IRAQ UNION SOLIDARITY SCOTLAND

UnionBook-The social networking site for trade unionists.

2009-05-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

http://www.unionbook.org/

Iran protest

2009-05-21T07:52:00.000-07:00

http://www.ei-ie.org/en/news/show.php?id=1032&theme=rights&country=iran

First International Labor Conference in Iraq

2008-07-01T08:21:00.000-07:00

More info : http://www.iraqunionsolidarity.org/

Message From the Preparatory Committee for the First International Labor Conference in Iraq

Dear Brothers and Sisters in the global struggle for workers’ rights, peace and justice:

Plans are underway to hold an International Labor Conference in Iraq in August 2008. We see this as an important and urgent step toward strengthening and unifying the labor movement in Iraq. Only through increased solidarity in Iraq, and with workers in the region and around the world can we hope to impact the fate not only of workers but of all Iraqis.

We call upon all unions and labor organizations around the world to support this conference morally and financially. Your expressions of solidarity with workers in Iraq in the past have given us a lifeline of hope. Your continued participation and support for this conference will buoy and strengthen the Iraqi labor movement. Only through unity can we hope to achieve democracy, freedom, security and prosperity.

Iraq's labor movement is a force for unifying our nation. A strong labor movement is also essential to the future of any democracy in Iraq. Labor unions transcend the sectarian conflict unleashed by the U.S.-led occupation. The invasion and occupation turned Iraq into an arena for settling international accounts and a base for exporting terrorism to the world. Workers represent the majority of Iraqis who do not have any interest in the ongoing terrorist violence. When sectarian gangs have attempted to transfer their conflicts into the ranks of workers, they have been rejected.

Iraq's labor unions are the glue that binds Iraqi people in the north, center and south. In some areas, the glue is strong, but in other areas of the country unions are isolated. Our goal with the August conference is to strengthen the ties between all worker organizations and focus on our common priorities. Those who feel isolated need to know that they have support from the international labor movement.

Iraqi workers need your support if we are to speak in one voice to reclaim our sovereignty.

Five years of invasion, war and occupation have brought nothing but death, destruction, misery and suffering to our people. Millions of Iraqis, the majority of them workers, have been killed, wounded and displaced inside and outside of Iraq as a result of the U.S.-led occupation.

In the name of our “liberation” the invaders have destroyed our nation's infrastructure, bombed our neighbourhoods, broken into our homes, traumatized our children, assaulted and arrested many of our family members and neighbours, permitted the looting of our national treasures, and turned nearly twenty percent of our people into refugees.

The occupation is determined to impose its economic and political will on Iraqis. The occupiers came with designs on our national riches - our oil - and schemes to privatize our industries, utilities, ports and public services and to put Iraq's national resources under the control of foreign corporations and international financial institutions.

All decisions, decrees and resolutions of the dictatorship have been nullified or changed except the ones that concern the working class. In fact, the occupation has added more unjust conditions to complement those created by the former regime.

In violation of every precept of internationally recognized labor rights, the occupation has banned trade unions in the public sector, privatized state-owned and run enterprises, intervened in workers’ affairs by proposing to recognize only one government-approved labor federation, and blocked any legislation that protects workers from poverty, disease and unjust employers. Our union offices have been raided. Union property has been seized and destroyed. Our bank accounts have been frozen.

In the last five years workers have been the target of terrorist acts in their workplaces and homes. Our leaders have been beaten, arrested, abducted and assassinated. Our rights as workers are routinely violated.

Now the U.S. administration attempts to provoke and threaten war with Iran. We condemn these actions and will struggle to prevent another disastrous war on Iran where the victims will always be the workers, their families and loved ones.

We believe that the workers of Iraq can form a strong front for social justice and peace if supported by our brothers and sisters in the region and around the world.

Please help us take a stand against this disastrous situation that will have catastrophic implications for the workers of Iraq and threatens the peace and security of the entire world.

We call on your support and ask for your presence at the conference.

We need your financial help to underwrite the high costs of this conference. We need to raise more than $150,000.

We want your participation. The conference will take place from August 22nd through to 24th, 2008 in the city of Erbil, a relatively stable area of Iraq in the north, in a secure location. Please let us know if your organization will send observers. Their safety can be assured.

In Solidarity

100 Labour news items on Iraq

2008-06-23T08:50:00.000-07:00

http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/newsquery1.pl?searchtext=iraq&language=en&number=100

Iran

2008-03-21T11:20:00.001-07:00

http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=339

Teachers told to rewrite history with sanitised account of Iraq war

2008-03-18T04:57:00.000-07:00

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/education/article3515268.ece

US dockers plan

2008-03-18T04:53:00.000-07:00

US dockers plan strike to end occupation of Iraq

As workers in struggle went to press we heard news of
the plans of American dockers to stage a strike on May
1st against the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union
conference in San Francisco has passed a motion
“calling on unions and working people in the US and
internationally to mobilize for a "No Peace No Work
Holiday" on May 1, 2008 for 8 hours to demand an
immediate end to the war and occupation in Iraq and
Afghanistan and the withdrawal of US troops from the
Middle East”.

Citing the fact that both the Republicans and Democrats
are committed to continuing occupations of Iraq and
Afghanistan and threaten a fresh war against Iran, the
dockers argue for workers to take the initiative
themselves and mount industrial action against war.
This call to the international labour movement echoed
the actions of train drivers in Motherwell and Italian
dockers who in 2003 refused to transport weapons
intended for use in Iraq, as well as teachers in Oakland
who staged a strike against the occupation last May.

Solidarity with workers in the Middle East must include
working-class action against our own governments and
the building of an internationalist workers’ movement
opposed to war and imperialism. The call of the ILWU
dockers for strike action on May 1st must be amplified
in order to guarantee and effective action demonstrating
the power of the organised working class and promoting
international labour movement unity.

Deadly Cargo Screening

2008-03-18T04:50:00.000-07:00

Deadly Cargo

Deadly Cargo Screening

Tracking the Nuclear Warhead Convoy

The UK premiere of Deadly Cargo will take place on Saturday the 29th of March at the Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT) Rose Street Glasgow between 12.30pm - 2pm.

http://www.camcorderguerillas.net/

Workers Middle East Solidarity Newsletter

2008-03-08T04:31:00.000-08:00

http://www.dlandmj.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ftp.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/workersinstruggle1.pdf

March 6th Action on Iran

2008-02-25T08:57:00.001-08:00

www.itfglobal.org/campaigns/freeosanloo.cfm

Iran: Release jailed workers, respect rights

2008-02-25T08:49:00.000-08:00

The ITUC and the ITF are organising a global action day on 6 March 2008 to express our solidarity with Iranian workers once again. We want Mansour Osanloo and Mahmoud Salehi released immediately and unconditionally from prison. Their health conditions are deteriorating.

We also demand that fundamental workers' rights be respected in Iran, in accordance with the ILO core conventions. The imprisonment of Osanloo and Salehi are not isolated cases in Iran. Nine education workers were sentenced to 91 days in prison recently. The Iranian authorities claim they are "threats to the national security" although in reality, it is genuine trade union activities they want to crush.

Oppression of the independent workers' movement in Iran is escalating. That is why the global unions, together with human rights activists, wish to send a strong message to the Iranian government. 6 March falls two weeks prior to the Iranian New Year and the parliamentary elections.

NO OIL FOR OCCUPATION! TRADE UNION RIGHTS NOW!

2008-01-30T05:06:00.000-08:00

Demonstrate at the Middle East Energy 2008 conference attended by Iraqi
Oil Minister Dr Hussein al Shahristani

When? Tuesday 5th February 2008
Where? Royal Institute of International Affairs
10 St James's Square, London SW1Y 4LE (map: http://tinyurl.com/38gajj)
What time? From 8.30am

Called by the Hands Off Iraqi Oil campaign, www.handsoffiraqioil.org

Tell Iraq's Oil Minister:

No Oil for Occupation! - privatisation laws and contracts signed under
occupation can have no validity. The vast majority of Iraqis want an
immediate end to the military and economic occupation of their country.
Most Iraqis also want their resources to stay in the public sector.

Trade Union Recognition Now! - stop using dictatorship laws to repress
trade unionism

Dr Shahristani also refuses to recognise trade unions in Iraq. He has
issued decrees for the national oil company not to negotiate with unions
and ordered the shut-down of union offices.

Iraq's economic future and potential independence hangs in the balance.
Iraqi oil accounts for approximately 90% of government revenue.
Whoever control's Iraq's oil development has a controlling stake in the
country's overall development. Since 2003, the British and US governments,
and international oil companies have been pushing for an oil law which
will hand over control of Iraq's oil to foreign companies.

In spite of massive military, political and economic pressure, from
Britain and the US, opposition at every level of Iraqi society has meant
that this law cannot be passed in its present form.

Despite mass opposition to the draft Oil Law, Oil Minister Dr Hussein
al Shahristani has declared Iraq 'open for business' and invited oil
companies to invest under existing Baath regime legislation.

Trade Union Recognition Now!
Dr Shahristani is also applying Saddam Hussein's anti-union laws,re-imposed by the occupation authorities and now kept on the law books by
the Iraqi authorities. This is clearly unacceptable and ironic given
Shahristani's imprisonment by the Ba'ath regime for over 10 years.

Iraq's trade unions have called the contracts pushed by the foreign
companies and the Oil Law - Production Sharing Agreements - a 'red line'.
PSAs will allow foreign companies to control the development and
depletion of oil reserves for 25 years. Once signed, PSAs will not be
re-negotiable. Iraq's sovereignty will be surrendered and its economic future
effectively mortgaged to the agendas of oil companies.

End the military and econmic occupation
We are asking the Minister of Oil to listen to the Iraqi people,
particularly those who work in the oil sector, in their demands for a
democratic process for deciding how and by whom Iraqi oil will be controlled.

We are calling for an immediate end to economic and military occupation
by foreign interests.

No to PSAs, No Oil for Occupation!
All Troops and Occupation Institutions Out Now!
Union Recognition and Resource Democracy Now!

Coalition to Stop Deportations to Iraq

2007-12-17T03:28:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,

1. If you have not so already could you please sign up to the group below to be sure of getting updates from the Coalition to Stop Deportations to Iraq (CSDIraq).

yahoo groups :
http://uk.groups. yahoo.com/ group/nodeportat ionstoiraq/

a. please protest to Home Office at forcible deportation of Arian Kamal Aziz

Regards
Administrator
Coalition to Stop Deportations to Iraq

Interview with Mansour Osanloo

2007-11-26T11:12:00.000-08:00

Interview with Mansour Osanloo
Iranian trade union leader Mansour Osanloo has been relentlessly persecuted for his efforts to secure an independent trade union and living wages for bus workers. Yet, as he explained in an interview with Transport International shortly before his latest arrest, he does not see himself as anti-government, and believes there are signs of hope for workers’ rights and freedoms in Iran.

http://www.itfglobal.org/transport-international/ti29-osanloo.cfm

Updates

18 November
Reza Dehghan, Union of the Painters (Sandicika Nagash) was arrested. He was summoned by court and then taken to Evin prison.

15 November
Mansour Osanloo was moved from Ward 209 to Ward 7 in Evin prison. On the same day, he was taken briefly to Basir Hospital for his eye checkup.

Gorban Alipour, the Haftapeh Sugar Factory spokesperson was released on $US10,000 bail.

http://www.iranlabourwatch.net

16 November
ITF Dockers' Section Steering Committee resolves to support to the Free Osanloo Campaign.

10 November
General Union of Transport Workers of Palestine sends its message of solidarity to the Tehran Bus Workers Union (texts attached).

I'm wearing the badge!

Trade unionists to the recent meetings, including the ITUC meeting on Middle East and North Africa, ITF Dockers' Section as well as the ILO Governing Body meeting, have worn the Free Osanloo badge to express their solidarity to the Iranian workers' movement.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/itf/sets/72157602429966468/

Anti- Racist Rally 11am Glasgow Sat 24th Nov

2007-11-22T03:25:00.000-08:00

Dear IUSS Supporters,

Come and join IUSS at the annual STUC Anti Racist March and Rally at 11am, Blythwood Square, ending at Glasgow Film Theatre, Rose Street 12noon.

Chair: Georgia Cruickshank, STUC Black Workers’ Committee
Speakers: Kainde Manji, Glasgow Anti Racist Alliance
Phil McGarry, STUC President
Aamer Anwar
Anas Sarwar
Humza Yousaf

HOPI Conference

2007-11-12T13:20:00.001-08:00

http://www.hopoi.org/conference.html

Next IUSS Meeting Nov 19th

2007-11-12T12:56:00.000-08:00

The next IUSS meeting will be on Monday November 19th, 7pm at 80 Oakfied Avenue, Glasgow.

Please see these websites and attachment below for information regarding the huge scale of the refugee crisis caused by the war in Iraq, and the lack of responsibility being taken for it by the US and UK governments:-
http://tinyurl.com/32rvce for informative Voices UK Newsletter
http://tinyurl.com/24g3ny for UNHCR statistics
http://tinyurl.com/24hfrg for an article about the host countries who receive refugees having been left in the lurch
http://tinyurl.com/ytjqx6 for an article from Amnesty International about millions of Iraqi refugees in flight.

Iraqi comrades from the ICP have sent this link which confirms our view about the war being in order for the US administration to gain control over Iraqs oil, its at www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n20/holto1_.html

Postings about Iran include the tragic news that Mansour Ossanlou of the Teheran busworkers union has received a 5 year jail sentence for his trade union activity. See
http://www.itfglobal.org/press-area/index.cfm/pressdetail/1650 .

Also please see and sign the attached petition to release women prisoners who are sentenced to jail and flogging for their stance in upholding womens rights and for criticising the Islamic regime, the petiton is at www.petitiononline.com/maryam20/petition.htlm. Also see attachments from Iran about the seemingly imminent US war against the people of Iran and Womens Liberation.

If you have not already signed the letter to stop Aamer Anwar, the soliciter who defended Mohammed Siddique from being charged with contempot of court, please do so by going to www.sacc.org.uk/defendaamer

Aamer Anwar will be speaking at a meeting on Defending Civil Liberties on November 13th, 7.30pm at the Mitchell Theatre, Granville Street, Glasgow (doors open 7pm) organised by Scotland Against Criminalising Communities and Glasgow Stop the War Coalition.

Discussion Forum

2007-11-06T05:00:00.001-08:00

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/iuss

Group email:iuss@yahoogroups.com

Organised Labour photos on Anti-war Demos

2007-11-03T10:35:00.000-07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12541352@N06/sets/72157602772168801/with/1794542001/

Reports from 27th Anti-war Demos in US cities

2007-11-03T10:32:00.000-07:00

http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org/article.php?list=type&type=118

Good Interview with 50 Iraq Vets

2007-11-03T10:28:00.000-07:00

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070730/hedges

All "The Nation" articles on Iraq

http://www.thenation.com/search/search.mhtml

Iran Bulletin

2007-11-03T10:22:00.001-07:00

http://www.iran-bulletin.org/

Iran Act Now

2007-11-02T12:35:00.000-07:00

http://iranlabourwatch.net/DisplayArticle.aspx?ID=547

Osanloo sentence ‘appals world opinion’

2007-11-02T12:32:00.000-07:00

Press area

Osanloo sentence ‘appals world opinion’

30 October 2007

Commenting on news that Iranian trade union leader Mansour Osanloo has been sentenced to five years imprisonment ITF General Secretary David Cockroft said: “We have just heard that an injured, victimised trade unionist has been condemned to jail on charges that would be laughable if they weren’t so serious.”

“For two years Mansour Osanloo has fought back against the Iranian regime’s brutality. Now they are trying to crush him with spurious accusations of endangering national security and criticising the regime. We know – the world knows – that Mansour’s only crime in their eyes is to have asserted his right to belong to a trade union.”

He continued: “This sentence appals world opinion. Mansour has been an example to us all and to see him treated this way – beaten, arrested, rearrested, intimidated and nearly blinded – brings shame on the government of Iran. We have tried to reason with them and detected at least some sympathy for what he stands for, but that has now clearly been overruled by the hardliners.”

“The international trade union movement, including across the Islamic world, has fought all the way for Mansour and his colleagues and we will continue to do so. We will be alerting them now, along with the International Labour Organization, before planning a new wave of protests.”

He concluded: “If the government get away with this then they will hand out the same treatment to Mansour’s deputy, Ebrahim Madadi, and all of the 17,000 members of the union will be at risk.”

Mansour Osanloo, 47, is the President of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (Sherkat-e Vahed) trade union, which has been violently repressed by the Iranian authorities. Osanloo has been made a particular target for imprisonment and brutal attacks. He is currently being held in Evin prison in Tehran. See www.freeosanloo.org for further information. A short film on the Osanloo case can be seen at www.itfglobal.org/campaigns/osanloo-film.cfm ENDS

Rank and File Postie site

2007-11-02T05:42:00.000-07:00

http://cwurankandfile.wordpress.com/

LabourStart

2007-10-28T12:12:00.001-07:00

http://www.labourstart.org/

Mansour Osanloo receives emergency eye treatment

2007-10-28T12:08:00.000-07:00

Press area
Mansour Osanloo receives emergency eye treatment

22 October 2007

Following major protests last week the ITF is delighted to have learned that on Saturday Mansour Osanloo received the emergency eye treatment that it, Amnesty International and trade unions worldwide demanded. The ITF says that it hopes that this may be a first step towards more humane and just treatment of the prisoners. The campaign for their release continues.

ENDS
http://www.itfglobal.org/press-area/index.cfm/pressdetail/1640

Teach in - Glasgow 3rd Nov

2007-10-28T11:37:00.000-07:00

Iran and the Threat of war
Teach in - Glasgow
3rd Nov 2007- 12.00- 4.00pm

Yassmine Mather: Imperialist aggression and how to confront it

Bridget Fowler: Sociology, Science and Nuclear Weapons

David Mather: Making cars in Iran- Exploitation and Conflict

Terry Brotherstone: Anti Imperialism and solidarity in our time
learning from the mistakes of the past

Christine Cooper: US imperialism in action, Iraqi oil and the
rule of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq

Hamish Wood Building - Room W502
Glasgow Caledonian University

Iran: Urgent medical treatment required for jailed trade unionist

2007-10-21T11:01:00.000-07:00

http://www.amnesty.org.uk/actions_details.asp?ActionID=334

Prisoner of conscience Mansour Ossanlu, leader of the Union of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (Sherkat-e Vahed), was arrested on 10 July 2007. He was previously detained for eight months, from December 2005 to August 2006, and again for a month from November to December 2006 in connection with his trade union activities. He had reportedly been sentenced to five years' imprisonment in May 2007, but was believed to be free on bail at the time of his arrest.

When a delegation of visiting Indonesian trade unionists, and later his wife, tried to visit Mansour Ossanlu at Evin prison on 9 October, the prison authorities claimed that he had been taken to hospital for urgent medical treatment for injuries he had sustained at the hands of the security forces in May 2005. His wife was eventually able to see him on 15 October, when he told her he had received no medical treatment at all.

Your tax dollars at work

2007-10-12T13:09:00.000-07:00

Independent on Sunday -Sept 30th

2007-10-12T13:04:00.000-07:00

Corporate Social Responsibility
Black gold turns grey as Western giants prepare to draw from the wells

http://www.nosweat.org.uk/node/613

Burmalink campaign

2007-10-08T09:06:00.000-07:00

http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/index.php

Iraq Union Solidarity Scotland Meeting

2007-10-08T09:00:00.000-07:00

Iraq Union Solidarity Scotland Meeting

Monday October 15th
7pm
Boyd Orr Building,
Glasgow University,
University Avenue,
Glasgow

Disaster Capitalism

2007-09-25T06:42:00.000-07:00

http://browse.guardian.co.uk/search?search=naomi%20klein

Serialisation of Naomi Kleins' book in Guardian and reviews.

T-Shirts

2007-09-25T06:33:00.001-07:00

IUSS T-shirts are £10 and are in red, green and blue, small, medium, large and extra large. Cheques should be made out to "Iraq Union Solidarity Scotland" and sent to IUSS c/o Unison West Dunbartonshire, Council Offices, Garshake Road, Dumbarton, G82 3PU.

