Iraqi Union Leader Asks For Help To Force U.S. To Withdraw From Iraq

[Itsthetruth]

Iraqi labor leaders meet with San Pedro activists
Pair, who helped start a union of 23,000 oil industry workers in Basra, speak of challenges.
By Muhammed El-Hasan

Daily Breeze
June 18, 2004

Hassan Juma'a Awad and Faleh Abbood Umara took a quiet boat tour Friday through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, thousands of miles from the port city where they live and work in Basra, Iraq.
Less than two weeks after allied forces entered the southern port city of Basra in 2003, Awad, Umara and other labor activists started the General Union of Oil Workers.

"I ask you to help us pressure your administration to remove its forces in Iraq so we can rebuild our country," said Umara, 48, general secretary of the oil union. "If they mention the security situation, I say that we are brothers in Iraq. And brothers can fight, but brothers can reconcile."

A press officer at the U.S. State Department directed questions about labor laws to the Iraqi government and queries on privatization to the U.S. Agency for International Development.
An official at USAID couldn't be reached Friday afternoon.

Umara said people face extreme dangers while traveling to work. He said it's common for American troops to shoot at Iraqi cars for driving too close. "It's like the occupation forces are the people of the land and we're the foreigners," Umara said. "If you complain, you may end up in Abu Ghraib (prison), and you don't know what will happen to you there." Asked if things are better now than when Hussein was in power, Umara said, "Under any occupation, don't expect things to get better."

http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/articles/1648206.html

[JohnyCanuck]

1. What's up with this dude

Next thing he'll be saying the oil belongs to the Iraqis too - America hater.

"It's like the occupation forces are the people of the land and we're the foreigners

[ooglymoogly]

2. yuh like that is going to happen

if you complain you might end up in abu graib. that is the real story

[Cocoa]

3. my email to the DNC

Dear DNC,

I wish the Democratic Party would show support for the Iraqi labor movement, specifically the General Union of Oil Workers, whose representatives are now touring the U.S.

This movement is one of the few parties in Iraq who are not murdering people, and their cause is righteous.

I wish the Democratic Party would support these courageous people, who have some very powerful enemies, and I wish the Democrats would make an issue out of the U.S.'s immoral and probably illegal privitization of Iraq's economy.

Thank you.

[Itsthetruth]

4. Thank You For Sending That E-Mail

eom

[LightningFlash]

5. Wow that's just amazing....

They actually think that the 30% americans care they are occupied?!??!

It's time to read about Hitler's fascism. They really do not care. I wouldn't expect them to care. Lets get rid of these treason artists, permanently.

[Itsthetruth]

7. Not Amazing At All

We simply get little or no information in the mass media on progressive elements within Iraq that are trying to build a democratic secular nation and want U.S. troops withdrawn.

You haven't read the latest polls. 59% now favor withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. It will go much higher if the anti-war movement plays its cards right.

[LightningFlash]

9. The executive branch will not do the will of the public.

It was PNAC and the criminals plan all along. They've vetoed every bill. They will NOT withdraw. The mission lasts years of "obstruction and control" just like other familiar wars.....

They have to be forced out and put on for war crimes.

That's why they are out of control and saying "Prove to me you can take me out....Comon u commies i aint scared of ya"

Well they better be scared....The downing street just GOT started!!!!!

:wow: :wow:

[Itsthetruth]

10. "Withdrawl From" Or "Forced Out" of Iraq Is OK With Me!

"They will NOT withdraw. They have to be forced out"

Well, if the government is forced out of Iraq would that not be pretty much the same as withdrawl?

The U.S. government was forced out of Vietnam. We called it withdrawl! And so did the Vietnamese.

[LightningFlash]

11. Precisely. Now you've gotten it. n/t

[knowbody0]

6. this is a movement we can support

the invading morons have always said that if asked, they'd leave.

