The Iraqi trade unions and the resistance

Submitted by Anonymous on 12 May 2008 - 4:17pm
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  • Class War
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11 May 2008
The leaders of the Alliance for Workers Liberty (AWL) argue socialists should not fight for the withdrawal of US and UK troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. It claims that, were the occupation to end immediately, the Iraqi labour movement would be annihilated by reactionary Islamic forces.

Curious to know whether there was any truth in this claim, Simon Hardy contacted Iraqi exile and activist Sami Ramadani for his thoughts. Sami replied quickly, exploding the argument of the AWL that the occupying forces provide any cover for the Iraqi labour movement. With thanks to Sami, we publish his reply here.

Letter to Simon Hardy
Dear Simon,

Strikes were always crushed under Saddam. But in a fascist-style move, Saddam Hussein in 1987 introduced a new law (known as decree 150) declaring all public sector workers, i.e. the overwhelming majority of Iraq’s several million workers, “civil servants”. And guess what? Civil servants were banned from joining a trade union. Overnight, most of Iraq’s workers were not allowed to join even Saddam’s own yellow unions.

After the occupation, [US Administrator of Iraq] Paul Bremer decreed that Saddam’s decree 150 was still in force. It is the only Saddam law that was ever specifically declared valid by the occupation regime. Furthermore, no trade unions, yellow or red, are legal in Iraq today, until such time that the government “enacts a law which will govern the status of all associations”.

That some unions are operating is due to the determination of the workers to defend the most basic of their rights. The Federation of Iraqi Oil Unions, headquartered in Basra, is the shining example of such a union...

http://www.fifthinternational.org/index.php?id=94,1373,0,0,1,0