Link to UNISON (UK public services trade union) website on Iraq
unison
Dave Anderson MP, has tabled an Early Day Motion (number 1689) about Decree 8750. So far 73 MPs have signed to support the EDM - you can view the list and the full text, click here please: parliament
TUC Iraq Bulletin - issue 3, April 2006
The third issue of the TUC's bimonthly bulletin on union developments in Iraq, designed to publicise the work of the TUC Iraq Solidarity Committee.
Hadi never died
Brendan Barber
July 19, 2006 02:57 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/brendan_barber/2006/07/hadi_never_died.html
A couple of years ago, I led the TUC delegation to the global congress of trade unions in Japan. Among many other trade unionists from all over the world, we met a quiet, dapper man from Iraq called Hadi Saleh, international secretary of the then Iraqi federation of trade unions, who explained in very dignified and carefully chosen words that trade unionists and workers generally were under threat of their lives from terrorism. He impressed me greatly.
A month later, he returned to his Baghdad home late from his union duties one night to find that former members of Saddam Hussein's secret police had broken into his house. They were there when he entered. They tortured him and then killed him.
The TUC and our colleagues in the AFL-CIO in the US helped his grieving family and his trade union colleagues to erect a tombstone over his grave. We held a memorial occasion at Congress House on the 40th day after his death. We have, as he would have wanted, continued to assist his trade union sisters and brothers to organise, to resist unjust laws and to grow.
But we wanted to do something more. And today we are publishing a booklet by his friend Abdullah Muhsin with Alan Johnson, editor of Democratiya. Hadi Never Died is the story of Hadi Saleh, from his early activism and arrest under the Ba'athists through his years in exile, first in Syria and latterly in Sweden, and thence back to Iraq as the invasion force built up. It interweaves his story with the history of the trade union movement in Iraq - once the largest and best organised in the region - and its recent past.
Unionism in Iraq faces huge challenges. Some are familiar: wage bargaining, resisting privatisation, arguing for women's equality, supporting democracy. The trade union movement in Iraq (and its better established fellow in Kurdistan, where unions have been free to organise for over a decade longer) has so far prevented the looting of Iraq's oil by rapacious oil companies, just as individual workers prevented looting from their workplaces in the early days of the invasion (railway workers even slept in their engines to prevent them from being stripped). It has secured wage increases and even a minimum wage, and dealt with thousands of petty management dictates.
Some challenges are rarer, but hardly unknown. The first administrator of Iraq, Paul Bremer, kept in place the infamous decree 150 of Saddam's banning trade unions in the public sector, which covers most of the Iraqi economy. He also appointed a firm of tax lawyers from Florida to draft a new labour code, although we eventually persuaded his Iraqi successors to engage the International Labour Organisation (ILO) instead (the law it drafted has still not been implemented).
More recently, last August, the then Iraqi cabinet approved decree 8750 giving it the power to sequestrate union funds, and "oversee" internal elections. Alerted by the Iraqi unions, the TUC led worldwide protests, and the ILO is now considering the case against the decree - and there are hopeful signs that the latest Iraqi government may abandon it, though we need to keep up the pressure.
But some of the challenges make Iraq one of the most dangerous places in the world in which to be a trade unionist. It is becoming like Colombia: a country where trade unionists are under daily threat of violence and even murder.
Since Hadi's death, terrorists in Iraq have begun to target unionists. Many have already been killed. And so have thousands of ordinary workers who, as well as being trade union members, became targets for the terrorists either because they were by their very employment assisting the government, or - in some ways more chillingly - because of what they were doing: teaching girls and boys about equality or human rights, for instance.
The so-called resistance and the religious fanatics are currently engaged in what some trade unionists there have described as genocide against workers. They are fairly clearly trying to stop trade unions from becoming a beacon for a secular, democratic, anti-sectarian and egalitarian civil society. I remember Hadi Saleh, and I want to make sure they fail.