[Itsthetruth]

8. Tour Schedule & Biographical Information On The Iraqi Labor Leaders

Here is remaining tour event and contact information on the six Iraqi labor leaders who are touring the United States.


MONTPELIER, Vermont: This is What Democracy Looks Like! Potluck and Panel with Iraqi Labor Leaders
Saturday, June 18th 2005 6:00PM
Open to public

Los Angeles, California: Labor Forum featuring Iraqi oil union leaders: "The Iraqi Struggle for Labor Rights and Against Privatization
Saturday, June 18th 2005 3:00PM
Open to public

Los Angeles, California: Community Forum featuring Iraqi oil leaders "The Iraqi Struggle for Labor Rights and Against Privatization"
Saturday, June 18th 2005 7 PM
Open to public

New Orleans, Louisiana: Soulstice Experience
Saturday, June 18th 2005 12:00 Noon - 8:00 PM
Peace Rally, march, music, speakers, and family picnic to Bring the Troops Home Now!

Atlanta , Georgia: The Black Radical Congress Presents: Iraqi Union Leaders Speak Out
Saturday, June 18th 2005 7:30PM
Open to public

Burlington, Vermont: This is What Democracy Looks Like! March
Sunday, June 19th 2005 12:00PM
Open to public

Berkeley, California: Public Forum with Iraqi Oil Union Leaders
Sunday, June 19th 2005 6:45-9 PM
$5.00 or more requested but no one turned away for lack of funds.


Detroit, Michigan: The New Iraqi Labor Movement and the Right to Organize
Sunday, June 19th 2005 5:30PM
Open to public

San Jose, California: Iraqi Unions are Organizing, Despite all!
Sunday, June 19th 2005 1:30PM - 3:30PM
$5 admission, but no one turned away.

Madison, Wisconsin: Iraqi Labor Leaders Public Forum
Monday, June 20th 2005 12:00PM - 1:00 PM
Open to public

Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Iraqi Labor Leaders Public Event
Monday, June 20th 2005 7:00PM
Open to public

Lynn, Massachusetts: Public meeting featuring Iraqi Labor Leaders
Monday, June 20th 2005 5:00PM
Open to public

Martinez, California: Iraqi Labor Tour: Contra Costa County Event
Tuesday, June 21st 2005 6:00PM
Open to public

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: The US and Iraq: Jobs or Occupations?
Tuesday, June 21st 2005 7:00PM
Open to the public.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Labor Luncheon featuring Iraqi Labor Leaders
Tuesday, June 21st 2005 12:00PM
Open to labor, RSVP required

Roxbury, Massachusetts: Public meeting featuring Iraqi Labor Leaders
Tuesday, June 21st 2005 6:00PM
Open to public

Boston, Massachusetts: UMass Lunch and Discussion featuring Iraqi Labor Leaders
Tuesday, June 21st 2005 12:00PM
Contact for details

Hartford, Connecticut: Iraqi Workers and the War
Wednesday, June 22nd 2005 6:00PM
Open to public

Cheektowaga, New York: "Labor and the War" forum featuring Iraqi Trade Union Leaders
Wednesday, June 22nd 2005 6:00PM - 9:00PM
Open to public

Portland, Oregon: Iraqi Labor Tour 2005 - Portland Event
Wednesday, June 22nd 2005 7:00 p.m.
Learn how the Bush Administration's pro-corporate, anti-labor agenda is playing out in the lives of ordinary working people in Iraq.

Seattle, Washington: Discussion with Iraqi Labor Leaders: "The Fight Against Pritivatization and Worker Protections"
Thursday, June 23rd 2005 7:00PM

Seattle, Washington: Press Conference
Thursday, June 23rd 2005 11:00AM
Open to public

Cleveland, Ohio: COMMUNITY FORUM ON IRAQ
Friday, June 24th 2005 7:30PM
Open to public, $5 suggested donation, but no one turned away

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Iraqi Labor Leaders Speak Out!
Friday, June 24th 2005 6:00PM-8:00PM
$30; $15 for low-income or unemployed workers. Inquire in advance for tickets.

