Support The Labor Movement In Iraq!

[Solidarity]

Support the Labor Movement in Iraq

Donate to the USLAW Iraq Labor Solidarity Fund
by US Labor Against The War (USLAW)
March 22nd, 2004


The Iraqi labor movement is emerging from decades of dictatorship and repression, twelve years of international sanctions, war and now occupation. Two democratic labor federations are actively organizing workers to defend themselves against violations of their rights, privatizations of their jobs, lack of unemployment benefits, cuts in social subsidies, wages frozen below subsistence levels, and control of their workplaces by U.S. and other multinational corporations. These new unions need support from abroad. They lack the most elementary supplies, computers and other equipment needed to serve their members.

Trade unionists and other social justice activists in the U.S. can help by donating to the U.S. Labor Against the War Iraqi Labor Solidarity Fund.

All donations will be divided equally between the Iraq Democratic Trade Union Federation and the Federation of Workers Unions and Councils (which includes the Union of the Unemployed in Iraq).

Make a generous donation* by sending your check to:

USLAW Iraq Labor Solidarity Fund
P.O. Box 153, 1718 M Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036

* Donations do not qualify for a tax deduction.

Ask your union or other labor organization to make a contribution.

http://uslaboragainstwar.org/index.php

[Solidarity]

1. Statement By Iraqi Labor Organizations

Voice of Iraqi Workers #5
Publication of the Union of the Unemployed in Iraq, an affiliate of the Federation of Workers Unions and Councils

Union of Unemployed in Iraq
March 23rd, 2004

Statement of the Federation of Workers’ Councils and Unions in Iraq on the Governing Council’s Resolution that Appoints Representatives for the Iraqi Workers

On January 27, 2004, the Governing Council passed its resolution number 3, which appoints an organization as the official representative of the Iraqi workers inside the country and internationally. This organization consists of the representatives of the parties grouped in the Governing Council The Resolution 3 is a continuation of the Ba'athist tradition which appointed trade unions through orders and from above. This resolution contradicts all international conventions, resolutions, and agreements which stress
that establishing trade unions and labour organizations is the affair of workers themselves and that workers should elect their representatives freely from among their ranks.

We, in the FWCUI, believe that the Governing Council has no right to pass any resolution preventing workers from electing their representatives. Therefore, we totally reject this resolution and regard it as an attempt to enforce the practices of the ousted
Ba'ath regime which denied workers any control over their own affairs and erected bureaucratic and repressive bodies which had nothing to do with the interests of workers. The resolution number 3 is a part of the attempts by the state apparatus to control
workers despite all rhetoric about freedom.

The Federation of Workers’ Councils and Unions in Iraq calls for a general conference, which embraces all labour activists in Iraq. The FWCUI also calls on the international labour organizations to attend this conference. Genuine and influential labour organizations, which represent workers, can only be established when workers themselves freely elect their own representatives.
Federation of Workers’ Councils and Unions in Iraq

February 19, 2004
Editor in Chief :
Aso Jabbar, Representative
Abroad of the Union of Unemployed in Iraq-UUI.
Post Box 325
3000 Bern 11 , Switzerland
Tel:[phone]
Email:
[e-mail]
www.uuiraq.org