GFIW

2007-09-25T06:29:00.000-07:00

http://www.iraqitradeunions.org/

Workers' Control site

2007-09-21T09:05:00.000-07:00

http://workerscontrol.blogspot.com

Meeting on Iraq

2007-09-17T03:21:00.000-07:00

Iraqi Communists Views On The Situation In Iraq
Thu 11 Oct 2007 7:30 PM Iraqi Communists present their views on how events are unfolding in Iraq.

Open meeting, all welcome. Unity Office,72 Waterloo Street,Glasgow

Campaigning against executions in Iran

2007-09-17T03:16:00.000-07:00

More information regarding campaigning against executions in Iran is at http://noexecution. wordpress. com/

IRAQI OIL-WORKERS HAVE A RIGHT TO REPRESENTATION, SAYS MSP

2007-08-29T13:22:00.001-07:00

27 August 2007

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Use
IRAQI OIL-WORKERS HAVE A RIGHT TO REPRESENTATION, SAYS MSP

Bill Wilson, MSP for the West of Scotland region, today lodged a Parliamentary Motion condemning the recent banning of oil trade unions in Iraq.

Speaking after lodging it, Dr Wilson said that he had been following developments in Iraq with great concern for some time. “An apparently logical explanation for what has happened and is happening in Iraq would be that the UK and US governments’ main preoccupation is the profits of multinational companies. With Iraq full of foreign troops the Iraqi government’s policies are almost certainly approved by — if not directly dictated by — Washington and Westminster, so the recent directive, banning oil companies from dealing with trade unions, is likely to be their policy. This appears aimed at silencing legitimate opposition to the proposed oil law, a law which would effectively sign away the control of Iraq’s oil industry to foreign interests for the next 30 years.

“The UK government claims to believe in the rule of law but the directive violates Iraq’s own constitution and ILO Convention 98 (on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining), which Iraq has ratified. To avoid accusations of hypocrisy and complicity our government should, at the very least, express strong disapproval of the Iraqi oil minister’s actions. Iraqis not only have the right to control their country’s resources but they also need a decent share of the oil revenue in order to reconstruct their shattered country. Iraq oil-workers must be allowed to say as much through their legitimate representative bodies, the oil trade unions.”

Dr Wilson concluded his remarks by saying, “If anyone doubts the anti-democratic regressive nature of recent developments in the Iraq I would point out that the most recent directive banning oil companies from dealing with trade unions is a repeat of the Coalition Provisional Authority’s Decree 8750, issued by the occupational forces in 2003 to prevent public-sector oil workers from forming trade unions. This, in turn, can be genealogically traced to Saddam’s Decree 150, which banned all public-sector unions. The Iraqi government, with the apparent tacit support of the UK and the USA, is effectively employing the tools of suppression used by Saddam Hussein.”

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

1. Full text of current motion

Date of Lodging: 27 August 2007
Short Title: Iraq: Banning of Oil Unions
S3M-00388 Bill Wilson (West of Scotland) (SNP): That the Parliament notes with alarm the recent directive issued by the Iraqi oil minister, Hussein Shahrastani, banning oil companies in that country from dealing with trade unions and ordering them to exclude trade unionists from work committees; notes that, under a democratic system of government, workers have the inalienable right to organise; further notes that the affected trade unions were objecting to the oil law currently being proposed which would effectively transfer control of Iraq’s oil reserves to multinational companies for the next 30 years, and further notes that the citizens of democratic nations have the right to protest against the usurpation of vital national resources regardless of inconvenience to the plans of governments or multinational companies.

2. ITUC Letter to Iraqi Prime Minister on Violation of Oil Workers Union Labor Rights
by Guy Rider, General Secretary, International Trade Union Congress

http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org/article.php?id=14353

3. Previous Iraq-related motions lodged by Bill Wilson

Date of Lodging: 2 July 2007
Short Title: Hassan Jumaa: Visa Application
Bill Wilson (West of Scotland) (SNP): That the Parliament notes with grave concern the UK's government's rejection of a visa application by the President of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions, Hassan Jumaa Awad al Assadi; notes that this is happening at a time when that country and its oil sector workers are under pressure to accede to the private development agendas of multinational companies through exclusive contracts lasting up to 30 years; notes that these corporate interests have been represented by the governments of the UK and the USA and through the current Iraqi Hydrocarbon Law which they have been party to since July 2006; notes specifically in this regard that Admiral William Fallon (Commander of US Central Command) insisted to Prime Minister Maliki that a new Oil Law be signed by the end of July; further notes that this proposed Oil Law effectively cedes the state's sovereignty and control over the development of the majority of Iraq's oil reserves to multinational companies and so contends that denying Hassan Jumaa's visa application at this time amounts to denying the people of Iraq a fair opportunity to present their objections to an international audience and to denying the UK electorate balanced information on developments in Iraq.

Date of Lodging: 18 June 2007
Short Title: Iraq: Right to Strike
S3M-00194 Bill Wilson (West of Scotland) (SNP): That the Parliament notes with grave concern the death threats against members of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU) who were recently protesting against the proposed oil law which would effectively cede control of Iraq’s oilfields to multinational companies; further notes that the right to strike is protected by the core conventions of the International Labour Organisation, to which the Iraq Government is a signatory, and accordingly expresses its support for calls for the threat of violence against the oil workers to be withdrawn and for their legitimate right to strike to be recognised should they choose to exercise it.

Date of Lodging: 18 June 2007
Short Title: Iraq: Privatisation of Oil
S3M-00195 Bill Wilson (West of Scotland) (SNP): That the Parliament notes with concern proposals to pass laws allowing the privatisation of Iraq’s oil industry; notes that both the Blair and Bush administrations stated that their declared major purpose for invading Iraq was to remove weapons of mass destruction and that the invasion was not motivated by that country’s oil reserves; notes that both administrations have stated their support for the introduction of democracy in Iraq, and accordingly is confident that the UK and US administrations will demonstrate their good intentions by encouraging the Iraq Government not to privatise that country’s oil but to maintain it as a source of income to help Iraq’s reconstruction and recovery.

-ends-

US Unionists Protest Iraq Union Ban

2007-08-25T07:42:00.000-07:00

PRESS RELEASE

US Unionists Protest Iraq Union Ban

Press Associates Sunday 19 August 2007
Washington - Showing solidarity with unionists in Iraq, several dozen U.S. unionists marched on August 16 outside the Iraqi Embassy in Washington, protesting the Iraqi Oil Minister's ban on unions for oil workers.

The protesters, including Machinists, the Office and Professional Employees, the Teachers and the Air Line Pilots, demanded Iraq recognize and bargain with its oil workers' unions - who, like the AFL-CIO, oppose the Iraq War. They presented a letter from AFL-CIO President John Sweeney to embassy officials, with the demands, addressed to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki.

The oil minister claimed the oil unions are illegal because they are not recognized as a legitimate union of government workers, as required by the Saddam Hussein-era Iraqi labor law. Neither the U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority, when it ran Iraq for a year, nor the present shaky faction-ridden Iraqi government bothered to change that highly restrictive law, which covers 70 percent of Iraqi workers.

The Iraqi government has also denied the oil workers their internationally recognized rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining, protesters said. But the Iraqi government is considering a U.S.-drafted oil law to yield control Iraq oilfields to multi-national corporations. That law was another target of the D.C. protest, organized by both the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center and U.S. Labor Against The War.

"The reality of the obstacles that oil workers face in Iraq is a major issue for us, just as the issue of ending the war is," said AFL-CIO International Affairs Director Barbara Shailor, the protest co-leader. Added Denice Lombard of USLAW: "It's no coincidence the Iraqi oil union has been fighting to keep the oil in Iraqi hands," while the law U.S. congressional "benchmarks" would force on Iraq would put the oil in corporate hands "for many years." A new Iraqi labor law should be our benchmark, she added.

Dear IUSS Supporters,

At our last meeting we learned from our Iraqi comrades that the oil union the IFOU has been banned by the Iraqi oil minister (heavily pressurised by the USA) as it is "political". We know this is becuase the oil unions are a threat to the hated oil law which the US is trying to get railroaded through the Iraqi parliament, and which would cream off oil profits to private oil companies outside of Iraq.

This needs to be publiced and opposed as widely as possible. In Scotland please get your MSPs to support Bill Wilsons members motions below, in particular SM3-194 and SM3-195 which are due to be heard in the next parliament. In England Dave Anderson MP has proposed and Early Day motion on the oil law. One way to conact your MSP, MP or MEP is via the website www.writetothem.com so please do this.

Please will you get this matter discussed at your anti war or pro union group. Please get back to me about your discussions especially if you would support a demonstration against the banning of the IFOU.

Comradley,
Pauline Bradley
Convenor IUSS
http://iraqunionsolidarityscotland.blogspot.com

TUC Iraq Bulletin

2007-08-22T11:03:00.000-07:00

Teachers' union delegation

As reported in the fifth bulletin, a delegation of Iraqi teachers from the teachers' union in Baghdad visited the UK in February. The visit, organised by TUC Iraq Solidarity Committee Chair and NASUWT Treasurer Sue Rogers, allowed eleven Iraqi trade unionists a fortnight's respite, the chance to meet British teacher trade unionists, and some training.

The delegation spent some time with the ATL and NUT, but most of their time was at the NASUWT residential training centre in Birmingham. They received a training course developed by NASUWT on the basis of existing Unison materials, and prepared a pamphlet aimed at potential members, explaining what their union does for teachers.

The group also got to see the one night of Shakespeare's Richard III that was spoken in Arabic at Stratford, and saw a Kidderminster Harriers home game - especially interesting for the delegation member who was a former Iraqi international!
Friendships were forged, fun was had, but the serious purpose of the visit was clear to all involved - building the Iraqi teacher union.

FBU delegation to Iraq

Six people, two fire appliances, three thousand miles in ten days. That's the start of a fantastic report of the latest Fire Brigades Union (FBU) visit to Iraqi Kurdistan.
Building on previous FBU visits, which delivered fire fighting equipment and protective clothing, Brian Joyce and his colleagues this time took two red fire engines across Europe and through a virtual civil war in Turkey to help their colleagues fight fires safely.

'The Road 2 Iraq', the report of their incredible journey, told by Duncan Milligan, is on the FBU website at www.fbu.org.uk/newspress/ffmag/2007/0607/ff_jun_07_iraq.pdf and it is well worth reading.

Oil unions and the oil law

The TUC helped organise an international solidarity campaign for the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU) in June, when they too k strike action, and in July when they were joined by the GFIW to protest against the Iraqi oil law in demonstrations across southern Iraq.

Sue Rogers and TUC International Secretary Owen Tudor travelled to Amman in May to meet IFOU leader Hassan Juma'a, along with Jim Catterson from the global union federation covering oil workers, ICEM. The discussions led to much closer relations between ICEM and the IFOU, and the TUC Iraq Solidarity Committee has agreed that the IFOU is a bona fide sectoral union.
The solidarity campaign in June with the IFOU strike saw the TUC condemning Iraqi government military intervention, and support for the demands of the IFOU, which ranged from calls for a restoration of bonus payments to oil workers and the granting of permanent employment to temporary workers through to demands for consultation over the Iraqi oil law.

Further attacks on trade unions

In March, the TUC condemned the abduction, torture and murder of Iraqi trade unionist Najim Abd-Jasem, General Secretary of the Mechanic Workers' Union.
Sue Rogers had met Najim, and said: 'Najim was one of the most positive influences in the Iraqi trade union movement. He was very progressive, and very clear about where the movement needed to go'

The Iraqi trade union movement, the GFIW, has issued the following statement: 'Najim A Jasem was kidnapped by militias on 27 March. His body was found on 30 March 2007. His body bears huge signs of torture. He was member of the underground Workers' Trade Union Movement (WDTUM) and fought against the regime of Saddam. He was dismissed from his job because of his trade union activities. He was reinstated after the fall of Saddam. He was one of the key founder of the new democratic IFTU, now the GFIW, and was elected the General Secretary of the Mechanics Workers' Union.'

Then in April, the TUC expressed its sympathy and solidarity with the family and colleagues of Moaaid Hamid, Vice President of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers in the province of Nineveh, and his wife, both murdered on 9 April 2007, following clashes between forces of the Iraqi army and terrorist elements in the province.

The deceased was one of the first trade union leaders who contributed to the creation of the IFTU after the fall of the former dictator in 2003 and has played an active role in building a genuine democratic trade union movement despite all the difficult circumstances.

Transport workers are coming

Later this year, in November, a delegation of four Iraqi and two Kurdish transport union representatives will be visiting the UK to tell us about transport trade unionism in the ports, railways, haulage and aviation industries; to build links with similar unions in Britain; and to learn about how transport trade unionism works in our country.

Organised by the TUC and the GFIW's international representative Abdullah Muhsin, the visit will involve the International Transport Workers' Federation, ASLEF, RMT, the T&G section of Unite the Union and the TSSA. We hope to arrange visits to airports, railway depots and bus garages, and hold meetings for trade unionists in Yorkshire and the Humber and in the North West.

The visit will be funded by the TUC and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, with unions providing incidental assistance.

TUC Aid for Iraq Appeal

The TUC Iraq Solidarity Committee, chaired by Sue Rogers from the General Council, works in solidarity with the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW), the trade union movement in Iraqi Kurdistan and other sectoral trade union organisations in Iraq. Members are drawn from seventeen TUC affiliated unions. The TUC continues to raise money for Iraqi trade unionists. This has been used for bringing Iraqi trade unionists to Britain and to the ITUC World Congress, supporting global union training projects and more.

Click to give money online or find out more.
Solidarity leaflet
A striking leaflet is available for bulk purchase by unions for inclusion in journals, bulletins and mailings to members - see it at www.tuc.org.uk/extras/iraqleaflet.pdf
Contact Owen at otudor@tuc.org.uk for copies.
Briefing document (1,000 words) issued 29 Jul 2007

Next Meeting Monday 20th Aug

2007-08-18T10:00:00.000-07:00

Dear IUSS Supporters,

Our next meeting will be on Monday August 20th at 7pm at 80 Oakfield Avenue, off University Avenue, Glasgow. I hope you can come along.

If you are in Unison or know people in Unison, the International seminar on September 1st entiltled "Trade Unionists Under Threat Throughout The World" will have an Iraqi trade unionist speaking, so it is of interest to IUSS supporters and is open to all Unison members. Please email me for more information.

Please see attachements which we have received about the grave situation for trade unionists in Iran. Please follow the links and addresses to give these comrades as much support as you can.

Comradley
Pauline Bradley
Convenor IUSS
http://iraqunionsolidarityscotland.blogspot.com

Banned Broadcast from Iraq and Report

2007-08-08T06:36:00.000-07:00

Dear IUS Scotland Supporters,

Please see the two attachments which have been sent from our Iraqi comrades in different Iraqi trade union federations. One is an MTV broadcast which was banned in the USA, the other is from the Iraqi Federation of Refugees for their forthcoming conference.

The sixth TUC Iraq Bulletin includes a report of the Iraqi teacher delegation earlier this year, the FBU's delegation to Iraq, and a future Iraqi transport workers' delegation to the UK, as well as developments in the oil sector, and further attacks on Iraqi trade unionists.

http://www.tuc.org.uk/international/tuc-13572-f0.cfm

Pauline

IRAQ

2007-08-07T08:07:00.000-07:00

IRAQ

A Classical Hollywood narrative of hope and redemption
Pentagon Disneyland for free market experimentation
falsely benign Fox misrepresentation

The birthplace of civilisation run by Haliburton and Bechtel
and their creative accounting fraudster friends

Criminals as Kings , theft, gang rape, kidnapping ,honour killings
all carried out in the name of Freedom

The Geometry of bad water, no power, mounting waste
correlates neatly with rising violence , despair and irredentist fundamentalism

Stereotypical Rae burn wearing GI’s with
their guns and pills and pop culture
seek “ Bad Guys” in an apocalyptic Pentagon theme park

as misogynist misery gangs resist the Occupodians
creating chaos to win

Disgruntled cynical working-class grunts and
Mercenary security firms guard
the boys in the bubble in the Green Zone
with their post-modern colonial Gap Gear wraparound shades and Heckler and Kock MP 5 s

While crazy people roam amongst trash fires and diseased feral dogs
In Sadr City
Vietnam Street ,
Death to Spies and Collaborator conclusions on walls
Sedans full of men and eyes on each corner

Military technology again substitutes poorly for an absence of hearts and minds
In an awkwardly urban apocalyptic clash of cultures

Self-confident Ivy league Green Zone post-colonialists construct fantasies
in an air-conditioned oasis of beautiful palm trees and manicured lawns
as carpet bagging “reconstruction” fraudsters drain Iraq of its life blood natural resource .

Joes and Hagis
Saws and MRES
A Two Tier army

Tag teaming, $ 15 ficky fick, digital photo trades
Juicing on steroids, sleeping on valium, eating coffee granules
in a floating , escapist diazepam hazed rabbit hole

High noon patrols prowl the streets
in a Heart of Darkness wild west called Fallujah
as Apache Helicopter gunships circle and strafe
in this Iraqi Alabama at the end of the river
creating chaotic visual loops of orange

Parachuted incandescent flares descend
on night time blockades , house raids ,Bound and hooded Iraqis ,
a dead child "mistake "

Panther Penis victims
Cancerous depleted Uranium victims
Lack of Medical supply victims
Sharia Lawlessness victims
Pray and spray shooting victims

Pre-Medieval self-referential autonomous cells of women-hating men
Parasitic voyeurs
War Tourists
Cynical Grunts
Careerist freelancers
Nut jobs
Pilgrims
Neo-con fantasists and
In Denial Zealots

Neither Political Islam nor US Imperialism
cries the Left while young men rapped in Green and Black flags
fire AK-47s in the air drawn to the lure of violence

While 13,000 souls anguish in a ritualised nightshift humiliation
inside an Iraqi Andersonville with its towers and razor wire
Incessant sobbing, child shrieks and swaggering GI’S

NGO Groupies
Useless CMOCS
SUV Flames
IEDS and RPGS
Dawn to Dusk Curfews

All paths in the neo- con bloody circus leading nowhere
signifying the end of Planet America.

Peter Burton August 2007

Free Mansour Ossanlou !

2007-08-06T06:24:00.000-07:00

Demonstrate to free Mansour Ossanlou, Mahmoud Salehi and all class-war prisoners in Iran!

As part of the week of action in support of Iranian workers supported by international unions including the International Transport Workers' Federation, activists in Britain will be demonstrating outside the embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran on Thursday 9 August.
Location:Outside Iranian Embassy, 16 Prince's Gate, London SW7 (nearest Tube: High St Kensington)

International Campaign Against Islamic Republic Atrocities

2007-07-29T02:17:00.000-07:00

International Campaign Against Islamic Republic Atrocities

To: All Labour and Human Rights Organizations
International Campaign Against Islamic Republic Atrocities Islamic republic intends to execute tens of prisoners Join the international campaign to save life of political prisoners, those condemned to be stoned, to free imprisoned labour activists, students and women

Sign the petition and ask others to sign

The Islamic republic of Iran has embarked on a new wave of suppression. In the recent days it has executed a number of prisoners, stoned some to death and arrested a number of labour, student and activist of women?s movement in Iran. This is part of its assault to intimidate the rising protest movement in Iran.

Number of arrest and summarily executions has risen dramatically. Last week, the Islamic regime stoned Jafa Kiyani to death in Takistan. ? On Saturday 14 July, in northern city of Tabriz, Horiyeh, was executed in public for having sex out of wedlock. On the same day 3 others were hanged in the same city. It was announced that in a few days time, Mokarameh Ebrahimi, mother of 5 children would be stoned to death. The Leaders of the Islamic Republic have announced last week that they have verified the execution of 20 young people.

Mansour Osdanloo, leader of the Tehran Bus drivers Union has been kidnapped and imprisoned. Furthermore they have announced that religious police would be doubled in city parks and streets to prevent teenage boys and girls mixing and floating religious ethics?

While Mahmoud Salehi, a leading labour activist, is still in prison, they have continued to put on trial two other labour activists, Shieth Amani and Sadeeg Karimi, from the city of Sanandaj for organizing celebrations of May 1st international workers day . The Islamic republic has turned to violent aggression at the very time when it is in deep crisis and protest movement in Iran is escalating. The so called petrol protest in opposition to hike in petrol prices in Iran is an example. The increase in religious police to impose hejab is an attempt by the Islamic republic to confront this movement which really indicates that Iranian society is rejecting the Islamic imposition and its policies.