Morning Star July 19 2006
Abdullah Muhsin Explains why Hadi Saleh's work must live on.
Iraq’s trade union movement was once one of the largest and strongest in the Arab world, but its independence was brutally crushed by Saddam’s regime, leaving a yellow union structure in its place, working for the regime rather than for working people.
Iraq’s trade union movement was once one of the largest and strongest in the Arab world, but its independence was brutally crushed by Saddam’s regime, leaving a yellow union structure in its place, working for the regime rather than for working people.
A group of clandestine and exiled activists kept the notion of free and independent unions alive, at a great cost, during Saddam’s bloody reign: one of their leaders was Hadi Saleh, who returned to Iraq ahead of the 2003 invasion to rebuild the trade union movement, and who took on the role of International Secretary.
Hadi was brutally tortured and murdered in Baghdad in January 2005, and today the TUC is publishing a booklet* which tells his story and that of the Iraqi trade union movement he played such a leading role in.
Building unions
After the fall of Saddam’s dictatorship, Hadi and other activists in the Workers’ Democratic Trade Union Movement formed the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) on 16 May 2003 with over 200,000 members.
Last September the IFTU agreed to merge with other smaller federations: successors of the state-run unions whose leaders had renounced Saddam’s brand of Ba’athism and another supported by Islamic parties to form the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW). This merged organisation (which does not cover Iraqi Kurdistan where unions have been operating freely for a decade and a half) has been recognised by the International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions as well as the ICFTU to which the TUC belongs. Other trade unions in Iraq based on professions, like the teachers’ union, are working closely with the GFIW on issues like labour laws.
The GFIW is striving to build independent, democratic and pluralistic unions, and believes that workers should be free to join the union of their choice. We are campaigning for a labour code that adheres to the ILO core conventions. And we are campaigning for economic, social and political advances: we want unions positioned to engage fully not only over pay and working conditions but as a key partner in the formation and consolidation of a federal, prosperous and democratic Iraq controlling its own future.
Political challenges
Given the tragic history of Iraq and its labour movement and now the threat also of extremism, the new Iraq must be built on there pillars: a strong state based on democratic governance; a vibrant civil society in which unions will play a key role; and a growing economy based on social justice.
All of this is being constructed but requires careful handling by Iraq’s accountable government and elected assembly. Social partnership between the Iraqi state, its people and the international community is essential for the success of the project of the democratisation of Iraq. Civil society must be encouraged to develop independently of state and political influence. Unions are the heart of civil society and should not be hindered by Iraq's government: we need a new labour code to replace Saddam’s, and we need to be freed from state intervention as provided for by the infamous Decree 8750 of last summer.
Unions are not the voice of a single ideology but are the glue that binds different communities together for the improvement of social, economic and political conditions. Free and independent unions in Iraq are fundamental to Iraqi stability and security. The GFIW is one of the few civil society organisations (and by far the largest) which organises regardless of race, nationality and religion, gender and ethnicity.
Hadi’s legacy
Hadi Saleh campaigned for all this and more, both in his years of exile after imprisonment and a death sentence which was eventually carried out in the most gruesome fashion.
Since his death, the attempts by extremists to silence the Iraqi trade union movement (and workers generally) have intensified. Independent trade unions are considered a threat because they represent stability and secularism, but also because they are an alternative centre of power. Workers loyal to their unions are less easy for other people to control.
And workers generally suffer from the terrorist attacks which are often reported as mere sectarianism by the western media. Teachers are attacked for teaching about human rights, workers in essential industries are attacked for alleged collaboration with the state (when what they are doing is providing the public services that ordinary Iraqis need).
Hadi’s legacy is a free, independent trade union movement in a free, independent Iraq. By remembering his legacy, the TUC is promoting those objectives, and they will be using the booklet Alan and I have written to raise awareness and also funds so that the fledgling Iraqi trade union movement can pursue those objectives on behalf of the workers – all the workers – of Iraq.
