On 23 February, American and Iraqi forces raided the head office of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW) and arrested one of the Union security staff.
This unprovoked attack resulted in the destruction of furniture, the confiscation of a computer and fax machine and the arrest of employee who was released unharmed later same day.
The same force repeated this unprovoked attack on 25 February and caused further damage.
The GFIW while condemning this unprovoked attack and calls on the occupation forces to issue a written apology, to return all the GFIW property and compensate for the damages they caused to our office.
We call on trade unions around the world to show solidarity by condemning these attacks and sending messages of support to the GFIW.
The GFIW Executive
Baghdad 26 February 2007
Teachers are the quiet heroes of Baghdad
Despite the daily horror around them, those who run the schools in Iraq's capital are determined that life should continue as normal for children
Anushka Asthana, education correspondent
Sunday February 18, 2007
Observer
An astonishing picture of life inside Baghdad's schools has been revealed by a group of Iraqi teachers who have travelled to the UK to gain respite from the daily bloodshed they witness. One, Suad Saleem Abdulla, described how she pulled her own children close every morning and said goodbye as if it was the last time she would ever see them. It was a daily ritual shared by parents throughout Iraq, she said. Only then did she start her treacherous 20-minute walk to school.
Suad, who told her story for the first time this weekend, has seen corpses and even 'flying body parts' on her journey to the school where she is head teacher, but carried on walking because she was determined to keep it open.
The 43-year-old is one of 10 teachers, heads and school inspectors who have come to the UK from Iraq's capital after being invited by the NASUWT teaching union. They spoke of teachers assassinated as they walked to work, or kidnapped in front of pupils, and a daily battle to keep the terror outside the school gates. Their stories give a remarkable insight into the lives of Iraqi children who turn up for lessons day after day despite the bloodshed and violence.
Last month, a photographer captured an image of a girl in uniform on a blood-stained step after insurgents launched a mortar attack on her school. To Suad and her colleagues, the image was disturbingly familiar.
A similar attack has been launched four times on Nasser Kdhim Nasser's school in the al-Husseini area of Baghdad, leaving one student dead. 'The atrocities impacted so badly on one boy that he did not come back in, but for most, even though they have seen horror, school life continues as normal. We teach children to paint, draw and sing. Every morning they stand up, raise the flag and sing the national anthem.'
Suad is similarly determined: 'We have no choice. We have to carry on living, we have to go out. These extremists want to stop life and the best thing to them is to stop us going to school and teaching the children. But if they stop that then everything will collapse.'
Each day she has just four hours to teach the 400 pupils before another school takes over the building for the afternoon session. She presides over Arabic, English, maths, art, sport and much more. Two weeks ago, she saw insurgents set up a phony road block near the building so she locked the doors and carried on inside.
To get textbooks and stationery, Suad has to walk to a nearby Unicef building. It is a job none of her staff is prepared to do because those who go there are often targeted by snipers.
Teachers, according to the group, are at particular risk because insurgents want to disrupt education. Mahdi Ali Lefta, the head of the delegation, is from al-Mahmodia, where five teachers were executed in front of children. In Nasser's area, three head teachers were killed.
The issues facing these teachers in Baghdad are barely imaginable to colleagues in the UK. 'The challenges they have got - are workplaces open, can they get members to work? - puts into perspective all the furore over closures because of snow,' said Chris Keates, general secretary of the Nasuwt, which is playing host to the group in Birmingham. 'In Iraq, it's about getting schools open for basic education.' Yet when Keates talked to the teachers on Friday, their questions were not about security in the face of terror but wage negotiations and pensions. They clapped when they were told they were going to Stratford to see Richard III in Arabic. Back home, few of them venture out beyond 5pm.
'In the evening the roads are deserted as if there is a curfew,' said Bushra Bashar Taleea, a teaching adviser. 'Where I live, the warehouse we use to store basic food for children has been blown up three times. We are afraid but we are conditioned to it because we see it every day. Life is better now because we have got rid of the dictatorship, but we need time.'
Bushra 'jumps' when she hears a bang and constantly calls her family to reassure them that she is alive.
Ali Ahmed Sindal, aged 63, a school inspector, checks on his three sons and daughter every day after work. But Ahmed, who spent four years on death row under Saddam Hussein, was hopeful: 'We are optimistic that all these things will be ended within one year, two years, three years. Then we are expecting a new life, a better life.'
In the meantime, the teachers want to keep improving the country's education system. Mahdi, who has brought the teachers to Britain with the support of the Iraqi Federation of Workers, said he was still planning strategies for teaching a year in advance despite the trouble.
'These people who attack education, attack schools and teachers have nothing in their heart but hate and violence and they want the destruction of Iraq. They have no sense of humanity.'