----------------------------------------------------------

Contact Information

East coast: IFTU


June 15: Baltimore
Contact: Fred Mason
[e-mail]


June 16-17: New York City
Contact: Bill Henning
[e-mail]


June 18-19: Vermont
Contact: Dawn Stanger
[e-mail]


June 20-21: Boston
Contact: Russ Davis
[e-mail]


June 22: Hartford
Contact: Steve Thornton
[e-mail]


June 23: Stony Brook, NY
Contact: Michael Zweig
[e-mail]


June 24: Philadelphia
Contact: John Braxton
[e-mail]


Midwest: FWCUI
June 16: Minnesota
Contact: Tara Widner

[e-mail]


June 17-18: Chicago
Contact: Thomas Bacon
[e-mail]


June 18-19: Atlanta
Contact: Ajamu Dillahunt
[e-mail]


June 19: Detroit
Contact: Mike Parker
[e-mail]


June 20: Madison and Milwaukee
Contact: Carol Weidel and Sue Ruggles
[e-mail]
[e-mail]


June 21: Pittsburgh
Contact: John Lacny
[e-mail]


June 22-23: Buffalo
Contact: Tom Johnson
[e-mail]


June 24: Cleveland
Contact: Gabe Kramer
[e-mail]


West Coast: GUOE


June 16-18: Los Angeles
Contact: Andy Griggs
[e-mail]


June 16 and June 19-21: SF Bay Area
Contact: Michael Eisenscher
[e-mail]


June 22: Portland
Contact: Bob Marshall
[e-mail]


June 23: Seattle
Contact: Kathy Lipscomb
[e-mail]


June 24: Philadelphia
Contact: John Braxton
[e-mail]

--------------------------------------------------------------

Biographical Information On The Iraqi Union Leaders

RAQI FEDERATION OF LABOR (IFTU)


Abed Sekhi, IFTU executive council and member of Agricultural Workers’ Union, is a 60 years old former leader of the General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU) in 1970. He remained in Iraq after being expelled from the GFTU and was a founding member of the IFTU.


Adnan A. Rashed, Executive Officer, Union of Mechanics, Printing and Metals Workers, is 56 years old and an executive member of the IFTU and the editor of the union paper Workers’ Unity. He was a member of the WDTUM and was active in Syria where he lived in exile with his family. He returned to Iraq soon after the fall of Saddam Hussein and worked with other brothers and sisters in the WDTUM to form the IFTU.

FEDERATION OF WORKERS COUNCILS AND UNIONS OF IRAQ (FWCUI)


Falah Awan, President. The federation was founded after its first conference on December 8, 2003 which had included representatives of several syndicates, elected councils, and preparatory committees in several plants, enterprises, and factories.

Amjad Al-Jawhary, Representative of the FWCUI and Union of the Unemployed in Iraq (UUI) for North America, was born in Baghdad in 1966. He earned a bachelor's degree in biology at Mosul University in 1989. Because of his political views, and organizing among sewing workers, he was blacklisted by the regime and was unable to find employment in any state enterprise. With his family, he fled to Turkey in 1995 and was active among Iraqi refugees there. Since 1996 he has lived in Toronto, Canada where he has spoken widely on Iraqi issues and has been active in the anti-sanctions and anti-war movements. He was invited to deliver lectures and hold conferences in Japan, France, United States, and Iraq regarding the labor movement before and after the US led war on Iraq. He is currently the FWCUI’s official representative in North America.


GENERAL UNION OF OIL EMPLOYEES (Basra)


Hassan Juma’a Awad Al Asade, Chief of the Executive Bureau, was born in Basra, Iraq, in 1952. He lives in the Jhoumouria neighbourhood with his wife, three daughters and three sons. He was an opponent of the Ba’athist regime, a human rights activist, and unionist who was imprisoned by the Ba’athist regime three times for “subversive” activity. He has served for thirty-one years as a technician in the Basrah Petroleum Company, the National Oil Company, and the Southern Oil Company. He is a founding member of the Oil Sector Union, and was elected its Chief Executive in July of 2004. This year, he traveled to Britain to meet with labor unions and British PM’s.