* ‘Hadi Never Died: Hadi Saleh and the Iraqi Trade Unions’, by Abdullah Muhsin and Alan Johnson, is available from www.tuc.org.uk/publications
19,July 2006
POINTS OF ORDER
IRAQI trade union leader Hadi Saleh was tortured and killed by assassins said to be loyal to Saddam Hussein.
A book commemorating efforts to rebuild unions in Iraq will be launched today in the Commons by his widow and TUC general secretary Brendan Barber.
The war is a disaster, but Hadi's death reminds us militants are killing countrymen who are working for a fairer Iraq.
The UK and US can't avoid responsibility. The TUC was all over the place on the war, but deserves praise for trying to help win peace.
Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) World Peace Forum
26 June 2006 - Vancouver, Canada
Sisters and Brothers,
Dear Friends and comrades of the World Peace Forum,
1. Thank you very much for inviting the GFIW/IWF to Vancouver to this Canadian Labour Congress World Peace Forum. It is great honour. The IWF wholeheartedly appreciates this solidarity gesture.
2. I would like to share with you some thoughts concerning Iraq and its organised labour movement.
3. The risks of Iraq descending into civil war are still real. Iraq is battling for its national unity, its sovereignty and integrity. And is fighting to consolidate its representative parliamentary polity and a way to create a federal Iraq where the people of Iraqi Kurdistan may enjoy federal autonomy, peace and democracy.
4. But in this Iraqis are hindered by the legacy of 4 long decades of Saddam’s fascist-type dictatorship, by the current onslaught of terrorists, and by the impact of the occupation and its disastrous policies.
5. Heinous crimes are committed against the people of Iraq by religious fundamentalists and extreme nationalists. Their scheme quite simple though brutal, is to push our country into sectarian civil war and thus destroy Iraq and any chance of building on the social and political progress Iraqis have gained since the fall of Saddam’s regime, limited though it is.
6. The transitional phase of Iraq’s polity remains fragile and extremely dangerous and requires careful handling by Iraq’s sovereign legislative body and its accountable executive. Any unwise move by one of the two mentioned agencies could plunge the country in unforeseen danger.
7. Victory in this battle against these religious fundamentalist and extreme nationalist forces is fundamental for achieving a unified, democratic and federal Iraq of social justice and respect for human rights.
8. Hence Iraq’s incumbent representative government must exert utmost effort to ensure victory and thus consolidate national unity. It should, therefore have to tackle urgently five concerns. They are significantly important for Iraq’s future political stability and its pluralistic development. These concerns are intimately connected, and they are:
• Security;
• Ending the presence of foreign military forces and restoring Iraq’s full national sovereignty by eliminating the consequences of the occupation;
• Eradicating the long shadow of Saddam’s fascist-type dictatorship;
• Rebuilding Iraq’s pulverised economy, reducing high unemployment and improving the equality of lives of ordinary working people (Growing Economy);
• Resolving Iraq’s national identity.
9. Security:
10. The short history of our young trade union federation has been bloody one. The IWF, alongside the majority of Iraqis, has democratically and consciously but critically embraced the UN-sanctioned political process under resolution UN [1546]. The alternative to that is outright civil war, carnage and the break-up of Iraq. Iraqis do not want this, nor do we.
11. As a consequence of taking this stand our federation has endured kidnapping and murder in cold blood.
12. Hadi Saleh, our late international secretary paid the ultimate price for his commitment to trade union rights. He was tragically assassinated after being brutally tortured by Saddam’s thugs in his home January 2005. His assassination marked new waves of murders and kidnapping against Iraqi organised labour. Ali Hassan Abd of the Oil and Gas Workers' Union was shot and killed in front of his children while returning home in Baghdad February 2005. Ahmed Adris Abas of the Transport and Communication Workers’ Union was shot dead in Martyr's square in central Baghdad while on trade union duty a few weeks later. Talib Khadim, a leading official of our federation was attacked and kidnapped, as was Saady Edan, the head of our federation’s Mosul branch.
