also a partner in Global
Unions: http://www.global-unions.org
For more information, please contact the ICFTU Press Department on +32 2
224 0206 or +32 476 621 018.
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 06/09/05 09:36
Iraqi trade union leaders from three union organizations will tour the U.S. from June 10-26 under the sponsorship of U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW), a group composed of state labor federations, central labor councils and local unions.
The tour features representatives the Iraqi Federation of Labor (IFTU), General Union of Oil Employees–Basra (GUOE), and the Federation of Workers Councils and Unions of Iraq (FWCUI).
This will be the first opportunity to hear directly from Iraqis about the crisis conditions facing Iraq’s workers under the U.S. occupation. The trade unionists will speak about their struggles against the U.S.-corporate-inspired privatization drive and the occupation, and for a secular, democratic country that respects trade union rights.
The tour will begin with five days (June 10-15) in Washington, D.C., with a meeting with the national AFL-CIO leadership, a congressional briefing and a National Press Club event.
Tour events organized so far include meetings with labor bodies and public meetings. United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) is helping to organize these events. Local peace groups, faith-based organizations and community groups are also participating.
A preliminary schedule of the tour follows:
East Coast tour featuring the IFTU: Baltimore, June 15; New York City, June 16-17; Vermont, June 18-19; Boston, June 20-21; Hartford, Conn., June 22; Stony Brook, N.Y., June 23; Philadelphia, June 24.
Midwest and South (FWCUI): St. Paul, Minn., June 16; Chicago, June 17-18; Atlanta, June 18-19; New Orleans, June 18; Detroit, June 19; Madison, Wis., & Milwaukee, June 20; Pittsburgh, June 21; Buffalo, N.Y., June 22-23; Cleveland, June 24.
West Coast (GUOE): Los Angeles, June 16-18; San Francisco Bay Area, June 16 and June 19-21; Portland, June 22; Seattle, June 23.
To get the most up-to-date information about the events, visit USLAW’s web site, www.uslaboragainstwar.org.
The Iraqi Committee for a Democratic Constitution
___________________________________________________
54 Westbourne Grove, London W2 5SH
E-mail: iraqcdc@hotmail.co.uk
5 June, 2005
PRESS RELEASE
Iraqi Campaign for a Democratic Constitution Launched in London
A campaign to promote writing a democratic permanent constitution in Iraq, laying the basis for a modern Iraqi state based on the rule of law and institutions, was launched at a meeting attended by about 120 Iraqi democrats, on Saturday evening, 4th June 2005, held at the Kufa Gallery in London.
The setting up of the “Iraqi Committee for Democratic Constitution” is aimed at active participation by all Iraqi democrats, of all tendencies and affiliations, in writing the permanent constitution in Iraq, and lobby support for a number of principles including:
- Establishing a democratic, pluralistic, parliamentary and federal republic.
- Adherence to the principle of citizenship, and establishing a state of law, institutions and justice, and ensuring political pluralism and peaceful transfer of power.
- Separation between executive, legislative and judicial powers.
- Separation between religion and state; respect for the Islamic identity of the majority of Iraqi people, and ensuring the rights of other religions and sects.
- Adopting the International Declaration of Human Rights, stressing on civil and political freedoms, the freedom of expression, demonstration and organisation (as stipulated in the Transitional Administrative Law - the interim constitution).
- Equality between women and men, and abiding by all international covenants concerning the rights of women and children.
- Prohibiting all forms of discrimination on the basis of belief, race, gender, colour, or ethnic and religious affiliation.
- Ensuring the rights of nationalities, religions and sects.
- Securing federalism for Iraqi Kurdistan, and national and cultural rights for all the constituents of the Iraqi people, including Turkomans, Chaldeo-Assyrians, Faili Kurds, Armenians, Azedians, Sabians, Shabak, Christians, Jews. Adopting a decentralized form of administration for the provinces and their relationship with the central government.
- Ensuring social and economic rights for the citizen; the right to education, health and work, and ensuring social security, and complying with relevant international covenants.
- Ensuring cultural freedom and respect for ideological, political and national pluralism in our national culture.
- Subjugating security forces to elected constitutional institutions and their allegiance to the homeland.
- Developing an effective constitutional mechanism for control over the natural resources, especially the oil wealth, to ensure that it is used to serve the interests of the people and development of national economy, and prevent the plunder and manipulation of this wealth.
The meeting also launched a campaign to collect 1000 signatures on a memorandum calling for adopting the above-stated principles for writing the permanent constitution. The memorandum will be presented to the National Assembly committee tasked with drafting the constitution, as well as the Iraqi President, Prime Minister and Chairman of National Assembly.
The meeting set up a committee, of 18 democrats and activists, to implement the proposed plan of action during the next few weeks. The Committee includes: Salam Ali, Dr Najm Ghulam, Ansam al-Jarrah, Dr Reiadh al-Zuheiry, Samir Tabla, Souad al-Jazairy, Dr Sabah Jassem, Areej Sultan, Dr Sabah al-Sudani, Kawa Bisarani, Nadia Haider, Amanuel Yaqoub, Dr Abdul Hassan, Dr Sabah Mar’I, Dr Leonard Jacob, Dr Kamel Hassan, Ali al-Shawket, Manar Sabri.
The program of future activities includes organising specialised seminars, talks and meetings, for the purpose of discussing the principles of the permanent constitution, based on Iraqi reality and making use of democratic experiences of other countries and peoples. In addition to an active media campaign, the “Iraqi Committee for Democratic Constitution” will encourage writings about the constitution, and issue a bulletin for relevant studies and research material.
الرجاء توقيع العريضة
http://www.petitiononline.com/iraqcdc/petition.html
Please suport the campaign by signing the petition.
الهيئة التحضيرية - اللجنة العراقية من اجل دستور ديمقراطي
Iraqi Committee for Democratic Constitution
___________________________________________________
54 Westbourne Grove, London W2 5SH
E-mail: iraqcdc@hotmail.co.uk
5-6-2005