We will confront this assault and will defeat it! We have announce an international campaign against atrocities of the Islamic Republic and call on every to join this campaign. Sign this petition and ask others to take part. We ask all labour and human rights organizations to put pressure on, by writing to the leaders of the Islamic regime, in protest to stop their atrocities. We the undersigned demand that:

Unconditional Freedom for all political prisoners and recent detainees Abolition of cruel and inhumane stoning laws and immediate release of the 13 waiting stoning. Repeal the sentences of execution for 20 children and young adults including Shahla Jahed and Kobra Rahmanpour

Free Mahmoud salehi, Mansour osdanloo and all labour activist who have been arrested for organizing protest and strike. End persecution of May 1st activist including leaders of unemployed union Sheith Amani and Sadeeg Karimi . Free detained students and end to harassment of student in the university; Close security and religious police in universities. End harassment of teenage boys and girls and free imprisoned youth. Free all those arrested following the recent petrol protests Mina Ahadi Spokesperson for the international campaign against atrocities in Iran July 14th 2007 Signed by:

International labour solidarity
International Committee against executions
International Committee against stoning
Committee for freedom of political prisoners in Iran
Hambastegi international federation of refugees
International Campaign in defence of womens right in Iran( Germany, England, Malmo and Stockholm in Sweden)
Children First now!
Society against religion
Friends of women in the middle east association

Student news Iran

2007-07-29T02:15:00.000-07:00

Student news

Fear from expansion of students' protests has made universities officials decide to close down all the dorms to prevent students from gathering

Art faculty of Tehran University
On the evening of Sunday July the 15th few students of the Art faculty of Tehran University referred to the student central office to clarify the situation with their dorm and their summer semester. Instead they found themselves brutally attacked and beaten by the security guards and police forces. A number of students were injured; the condition of some of them has been reported as critical and one of the students is admitted to the ICU of one of the nearby hospitals. From Monday and in continuation with these protests, art students went into a strike and started a mass protest refusing to show up at the exam sessions and announcing that final exams will be cancelled. During their gathering they protested against the attack on students, against the atmosphere of repression in the university. They asked the Dean of university to resign and the head of security to step down, and asked that their problems regarding the dorm and summer semester be solved. After these protests, 22 students of the art faculty of Tehran University have been called in by the disciplinary committee. Eight of these are members of the student union.

Tehran Polytechnic University
Nine students of Tehran Polytechnic University are detained at Evin prison. It is now 2 months that these students are under the most severe tortures. The Islamic government is trying to make them confess to false allegations and charges made by the government.

Ninth of July anniversary
Eight years ago, when Tehran University students started large protests against governmental terror and censorship, many ordinary people joined the protests which continued for 6 days. The government repressed the protests brutally by arresting many students and individuals, some of which are still in prison. In that day the governmental forces threw a student from a third floor window and killed him.
This year on the anniversary of the Ninth of July, students and ordinary people of Tehran gathered around Tehran Polytechnic University and Tehran University to hold a large protest. Police and anti-protest forces savagely attacked people, preventing the gathering from starting and arresting 16 students.

Tehran Allameh-Tabatabyee University
According to the news received by the CYO's news headquarter, on Saturday July 14th, students of Allameh University gathered to protest against the closure of the dorms during summer. Through one of the security guards, the Dean of the university, Mr. Shariati, asked the police forces to attack the students. Many students were injured. Some were arrested but subsequently released, except one student whose location is unknown. Students continued their protests on Sunday morning and stressing on their demands but thus far no positive response has been heard from the University Dean.
http://cyoiran.wordpress.com/

Basra Workers

2007-07-28T09:29:00.000-07:00

Basra workers of the Gas sector: update

While working in their night shift, two workers of the South Gas Company, Khor Al Zubair area, were stung by poisonous scorpions in June 2007. Both workers had to wait overnight and endure the poison effects because of the lack of a night-time clinic, an ambulance, and an telephone operator which can call the general hospital. Another worker, Gtafeh Nissan Telfah, had died two years ago from a heart attack for the same reason, i.e. the non-availability of an ambulance.

Two Gas workers from Khor Al Zubair were poisoned by gases of propane and butane. As a result, they suffocated and fainted because of the failure of the workplace to provide sufficient precautions.
In the fluid isolation/ Natural Gas Liquids site (NGL) in the North Rumaila field, the workers are assigned to hazardous tasks without adequate precaution for workplace safety; they clean the "Vessels" in ways which cause burns and injuries to them.

The South Gas Company workers demand to be paid the remaining annual benefits (20% of the total amount), similar to the other oil sectors' workers.
Firemen of the oil sector do not receive danger benefits although they frequently put out fires of the oil and the non-oil sectors. The Old Factory does not have a fire-fighting vehicle or any fire extinguishing equipment in Khor Al Zubair although the reservoirs of the factory are full of gas. Consequently, any accident of fire will put the lives of the employees under danger and will destroy the factory.

The gas sector workers are subject to inhaling Ethylene, a hazardous gas which results in many ailments if inhaled for long periods. Many were harmed as a result of inhaling this gas during the fire accident of the operating units in the petrochemicals last February.

Report was prepared by: Faisal Kassim and Sabah Dnaiyef Shahan.

Gas Workers' Union Committee – Basrah
Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq

Motion Regarding Iraqi Oil Law

2007-07-28T09:25:00.000-07:00

Motion Regarding Iraqi Oil Law

This branch/union notes
The US/UK occupation of Iraq, which began in March 2003.

That Iraq is an oil rich country.

Trade unions in many sectors of industry in Iraq, including the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions.

That US companies have been researched and named by US Labour Against the War to have interests in taking over Iraqi assets including its oil.

That US government and troops have put pressure on the Iraqi government to sign a law, which effectively privatises Iraq’s oil. Unions in the oil sector have been on strike several times to try to resist such moves. They also have demands related to wages and working conditions, including a demand for wage increases; the payment of a previously agreed bonus that is based on the distribution to workers of a proportion of oil revenues achieved by the company; no salary deductions to be made for granted vacation days; and the delivery of land parcels for housing to workers. The IFOU wrote to the Minister of Oil in June 2007, outlining their demands.

In June 2007, the army surrounded oil workers while US helicopters were above them, trying to intimidate the IFOU.

This Branch/Union Condemns
The sending in of troops to crush a legitimate strike by the IFOU

This Branch/Union believes
The US has put such pressure on the Iraqi government to sign the oil law quickly, so oil profits go to US companies rather than to the Iraqi people.

That the US/UK occupation has been a disaster and the US is keen to gain “something for its investment” of troops in Iraq.

That the Iraqi people should be allowed to decide the future of their oil and its revenue.

That the strike should be settled by negotiation with the IFOU and the Iraqi government. The US should leave the oil fields and the whole country of Iraq.

That the trade unions in Iraq are its best hope for a stable and secular future.

This Branch/Union resolves
To lobby our MPs, MSPs to use their influence to tell the US to leave the Iraqi people to decide the destiny of their oil.

To send a message of solidarity to the IFOU and support their demands a settlement should be reached by negotiation without pressure from the US.

To circulate information from Iraqi trades unions in relation to the strikes and struggles of Iraqi unions to keep control of their oil, petrol, gas and other strategic resources.

To make a donation to the TUC Iraq appeal and affiliate to Iraq Union Solidarity or Iraq Union Solidarity Scotland.

GWIF

2007-07-23T06:04:00.000-07:00

http://www.iraqtradeunions.org/

http://www.petitiononline.com/iq2007/petition.html

Stop the killing, Kidnapping and Intimidation of Journalists in Iraq

Iranian trade union leader speaks to Labour Research

2007-07-22T13:54:00.000-07:00

Interview of Mansour Ossanlou in UK recently

http://www.lrd.org.uk/issue.php?pagid=1&issueid=1164

Iranian Labour News

2007-07-21T10:38:00.001-07:00

http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Iran

Free Mansour Ossanloo !

2007-07-21T10:29:00.000-07:00

Mansour Ossanloo, the president of the Iranian independent bus workers’ union was kidnapped by plain clothes police on Tuesday 10 July and taken to the notorious Evin prison.

Ossanloo was stopped while he was returning home by a public transit bus in Tehran. According to Iranian workers’ sources, a Peugeot car stopped the bus and unidentified plain clothes agents attacked him - beating him severely while telling people that he was a thief! Ossanloo tried to identify himself as the president of the union for the witnesses in order to get help but the agents stopped him.

Security forces tried to arrest Ossanlou in similar circumstances in May. Then, Ossanloo freed himself because people rushed to help. But this time the agents did not give him any chance.
Last November Ossanloo kidnapped and incarcerated in Evin prison. After enduring a month of detention, he was released. Before that, Ossanloo was imprisoned from December 2005 for eight months. Earlier this year a Tehran revolutionary Court issued a prison sentence of five years against Ossanloo, but his lawyer had filed an appeal and his case was in process.

A few days before Ossanlou’s kidnapping, Ebrahim Madadi, the union’s vice president, was arrested by uniformed police officers but freed a day after without charges following union protest.

This is part of a new wave of suppression in Iran against labour activists as well as women’s rights activists and students. At thee time armed security forces attacked protesting students at Amir Kabir University in Tehran and arrested six students. Worker activist Mahmoud Salehi has been jailed since April this year and has been deliberately denied life-saving medical treatment by the authorities.

Messages of protest can be sent via Labour Start

Sean Smiths' Photos of Iraq

2007-07-18T14:14:00.000-07:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/slideshow/page/0,,1891982,00.html

Iraq Commission Video

2007-07-18T13:50:00.002-07:00

Iraq Commission hearings on Video including Houzan Mahmood interview

http://www.channel4.com/news/microsites/I/the_iraq_commission/video.html

Glasgow Meeting

2007-07-18T13:43:00.001-07:00

Dear IUSS Supporters,

The next IUSS meeting will be next Monday, July 23rd at 7pm,
Partick Burgh Hall, Burgh Hall Road, Partick. Please make every effort to attend, we have a lot to organise including action to protest against the oil law, a demonstration and public meeting in Edinburgh, feedback from our meeting with Bill Wilson MSP among other things!

Please see and sign the petiton below from Houzan.

Comradely,
Pauline Bradley
http://iraqunionsolidarityscotland.blogspot.com

Dear Pauline and all
Here is the link of our petition in English:

http://www.petitiononline.com/iraqoil/petition.html

PLease sign it, and send it to as many people as possible

Many thanks
Houzan Mahmoud

MSP Welcomes visit

2007-07-11T07:45:00.000-07:00

Please address all correspondence to:

Dr Bill Wilson MSP
Scottish Parliament
EH99 1SP

Tel. 0131 3486805
Fax. 0131 3486806

e-mail:
Bill.Wilson.msp@scottish.parliament.uk

10 July 2007

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Use
MSP WELCOMES VISIT OF IRAQ OIL UNION LEADER TO UK: “NOW LISTEN TO WHAT HE HAS TO SAY ABOUT THE OIL LAW!”
Dr Bill Wilson, MSP for the West of Scotland, today welcomed the announcement that the leader of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU) had been granted a visa to visit the UK and would be in the country from Tuesday July 10th until Thursday July 19th.

Dr Wilson’s comments followed his press release of 23 June and his Parliamentary motions of 18 June in which attacked the proposed Oil Law in Iraq and accused multinational corporations and the US and UK governments of effectively usurping control of Iraq’s oil resources [see bottom of this document for full details].

Dr Wilson said, “I was disturbed to learn earlier that Hassan Jumaa Awad al Assadi, President of the 26,000-strong IFOU, was unable to visit the UK and present the objections of union members to the Oil Law to the authorities and public in the UK, as he could not get a visa. I wrote to both David Miliband, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, and to Dominic Asquith, the British Ambassador to Iraq, to urge them to ensure that Hassan Jumaa be issued with a visa as soon as possible.

“I am delighted that the leader of the Iraq oil union will now be allowed to make his argument within the UK. To deny the Iraq people the right to put their argument to the people of the UK would have been nothing less than dishonest. There is strong opposition in Iraq to passing a law which takes control of Iraqi oil from the people of Iraq and hands it to the multi-nationals — it is right that the voice of that opposition should be heard in the UK.

“Both Blair and Bush assured us that this war was not about oil but about democracy. If this assurance is to be even vaguely believable then both the UK and US governments must end all pressure on the Iraqi government to pass this law. Admiral Fallon must withdraw his deadline (for the Oil Law to be adopted by the end of this month), and the UK, the USA and the IMF must accept that Iraq’s oil belongs to the Iraqi people.”

Background Information

1. Text of letter sent to the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, David Miliband, on 3 July

The Right Honourable David Miliband
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

Dear Mr Miliband

Granting the President of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions a visa to visit the UK

Congratulations on your recent appointment. I wish you well in what will undoubtedly be a challenging position, not least because of the situation in Iraq, an aspect of which I wish to direct your attention to in this communication.

The UK Ambassador to Iraq, the Hon. Dominic Asquith, stated last August: “Our objective is a shared one: to build a strong, united, democratic, and stable Iraq, with a government that exercises full sovereignty and authority through effective institutions trusted by its citizens.”

He also said: “The Iraqi people need to have confidence in their government and all its institutions to improve their lives. […] The future of Iraq lies firmly in Iraqi hands. As the British people see Iraqis themselves – ordinary people, business people, officials and politicians alike – take control of their lives, so our determination to help you succeed strengthens.”

His statements seem at odds with the current situation. Iraqi politicians and oil workers find themselves under pressure to accede to the private development agendas of multinational companies through exclusive contracts lasting up to 30 years, the effect of signing up to the currently proposed Oil Law. The corporate interests of multinationals have been represented thus far by the governments of the UK and the USA through the current Iraqi Hydrocarbon Law, which they have been party to since July 2006. You will know that Admiral William Fallon (Commander of US Central Command) insisted to Prime Minister Maliki that the new Oil Law be signed by the end of July. This law effectively cedes the state's sovereignty and control over the development of the majority of Iraq's oil reserves to multinational companies. Denying a visa to Hassan Jumaa Awad al Assadi (President of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions) at this time amounts to denying the people of Iraq a fair opportunity to present their objections to an international audience and to denying the UK electorate balanced information on developments in Iraq. It also flatly contradicts the spirit and letter of the statements made by the UK’s ambassador to Iraq. I trust you will arrange for a visa for Hassan Jumaa immediately, with the deadline for the signing of the anti-democratic and rapacious Oil Law so near.

I look forward to receiving reassurance on this matter.

2. Website of the General Union of Oil Employees in Basra

http://www.basraoilunion.org/

3. Previous Press Release (dated 23 June 2007)

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Use
IRAQI OIL FOR THE IRAQIS, MSP DEMANDS: SCOTTISH SOLDIERS DYING TO LINE POCKETS OF MULTINATIONALS?
Dr Bill Wilson, MSP for the West of Scotland, yesterday made an outspoken plea for Iraqi Oil to remain in the hands of Iraqis. He was speaking after meeting Ewa Jasiewicz, researcher/campaigner with Platform, a group concerned about the currently proposed Iraqi Oil Law, legislation that would effectively sign over the exploitation of that nation’s oil reserves, and most oil-related profits, to multinational companies.

Dr Wilson’s impassioned comments came only five days after he lodged two parliamentary motions expressing concern about the Oil Law and the circumstances surrounding it. He explained that he had been deeply disturbed for many years by the situation in Iraq and found the ongoing hypocrisy of the UK and US governments and their flagrant disregard for the welfare of Iraqis shameful and repugnant. “When Ewa Jasiewicz contacted me after hearing of my Scottish Parliamentary motions on the issue, and told me she would be talking on the issue at the University of Strathclyde, I was keen to meet her. We discussed how we could best raise awareness of the blatant extortion that the Oil Law amounts to. I told her that if I could do anything to help restore justice and democracy in that abused nation I would be delighted to help.”

Dr Wilson likened what happened with Scottish oil in 1979 to what is currently happening in Iraq, but implied that if Scots had been upset by the usurpation of their natural resources then they should be even more disturbed by the Iraqi situation: “The USA is pushing the Oil Law so hard that the Iraqi government believes it will be brought down if it does not pass it. The US military — Admiral Fallon — has given the Iraq government a deadline of the end of July. The UK government admits to supplying the Iraqi government with advice, advice provided over the barrel of a rifle.”

He said that it was totally inappropriate to push for the Oil Law to be signed when Iraq was an occupied country torn by civil war: “As I understand it the proposed legislation will dictate the way Iraq’s oil is exploited for the next thirty years. This is akin to what happened with the carving up of Africa when indigenous peoples were tricked into signing their land and resources away for a pittance. Here the Iraqi trade unions, and people as a whole, are firmly against it, but they are being forced into it — sometimes at gunpoint. Protesting oil workers have been threatened with death. Scottish soldiers are dying there too —is it to line the pockets of the multinationals rather than to promote democracy? The facts suggest their blood is being spilled primarily to buy cheap oil for the likes of BP — one of the “advisers” provided by the UK was the former head of BP Azerbaijan. You’d have to be very naïve not to believe that expropriating the oil wasn’t a major reason for invasion.”

Dr Wilson attacked not only the roles of the US and UK governments and the large oil companies but also that of the International Monetary Fund, pointing out that the IMF had made financial support for Iraq conditional upon acceptance of the Oil Law.

Speaking of Scotland’s attitude to developments in Iraq, Dr Wilson said that he understood the ministers in the Scottish government did not sign Scottish Parliamentary Motions but he was pleased to note that First Minister Alex Salmond had already given a lead to the way the SNP-led government should view the matter — by signing Katy Clark’s Early Day Motion 1180 in London in his capacity as Westminster MP. Dr Wilson said he also wished to congratulate Ms Clark, Labour MP for Ayrshire North and Arran, for her integrity in making a stand against the UK government’s position, and similarly congratulate John McDonnell, Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington, for his EDMs, “…And, of course, my congratulations to Platform, for their outstanding campaigning on this issue. It was a privilege to meet Ewa Jasiewicz and I wish her, Platform, and the Hands Off Iraqi Oil campaign every success.”

He concluded with the remark: “The attitudes taken by the UK and Scottish governments could speak volumes. I trust the nation of Scotland will not want the blood and oil of Iraqis on its conscience, not to mention the blood of our own soldiers. Iraqi oil for the Iraqis. No more blood for oil. I shall be making these points to all those I meet at tomorrow's SNP National Council meeting.”

[The National Council Meeting is taking place today at the Dynamic Earth centre.]

Background Information to press release dated 23 June 2007

a) SCOTTISH PARLIAMENTARY MOTIONS

Date of Lodging: 18 June 2007
Short Title: Iraq: Right to Strike
S3M-00194 Bill Wilson (West of Scotland) (SNP): That the Parliament notes with grave concern the death threats against members of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU) who were recently protesting against the proposed oil law which would effectively cede control of Iraq’s oilfields to multinational companies; further notes that the right to strike is protected by the core conventions of the International Labour Organisation, to which the Iraq Government is a signatory, and accordingly expresses its support for calls for the threat of violence against the oil workers to be withdrawn and for their legitimate right to strike to be recognised should they choose to exercise it.

Date of Lodging: 18 June 2007
Short Title: Iraq: Privatisation of Oil
S3M-00195 Bill Wilson (West of Scotland) (SNP): That the Parliament notes with concern proposals to pass laws allowing the privatisation of Iraq’s oil industry; notes that both the Blair and Bush administrations stated that their declared major purpose for invading Iraq was to remove weapons of mass destruction and that the invasion was not motivated by that country’s oil reserves; notes that both administrations have stated their support for the introduction of democracy in Iraq, and accordingly is confident that the UK and US administrations will demonstrate their good intentions by encouraging the Iraq Government not to privatise that country’s oil but to maintain it as a source of income to help Iraq’s reconstruction and recovery.

b) WESTMINISTER EARLY DAY MOTIONS

Date of Lodging: 20 March 2007
Short Title: Iraqi Oil Law
EDM-1180 Katy Clark (Ayrshire North and Arran) (Labour): That this House notes that Iraq's economy is heavily dependent on oil and that decisions about the future of Iraq's oil industry will have a major bearing on that country; further notes that the constitution of Iraq states that oil and gas are owned by all the people of Iraq; expresses concern that the British Government, in its involvement in the drafting of Iraq's new oil laws, has sought the views of international oil companies regarding the possible types of contracts that the Iraqi government should offer; believes that decisions on the Iraqi oil industry should be made by the Iraqi people without outside interference; and calls on the Government to disclose to the House all representations it has made in relation to the oil law.