13. Assassins tried unsuccessfully on several occasions to kill the President of our federation’s Kirkuk branch. Threats against our officials continued throughout. At least ten members of the Union of Mechanics, Printing and Metalworkers have been killed. A few weeks ago a suicide bomber killed a key union leader in the Agricultural and Foodstuff Workers’ Union in Baghdad. These forces are committing genocide against ordinary working people.
14. The international labour movement has risen with one voice to condemn the killing of Iraqi trade unionists and to extend the hand of solidarity to our federation. Please see the ICFTU survey, June 2006 on trade union rights violations in the Middle East in which Iraq and one neighbouring country lead the chart.
15. The IWF has repeatedly argued that security situation must be tackled immediately. And has said that political and economic measures must go hand in hand with military measures. Resorting to military force alone will inflame and aggravate the situation further. The blatant violations of the US military forces in Haditha and other places is a vivid example of this and highlights the need to bring an end to the occupation and remove the foreign military presence from our country, Iraq.
16. The IWF has called on the Iraqi government to develop its own armed forces that are based on national unity. These forces must beholden to no political party or individuals but loyal only to Iraq’s constitution, securing Iraq’s territorial integrity, protecting civilians and maintaining law and order.
17. Bu, the biggest internal obstacle to build such security forces is the growth of sectarianism and sectarian conflict fuelled by some Iraqi political forces that are employing sectarian-ethnic polarisation and run their militias as an alternative in order to seize power and thus secure commanding positions within government. This was evident during the December 2005election.
18. The security situation was further worsened by the openly advertised policies of the foreign occupiers who resorted to an ethnic categorisation of our society. It is a disastrous policy that brought Iraqis further bloodshed and misery. The occupation must end.
19. End the occupation:
20. Foreign military presence constitutes a violation of national sovereignty. The Iraqi government’s surrender to external economic pressures and to the diktat of international financial institutions is one facet of that violation. The occupation must be brought to an end now.
21. Our federation opposed the action of the transitional government of Al-Jafaari in June 2005, who acted without the support of Iraqi Parliament when it called on the UN to renew the mandate of the occupation forces in Iraq.
22. To achieve this end, the IWF supports and welcomes the reconvening of the Accord Conference Planned for the next few weeks in Baghdad endorsed and supported by the Arab League. The conference seeks to bring different Iraqi political and social forces to share common aims of one united, federal and democratic Iraq. The conference will forge a compromise between different Iraqi communities, which is essential for the restoration of Iraq’s national sovereignty and thus a key means to end the occupation.
23. The IWF has called on the government to work for the removal of foreign forces by creating the material, political and security fundamentals to end the occupation now and eradicate Saddam’s long nightmare.
24. Eradicating Saddam’s legacy:
25. Building a genuine democracy depends not only on the role of the state - although it’s fundamentally essential - but also on the active participation of civil society.
26. Our federation strongly believes that it is impossible to foresee the creation of open and democratic Iraq without allowing its organised labour movement to operate freely and independently from the influence of the state and political parties.
27. But how can our movement operate freely when the shadow of Saddam’s 1987 anti-union laws is still hanging over our heads and prohibits workers in the public sector from joining unions or forming their own unions.
28. Many Iraqi workers remain suspicious of the very term 'union', because of the repression they endured at the hands of Saddam's 'yellow unions' which was part of the state machine of terror. During Saddam’s wars of aggression, his yellow unions were used as an intelligence agency that spied on workers and acted as a recruiting centre to send Iraqi working people to the battle front to be killed during the Iran-Iraq War. This culture of fear that was associated with Saddam’s unions must be dismantled.