Teacher Mohamed Seed Hatem said the situation today 'was still better than it was. A bloody dictatorship has gone.'
TUC letter to the Iraqi GFIW
3 February 2007
TUC condemns anti-union terrorism in Iraq
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber has condemned three examples of barbarous terrorism against the trade union movement in Iraq.
Writing personally to the General Secretary of the Iraqi GFIW, Rasem Al-Awady, he said:
'Trade unionism is founded on the principle that an injury to one is an injury to all, and I have no doubt that, contrary to their intentions, the actions of these terrorists will only redouble the commitment of Iraqi trade unionists, and the solidarity of trade unionists around the world for your struggles.'
For more information please click here: www.tuc.org.uk/international
Brussels, 2 February (ITUC OnLine)
Khalil Ibrahim Al-Mashhadani,Vice-President of the GFIW (General Federation of Iraqi Workers) as well as General Secretary of the Arab Federation of Building and Wood Workers, was injured in a bomb attack on Wednesday Jan 31st. Prior to the founding of the GFIW with the merger of the former GFTU, IFTU and
GFITU, Khalil held the position of President of the former GFITU. The
ITUC firmly condemns what it considers to be a targeted attack on a
trade union activist. For more information please click here: www.ituc-csi.org,/a>
The ITUC also recalls that Iraq, as a member of the International Labour
Organisation (ILO), has an obligation to respect the fundamental labour
standards established by it, particularly Convention 87 on freedom of
association, and urged the Iraqi authorities to immediately ratify this
convention. I
This case is unfortunately not unique. Dr. Adnan Al-Abed, legal
counsellor to the GFIW and Professor of Law at "Al-Nahrain University"
was found murdered together with two of his colleagues on Wednesday
morning, three days after the three professors were kidnapped by armed
militants in front of the faculty of law. Wednesday saw also a car bomb
targeting the building housing the GFIW's branch in the Nineveh
governorate on Wednesday morning, resulting in injuries to many workers
and trade unionists.
It is far from the fist time that a trade unionist has been murdered or
abducted in Iraq due to their trade union activities. The ITUC strongly
urges the Iraqi authorities to ensure that this case is fully
investigated and that those responsible are detained and brought to
justice. It also calls for immediate steps to be taken to ensure that
deliberate targeting of trade unionists is stopped.
Founded on 1 November 2006, the ITUC represents 168 million workers in
153 countries and territories and has 304 national affiliates.
http://www.ituc-csi.org
For more information, please contact the ITUC Press Department on +32 2
224 0204 or +32 476 62 10 18.
GMT
AFP News brief
Mercenaries are second largest force in Iraq: UN official
Send by e-mail Save Print Between 30,000 and 50,000 mercenaries are working in Iraq, making them the second largest military force there after the occupying United States.
The case of Iraq "is a new manifestation of the use of mercenaries that has caughts the US by surprise", Spain's Jose Luis Gomez del Prado -- a member of the UN working group on mercenaries -- said Fridayduring a visit to Peru.
The United States has 130,000 soldiers in Iraq, he noted. Britain has 10,000 troops.
Gomez del Prado told a news conference thousands of Peruvians, Chileans, Colombians, Hondurans and Ecuadorans had been contracted to work as mercenaries in Iraq, thanks to an array of legal loopholes.
The trend has caused widespread public concern in Peru.
Rights workers have voiced concern that people are being hired to work as security guards in Iraq but are then given military training and asked to perform "previously unforseen tasks" which draw them into full combat.
Gomez del Prado's Colombian colleague, Amada Guevara, told the news conference that in some cases, workers were contracted by existing companies who exploited legal loopholes. But in other cases, they were taken on by ghost firms who arrived in a country, opened an office for a month, contracted workers and then disappeared without trace.
"This amounts to privatisation of warfare," she said.
Gomez said new legislation and better government oversight was necessary to prevent citizens desperate for well-paid jobs being lured into a mercenary career which put their lives, health and rights at risk.
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Brother Khalil Ibrahim Al-Mashhadani, Vice-President of the GFIW (General Federation of Iraqi Workers) as well as General Secretary of the Arab Federation of Building and Wood Workers, was injured in a bomb attack yesterday (Wednesday Jan 31 st). He has been hospitalized and is said to be in a stable condition now Prior to the founding of the GFIW ( i.e. the merger of the former GFTU, IFTU and GFITU), Brother Khalil held the position of President of the former GFTU. He participated in several activities organized by the ITUC as well as in activities organized by the Solidarity Center in 2006. We wish him a speedy and complete recovery from the injuries he sustained in this cowardly attack.