See also John McDonnell’s EDMs:

http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=33467&SESSION=885
http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=33468&SESSION=885

c) EWA JASIEWICZ/PLATFORM/HANDS OFF IRAQI OIL

Ewa Jasiewicz
Researcher/Campaigner
PLATFORM
http://www.carbonweb.org/iraq
020 7403 3738
0044 7749 421 576

Hands Off Iraqi Oil: http://www.carbonweb.org/showitem.asp?article=256&parent=39
Useful links and quotes: http://www.carbonweb.org/showitem.asp?article=56&parent=4

-ends-

Press Release

2007-07-11T07:42:00.000-07:00

2007-07-10T11:54:00.001-07:00

http://blog.frombaghdadtonewyork.com/BaghdadNY/Blog/

Welcome here. Our goal is to provide the world with facts about Iraq and Iraqi people. We want to show the world the truth about how Iraqi people really feel.

2007-07-10T11:10:00.000-07:00

Iraqi Union Leaders Call for an End to the Occupation By David Bacon

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?

TAP talks to Faleh Abood Umara, general secretary of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions, and Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein, president of the Electrical Workers Union of Iraq.The American Prospect online, July 6, 2007 see also: Article: Iraqi Oil: A Benchmark or a Giveaway? Why Iraqi oil workers oppose the much-vaunted oil law.http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles? Photoessay: Unions Struggle to Protect Iraqi

Oilhttp://www.prospect.org/cs/articles/feature_unions_struggle_to_protect_iraqi_oil

David Bacon: Recently the oil workers union went on strike for two days. What was the strike about?

Faleh Abood Umara: We have many problems in the oil industry. Some time ago we met with the Prime Minister of Iraq, discussed them, and reached an agreement. We asked the minister of oil to implement that agreement, and he refused. He was supposed to organize a special congress with oil workers in the south, to provide land for building workers' homes, to raise our pay, to implement profit sharing, and to suspend the implementation of the new oil law. Our discussions with the oil minister didn't change the situation, so we announced we would go on strike.

Bacon: What objection does the union have to the proposed oil law?

Umara: The new law will give the control of all oil royalties and production to foreign oil companies. It will allow them to do whatever they want in our oil fields, and we won't have the ability to intervene, or even to observe. The oil law doesn't envision the existence of our oil union, nor will in include us as a member of the so-called Oil Congress. The most dangerous part of the law is the production-sharing agreement. We reject this kind of agreement absolutely. The law will rob Iraq of its main resource -- its oil. It will undermine the sovereignty of Iraq and our people.

Bacon: What would be the impact of the oil law on the ability of Iraq to rebuild after the war and occupation?

Umara: If the law is ratified, there will be no reconstruction. The U.S. will keep its hegemony over Iraq.

Bacon: Hashmeya, when I saw you in Basra in 2005, your union was fighting the management of the electric power stations over working conditions and subcontracting of the work of your members. What is their situation today?

Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein: Iraqi power stations and other facilities suffered a lot of damage during the war, going back to the time of Saddam Hussein. He didn't give contracts to foreign corporations, and depended on the indigenous resources in the country. After the collapse of the Saddam Hussein regime, we saw something new. Even the simplest job was given to a contractor.As a result, the buildings of the electrical authority were filled with unemployed workers. We protested against this, and for a time, our industry's management would not accept the workers' demands. We demonstrated in front of the Basra mayor's office and submitted our demands to the governor. Of our seven demands, the two most important were first, stopping unnecessary contracting, and second, stopping the corruption throughout the management. Finally, we agreed with the managers that contracts would only be given out for jobs that were beyond the ability of Iraqi workers.

Bacon: What do the members of your union earn?

Muhsin: At the beginning of the occupation, the administration of L. Paul Bremer decreed wage grades for workers that were very oppressive. His system had 11 grades. The eleventh grade starts at $50 a month, and the first grade maxes out at $1,300 a month. You can see the disparity. No one can survive on $50 a month, while a tiny group receives much more. The maximum that a laborer in our industry can earn is grade 5 -- about $250, or hardly enough to survive. We have demanded that the ministry change this law, but even if they do, compensation will still be very low.

Bacon: Faleh, the oil union challenged the Bremer pay grades in 2004. What do oil workers make now?

Umara: The grades imposed by Bremer applied to workers all over Iraq. We objected to them at that time, and threatened to strike. After we met with the first Oil Minister, we were able to adjust the schedule. Compensation in oil is now completely different from that in other fields. We have eliminated the eleventh and tenth grades, for instance. There's a small improvement, but the prices in the market are going up all the time.

Bacon: I've visited the homes of oil workers, and many people still sleep in the same room, and while families have enough to eat, they live in very basic conditions.

Umara: Conditions are very tough. An oil worker in the fourth grade gets about 600,000 dinars, or about $400 a month. A small refrigerator for your house costs $200. That's half your salary. Could you survive on $200 for a month? The working conditions are also very difficult. But to be fair, it's better than it was during the time of Saddam Hussein. In the oil and electricity industries we asked for a special bonus of 30 percent, and managed to get it because of the strength of our two unions. God willing, we are going to continue improving the wages.

Bacon: Hashmeya, how was your union organized and how were you chosen to head it?

Muhsin: After the collapse of the Saddam Hussein regime, in September 2003, we organized labor committees in many workplaces. I was elected head of the committee where I work. Then, at the first conference for all workers in our industry, in May, 2004, I was elected head of the union. All our union's officers are volunteers. We have a democratic process with internal bylaws, and all the different kinds of work in the industry have to be represented. We have a convention every two years, and at our second convention in June, 2006, I was re-elected unanimously. But because of the government decree which seized all union funds in Iraq, we have no money or any way to collect dues. The activists in all our unions, even in the electricity and oil industries, contribute as much as we can from our own wages, and that's what we use for all our union's activities.

Bacon: What is the attitude of the men in the union towards you as a woman?

Muhsin: At the beginning there was some difficulty, but now it's much easier. The workers elected me. They come to me with their problems, and we do our best to solve them. We have five sub-unions in our industry, and many women have union membership cards. We put their pictures on our posters to show them off.

Bacon: When I was in Baghdad in October, 2003, Bremer and the Coalition Provisional Authority published lists of state-owned enterprises that they intended to sell to private owners. Were there electrical enterprises on those lists? Are there plans to privatize electric power generation?

Muhsin: The power situation in Iraq is deteriorating very fast. We cannot get spare parts to replace ones that break or wear out. The terrorists sabotage the transmission lines and generating stations. Management corruption is very widespread. There has been no improvement in this situation at all, and people suffer from constant blackouts. In the labor movement, we think this situation has been deliberately created so that people will conclude that something must be done, and that the only alternative is the privatization of electric power generation.On May 23 of this year we protested this situation. We asked the Electricity Ministry to improve the transmission system. We threatened to strike the transmission lines and substations, and cut power to the oil pumping stations.

This would just have been a first step. When the electricity minister understood what we were planning, he agreed to discussions and we postponed the strike. But three days ago my union told me that they were again starting plans for a strike because those discussions were going nowhere. The government announced a crash program to improve the transmission lines and the entire system, but the money for it disappeared. Our objective is to force immediate improvements in the system, and we've given the minister plans and alternatives showing how this can be done. We are the experts in our own industry.

Bacon: Last month, the president of the oil union wrote to the U.S. Congress saying it wanted the occupation to end, and the troops to leave, but that it didn't want the oil law imposed as a condition for this. How does the oil union propose that the occupation should end?

Umara: All the problems in Iraq come from the occupation. Our oil union and all the other unions in Iraq believe we can't rebuild our country so long as the occupation is going on. The occupation fosters the enormous corruption. We ask people in the U.S. to tell their government to leave as soon as possible. The troops should be evacuated, without making the implementation of the oil law a condition.The U.S. administration wants to control our oil resources of our country, so our letter to the U.S. Congress asked your leaders to stop making proposals that violate the will of the vast majority of our people. We have plenty of oil experts in Iraq, who are perfectly capable of managing the oil industry. The Southern Oil Company, where our union is based, is the only enterprise in Iraq currently producing oil. We're exporting 2,250,000 barrels a day, all managed by Iraqi experts, and produced by Iraqi hands.Bacon: Many people say that if the troops leave, there is no civil society capable of governing the country. Do you agree with this?

Umara: There are many cities in Iraq controlled by the Iraqi administration. These cities are quite secure, while the cities controlled by the occupation troops see continuous killing and carnage. As long as we have an occupation, we'll have more sabotage and killing.But when people from the local tribes control the security, they have expelled the al-Qaeda forces and those others who are terrorizing people. This means we can protect ourselves and bring security to our nation, with no need of the U.S. forces. To those who believe that if the U.S. troops leave there will be chaos, I say, let them go, and if we fight each other afterwards, let us do that. We are being killed by the thousands already. If the occupation continues, there will only be more blood shed by the U.S. forces and the Iraqi people.

Bacon: Hashmeya, your union belongs to another union federation. What does your federation think should happen with the occupation?

Muhsin: The electrical workers union belongs to the General Union of Iraqi Workers, and we want the occupation to end as soon as possible. All Iraqi unions want this.After the collapse of the regime all the borders were open. Many people, intruders, came to Iraq. Many were al-Qaeda and others, who brought weapons and explosives. There was no inspection at the border at all. As an occupied nation under UN Resolution 1483, the United States was obligated to protect and guarantee our security. But the very first thing [they] did was throw the borders open. Given this experience, we're not expecting to have much security in Iraq so long as the United States is there.Some towns are secure, but wherever you see the U.S. forces, you see a lot of terror and sabotage. We want the United States to leave. Of course, it takes time and it's not an easy operation. The logistics are tough. But our first and last demand is that the occupation end as soon as possible.

Bacon: The Bush administration says it envisions the presence of an occupation force for many years, comparing the situation to the presence of U.S. troops in South Korea. What do you think of that possibility?

Muhsin: If it was up to Bush, he'd occupy the world. But that's not what the nations of the world want. Would they accept occupation, as we have had to do? Our nation does not want to be occupied, and we'll do our best to end it.

For more articles and images on Iraq's unions, see http://dbacon.igc.org/Iraq/iraq.htm

2007-07-10T11:08:00.000-07:00

US Site on Iraq

http://www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/iraq/index.asp

Iraq's Women under pressure

2007-06-30T13:10:00.000-07:00

Le Monde diplomatique ~~ May 2007

Iraq's women under pressure

The lives of many Iraqi women have become appreciably harsher following international sanctions and the US-led invasion. Although pleased to see Saddam toppled, some look back on the prosperity and social liberation of the Ba'athist years with nostalgia By Nadje Sadig Al-Ali.

Iraqi women sometimes remember that they have lived in a multi-ethnic,multicultural national entity with a prospering economy and rapid modernisation; at other times they recall repression, discrimination,declining living conditions and sectarian tensions.I have tried to document the diversity of experiences during themonarchy, the years after the revolution of 1958, the economic boom (and the expansion of the middle class) in the 1970s, the Iran-Iraq war from 1980-88, the first Gulf war of 1991 and the economicsanctions of 1990-2003.

Since the United States invasion many under-represented sections of society fail to acknowledge these experiences as different. I feeluneasy when people say "Iraqi women think…" or "Iraqi women want…"because how can that represent such a wide variety of views? The difference in perspectives is historically based and cannot simply be reduced to ethnicity and religion.The period after the first Ba'athist coup of 1963 is associated with increased political violence, greater sectarianism and a reversal ofprogressive laws and reforms. Yet many women remember relative social freedom and cultural vibrancy during the rule of the Arif brothers,1963-68, and the early Ba'ath period, 1968-78.

Many secular, apolitical middle-class Shia, Sunni, Kurdish andChristian women appreciated the achievements of the early Ba'ath period in education, modernisation of infrastructures and welfareprovisions. While those who actively opposed the regime rememberpolitical repression, mass arrests, torture and executions, even somewho had first hand experiences of the regime's repressive practices retrospectively appreciated its developmental policies.

Cosmopolitan Baghdad Women's memories show that an urban middle-class identity, especially the cosmopolitan Baghdadi identity, subsumed ethnic and religious differences even throughout sanctions. A middle-class Shia family inBaghdad had more in common with its Sunni Arab and Kurdishmiddle-class neighbours in mixed neighbourhoods than they did with theimpoverished Shia living in Madina al-Thawra (renamed Saddam city, now Sadr city) or with Shia in the south. Baghdadi families were oftenmulti-religious and multi-ethnic, and mixed marriages were commonamong the urban Baghdadi middle classes.Zeynab, a sympathiser of the Islamist Shia Da'wa party who now lives in Dearborn in the US, said: "We were all friends. We celebrated holidays together. When we had the [Shia] celebration in commemorationof Imam Husein, even Jews and Christians joined us. We never thoughtabout race or religion. Schools were open to everybody. In schools, we had Jewish, Christian, Sunni and Kurdish classmates. There were no badfeelings towards anyone.">From the late 1970s differences between secular and Islamist political positions started to matter more, influencing experiences of the regime. Members or sympathisers of the Da'wa party were targeted not so much for their religious affiliation but because of their opposition to the regime and their aim to establish an Islamic state.No one wants to diminish the suffering that members of the Shia Islamist opposition parties endured, but they were not the onlytargets of state repression; Kurds and others, including Sunni Arabs who actively resisted the regime, all suffered.The Shia Islamists' claim to having been singled out because of religious affiliation rather than political conviction contributes to the current atmosphere in which rights, privileges and power are linked to sectarian divisions and arguments over who suffered most.

Of course, specific atrocities committed by the previous regime should not be swept under the carpet for the sake of national unity. The trial of Saddam Hussein was a missed opportunity to initiate a credible truth and reconciliation process.Many Iraqi women gained socially and economically during the 1970s despite political repression. Living conditions improved for most ofthe population as the state relied not only on force and its power tocontrol, but also devised generous welfare programmes and opened opportunities for investment and capital accumulation that helped many in the expanding middle classes.

Yet, from the 1980s on, political repression, the Iran-Iraq war, thenthe first Gulf war and the militarisation of society began to affectwomen, through the loss of family and economic decline. Under sanctions there was a radical shift; women had less work or access toeducation, and health care and social services declined. Asunemployment worsened and infrastructure collapsed, women were pushedback to their homes. 'All this was cut'Sawsan, an Assyrian woman from the north, worked as a teacher in ahigh school until 1995. She said: "We did not feel it so much duringthe first years of sanctions, but by 1994 it really hit us. Social conditions had deteriorated. The currency had been devalued while salaries were fixed. Many women started to quit work. Some of my friends could not even afford transport to the school. Before sanctions, the school made sure that we were picked up by a bus, but all this was cut.

For me, the most important thing was my children. I did not want them to come home and be alone in the house. It becametoo unsafe. And I know from my own work that schools deterioratedbadly; teachers had to quit work and there was no money for anything. So I felt that I had to teach them at home."Since the 2003 invasion, survival is a priority as lack of security isaccompanied by difficult living conditions. The infrastructure hasfurther deteriorated; lack of electricity, clean water, sanitation and a proper health system are part of everyday life. Intisar, who is adoctor in a teaching hospital in Baghdad, says: "We only haveelectricity for three to five hours a day. There isn't enough cleandrinking water. Lack of sanitation is a big problem, one of the main causes of malnutrition, dysentery and death among young children."

According to recent reports published by Unicef and the British-basedcharity Medact, the occupation has led to a deterioration in health,malnutrition, a rise in vaccine-preventable diseases and increasingmortality rates for children under five (from 5% in 1990 to 12.5% in 2004 according to Unicef). As during the sanctions, women suffer often the last to eat after feeding children and husbands. They have to stand and watch while their sick, malnourished children fail to getthe care they need.Even so, women have been trying to improve conditions. Locally-basedwomen's initiatives and groups flourish, answering practical needs related to poverty and the lack of health care, housing and socialservices. Women have pooled resources to address the need foreducation and training (such as computer classes) as well as income generation. Many initiatives filling the gap in state welfare and health are associated with political and religious bodies, butindependent, non-partisan professional women have also mobilised.Leila, a woman's rights activists still living in Iraq, said:'Initially many of us were very hopeful. We did not like foreign soldiers on our streets, but we were happy Saddam was gone. Once thegeneral chaos and the looting settled down a bit, women were the firstto get organised. Women doctors and lawyers started to offer freeservices to women. We started to discuss political issues and tried to lobby the American and British forces. But the Americans sent peopleto Iraq whose attitude was: 'We don't deal with women.' [Presidentialenvoy Paul] Bremer was one. Iraqi women managed to get a woman's quota despite the Americans who opposed it.

Their idea of women's issues wasto organise big meetings and conferences and build modern women's centres. Do you think anyone went to visit these centres?"Threats to women Although bombings of residential areas caused many deaths, Iraqis havealso been shot by US or British troops. Whole families have beenkilled approaching a checkpoint or through failing to recogniseprohibited areas. There are many documented accounts of physical assaults on women at checkpoints and during house searches.

Several women I talked to said they had been verbally or physicallythreatened, and assaulted by soldiers as they were searched at checkpoints. US forces have also arrested wives, sisters and daughters of suspected insurgents to pressure them to surrender (1); in effect taken hostage by US forces and used as bargaining chips. Such arrests cause a sense of shame associated with detention. There is mountingevidence of torture and rape; women identified become potential victims of honour crimes.Women's organisations have also documented Islamist violence to women,including acid thrown into faces, even targeted killings. In 2003 manywomen in Basra reported that they were forced to wear a headscarf or restrict their movements because men began to harass or shout at them.Women of all ages are now forced to comply with dress codes and becareful when they go out. Suad, a former accountant and mother offour, lives in a neighbourhood of Baghdad that used to be mixed beforesectarian killings in 2005 and 2006. She told me: "I resisted for along time, but last year I started wearing the hijab, after I was threatened by several Islamist militants in front of my house. They are terrorising the whole neighbourhood, behaving as if they were incharge. And they are actually controlling the area. No one dares to challenge them. A few months ago they distributed leaflets around thearea warning people to obey them and demanding that women should stay at home."

The threat of Islamist militias now goes beyond dress codes and callsfor gender segregation at university. Despite, indeed partly becauseof the US and British rhetoric about liberation and rights, women have been pushed into the background and into their homes. Women with apublic profile (doctors, academics, lawyers, NGO activists,politicians) are threatened and targeted for assassination. There arealso criminal gangs who worsen the climate of fear by kidnapping women for ransom, sexual abuse or sale into prostitution outside Iraq.It isn't a surprise that many of the women I interviewed remember thepast nostalgically.Original text in English* Nadje Sadig Al-Ali is senior lecturer in social anthropology at the Institute of Arab & Islamic Studies, University of Exeter and authorof Gender, Secularism & the State in the Middle East: The EgyptianWomen's Movements (Cambridge University Press, 2000). Her latest book is Iraqi Women: Untold Stories from 1948 to the Present (Zed Books,March 2007).(1) Those suspected of being involved in both the resistance as wellas in terrorist activities are regularly detained without informing their families about their whereabouts and their well being.Disappearances, random arrests, torture and abuse in prisons are common phenomena in post-Saddam Iraq

No Sweat Scotland site

2007-06-28T10:06:00.000-07:00

http://nosweatscotland.blogspot.com/

NO SWEAT SCOTLAND No Sweat Scotland is an activist, campaigning organisation, fighting sweatshop bosses, in solidarity with workers, worldwide.

Motion

2007-06-25T01:56:00.000-07:00

Dear IUSS Supporters,

Please see attached a press release and information from Bill Wilson MSP who has lodged a motion in opposition to the privatisation of Iraqs oil. Please contact your MSP via the link below, and ask them to support Bill Wilsons motion. It would help if you could let IUSS know if you get a positive answer, and please circulate this widely.

www.writetothem.com - Email or fax your councillor, MP MEP or MSP.