Faleh Abbood Umara, General Secretary, is 46 years old. He is married with two sons and two daughters. He is a founding member of the oil workers union and worked for the Southern Oil Company in Basra for 28 years. He is also a member of the local council in the Al-Hadi district in Basra. In 1998, he was detained by the Hussein regime for his activities on behalf of his coworkers. He as served on the union’s negotiating team with both the Oil Ministry and British occupation authorities to defend the rights and interests of oil industry workers in the post-Saddam era.

[knowbody0]

12. wow!

thanks for all this. hard to call these folks insurgents.

[Itsthetruth]

13. Yup

Even harder to call these people "terrorists"!

[Itsthetruth]

14. Photos Of Iraqi Union Leaders

Landing in Washington, DC: From left to right Traven Leyshon (USLAW Escort), Falah Alwan (FWCUI), Amjad Ali Aljawhary (FWCUI), Faleh Abbood Umara (GUOE), Gene Bruskin (USLAW Co-Convenor), Adman al Saffar (IFTU), Abed Sekhi (IFTU), Hassan Juma'a Awad Al Asade (GUOE), Rami El-Amine (Interpreter), and Thomas Bacon (USLAW Tour Coordinator)



Yesterday in DC at the Plymouth Congregational Church, Reverend Hagler (2nd from right) gave a passionate, rousing welcome to the delegates, calling for a united anti-war movement and further solidarity building projects like this tour. As he concluded his speech, all six Iraqi delegates rushed to the stage, embraced the Reverend warmly and grabbed his hands in solidarity and raised them as the crowd roared and rose to its feet. It was a beautiful, moving moment.



Falal Alwan, Federation of Workers' Councils and Unions in Iraq (FWCUI), at Plymouth Church in Washington, DC, June 12, 2005

[knowbody0]

16. beautiful!

[Tinoire]

15. I really DO wish someone, anyone, would toss the US out of Iraq

and let the Iraqi people rebuild their country in THEIR OWN IMAGE.

[Karenina]

17. The U.S. must be

"kicked to the curb" like an abusive spouse. The sooner that happens, the better.

[Disturbed]

18. The secret that most Iraqi know.

The Hand-Over That Wasn't: Illegal Orders give the US a Lock on Iraq's Economy
by Antonia Juhasz

Officially, the U.S. occupation of Iraq ended on June 28, 2004. But in reality, the United States is still in charge: Not only do 138,000 troops remain to control the streets, but the "100 Orders" of L. Paul Bremer III remain to control the economy.

These little noticed orders enacted by Bremer, the now-departed head of the now-defunct Coalition Provisional Authority, go to the heart of Bush administration plans in Iraq. They lock in sweeping advantages to American firms, ensuring long-term U.S. economic advantage while guaranteeing few, if any, benefits to the Iraqi people.

The Bremer orders control every aspect of Iraqi life - from the use of car horns to the privatization of state-owned enterprises. Order No. 39 alone does no less than "transition from a … centrally planned economy to a market economy" virtually overnight and by U.S. fiat.

Although many thought that the "end" of the occupation would also mean the end of the orders, on his last day in Iraq Bremer simply transferred authority for the orders to Prime Minister Iyad Allawi - a 30-year exile with close ties to the CIA and British intelligence.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0805-07.htm
U.S. Edicts Curb Power Of Iraq's Leadership
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8665-2004Jun26.html

*The Bush Regime and it's Corp. Media frame the Occupation as the U.S. defending Iraq and Amerika against terrorists. This seems to be what most Amerikans believe.