29. To reverse and remedy this cultural deficit, our federation is working with many global unions on several cultural and training projects. Unison, the largest British public service union is organizing a serious of training courses for Iraqi/Kurdish workers to promote the basic tenets of trade unionism and to help eradicate Saddam’s tyrannical culture.
30. Instead of giving support to the new unions the new Iraqi government not only maintained Saddam’s anti-union laws - reluctant to adopt a labour code that adheres to ILO core conventions - but also issued an anti-union Order 8750 to curtail and hinder our development.
31. In August 2005 the government of the former PM Al-Jaafari issued its notorious anti-union order 8750 authorising the state to virtually take over the trade union movement. This order enabled the government to exercise detailed control of the organised trade union movement by employing a well-rehearsed anti-union legislation borrowed from Thatcherism and Reaganism.
32. The Minister of Transport recently attacked the port workers in Basra and closed their office. Thanks to the international solidarity campaign of the ITF, the Iraqi port workers won their rights to independent trade unionism.
33. A protest movement has been developing against this order and for wider trade union rights. This workers’ movement is critically essential for the future development of democracy in Iraq. It needs your solidarity and support.
34. Our federation is encouraged by the active solidarity work of the ICFTU and the TUC. The TUC has led a world-wide protest against Order 8750 (following the request of the GFIW).
35. Growing Economy:
36. Iraq’s economy was pulverized by Saddam’s wars, bled by the unjust UN sanctions after the Saddam disastrous invasion of the brotherly state of Kuwait and further devastated by the 2003 invasion and occupation and its rampant corruption.
37. Iraq’s national economy is crying for emergency investment and reconstruction of all its sectors. But national assets must remain publicly owned. Stop privatization policies. Instead Iraqi industries must be rehabilitated.
38. Iraq’s economy must be diversified, as over 95% of Iraq’s income currently derives from oil. This must change as oil will not last forever
39. Our federation is fighting to strengthen the organization capacity of democratic and independent unions in Iraq so workers are not left on the sidelines, watching passively as new elites restructure the national economy in line with fashionable neo-conservative, liberal trends, which threaten regulation, participation and equality’. It is the IWF, which has ensured Iraqi workers have not been watching from the sidelines.
40. Without a growing economy of social justice democracy will not take root in Iraq. When collective social provision and the public service ethic is entirely squeezed out by the dictates of unregulated markets - then democracy itself withers on the vine.
41. Trade unions are democracy’s egalitarian insurance policy against the self-defeating triumph of egoism (the market). Unions are the embodiment of a powerful idea: that equality and freedom advance best when they advance together. If we are engaged in a global battle of ideas then it is the idea of freedom for all that is capable of winning against the extremists.
42. When democracies look after unions, unions look after democracies. Gaining tangible benefits from democratic politics, trade unions have been great defenders of democratic politics.
43. Identity:
44. The Iraqi unions can be one of the most important independent centres of identity, opinion and resource in the formation, development and consolidation of our democratic future and Iraq’s national identity, that is a home to all Iraqis irrespective of their ethnicity and religion. And as Shia and Sunni and Turkoman and Assyrian Christian and Kurds unite in some spheres of their lives, then the meaning of their distinct historic identities can be transformed into workers, citizens, Iraqis. This is for two reasons: unions promote social inclusion and prosperity; unions promote social unity and citizenship.
45. Unions are the engines that propel the economy. A prosperous and healthy economy encourages social and political stability and helps maintain a strong sense of community. Unions are the glue that binds together disparate identities and traditions on the basis of social justice, democracy and human rights. Trade unions are playing a major role in bringing sectarian combatants to the same table, to share dreams of a better life for our children, dignity at work, a fair share of prosperity and decent wages. Unions are great antidote against the sectarian poisons of extremism in Iraq.
46. I believe that the free trade unions in Iraq can play a historic role to help cement this identity which is a key recovery factor of achieving full national sovereignty.
Thank you
Abdullah Muhsin
IWF
26 June Vancouver