Comradley,
Pauline Bradley
Convenor IUSS

Oil Statement and Next IUSS meeting

2007-06-17T08:27:00.000-07:00

Dear IUSS Supporters,

See below a clear account by US Labour Journalist and photographer David Bacon about the IFOU's determined struggle to save Iraqs oil from being sold off.

The next IUSS meeting is on Monday June 18th, 7pm, Room 2, Boyd Orr Building, Glasgow University. We will discuss among other things, how we can help the IFOU's struggle for Iraqs oil. All supporters of Iraqs unions welcome.

Iraq's Workers Strike to Keep Their Oil By David Bacon t r u t h o u t Columnist, Saturday 09 June 2007http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/060907A.shtml

The Bush administration has no love for unions anywhere, but in Iraq it has a special reason for hating them. They are the main opposition to the occupation's economic agenda, and the biggest obstacle to that agenda's centerpiece - the privatization of Iraq's oil. At the same time, unions have become the only force in Iraq trying to maintain at least a survival living standard for the millions of Iraqis who still have to go to work every day, in the middle of the war.

This week, Iraqi anger over starvation incomes and oil ripoffs boiled over. On Monday, June 4, the biggest and strongest of the Iraqi unions, the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions, launched a limited strike to underline its call for keeping oil in public hands, and to force the government to live up to its economic promises. Workers on the pipelines carrying oil from the rigs in the south to Baghdad's big refinery stopped work. It was a very limited job action, which still allowed the Iraqi economy to function.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki responded by calling out the army and surrounding the strikers at Sheiba, near Basra. Then he issued arrest warrants for the union's leaders. On Wednesday, June 6, the union postponed the strike until June 11. Labor unrest could not only resume at that point, but could easily escalate into shutdowns on the rigs themselves, or even the cutoff of oil exports. That would shut down the income stream that keeps the Maliki regime in power in Baghdad. Some of the oil workers' demands reflect the desperate situation of workers under the occupation.

They want their employer - the government's oil ministry - to pay for wage increases and promised vacations, and give permanent status to thousands of temporary employees. In a country where housing has been destroyed on a massive scale, and workers often live in dilapidated and primitive conditions, the union wants the government to turn over land for building homes. Every year, the oil institute has miraculously continued holding classes and training technicians, yet the ministry won't give work to graduates, despite the war-torn industry's desperate need for skilled labor.

The union demands jobs and a future for these young people. But one demand overshadows even these basic needs - renegotiation of the oil law that would turn the industry itself over to foreign corporations. And it is this demand that has brought out even the US fighter jets, which have circled and buzzed over the strikers' demonstrations. In Iraq, the hostile maneuvering of military aircraft is not an idle threat to the people below.

This standoff reflects a long history of actions in Iraq, by both the Iraqi government and the US occupation administration, to suppress union activity. Iraq has a long labor history. Union activists, banned and jailed under the British and its puppet monarchy, organized a labor movement that was the admiration of the Arab world when Iraq became independent after 1958. Saddam Hussein later drove its leaders underground, killing and jailing the ones he could catch.

When Saddam fell, Iraqi unionists came out of prison, up from underground and back from exile, determined to rebuild its labor movement. Miraculously, in the midst of war and bombings, they did. The oil workers union in the south is now one of the largest organizations in Iraq, with thousands of members on the rigs, pipelines and refineries. The electrical workers union is the first national labor organization headed by a woman, Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein. Together with other unions in railroads, hotels, ports, schools and factories, they've gone on strike, held elections, won wage increases and made democracy a living reality.

Yet the Bush administration, and the Baghdad government it controls, has outlawed collective bargaining, impounded union funds and turned its back (or worse) on a wave of assassinations of Iraqi union leaders. President Bush says he wants democracy, yet he will not accept the one political demand that unites Iraqis above all others. They want the country's oil (and its electrical power stations, ports and other key facilities) to remain in public hands.

The fact that Iraqi unions are the strongest voice demanding this makes them anathema. Selling the oil off to large corporations is far more important to the Bush administration than a paper commitment to the democratic process. Iraq's oil was nationalized in the 1960s, like that of every other country in the Middle East. The Iraqi oil union became, and still is, the industry's most zealous guardian.Holding a no-bid, sweetheart contract with occupation authorities, Halliburton Corporation came into Iraq in the wake of the troops in 2003.

The company tried to seize control of the wells and rigs, withholding reconstruction aid to force workers to submit. The oil union struck for three days that August, stopping exports and cutting off government revenue. Halliburton left.

The oil and port unions then forced foreign corporations to give up similar sweetheart agreements in Iraq's deepwater shipping facilities. Muhsin's electrical union is still battling to stop subcontracting in the power stations - a prelude to corporate control. The occupation has always had an economic agenda. Occupation czar Paul Bremer published lists in Baghdad newspapers of the public enterprises he intended to auction off. Arab labor leader Hacene Djemam bitterly observed, "War makes privatization easy: first you destroy society; then you let the corporations rebuild it."

The Bush administration won't leave Iraq in part because that economic agenda is still insecure. Under Washington's guidance, the Iraqi government wrote a new oil law in secret. The Iraq study commission, headed by oilman James Baker, called it the key to ending the occupation.That law is touted in the US press as ensuring an equitable division of oil wealth. Iraqi unions say it will ensure that foreign corporations control future exploration and development, in one of the world's largest reserves.

Hassan Juma'a Awad, president of the IFOU, wrote a letter to the US Congress on May 13. "Everyone knows the oil law doesn't serve the Iraqi people," he warned. The union was banned from the secret negotiations. According to Juma'a, the result "serves Bush, his supporters and foreign companies at the expense of the Iraqi people." The union has threatened to strike if the law is implemented. Like all Iraqi unionists, Juma'a says the occupation should end without demanding Iraq's oil as a price. "The USA claimed that it came here as a liberator, not to control our resources," he reminded Congress. Congressional opponents of the war can only win Iraqis' respect if they disavow the oil law.

Whatever government holds power in Baghdad at the occupation's end will need control of the oil wealth to rebuild the devastated country. That gives Iraq's working people a big reason to fight to ensure that happens.

Two Iraqi union leaders, Faleh Abood Umara and Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein, are speaking in the United States about their situation in Iraq. For details about times and places, contact US Labor Against the War:

http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org/article.php?id=12200

For more articles and images on Iraq's unions, see http://dbacon.igc.org/Iraq/iraq.htm
See also the photodocumentary on indigenous migration to the US, Communities Without Borders (Cornell University/ILR Press, 2006)
http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/cup_detail.taf?ti_id=4575
See also The Children of NAFTA, Labor Wars on the U.S./Mexico Border (University of California, 2004)
http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9989.html
_________________________________David Bacon, Photographs and Storieshttp://dbacon.igc.org

US Troops Raid

2007-06-17T08:22:00.000-07:00

الاتحاد العام اللاجئين العراقيين
فيدراسيؤني سةرتاسةري ثةنابةراني عيراقي
INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF IRAQI REFUGEES - IFIR

We Condemn Confiscating the IFC Headquarters by US Forces

The executive bureau of Iraqi Freedom Congress (IFC) has informed IFIR that US troops raided the IFC headquarters in Baghdad and have arrested five IFC Officers and took all the documents of the organization.

IFC is a mass, democratic, non ethnic secular organization. It fights for the freedom and liberation and retrieving security and stability of the Iraqi people. IFC is the alternative of workers, women and all freedom-loving people to rescue Iraqi society from the black scenario, from the ethnocentric war. IFC’s aim is to end the occupation, sectarian wars and homicide, to expel the US forces and its allies, establish a secular government and obtain a humane life for the Iraqi people.

We condemn the US forces attack against IFC headquarters and demand the immediate release of the detainees and restore all documents to the IFC. At the same time we call on all human rights organizations, trade unions and parties to condemn this deed and demand the release of the detainees. Please send letters of protests to the US Embassy.

International Federation of Iraqi Refugees
___________________________________________________________
POBOX1575,ILFORD IG1 3BZ ,LONDON,UK Tel:0044 7856032991 , 00447895636633
d.jamal@ntlworld.com ifir2007@yahoo.com www.csdiraq.com

Urgent Action

2007-06-12T11:55:00.001-07:00

Urgent Action - Apologies if you have recieved this already. Brent TUC has protested to the Iraqi embassy calling for the troops and arrest threat to be withdrawn.

1. IRAQI ARMY SURROUNDS OIL WORKERS ON STRIKE2. TAKE SOLIDARITY ACTION3. INTERNATIONAL UNIONS CALL FOR TROOPS OUT OF OIL UNION STRIKE************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* **1. IRAQI ARMY SURROUNDS OIL WORKERS ON STRIKEOn the third day of an oil strike in southern Iraq, the Iraqi military surrounded oil workers and the prime minister issued arrest warrants for the union leaders, sparking an outcry from supporters and international unions. "This will not stop us because we are defending people's rights," said Hassan Jumaa Awad, president of IFOU. As of Wednesday morning, when United Press International spoke to Awad via mobile phone in Basra at the site of one of the strikes, no arrests had been made, "but regardless, the arrest warrant is still active." He said that the "Iraqi Security Forces," who were present at the strike scenes, told him of the warrants and said that they would be making any arrests. http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20070607-080144-8705r************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* **
2. TAKE SOLIDARITY ACTIONPlease send faxes and emails of support for the union to Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki and Oil Minister Dr Hussein al Sharastani. Below is a model letter:Model Letter:Dear Mr MalikiDear Dr Hussein al SharastaniI am writing to express support for the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions in their right to take industrial action over issues relating to their members' economic and social welfare.I am also concerned about the decision to arrest union leaders for deciding to take strike action. I trust that the Union will not be penalised for taking action which is legal according to the Iraqi constitution and a fundamental trade union freedom recognised all over the world.The Union has repeatedly asked for involvement in the drafting of the Hydrocarbon Law but has been ignored. Iraqi civil society should be involved in the decision making process over the future of the Iraqi economy - this includes trade unions.I will be monitoring the forthcoming news from the union and would like assurance that union members will not be harmed or punished for their actions. Yours sincerely,....For the attention of:Prime Minister Nouri Al MalikiMinister of Oil, Dr Hussein al SharastaniC/O Embassy of the Republic of Iraq169 Knightsbridge London SW7 1DWPhone: (020) 7581 2264Fax: (020) 7589 3356E-mail: http://uk.f233.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=lonemb%40iraqmofamail.net Telephone: +44 207 602 8456 Fax: +44 207 371 1652************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* **

3. INTERNATIONAL UNIONS CALL ON IRAQI GOVERNMENT TO PULL TROOPS OUT OF OIL UNION STRIKEDue to the Iraqi military surrounding striking Basra oil pipeline workers, the 20-million-member International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) today called on the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to conclude peaceful negotiations with the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU) in order to resolve their legitimate trade union demands. The ICEM is calling on all its 384 affiliated trade unions in 124 countries to send messages of support to IFOU. The ICEM is coordinating efforts to assist the IFOU together with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the US Solidarity Center, and the UK's Trades Union Congress.http://www.icem.org/en/77-All-ICEM-News-Releases/2285-ICEM-Protests-Iraqi-Militaryâs-Involvement-iThe TUC has called on the Iraqi Government to withdraw troops from the Basra oil fields immediately. The strike - about wages, bonuses, health and safety, use of temporary workers and the future of the oil industry in Iraq - has suspended delivery of oil to Baghdad and the southern Governates of Iraq. Responding to urgent appeals for solidarity from the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions, which called the strike, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'Military intervention is not the way to resolve industrial disputes. This strike began only after weeks of negotiation had failed to produce a deal, but negotiation is the only way to end the strike peacefully.' As of Tuesday night, negotiations had recommenced, and workers had returned temporarily to work, but the troops remain in place.http://www.tuc.org.uk/international/tuc-13358-f0.cfm

Iran

2007-06-10T13:32:00.000-07:00

Iran

Mansour Osanloo, president of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company in Iran was last week sentenced to five years in prison, according to the International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran (IASWI), based in Canada.

On 28 May, a Tehran “revolutionary court” sentenced Osanloo to four years imprisonment for‚ “acting against national security‚” and one year for “propaganda against the system”. According to Osanloo’s lawyer, the verdict has been given on the phone, but no official announcement has yet been made. Osanloo and his lawyers will have 20 days to appeal the verdict.

Other worker activists continue to be imprisoned in Iran. Mahmoud Salehi, the former President of the Bakery Workers’ Association of the City of Saqez and a well-known labour activist in Iran, reported last week that his kidney problem was becoming extremely painful and his blood pressure has fallen considerably. Salehi was imprisoned in April following the final verdict on his May Day 2004 case.

• Letters of protest can be sent via the IASWI website. http://www.workers-iran.org/

Iraqi oil workers' strike to resume on Monday 11th

2007-06-09T09:19:00.000-07:00

Iraqi oil workers' strike to resume on Monday 11th

According to the leaders of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions, the Basra oil pipeline workers will resume their strike on Monday 11th unless their demands are met.
The workers struck on Monday 4th. The government sent troops to surround the workplace. Work has resumed and negotiations are underway, but the troops remain. The government had ordered the arrest of four leaders of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions for "sabotaging the Iraqi economy"; they have not actually been arrested, but the arrest warrants remain in force.

For detailed updates and information on how to send solidarity messages, click here and here.
According to the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine & General Workers’ Unions: "Earlier strike calls in May [focused around demands including consultation with the union on the proposed new oil law] were postponed after the union gained a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki" - where, according to the union, Maliki accepted all its demands, on paper. Maliki did not deliver.

"The union is currently focussing on two core demands in its strike at the pipeline company:
"They demand that the Oil Ministry take action to force the general manager of the pipeline company to resign;

"They demand that the company be financially and administratively independent from the Baghdad-based central ministry, and that the pipeline company be managed locally.
"ICEM is informed that the reason for the first demand, and the catalyst for... action, is that the general manger of the pipeline company, Adel Aziz, who is based in Baghdad rather than in Basra, blocked the orders of Prime Minister Nouri Al-Mailiki to release delayed benefits due to workers [and] stopped an allowance which the workers are regularly entitled to".
All the different Iraqi union movements are united in supporting democracy, opposing Sunni-Shia-Kurdish division, and insisting that Iraq's oil remain public property. With sufficient resources - which they do not yet have - they could begin to unite a majority of the population around such demands, and lay the basis for a political way out.

Support and success for the current strike is vital even on its limited demands, because it can lay the basis for Iraqi workers starting to develop the confidence for a new political direction.

Links:Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions Iraq Union Solidarity
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Oil strike in Basra, Iraq

2007-06-09T07:27:00.000-07:00

Oil strike in Basra, Iraq

TUC message of support sent
4 June 2007
TUC supports Iraqi oil workers' strike
The TUC has sent a formal message of solidarity to Iraqi oil workers striking for better terms and conditions in the south of the country today. The strike was called after weeks of negotiations had failed to produce an adequate response from the authorities to a list of nine demands, and could cut off supplies to the Green Zone in Baghdad as well as the southern Governates of Iraq.
At 06:30 this morning, 4 June 2007, workers struck at the pipeline company in Basra, Iraq, bringing an immediate stop to the free flow of oil products including kerosene and gas through the 14-inch diameter pipeline number 42. The pipe transfers oil and gas to Baghdad and the governorates of the central region of the country. The workers are members of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU).
In a message to the IFOU, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'your justified demands deserve to be met by the Iraqi government, and we offer you our support and solidarity.'
Many of the demands are related to wages and working conditions, including a demand for wage increases; the payment of a previously agreed bonus that is based on the distribution to workers of a proportion of oil revenues achieved by the company; no salary deductions to be made for granted vacation days; and the delivery of land parcels for housing to workers.
Further demands are for the recruitment of new graduates; as well as the promotion of workers where this has been stalled. The union also calls for full time permanent status to be given to workers presently classed as temporary contract workers. Faced with increased pollution in oil facilities and evidence that there is a major increase in the incidence of cancers among the workforce the union has also tabled health and safety demands.
The TUC joined the international trade union body in the oil industry - the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) in supporting the strike.
Background to the dispute
The IFOU, previously known as the GUOE-Basra, and led by union President, Hassan Juma'a Awad Alasady has over 26,000 members throughout the ten state oil companies in the south of Iraq.
The strike threat was initially made in a 27 April public letter to the Iraqi Oil Minister, following discussion at the union's Executive Board the previous day in Basra. The meeting formulated a list of demands and the call for a strike was unanimously adopted if the demands were not met by 10 May 2007.
The strike date was postponed from 10 May to 14 May as the union entered negotiations with a committee formed by the Iraqi Council of Ministers. No direct negotiations with the Oil Ministry took place and a second postponement of the strike resulted when the Prime Minister, Nouri Al-Maliki, agreed to meet the union on 16 May 2007 to avert threatened strike action that would involve all workers and technicians throughout the oil industry of the South, stopping production in all of the oil companies in Basra, Misan, Thi-Qar and Muthanna and affecting all domestic oil products as well as the export of crude oil.
The meeting resulted in the creation of a committee tasked with working on finding solutions acceptable to both sides. Although several of the union demands appear to have been fully agreed to by the authorities the IFOU's demands remain unfulfilled, and this led to this morning's strike.
The union is currently focussing on two core demands in its strike at the pipeline company:
that the Ministry force the general manager of the pipeline company to resign; and
that the company be financially and administratively independent from the Baghdad based central ministry and be managed locally.
The catalyst for today's action is that the general manager of the pipeline company, Adel Aziz, who is based in Baghdad rather than in Basra, denied the orders of the PM to release workers' delayed benefits and stopped a 50 000 Iraqi Dinar allowance which the workers were previously entitled to.
A second phase of the strike has been threatened to begin tomorrow morning at 06:30 if the IFOU does not receive signals of compliance with their demands. The second phase would expand the strike by closing pipeline number 48 which feeds the southern governorates with oil products.

Further information
For more information see www.icem.org/en/77-All-ICEM-News-Releases/2260-Threatened-Oil-Industry-Strike-on-Iraq
Appendix: Letter by the IFOU to Iraqi Oil Minister
His Excellency The Oil Minister
Subject: Entitlements
Sincere Salutations
It was our hope, after the fall of that statue, to witness the dawn of a new era marked by the recognition of the legitimate rights of our members in the oil sector. This sector that for so long has suffered injustice and been denied equity.
Since the advent of this new era, we focused our efforts into effectively thwarting all attempts to exploit this sector and tamper with our resources. You have been informed of how we stalled foreign companies in their attempts to control our oil fields and refineries, and how we forced them to leave.
In addition, we worked hand in hand with the ministries and agencies to accelerate the pace of oil production, and to safeguard the means of production, and raise awareness amongst workers of investing to boost the chances of success for the new era.
Unfortunately, our demands for entitlements were ignored, despite four years of continued promises by ministry and government officials. In fact, we took our demands to the highest levels of the government. We kept the prime minister apprized of our demands, but were disappointed when we came to realize that our demands fell on deaf ears.
Throughout this period we worked to defuse anger and resentment and address criticism leveled by our members who mistakenly thought of us as the ones failing to put forth their legitimate demands. Henceforth:
After extensive deliberations, and based on the resolutions that came out of an Executive Board meeting with broad member representation on Thursday 26 April, 2007 at the Gas Corporation's premises in Basra, a strike was unanimously adopted, scheduled for May 10, 2007 in all the company's branches in the south and in the following provinces Basra/Missan Dhi Kar/Al Mouthnana.
The strike will go ahead, should the following demands not be completely met:
1. Make a determination on land allotment in the Shiite Province 52 and land distribution owned by oil companies, and the parcel in the Tannouma area, a property of the Southern Oil Company.
2. Make a determination on oil companies' profits margins on the basis of the amendments to which you agreed and to determine those margins according to the certification/attestation from the south region financial/tax jurisdictions, not according to the formula adopted by the Minister that has been deemed detrimental to our membership.
3. Approval of accumulated ordinary unused vacations, and all vacations outstanding for more than 180 days. There is no justification for withholding any of these vacations. We also believe that the resolution issued by the State Advisory Council is not binding, for lack of legal foundation. We empathically insist that there be no salary deductions over the next few years for granted vacations days.
4. Granting full time status to temporary workers, notwithstanding the length of service but rather apply a more humanistic approach with those workers who are Iraqi nationals and who deserve a life in this country.
5. To hire new graduates of the last two classes.
6. Rescind the new unified payment schedule which benefits only a very small number in the sector.
7. Promote holders of elementary certificates to the next grade on par to their dismissed colleagues (for political reasons) and address the issue of stalled promotions for workers and others.
8. Rescind the 20% deduction from profits paid to the army and recovery of previous years' deductions.
9. We ask that those premises become employee-run, similar to other state-owned agencies. We deem the wait and see policy inappropriate, and we are wondering why the oil sector is treated so unfairly.
As we are stating the legitimate demands of our membership, it is our hope to obtain the support of those on whom we rely, and whom we supported with our blood in making the political process succeed.
It is our hope to reinstate the rights of those who were aggrieved by Iraqi government officials, and eliminate the injustices bestowed on the southern region.
We feel, up to the moment of this statement's drafting, that discrimination is continuing, and that the south is treated as the cash cow of Iraq.
Our region gave so much to Iraq, but gained little in return. We would like to draw your attention to the fact that pollution in oil facilities has reached a peak, and the incidence of cancer has topped exceeded predictions. We also note, that the ministry pays little to no attention to these incidences that primarily impact the inhabitants in the southern area.
We feel as if they are predestined to such a fate - to always give in vain. We are cautioning, that there is a limit to our tolerance. We ask that our demands be met. We feel that enough is enough.
Peace and grace be upon you

Oil strike in Basra, Iraq

2007-06-09T07:20:00.000-07:00

Oil strike in Basra, Iraq

TUC message of support sent
4 June 2007

TUC supports Iraqi oil workers' strike

The TUC has sent a formal message of solidarity to Iraqi oil workers striking for better terms and conditions in the south of the country today. The strike was called after weeks of negotiations had failed to produce an adequate response from the authorities to a list of nine demands, and could cut off supplies to the Green Zone in Baghdad as well as the southern Governates of Iraq.