[Karenina]

19. HALLO!

:hi:

By his "vibe" I sat in the front seat. My cabbie was from Pakistan.
After initiating the conversation, my obligatory apology for the land of my birth and his assurance of Menschlichkeit, he cracked me up.

"The Americans are ridiculous. "TERRORISTS." They are SO AFRAID. But it is WE who are being blown up willy-nilly by these whack-job mullahs set loose by American policy. Your *leadership screams "TERRORISTS" your people cringe in their comfortable suburbs and WE get blown up! Now you tell me how many Americans or Germans or Italians have blown up by these "TERRORISTS" recently."

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

[Itsthetruth]

20. Interview With A Progressive Iraqi Leader

Still waiting for the freedom to organize
by Brian Kaller

Pulse Of The Twin Cities
June 15, 2005

No matter how many lies were told to promote or justify the U.S. government’s invasion of Iraq, there was one truth: Iraqis did want Saddam Hussein gone and had waited decades to regain their freedom.

They are still waiting, says Iraqi labor activist Amjad Ali Aljawhry. Hussein had prohibited workers from unionizing in a country with a decades-old tradition of radical and labor activism. After the fall of the Hussein regime, many Iraqis expected to regain such freedoms. But the American-led government has kept Hussein’s ban in place, and unionizing is still illegal in most places. The occupation government has also made other changes that have worsened the country’s rushing poverty and high unemployment.

The North American representative of the Federation of Workers Councils and Unions of Iraq (FWCUI), Aljawhry is carrying on a heritage of labor organizing in a country whose rulers—usually Britain, the United States, or dictatorships backed by them—have imprisoned or executed union leaders.

Aljawhry will speak in the Twin Cities June 16 at the Carpenters’ Union Hall in St. Paul, joined by FWCUI president Falah Awan, an engineer who refused to sign a Saddam loyalty pledge and was subsequently barred from practicing his trade. Awan was an underground union organizer in factories and the construction trades during the Ba’athist regime and the first Gulf War, and helped found the FWCUI in 2003.

Aljawhry spoke to Pulse of the Twin Cities last week.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Please read the interview with brother Aljawhry at:

http://www.pulsetc.com/article.php?sid=1889

[robertpaulsen]

21. My wife and I were there. Great speeches!

My wife saw their first appearance at Los Angeles Valley College on Friday, just 6 days after entering the country. She told me how moving Hassan's speech was, his struggles to legitimize his union which was made illegal under Saddam Hussein in 1987 and which stayed illegal while Paul Bremer controlled the Occupation. What really shocked me was that this Iraqi citizen claimed he had never even heard of Sunni or Shiite divisions before the Americans invaded the country.

So I went with my wife to see these union leaders speak out at Patriotic Hall in downtown LA. Hassan only spoke for a short time because he was ill, but it was still a passionate speech. He spoke out about the danger of privatization and the immorality behind the $464 million IMF loan for controlling the 2nd largest oil reserves in the world through DEBTS. One of the conditions of this loan was that taxes would be placed on the salaries of the oil workers.

Faleh Umara then spoke on some of the problems that arose when Bremer refused to pay workers their salaries. He said that union leaders were threatened and one was killed in a brutal manner. When asked about the terrorism plaguing the country, Faleh spoke about al-Zarqawi. He spoke about how the Americans had Zarqawi cornered to about one square kilometer one day, then the next day reported that "he got away". Faleh believes that Zarqawi is an American asset.

If anyone has any questions about this, I've got an audiotape of the speech that I can reference to see what was said. It really was wonderful and the very receptive audience gave them both a standing ovation.

[noamnety]

22. Conyers spoke at their Detroit talk

I went to see them tonight. They talked about how it was insulting that our government felt it was our place to bring democracy to them, like they were incapable of doing it themselves. They were organizing, working towards it already. The picture they painted of life there was grim, but probably nothing the people on DU are unfamiliar with.

Conyers, as always, gave a good talk beforehand, mentioning the Downing Street Minutes, as well as the other memos that have come out since.