At 06:30 this morning, 4 June 2007, workers struck at the pipeline company in Basra, Iraq, bringing an immediate stop to the free flow of oil products including kerosene and gas through the 14-inch diameter pipeline number 42. The pipe transfers oil and gas to Baghdad and the governorates of the central region of the country. The workers are members of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU).

In a message to the IFOU, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'your justified demands deserve to be met by the Iraqi government, and we offer you our support and solidarity.'
Many of the demands are related to wages and working conditions, including a demand for wage increases; the payment of a previously agreed bonus that is based on the distribution to workers of a proportion of oil revenues achieved by the company; no salary deductions to be made for granted vacation days; and the delivery of land parcels for housing to workers.

Further demands are for the recruitment of new graduates; as well as the promotion of workers where this has been stalled. The union also calls for full time permanent status to be given to workers presently classed as temporary contract workers. Faced with increased pollution in oil facilities and evidence that there is a major increase in the incidence of cancers among the workforce the union has also tabled health and safety demands.

The TUC joined the international trade union body in the oil industry - the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) in supporting the strike.

Background to the dispute

The IFOU, previously known as the GUOE-Basra, and led by union President, Hassan Juma'a Awad Alasady has over 26,000 members throughout the ten state oil companies in the south of Iraq.

The strike threat was initially made in a 27 April public letter to the Iraqi Oil Minister, following discussion at the union's Executive Board the previous day in Basra. The meeting formulated a list of demands and the call for a strike was unanimously adopted if the demands were not met by 10 May 2007.

The strike date was postponed from 10 May to 14 May as the union entered negotiations with a committee formed by the Iraqi Council of Ministers. No direct negotiations with the Oil Ministry took place and a second postponement of the strike resulted when the Prime Minister, Nouri Al-Maliki, agreed to meet the union on 16 May 2007 to avert threatened strike action that would involve all workers and technicians throughout the oil industry of the South, stopping production in all of the oil companies in Basra, Misan, Thi-Qar and Muthanna and affecting all domestic oil products as well as the export of crude oil.

The meeting resulted in the creation of a committee tasked with working on finding solutions acceptable to both sides. Although several of the union demands appear to have been fully agreed to by the authorities the IFOU's demands remain unfulfilled, and this led to this morning's strike.

The union is currently focussing on two core demands in its strike at the pipeline company:that the Ministry force the general manager of the pipeline company to resign; and that the company be financially and administratively independent from the Baghdad based central ministry and be managed locally.

The catalyst for today's action is that the general manager of the pipeline company, Adel Aziz, who is based in Baghdad rather than in Basra, denied the orders of the PM to release workers' delayed benefits and stopped a 50 000 Iraqi Dinar allowance which the workers were previously entitled to.

A second phase of the strike has been threatened to begin tomorrow morning at 06:30 if the IFOU does not receive signals of compliance with their demands. The second phase would expand the strike by closing pipeline number 48 which feeds the southern governorates with oil products.

Further information :

For more information see www.icem.org/en/77-All-ICEM-News-Releases/2260-Threatened-Oil-Industry-Strike-on-Iraq

Appendix: Letter by the IFOU to Iraqi Oil Minister

His Excellency The Oil Minister
Subject: Entitlements
Sincere Salutations
It was our hope, after the fall of that statue, to witness the dawn of a new era marked by the recognition of the legitimate rights of our members in the oil sector. This sector that for so long has suffered injustice and been denied equity.

Since the advent of this new era, we focused our efforts into effectively thwarting all attempts to exploit this sector and tamper with our resources. You have been informed of how we stalled foreign companies in their attempts to control our oil fields and refineries, and how we forced them to leave.

In addition, we worked hand in hand with the ministries and agencies to accelerate the pace of oil production, and to safeguard the means of production, and raise awareness amongst workers of investing to boost the chances of success for the new era.

Unfortunately, our demands for entitlements were ignored, despite four years of continued promises by ministry and government officials. In fact, we took our demands to the highest levels of the government. We kept the prime minister apprized of our demands, but were disappointed when we came to realize that our demands fell on deaf ears.
Throughout this period we worked to defuse anger and resentment and address criticism leveled by our members who mistakenly thought of us as the ones failing to put forth their legitimate demands.

Henceforth:
After extensive deliberations, and based on the resolutions that came out of an Executive Board meeting with broad member representation on Thursday 26 April, 2007 at the Gas Corporation's premises in Basra, a strike was unanimously adopted, scheduled for May 10, 2007 in all the company's branches in the south and in the following provinces Basra/Missan Dhi Kar/Al Mouthnana.

The strike will go ahead, should the following demands not be completely met:
1. Make a determination on land allotment in the Shiite Province 52 and land distribution owned by oil companies, and the parcel in the Tannouma area, a property of the Southern Oil Company.
2. Make a determination on oil companies' profits margins on the basis of the amendments to which you agreed and to determine those margins according to the certification/attestation from the south region financial/tax jurisdictions, not according to the formula adopted by the Minister that has been deemed detrimental to our membership.
3. Approval of accumulated ordinary unused vacations, and all vacations outstanding for more than 180 days. There is no justification for withholding any of these vacations. We also believe that the resolution issued by the State Advisory Council is not binding, for lack of legal foundation. We empathically insist that there be no salary deductions over the next few years for granted vacations days.
4. Granting full time status to temporary workers, notwithstanding the length of service but rather apply a more humanistic approach with those workers who are Iraqi nationals and who deserve a life in this country.
5. To hire new graduates of the last two classes.
6. Rescind the new unified payment schedule which benefits only a very small number in the sector.
7. Promote holders of elementary certificates to the next grade on par to their dismissed colleagues (for political reasons) and address the issue of stalled promotions for workers and others.
8. Rescind the 20% deduction from profits paid to the army and recovery of previous years' deductions.
9. We ask that those premises become employee-run, similar to other state-owned agencies. We deem the wait and see policy inappropriate, and we are wondering why the oil sector is treated so unfairly.

As we are stating the legitimate demands of our membership, it is our hope to obtain the support of those on whom we rely, and whom we supported with our blood in making the political process succeed.

It is our hope to reinstate the rights of those who were aggrieved by Iraqi government officials, and eliminate the injustices bestowed on the southern region.
We feel, up to the moment of this statement's drafting, that discrimination is continuing, and that the south is treated as the cash cow of Iraq.

Our region gave so much to Iraq, but gained little in return. We would like to draw your attention to the fact that pollution in oil facilities has reached a peak, and the incidence of cancer has topped exceeded predictions. We also note, that the ministry pays little to no attention to these incidences that primarily impact the inhabitants in the southern area.

We feel as if they are predestined to such a fate - to always give in vain. We are cautioning, that there is a limit to our tolerance. We ask that our demands be met. We feel that enough is enough.
Peace and grace be upon you

Basra Oil Union- Troops out of Oil fields

2007-06-08T08:37:00.001-07:00

Friday, June 08, 2007

Appeal: Hands Off Iraqi Oil Workers - model protest letters

In light of the Iraqi army continuing to surround Iraqi workers in their workplaces and the issuance of arrest warrants against Federation leaders, the union is appealing for maximum support and solidarity.We are asking people to email both the Iraqi Prime Minister and the Oil Minister and UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett.Here are model letters to send to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki and Oil Minister Dr Hussein al Sharastani:

Dear Mr MalikiDear Dr Hussein al Sharastani I am writing to express support for the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions in their right to take industrial action over issues relating to their members' economic and social welfare. I am also concerned about the decision to arrest union leaders for deciding to take strike action.I trust that the Union will not be penalised for taking action which is legal according to the Iraqi constiution and a fundamental trade union freedom recognised all over the world.I therefore ask that the arrest warrants be retracted and that the Iraqi army leaves oil sector locations.

All repressive measures against the IFOU should cease at once.The Union has also repeatedly asked for involvement in the drafting of the Hydrocarbon Law but has been ignored. Iraqi civil society should be involved in the decision making process over the future of the Iraqi economy - this includes trade unions. I will be monitoring the forthcoming news from the union and would like assurance that union members will not be harmed or punished for their actions.

Yours Sincerely,.....Embassy of Iraq, 9 Holland Villas RoadLondon W14 8BP, Telephone: 020 7602 8456 020 7935 8457/ 79351 058 Fax: 020 7602 8456 020 7589 3356 lonemb@iraqmofa.net Margaret Beckett, Foreign Secretary

Contact numbers: House of Commons (tel): 020 7219 3584 House of Commons (fax): 020 7219 4780Addresses: Constituency: c/o House of Commons 1 Parliament Street London SW1A 2NE

TUC calls on Iraqi government to pull troops out of oil union strike

2007-06-08T08:34:00.000-07:00

TUC calls on Iraqi government to pull troops out of oil union strike

The TUC has called on the Iraqi Government to withdraw troops from the Basra oil fields immediately. A strike of oil workers began on Monday (4 June) and the TUC is asking the Iraqi Government not to use the troops, who arrived in the oil fields on Tuesday and surrounded the strike, to arrest strike leaders or fire on workers.

The strike - about wages, bonuses, health and safety, use of temporary workers and the future of the oil industry in Iraq - has suspended delivery of oil to Baghdad and the southern Governates of Iraq.
Responding to urgent appeals for solidarity from the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions, which called the strike, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:
'Military intervention is not the way to resolve industrial disputes. This strike began only after weeks of negotiation had failed to produce a deal, but negotiation is the only way to end the strike peacefully.'

As of Tuesday night, negotiations had recommenced, and workers had returned temporarily to work, but the troops remain in place.
Full details of the strike are on the TUC website:

http://www.tuc.org.uk/international/tuc-13358-f0.cfm
NOTES TO EDITORS:
- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk
- Register for the TUC's press extranet : a service exclusive to journalists wanting to access pre-embargo releases and reports from the TUC. Visit www.tuc.org.uk/pressextranet
Contacts:
Media enquiries: Elly Brenchley T: 020 7467 1337; M: 07900 910624;E: ebrenchley@tuc.org.uk
Liz Chinchen T: 020 7467 1248; M: 07778 158175; E: media@tuc.org.uk-->
Press release (300 words) issued 6 Jun 2007

Iraqi Oil Workers Strike

2007-06-05T13:36:00.000-07:00

News Release:

Monday June 4th 2007

Iraqi Oil Workers On Strike

Workers from the Iraqi Pipelines Company in Basra are on strike today.

Workers began the strike at 6.30 this morning by shutting two 14"
pipelines carrying oil and gas products inside Iraq.

The strike is over unfulfilled demands tabled by the Iraqi Federation of
Oil Unions (IFOU) - of which the Iraqi Pipelines Union is a member - to
Prime Minister Maliki on May 16th 2007. The 16 demands focus on improved
working conditions, pay, land for homes, a reduction in the national
price of fuel and crucially, inclusion in the Oil Law drafting process.

Prime Minister Maliki agreed to the Federation's demands and established
a committee comprised of Ministry of Oil, IFOU and Southern Oil Company
representatives to implement the demands.

Strike leaders say, if the government does not implement the agreement,
the 48" crude pipeline to Baghdad will be shut.

Further details including a statement from the union tba

see www.basraoilunion.org and www.handsoffiraqioil.org for further
updates

Iranian Links

2007-06-01T07:30:00.000-07:00

Hands of the People of Iraq

http://www.hopoi.org/
contact HOPI:PO Box 54631London N16 8YE
(+44) 07738 828540
office@hopoi.info

ht tp://www.ir anianworkersbulletin.org/

Tell Gordon Brown to get the Troops out of Iraq

2007-05-28T08:12:00.000-07:00

Tell Gordon Brown to get the Troops out of Iraq

The illegal invasion of Iraq on March 19 2003 was one of the worst catastrophes in military and political history. The war introduced new horrors and oppressions on the Iraqi people.
In a study sponsored by M.I.T. and carried out by leading specialists in Iraq it is estimated that about 650,000 have died violent deaths soon to be pushing a million. Several million people have fled across the border to live in refugee camps.

The occupation has made life worse for the Iraqis. The reconstruction plan to build the country has provided opportunities for western corporations to steal over $20 billion dollars of Iraqi money, whilst a large percentage of Iraqis don't have safe water, a proper sewage system, and access to electricity. Roads and homes are damaged, and vast areas are polluted with no hope of clean-up. Hospitals lack basic medicines and equipment, and child mortality rates have increased that of sub-Sahara Africa.

Western companies are pushing to enter into Production Sharing Agreements (PSA) with the Iraqi government, where big US and UK oil companies take a huge slice of the Iraqi oil profits.

The illegal invasion supported by Tony Blair and funded by Gordon Brown is a clear-cut case of aggression and violation of the U.N. Charter, a supreme international crime.

Contact your member of parliament at Westminster, express you view that British must be withdrawn from Iraq now! and ask your member of parliament to pass your opinion to the New Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
You can contact your member of parliament at;

http://www.writetothem.com
Quick guide to political activism

http://www.geocities.com/no_to_capitalist_wars/quick_guide.html

More info on wars and oppression across the world.
www.antiwar.com

Iraqi Rail Strike

2007-05-23T10:01:00.000-07:00

Iraqi railway workers have begun an indefinite strike to win a pay rise and basic rights.The strike action, backed by the vast majority of rail workers, has paralysed the country's main North/South rail corridor. It has been taken in order to achieve improvements in salaries and conditions, as well as improved safety, protection from attack and fundamental workers' rights.

Mac Urata, Secretary of the International Transport Workers' Federations's Inland Transport Section, has commented: "It beggars belief that the dictatorial anti-union laws of the Saddam Hussein era are still in place. Legislation denying rail and other public services workers the right to strike and belong to a union must be removed immediately. The ITF fully supports this legitimate action."

Iraqi Oil Unions

2007-05-20T10:35:00.000-07:00

Please send emails to Maliki and Sharastani, model letter at end of this email:

Maliki to Negotiate with Oil Union - Northern and Central Unions will Strike in Solidarity

For Immediate Release:Monday May 14thOil Strike Postponed for Negotiations with Prime Minister.The Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions has postponed its’ strike for thisweek.A 7-member delegation from the IFOU will meet with Prime MinisterNourial Maliki in Baghdad tomorrow to continue negotiations.The delegation is set to return on Thursday when, if negotiations havefailed to bear fruit, a new strike date will be set.Union President Hassan Jumaa said that unions in the Northern OilCompanyin Kirkuk, and the Mechanics and Engineers Union and Dora Refinery Union in Baghdad are ready to take solidarity strike action with the IFOU.

‘Members were balloted and have decided to take action with us if westrike’.The Union, representing 26,000 workers, has held three previous strikes since 2003, each time stopping exports, for up to two days at a time.TheIraqi government has declared strike action by the Union as illegal.Speaking from Basra today, union President Hassan Jumaa Awad said,

‘We are working within the law. We are not afraid of arrest and imprisonmentbecause we know we have both the legal and the moral right inthisdispute. We are asking all unions and organisations which believeinhuman rights to stand with us and support us in our legitimatedemands’.

The Union’s demands range from a restoration of a bonus scheme, landforhomes, approval of outstanding holidays and full time statusfortemporary workers, to a long-held and reiterated demand for inclusioninconsultation over the country’s oil law.

Further demands includegovernment action against price rises because of their detrimentalimpact on all citizens (not just oil workers) and medical treatment foroil workers especially in areas affected by depleteduranium).Seewww.basraoiluion.org for more details.The current draft of the Oil law proposes giving multinational companiesthe primary role in developing Iraq's huge untapped oilfields, undercontracts lasting up to 30 years. Oil production in Iraq, like in most of the Middle East, has been in the public sector since the 1970s.The Union recently addressed the US Congress and European Parliaments ina letter asking them not to link withdrawal with the passing of the oillaw. In it Hassan Jumaa Awad said: ‘We ask our friends not to linkwithdrawal with the oil law, especially since the USA claimed that itcame to Iraq as a liberator and not in order to control Iraq’sresources.The general public in Iraq is totally convinced that Bush wants to rushthe promulgation of the oil law so as to be leaving Iraq with avictoryof sorts, because his project is failing every day and theoccupation is collapsing in all parts of Iraq.’ Seehttp://priceofoil.org/ for a full translation.The proposed strike is the culmination of 4 years of campaigning onmembers’ issues involving protests, strikes and worker-lead lock-outs.In a communiqué announcing the strike, the Union declared:

‘Our demands for entitlements were ignored despite four years of continued promisesby ministry and government officials…throughout this period we worked todiffuse anger and resentment and address criticism levelled by ourmembers who mistakenly thought of us as the ones failing to put forththeir legitimate demands…enough is enough’.The number of death threats against union leaders has escalated sincethe strike was first declared, said Hasan Jumaa Awad.

"As soon as thefederation called for the strike, many of our members and officials werephysically threatened by parties active in the political process,withthe aim of thwarting the strike and undermining the message of thestrike organisers." The Union is taking these threats seriously.Ewa Jasiewicz of the IFOU support committee ‘Naftana’ said: ‘This is adefining moment in the union’s history and in Iraq’s history. The unionis likely to encounter repression over its’ decision to strike –particularly over its position on the oil law. The world needs to bewatching this dispute’.

ContactsHassan Jumaa Awad Al Assadi, President of the Iraqi Federationof OilUnions 00964 7801 001 196 or 00964 7804 114 619www.basraoilunion.orgSami Ramadani, lecturer and writer and member of Naftana - UKSupportCommittee for the IFOU 0044 7863 138 748sami.ramadani@londonmet.ac.ukEwa Jasiewicz, Naftana UK Support Group for the IFOU

Hands OffIraqiOil Campaign 0044 7749 421 576 freelance@mailworks.orgwww.handsoffiraqioil.orgNotesThe Hands Off Iraqi Oil Campaign is holding a protest in solidarity withthe IFOU and over Shell’s involvement in the Oil Law tomorrow at Shell’sAGM. 8.30am-12pm at the Hammersmith Novotel, 1 Shortlands, London W6The IFOU is an independent trade union representing workers across4southern provinces in Iraq: Misan, Dhi Qar, Basra and Mauthanna innineoil and gas related companies.The Union has been organizing since April 2003 and has stopped oilexports and production over wages and workers rights in the past. It has also held protests against oil smuggling, former regime bosses andwhatthe union sees as the deliberate neglect and degradation of theindustry in order to justify private investment.Union members have carried out reconstruction work on drilling rigs,portequipment, pipelines and refineries since the invasion with minimal,mostly local resources.The Union is not linked to any political party inIraq but has memberswhich belong to various parties.The Union enjoys the support of trade unions and civil societyorganizations around the world including the International Confederationof Energy, Mining and General Workers Union (ICEM), the AFL-CIO in theUS, and the Trade Unions Congress (TUC) in the UK including the NUJ andTGWU. The union is partnered with UK development charity War on Want,the3 milllion strong US Labor Against War in the USA, and Italian NGO UnPonte Per.

**********************************************************************************************************************Model Letter:Dear Mr MalikiDear Dr Hussein al Sharastani

I am writing to express support for the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions in their right to take industrial action over issues relating to theirmembers' economic and social welfare.I am also concerned that the union has recieved death threats fordeciding to take strike action and that the authorities have alsothreatened legal action. I trust that the Union will not be penalised for taking action which is legal according to the Iraqi constiution anda fundamental trade union freedom recognised all over the world.

The Union has repeatedly asked for involvement in the drafting of theHydrocarbon Law but has been ignored. Iraqi civil society should beinvolved in the decision making process over the future of the Iraqieconomy - this includes trade unions.I will be monitoring the forthcoming news from the union and would likeassurance that union members will not be harmed or punished for theiractions.

Yours Sincerely,.....

Prime Minister Nouri Al MalikiMinister of Oil, Dr Hussein al SharastaniC/OEmbassy of the Republic of Iraq 169 Knightsbridge London SW7 1DWPhone: (020) 7581 2264Fax: (020) 7589 3356E-mail:lonemb@iraqmofamail.net Telephone: +44 207 602 8456 Fax: +44 207 3711652

Iraqi Oil Workers to Strike Over Privatisation Law

2007-05-08T13:33:00.000-07:00

Iraqi Oil Workers to Strike Over Privatisation Law

Tuesday May 8th 2007

Iraq's largest oil workers' trade union will strike this Thursday, in protest at the controversial oil law currently being considered by the Iraqi parliament. The move threatens to stop all exports from the oil-rich country.

The oil law proposes giving multinational companies the primary role in developing Iraq's huge untapped oilfields, under contracts lasting up to 30 years. Oil production in Iraq, like in most of the Middle East, has been in the public sector since the 1970s.

The Union, representing 26,000 oil workers, has held three previous strikes since 2003, each time stopping exports, for up to two days at a time. The announcement of the strike has spurred negotiations with the Ministry of Oil, which are ongoing.

Imad Abdul-Hussain, Federation Deputy Chair of the IFOU said: "The central government must be in total ownership and complete control of production and the export of oil". He warned against the controversial Production Sharing Agreements favoured by foreign companies, saying other forms of co-operation with foreign companies would be acceptable but not at the level of control and profiteering indicated in the current Oil Law.

Federation President Hassan Jumaa Awad al Assadi said: 'The oil law does not represent the aspirations of the Iraqi people. It will let the foreign oil companies into the oil sector and enact privatisation under so called production sharing agreements. The federation calls for not passing the oil law, because it does not serve the interests of the Iraqi people."

The Union is not alone in its' condemnation of the current oil law. Opponents of the law also include all of Iraq's other trade unions, a number of political parties, and a group of over 60 senior Iraqi oil experts.

Hassan Jumaa went on to say: "The federation calls on all unions in the world to support our demands and to put pressure on governments and the oil companies not to enter the Iraqi oil fields."

Union members are also demanding an improved salary structure and a distribution of land for building homes.

Coalition to Stop Deportations to Iraq – Support Iraqi Asylum Seekers

2007-05-02T14:15:00.000-07:00

Coalition to Stop Deportations to Iraq – Support Iraqi Asylum Seekers

We don’t want to be deported

On this 1st May please show International Solidarity with Iraqi Kurdish asylum seekers. The UK Government has deported 87 Iraqi Kurds over the last 2 years. The UK has commissioned 3 flights from Brize Norton Airbase in Oxford. The nature of the Iraqi Kurdish asylum seekers deportation was humiliating and the coalition believes breaks with the Geneva Convention in treatment of refugees. They were woken up early in the morning given no opportunity to collect their belongings. They were pushed out of the detention centres by armed guards, handcuffed and put into a coach and transferred to an airbase in Brize Norton, Oxford. Once on the flight they were given flak jackets prior to being pushed out onto the runway at Erbil left to be picked up by the KDP (hardly appropriate clothing for a so called safe country).

The UK government has pressured Iraqi and Kurdish asylum seekers in the last few years cutting off support and refusing to let them work, making them destitute, and arresting them. The Home Office has put pressure on Kurdish asylum seekers and forced many to leave the country. Many Kurdish asylum seekers have been sacked from their jobs under the excuse of not having the right to stay in the UK. As a result of this harassment many Kurdish asylum seekers are suffering from depression. Many of them have been forced to sleep rough.

The UK Government insists Iraqi Kurdistan is safe and a suitable place to return failed asylum seekers to. However, four million Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan have been living in uncertainty for the last sixteen years. The future of the Kurds is unknown.
The two ruling parties in Kurdistan the PUK and KDP are not democratic parties and continue to persecute all those who speak against them. They violate human rights on a daily basis. There was an incident last year at Tusluja cement factory were the PUK shot at striking workers, hardly the actions of a democratic Government.

Iraq is one of the most dangerous countries to live 100’s of people are killed daily. So far four Million refugees have left Iraq and the flow of refugees continues it is reported that one thousand people leave Iraq every day. The solution is not to forcibly return people to such an unsafe country.

Please support us:

Get your Trade Union Branch or Trades Council or even write a letter in a personal capacity to the:
to the Home Office to stop the police of deportation
Your MP
The Prime Minister

Donate money either personally or ask your Trade Union Branch or Trades Council to Affiliate to CSD Iraq. Please write your cheques to coalition to stop deportations Iraq to PO Box 1575 Ilford IG1 3BZ London UK
www.csdiraq.com

Stoning to Death in Kurdistan

2007-04-30T06:34:00.000-07:00

To: Kurdistan Regional Government

International Campaign against killings and stoning of women in Kurdistan Condemn the brutal stoning to death of Doa - a young girl whose only crime was to fall in love Doa was stoned to death in the centre of the town of Bashiqa in front of hundreds of people and the authorities did not prevent this crime from happening.

On the contrary, they were present and paving the way for this horrific crime to be carried out. Doa was a 17 year old girl from a family of Yazidi faith; she was snatched from her house by some Yazidi men who discovered that she was in love with a Muslim Arab man and had visited him. They stoned her to death in public on 7th April 2007 in the town of Bashiqa. It is known that women in Kurdistan and Iraq are oppressed. The few rights they do have are very limited and in most cases they are treated as sub-humans. Killings, suicide, and violence against women are an every day occurrence in this region.

Although a crime of this nature is very new to Kurdistan, this is an indication that such crimes against women are now tolerated. Doah's killers are still free. The governments failure to protect women, and enforce laws against criminals, has created a situation where thousands of women become victims of so called honour killings . Violence has risen as result of patriarchal and religious traditions. We strongly condemn this barbaric act, and call upon all human rights and womens rights organisations, political parties, and activists in Kurdistan and globally to condemn this crime. In the 21st century, for such crimes to be carried out in broad daylight is not only a shame on society as whole, but most of all, it is a shame on a government that is unable to protect women from such inhumane and backward practices.

The stoning of Doa sets a dangerous precedent for more women to become victims of stoning. We hold the Kurdistan Regional Government responsible for the lives and protection of women in this region, and we believe that the brutalisation and victimisation of women must come to an end. We the undersigned therefore demand: That the Kurdistan Regional Government brings the killers to justice and punishes them. The Kurdistan regional Government should set laws against terror, killings and oppression of women, and punish criminals. To avoid this barbaric crime from becoming a norm and a practice in Kurdish society, the Kurdistan Regional Government should criminalise stoning to death.

The initiators of this campaign are: Houzan Mahmoud: Representative abroad of Organisation of Womens Freedom in Iraq and campaign coordinator Raga Rauf: Writer and womens rights activist and campaign coordinator Samera Mohammed: Editor of Rasan womens newspaper in Kurdistan Yanar Mohammed: President Of Organisation of Womens Freedom in Iraq Aram Ali: Coordinator of the Kurdish website www.bopeshawa.com Baker Ahmad: Writer and poet Dler Colnadar: member of executive board of CHAK organisation Omar Faris: coordinator of a Kurdish website www.kurdsitannet.org Dina Nammi: International Campaign against Honour Killings Amal Almas: (Iraqi Womens League) Gothenburg -Sweden Federation of Workers councils and unions in Iraq/ Kurdistan representative Chro Sabir: Director of Rasan womens organisation in Kurdistan Hana Shwan: Journalist and womens rights activist in Kurdistan Hamza Abd: The Iraqi Cultural House in Gothenburg-Sweden .

To join this campaign or to show your support pleases contact: Campaign Coordinators: Houzan Mahmoud and Rega Rauf houzan73@yahoo.co.uk Or rega_rauf@yahoo.com 26/04/2007

To Add name and see current signatories: http://www.petitiononline.com/kurdish/petition.html

Iranian strike

2007-04-25T08:26:00.000-07:00

Iran’s teachers stage a 2-day strike ( Monday)

Teachers in Iran were on a nationwide strike today for the second day running.
Called by the Teachers’ Trade Association of Iran (/Kanoon e Senfi eMoalleman e Iran/), the strike followed last month’s massive protests over pay and conditions, which ended in the arrest of hundreds ofteachers as the security forces moved in to crush the action.

Labour organisations around the world and various sections of workers in Iran have protested at the regime’s brutality, calling for the release of those still in prison and the meeting of teachers’ legitimate demands.In Sunday’s and Monday’s actions nearly all the schools in Tehran remained closed. Secondary schools were reported shut, while some primary schools remained open but no teaching took place.

In addition to the capital, the strike was observed in the following cities and regions: Esfahan, Homayoon-Shahr, Shahin-Shahr, Flaverjan,Pirbekran, Bojnoord, Eslam-Shahr, Shazand, Khomein, Arak, Tafresh,Farahan, Delijan, Karaj, Saghez, Bookan, Hamedan, Aligoodarz, Ardebil,Kerman, Urumiye, Tabriz and Broojen.In Eslam-Shahr teachers were threatened.

They were told not to assemble in the school.In another development, 5 of the 9 detained teachers in the city ofHamedan, members of the Teachers’ Trade Association, were released after nearly 10 days in prison. They are: Jalilian, Foroozanfar, Sadeghi,Naderi and Najafi. The following are still in prison: Zareiee, Ghadimi,Refahiat and Gholami.In Homayoon-Shahr in Esfahan Province, 4 teachers were summoned to theInformation Ministry and detained.

They are: Mojtaba Abtahi, AbdolrasoolEmaadi, Nurullah Barkhordar and Hamid Mojizi. Their whereabouts are unknown.In the city of Kerman, the city’s education chief accused the teachers of ‘conspiracy against the system’, following which several teachers were arrested.

On Saturday 14 April, Hamid Pour Vosoogh, AlirezaRezaiee and Mohammad Reza Rezaiee were arrested and taken to Evin Prison in Tehran.The teachers’ two-day action was pre-planned and went ahead in spite of the mass arrests, harassment and intimidation by the government. There is already talk amongst teachers of further actions in the coming days.

Public Employee Press

2007-04-08T11:30:00.000-07:00

Public Employee Press:
Houzan Mahmoud speaks out:Life in war-torn Iraq

Iraqi feminist and labor leader Houzan Mahmoud spoke March 5 on life during the war, which can lead to unjustified jailing, kidnapping and rape. She lives under an open-ended death sentence from a religious court.

By GARY GOFF2nd Vice President, Local 2627“There are no rights in Iraq for working people today,” said Houzan Mahmoud, speaking at the Manhattan campus of SUNY Stony Brook on March 5.Mahmoud represents both the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq and the Federation of Workers Councils and Unions, Iraq’s second largest union group.She is currently living in London and was in New York to testify about gender-based violence in Iraq before the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

Mahmoud spoke at great personal risk, because she is under a fatwa, an open-ended death sentence issued by an Islamist group from Iraqi Kurdistan, where she was born.“Women are the uncounted victims of this occupation.”“Women are the uncounted victims of this occupation,” Mahmoud said. They cannot safely go out on the streets alone to buy food for their families, she said. Daily life is very difficult. There is no security. There are no basic services — drinkable water, electricity, health care or schools.

Millions of people are out of work or have been forced to flee the Islamist militias to refugee camps in neighboring countries.More and more women are now in Iraqi prisons, with no legal protection or representation. “They can just come and take you out of your home,” said Mahmoud.Civil society has broken down. “The government is dysfunctional,” says Mahmoud, with no real existence outside the U.S.-run Green Zone.

The politicians are heavily corrupt, stealing public money and spying on each other. Elsewhere, she said, there is “a never-ending battle” among the occupying forces, the terrorist networks and the Islamist militias and gangsters.It was not always like this. “Secularism is deeply rooted in Iraqi society,” she said. “The people don’t want a theocratic regime.”And, according to Mahmoud, that is the strength of the secular Federation of Workers Councils and Unions, which includes men and women of all faiths, ethnicities, and nationalities.

“We’re anti-occupation, therefore we’re illegal, but we still organize.”Unlike the legal unions supported by the Iraqi government and the U.S.-occupation forces (“We call them ‘yellow unions,’ ”), the Federation organizes protests, conferences and strikes — “at least two a month,” says Mahmoud with pride.“ We’re anti-occupation, therefore we’re illegal, but we still organize. We’re gaining popularity among the working people of Iraq.”In Iraq, the war “has created a breeding ground for the terrorists.”

They “carry out all kinds of suicide bombings and attacks, all in the name of fighting the occupation,” she said. The terror groups use the American presence “as a cover to kill.”Mahmoud sees women, youth, and labor unions as the keys to restoring a dynamic secular society in Iraq.

But before that can happen, she said, the war has to end. “This war is not in the interests of the working-class in Iraq or in America.”Mahmoud’s presentation was sponsored by Stony Brook’s Center for Study of Working Class Life and U.S. Labor Against the War, the organization that led the labor section of the recent anti-war marches in which many DC 37 members participated.This article is based on Mahmoud’s March 5 talk and an interview she gave Goff, which is available on line at www.local2627.org.

Death of General Secretary

2007-04-08T11:21:00.000-07:00

The GFIW mourns the death of martyr Najim Abd-Jasem the General Secretary of the Mechanic Workers Union.Brother Najim was abducted by criminal militias in Baghdad on theafternoon of the 27th March 2007 .

His body was found three daylater on 30 March 2007. Signs of torture were evident all over hisbody.Brother Najim was one of the key leading trade unionists who helped to establish the IFTU now the GFIW after the fall of Saddam'sdictatorship and was elected as the General Secretary of theMechanics Workers Union in late 2003.

Under the former dictatorship of Saddam, brother Najim worked forthe Health Ministry as a mechanic before he was dismissed because ofhis opposition to Saddam's yellow unions.He joined the underground trade union movement (WDTUM) and fought against the former dictatorial regime.

His murder is a sign of a systematic campaign to eliminate the leadership of the newly formed independent and democratic unions that strongly oppose sectarianism.Najim A- Jasem leaves a widow and four children.Glory to the martyr of Iraqi working class brother Najim A JasemLong live the Iraqi labour movementNajim was kidnapped on 27 March 2007His Body was found on 30 MarchSigns of torture was visible on his bodyNajim Joined the under ground trade union movement (WDTUM) in the1980s.

He was dismissed from his job as a mechanic where he worked for theIraqi health MinistryHe was reinstated to his job after the fall of Saddam's dictatorship.He was a key founder the of the IFTU now the GFIWHe was elected to the position of the General Secretary of theMechanics Workers Union 2003He attended many national and international seminars and training

The executive committee
GFIWBaghdad
31 March 2007

Iraq Letter to International Workers' Movement

2007-04-01T12:59:00.000-07:00

Sunday, April 01 2007 @ 12:56 PM PDT

Iraq: Letter to the International Workers’ Movement

Friday, March 30 2007 @ 06:57 AM PDTContributed by: WorkerFreedomViews: 57

Four years of occupation and destruction have devastated the society, where the streets witness daily killings through explosive bombs, booby traps, cars, and belts. Unprecedented destructive powers were unleashed in these 4 years to turn people’s lives into hell. All of this happens amongst false promises of democracy and freedom, in the time when the country is stamped by tanks, military vehicles, and tens of thousands of heavily armed soldiers.Letter to the International Workers’ MovementFrom: Falah Alwan, FWCUI’s presidentFour years of occupation and destruction have devastated the society, where the streets witness daily killings through explosive bombs, booby traps, cars, and belts.Unprecedented destructive powers were unleashed in these 4 years to turn people’s lives into hell.

All of this happens amongst false promises of democracy and freedom, in the time when the country is stamped by tanks, military vehicles, and tens of thousands of heavily armed soldiers.The occupation troops, their allies and the influential militias have driven the society into a burning sectarian war. They have also confiscated the most basic liberties in the areas under their power.Moreover, the regional powers have put their resources and experiences under the command of the armed groups and powers who represent their interests in Iraq, thereby turning the country into a battlefield of conflict among these different forces. All of this has given way to turn living and working places into battlefields of a destructive reactionary war.The secular, libertarian, and egalitarian alternative failed to become the major power to face and resist this scenario. Still, the freedom-loving people have expressed their aspirations to resist these situations in a variety of ways.The workers of Iraq have taken their position against the occupation and the current situation through continuous demonstrations and ways of protest. Some administered sit-ins while others demonstrated demanding better pay and living conditions, even some demanded cancelling the laws of the previous era.

The workers’ movement managed to maintain an independent presence regarding their theses, programs, and approaches of workers’ organizations, or their different practical methods of work among the movement, even through setting forward practical demands here and there.The main reasons which stopped the workers’ social efforts from turning into a main pole/part within the political formula and kept them as a mere potential force, is not that the workers are incapable or reluctant in organizing; although these factors are of some influence more or less. In reality, there is an essential reason and aspect, which is that the weakness of the workers’ movement in Iraq reflects the parallel weakness of an international workers’ movement, and is consequently and extension to it.

The workers of Iraq have to face and confront the whole arsenal of the occupation troops, and moreover all the dominant and destructive political and militia forces, in addition to all their reactionary heritage which defies all the liberties of the workers and the people. All of these forces have their regional and worldwide depth and resources, and are therefore international powers. In other words, the working class in Iraq is confronting international poles, while the workers’ movement is not functioning in international parameters.

In the midst of the flow of blood and fire, the Federation of Workers’ Councils and Unions in Iraq has established its presence as a radical workers’ movement with a profound basis of revolutionary tradition, a movement which forwards demands and fundamentals of social equality and a humane alternative for the current situations.Our victory and survival precondition is that the international workers’ movement stands immediately by us, not in the sense of supporting and encouraging a movement somewhere in the world, but they need to regard it as a basic part of an international movement which confronts a fierce adversary whose main objective is to impose weakness and withdrawal on the international workers’ movement and paralyzing its’ political will.Iraq is currently the main arena of struggle between the American and the regional local forces, a struggle which is basically reactionary.

Achieving a working class victory in Iraq at this point will represent a victory of the workers’ movement internationally. This victory will elevate the libertarian and socialist movement to new heights. Simultaneously, both the US and their adversaries’ victory will impose an accomplished failure of the workers’ movement and force it to withdraw and become marginal for decades to come.The failure of the US and the current political forces in imposing a functional political model in the last four years in Iraq, in addition to the drawbacks which came over the nationalist and political Islamist forces, have opened a window of opportunity for the leftist and libertarian forces to enter the arena swiftly and to become

THE alternative.The pre-requisite for that is preparing and organizing the workers’ forces and ranks around their main aims, in addition to attracting and gaining the inseparable support of millions around the world. Only then, the possibility of victory becomes achievable and possible.

Falah Alwan Federation of Workers’ Councils and Unions in Iraq, presidentMarch 6, 2007

http://www.uuiraq.org/english/248.htm

Sheraton Hotel success

2007-03-20T14:03:00.000-07:00

Success of the Strike of the Sheraton Hotel Workers – Baghdad

The workers of Sheraton hotel – Baghdad, had organized a strike on Sunday 3-3-2007 and Monday 4-3-2007 calling for paying their overdue salaries and other unpaid benefits. The strike was led by the General union of the tourism and hotels' workers, inside the building of Sheraton hotel - Baghdad.The demands of the workers focused on paying the overdue salaries and arrear unpaid benefits of the holidays which amount up to 200.000 Iraqi Dinars (equivalent to 140 US$) in addition other arrears.There were 250 workers which took part in the strike that continued from Sunday till Monday, where the workers gathered daily at about 10:00 am. The administration started negotiations with the delegation from the workers represented by Zamil Abood and Ayad Fadhil, both of whom are members in the executive bureau of the tourism and hotels union. The delegation presented the workers demands to the administration, which agreed to these demands. Consequently, the workers ended their strike after reaching an agreement with the administration.The salaries of the workers of Sheraton, Merdian, and Baghdad hotels and many other hotels were frozen because of the limited business and occupancy of the hotels as result of changing them into military controlled zones and the concert walls built around.The General Union of the Tourism and HotelsFederation of Worker Councils and Unions in Iraq5-3-2007

Iraq Petition

2007-03-20T13:42:00.000-07:00

Petition: We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to stop the forced deportation of Iraqi Asylum Seekers back to Iraq, and grant them the right to remain in the UK.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ukiraqis/

Next meeting

2007-03-16T03:08:00.000-07:00

Dear IUSS Supporters,

The next meeting of IUSS will be on Tuesday 20th March, in Borders bookshop's cafe on Buchanon Street, Glasgow at 6pm. Hope you can come along.

Comradley,
Pauline Bradley
Convenor

Debate on Sky

2007-03-16T02:44:00.000-07:00

Dear Comrades hi,

I hope you are all well, and wanted to thank you all for your solidarity messages you sent to me
it was so nice to have your support...

I wanted to let you know that I was on Sky news on a debate about Iraq tonight, please have a look at this link..

http://news.sky.com/skynews/video

Lots of love to you all and thanks for your support and solidarity which keeps me going

Yours
Houzan

Iran Report

2007-03-13T13:18:00.000-07:00

A report By Organisation for Women's Liberation- Iran
Maryam kousha

An historic 8 March in Iran
Security forces attacked International Women's Day gatherings

Assemblies in different cities
For freedom and equality
2007

People in Iran welcomed 8th March this year by organising many events well ahead of the actual day in different cities all over the country. It culminated in major gatherings on Thursday, international women's day. People were passionate about the day, had prepared manifestos, resolutions and banners demanding equality, condemning gender apartheid and women's oppression. As usual the Islamic regime tried everything to halt and prevent these events. Despite massive paramilitary and secret police presence, many pickets and gatherings took place.

Tehran
Several thousand people gathered around Tehran University by 4 pm Tehran 's time to start an 8 March rally which was called by 8 March organising committee, endorsed by OWL. However, this gathering was prevented from commencing by the security forces. Islamic Republic had decided to stop any 8 March event to take place. The presence of massive force by Tehran University and in and around Daneshjoo Park , where the rally was to end, and also by Vali-e -asr square, a close by busy shopping area prevented any meetings to take place. Any person who tried to shout slogans was attacked and taken away. Eye witnesses have reported to OWL's 8 March headquarters that around 25 people were arrested by Tehran University and Vali-e-asr square.

Some of the demonstrators then decided to move to another location. Around 6 pm there was report of a large gathering in Mohseni square north of Tehran . The security forces attacked that gathering, as well.

Another 8 March meeting was organised to take place by the Parliament around 2 pm. Around 200 people tried to attend this meeting who were attacked by the security forces, few people were arrested. The organisers managed to read their resolution. The crowd had gathered to demand the release of women activists who were arrested Sunday 4 March.

Tehran University, 8th March 2007
About 1000-1500 people gathered at the university to protest against gender segregation and apartheid, dictatorship and police state. People chanted "socialism rise". A few people made speeches about women's demands and read a resolution clarifying these demands. Pictures of Mansoor Hekmat, the leader of Worker-communist movement were held high and the participants ended the ceremony by singing the "International" song.

About 3000 people gathered in "Vali-Asr square". They were prohibited from starting the 8 th March celebration by the secret services that had a massive presence in the crowd. The participants were waiting to find an opportunity to read their resolution but were stopped.

Allameh University, 4th March 2007
More than 700 people gathered to oppose the new dress code introduced to female students at the university. The students chanted slogans condemning the fascist method of controlling the university. A woman student said "we will not let you to turn the university into your reactionary and fascist arena". A male student said "this new more restricted dress code is not just against females it is against us and all humanity too". The main protest was against limitations of individual freedoms.

While singing protest songs, the students marched out. The slogans chanted were "No to reaction", "they want to cloth us in black again". Paramilitary forces were in the crowd all the time and filmed the event. Some tension occurred.

Cinema and Theatre faculty, 5th March 2007
Students gathered at this faculty to protest against limitations imposed on them regarding their dress code during registration. Despite the conditions put on female students that unless they observe the new more restricted dress code, they would not be registered, the students managed to resist it. They wore their usual clothing to university.

Sharif University, 4th March 2007
The event at this university was loud and full of banners. The protestors sang progressive songs and held banners saying "Freedom, Equality" "Women's freedom is the freedom of society", "women are the main victims of war, poverty and violence", "No to gender apartheid", "we defend teachers' and workers' struggle" and "Students' movement in unity with women's and workers' movement".

Speeches were made by female and male students about the danger of war and the importance of uniting with other social movements for a free and equal society. The ceremony took place despite the pressure by the police. The secret police in the crowd tried to interrupt the speeches but they were isolated. One of the organisers said to them that they can not turn the clock back to the 1980's when hundred thousands were executed.

A manifesto in defence of women's rights was read at the end and 150 years of international struggle for women's rights and freedom and liberation was celebrated.

Esfahan, 8 th March 2007
Two events took place in the city of Esfahan . One in " Boostan Park " and the other in the main library. Women took their veils off for a few minutes to demonstrate their hatred of Islamic rules. They read out their resolution demanding freedom of clothing and condemning gender apartheid.

Sanandaj, 8 th March 2007
Historically, Sanandaj is known as the red city because of its progressive and radical movement. Every year people organise 8 th March seminars. This year, the police and the secret police attacked the ceremony and arrested many people. A gathering in the main city centre was attacked by the Islamic guards, some people were arrested and a few injured. The names of those arrested are: Asoo Saleh, Peyman Nemati, Akoo Kord-Nasab, Sooran Hoseini, Voorya Tdayon, Parviz Poorrezaee, Fateme Zamani, Soraya Mohamadi, Sima Alikhani, and Salah Zamani.
It was reported to OWL's 8 March headquarter that all arrested yesterday, except Peyman Nemati and Salah Zamani were released today.

Kamyaran, 8 th March 2007
In this city too, the presence of police was evident. Tens of people celebrated the day, gathered by the grave of those women who were either victims of honour killing or had committed suicide and read out their resolution in defence of women's rights.

Sagez, 8 th March 2007
This is another city in Kurdistan where many people celebrated the International Women's Day. Women made speeches about their situation and the need to change it. A struggle for women's rights and abolition of gender apartheid was the main theme of all ceremonies.

Tafrash University, 6 th March 2007
A gathering was held at Electrical engineering faculty where many students took part. A female student talked about the limitations facing women in society especially at university. The assembly issued a statement demanding the following: "Freedom of society is measured by the freedom of women", "we will continue 8 th March tradition until all discrimination is abolished", "I am a human before being a woman", and "freedom and equality".

Organisation for Women's Liberation
Live Satellite TV programmes
OWL had live satellite TV programmes broadcast to Iran for 3 days in celebration of International Women's Day. In these programmes, hosted by Ali Javadi and Azar Majedi, many aspects of women's situation in Iran and their struggle for a better, just and equal world were discussed. People in Iran have had enough of political Islam and Islamic Republic of Iran. This sentiment was clearly demonstrated by the phone calls to the programme from Iran and all over the world. Many people called and criticized the immense social, cultural, political and economical pressure women are under in Iran . They talked about gender apartheid imposed on them for 28 years and the need to abolish it once and for all.

The 8th march events organised in Iran were reported on the programme which helped to publicize the celebrations. In a country where freedom of speech and assembly is illegal, many people use the latest technology to make links and try to overcome all limitations and dictatorship.

OWL had a team of dedicated members who well before 8th March and especially on the day, were in contact with many activists in Iran , getting the latest news and publishing news letters by the minute. Thanks to Nasrin Ramazanali, Sharareh Noori, Parvin Kaboli, Karim Noori, Shahla Noori, and Azar Majedi who made up the team and worked hard.
Swedish radio 4 broadcaster went to OWL's office in Gothenburg interviewed Parvin kaboli on 8 march in Iran and taped some of the phone conversation with OWL's activists in Iran .

Teachers' strike and workers' demonstration in Iran
International Women's Day in Iran this year was held at a time when the whole society is going through many changes and upheavals. Teachers' strike for better wages and working conditions was one of the main changes which helped the women's movement and other social movements.

On Monday 5th March, about 100,000 teachers went on strike. On 8 th March 10000 teachers staged a picket outside the Parliament building in Tehran demanding justice and better wages. All along the regime has refused to meet their demands. On 8th March, many students and the women's movement showed their solidarity with the teachers. Many 8 march leaflets were distributed among the demonstrators. There were talks among the demonstrators to join the 8 March demonstration by Tehran University .

On Monday 5 March, several thousand factory workers also joined the teachers to demand their unpaid wages. Many workers' committees have issued 8 March messages to commemorate International Women's Day.

Once again we are witnessing the intensity of social movements in opposition to the regime and for better world for all.

8th March this year in Iran marked a new wave of progressive and passionate desire for radical change, against poverty, inequality, against gender apartheid. It shouted clearly "NO to women's Oppression!"

Women's liberation movement entered a new phase. 8 March began a new chapter in women's liberation movement in Iran . A clear NO to Islamic restrictions, the veil and gender apartheid was wide spread. The call for abolition of all discriminatory laws against women and for freedom and equality was heard in all gatherings. Women's liberation movement in Iran became stronger and more mature. This fact sent shivers down the Islamic Republic's spine. The effect of this movement will not be confined to Iran , it will affect the whole region under the rule of Islam.

This year the whole society was affected by 8 March events. A whole week of ceremonies and meetings in commemoration of 8 March, the demonstrations, the live TV programmes broadcast on satellite TV, which have millions viewers in Iran, Many web logs which started their 8 march preparation from several months ago, posting 8 March manifestos, slogans, posters, video clips and women's news added to this vibrant 8 march mood in the country. Universities around the country staged a clear commitment to women's rights and freedom.

Islamic Republic reaction itself is enough to show the scale, intensity and spread of women's liberation movement and its preparation for a large and vibrant 8 March.

Organisation for Women's Liberation is proud to announce that it worked very hard for 8 march events in Iran and played an influential role in both organising and reporting it.

We reproduce here one of the main 8 march resolutions:

To all participants in 8th March 2007, International Women's Day gatherings

Today we have gathered to protest against gender apartheid and violation of women's rights in Iran ; and to defend the struggle of women's freedom movement for its rights.

We celebrate 8th March at a time when, tens of events and celebrations have already taken place all over the country during the past few days. These events have reflected the demands of women's movement for liberation.

8th March Resolution read by organisers of the 8 th March rallies in Iran
United and in unison, we, women and freedom loving people declare: No to women's oppression!
We protest against gender apartheid which has become institutionalized in Iran ; and demand the abolition of all anti women laws
We support the struggle of people for equal rights between men and women
We condemn any compulsory dress code
We demand the immediate banning of capital punishment and stoning
We strongly condemn any humiliation and violence against women
We condemn domestic and state violence
We demand the immediate release of women political prisoners
We support the teachers' and workers' struggle
We demand the immediate stop to the arrest and deportation of all Afghan residents and declare that all immigrants in Iran must enjoy equal civil rights.
We strongly believe and declare NO to economic sanctions; NO to war; NO to nuclear bombs; Long live freedom, equality and welfare for all

We urge all organisations and supporters of women's and human rights to translate our resolution and show to the world that these are women's demands in Iran . Tell the world that we do are denied the most basic human rights in our own society.

http://8march.blogfa.com/
http://marchtehranshargh.blogfa.com/
marchtehranshargh@gmail.com
8march2007@gmail.com

Campaign against Iraqi Oil Rip Off

2007-03-11T13:30:00.000-07:00

Campaign Against Iraqi Oil Rip Off Launched in UK

Shell and BP to be Targeted

Development, environment, human rights and anti-war groups have come together to launch a campaign against the “rip off” of Iraqi oil by western companies.

‘Hands Off Iraqi Oil’ is part of an international coalition, which is also gearing up in the US and Italy, as well as Iraq.

In the UK, The Hands Off campaign comprises radical development charity War on Want, oil industry watchdog PLATFORM, investigative researchers Corporate Watch, long-term Iraq campaigners Voices UK, debt-relief watchdog Jubilee Iraq, anti-occupation network Iraq Occupation Focus and Naftana, the UK support group for the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions.

The launch comes just days after the Iraqi cabinet – under intense pressure from the USA and UK and the International Monetary Fund – approved a draft oil law which would transfer control over the majority of Iraq’s huge reserves from the public sector to multinational companies, for the first time in 35 years.

The law would allow contracts to be signed with the companies, which would give them exclusive rights to extract oil for up to 20 years.

The campaign supports the view of much of Iraqi civil society that the current oil law, and contracts signed under it, would surrender Iraq's sovereignty and economic future to foreign interests. The UK campaign will target British oil majors Shell and BP, warning them to keep their ‘Hands Off’ the spoils of war.

Ewa Jasiewicz, researcher and campaigner at PLATFORM said:

‘Deals signed under this law should be regarded as a form of robbery. Iraq’s oil in this context is war loot, for which hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died. Oil companies pushing for contracts now should be regarded as war profiteers; partners in the stealing of Iraq’s future’.

Louise Richards, Chief Executive at War on Want, said:

‘We stand in solidarity with all workers in the Iraqi oil industry at this crucial time in their struggle. Iraq’s trade unionists have consistently been denied any say in the future of their country’s oil sector, despite their strong and reasoned opposition to privatisation. We salute and support them in their opposition to the theft of Iraq’s oil resources.’

A sister campaign has also been launched in Italy. Another is about to launch in the USA.

Both are co-ordinating with Hands Off in the UK. The Italian campaign is pressurizing Italian oil company ENI to back out of the bidding process for contracts under the law.

Paola Gasparoli, Iraq Project Manager at Un Ponte Per says: ‘

We are asking our government which is the main stakeholder in ENI to oppose any attempt to dispossess Iraq of its’ resources. To allow the sell-out of Iraqi oil whilst sending money for humanitarian aid and reconstruction is more than farcical, it is immoral. Iraq’s oil and gas is not yet privatised – it is now more important that ever to support Iraqi unions and the Iraqi general public in opposing this law’.

The US campaign will target oil company Chevron, including picketing their offices on 20 March, the fourth anniversary of the start of the war.

Meanwhile, in Iraq, trade unions – as well as members of parliament and oil experts – are organising against the oil law. In a recent statement to the World Social Forum in Nairobi, Hassan Jum’a Awad, leader of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions said:

‘I particularly say to America “Hands Off Iraqi Oil”. This wealth belongs to the people of Iraq and the decent people of the world’.

See www.handsoffiraqioil.org for information and updates

Contacts

PLATFORM – Greg Muttitt 07970 589 611 www.carbonweb.org/iraq

War on Want – Paul Collins 07983 550728 pcollins@waronwant.org www.waronwant.org

Jubilee Iraq – Justin Alexander 07813 137171 mail@jubileeiraq.org
www.jubileeiraq.org

IRAQ – Iraqi federation of Oil Unions Hassan Jumaa Awad al Assadi 00964 7801 001 196 (Arabic Only)

ITALY – Un Ponte Per Paola Gasparoli 0039 333 544 6280 paola.gasparoli@unponteper.it www.unponteper.it

USA – Oil Change International Antonia Juhasz 001 (415) 846-5447 antoniajuhasz@gmail.com www.PriceOfOil.org

International Womens Day - Death threat to Houzan Mahmoud

2007-03-08T10:08:00.000-08:00

On the 8th March it will be International Women's Day. A day
originally proposed by the great socialist Clara Zetkin and yet now
often appropriated by big and small business.It is vital in this of
all weeks we show support for Iraqi socialist and women's rights
activist Houzan Mahmoud, representative abroad of the Organisation of
Women's Freedom in Iraq, who has been threatened by Islamic
fundamentalists. On February 26, 2007, Houzan received an e-mail
signed by Ansar al-Islam, the notoriously brutal jihadist group based
in Kurdistan/Iraq.

The death threat, delivered via e-mail, read:

"With the permission of Great God, we will kill you either in Iraq or
in London by the middle of March, because you are campaigning against
Islam. You should be sent to God for punishment."

Houzan Mahmoud, aged 34, who is currently based in London, is
originally from Iraqi Kurdistan, where she recently led a campaign
against the imposition of Islamic Sharia law in the proposed
constitution. Houzan is resolved to persist in her work, despite
being targeted by Ansar al-Islam.

Houzan says: "I will continue doing what I am doing now, going around
the world cultivating support for women in Iraq and Kurdistan as well
as exposing the violence and gender apartheid that Islamists are
imposing on millions of women in the region."

Comrade Houzan needs your support. Show solidarity by contacting her
at: houzan73@yahoo. co.uk

International unions

2007-03-02T07:33:00.000-08:00

International unions

E-appeal against raid on Iraqi unions
On 23 February 2007, US and Iraqi forces raided the head offices of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW), the country's national trade union center. They arrested one of the union's security staff (later released unharmed), destroyed furniture, and confiscated a computer and fax machine. And then they did it again two days later, causing further damage to the union headquarters.

The union is condemning the attacks as unprovoked. It is calling on the occupation forces to issue a written apology, to return all the seized property, and to pay compensation for damages caused. Please show your support by sending off the message below.

http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c...

Iraq Labor vs. ExxonMobil, BP and Shell

2007-02-26T08:36:00.000-08:00

David and Goliath story

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_kathlyn__070221_iraq_labor_vs__exxon.htm

Iraqi Journalists seek apology for Army raid

2007-02-26T08:31:00.000-08:00

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/24/ap/world/mainD8NFUDT00.shtml

Stop the Killing of four women

2007-02-24T14:10:00.000-08:00

Please sign and cirulate:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/573048973
Stop the Killing: Urge Prime Minister Blair to put pressure on Iraqi officials to end state murder

In occupied Iraq 2007:

Samar Sa’ad ‘Abdullah (f), aged 25
Wassan Talib (f), aged 31
Zeynab Fadhil (f), aged 25
Liqa’ Qamar (f), aged 25

These four women named above have been sentenced to death, and at least one of them is in imminent danger of execution.

Will the state murder of four women bring stability and the rule of law to Iraq? The situation in Iraq is not normal, the occupiers are failing to comply with the Geneva Convention and the state is completely failing to protect the people. It is therefore hardly in a position to pass judgment and exact such a terminal punishment on these women.

As if the Iraqi women are not suffering enough at the hands of the occupation, the militias and the criminal mafias, they now have a state that not only fails to protect them but will exact revenge on them!

Also a petition to stop Sharia Law being implemented in Iraqi Kurdistan from Organisation of Womens Freedon in Iraq

http://www.petitiononline.com/15122006/petition.html

Iraq union leader injured in bomb attack

2007-02-24T13:49:00.000-08:00

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 GFTU.For more information on the attack, read the story on the website of the International Trade Union Confederation, or, for news on recent anti-union terrorism in Iraq, read this article on the TUC site.

International Womens' Day events on Iraq

2007-02-24T13:42:00.000-08:00

http://www.karzar-zanan.com

Iraqi LGBT network

2007-02-24T13:34:00.000-08:00

Badr and Sadr militias are attacking LGBTS in Iraq- Iraqi LBGT activists have established a network of activists inside Iraq to fightback

http://equalityiniraq.com

http://www.iraqilgbtuk.blogspot.com/

http://www.outrage.org.uk