Iraqis Denied Worker Rights

[everythingsxen]

My apologies if this is a dupe.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/10/30/1627246

*snip*

None of the $87 billion recently appropriated by Congress for reconstruction in Iraq will go to Iraqi workers or the unemployed - which now total about 70% of the population.

In response, Iraqis have been protesting at workplaces throughout the country demanding better salaries and working conditions. But since April the CPA has essentially banned unions in Iraqi state enterprises, and even issued a decree prohibiting strikes

*snip*

I was listening to this on the radio this afternoon. I thought I was going to have a vein burst from pure outrage.

On the air they mentioned that most of these workers are making 60$/month and striking or unionizing or even *encouraging* either course of action, would result in that Iraqi becoming a POW.

Listen to the segment. Read the article. Be very afraid and pray that these corporations don't decide to "liberate" us. :scared:

[La_Serpiente]

1. This is terrible

I am CERTAIN that Iraquis want to invest in the future of their country. During the Great Depression, the government just gave men who were unemployed a shovel and a job and that was all they needed.

I think we can do the same here. I trust Iraquis to take a certain pride in their country.

[w4rma]

2. I agree. Alot of Iraqis are very educated and skilled.

If we would just give them the means, they would build it.

I wonder if the neo-cons may be running a bit of a social experiment with their ideology, though. Maybe they want to try it out on them, before implementing this crap on us, here in the U.S.

[Resistance Is Futile]

3. Ideological playground

Iraq has been an ideological playground for the neocons since before the invasion. Of course the neocons are forcing Iraqi society to turn into every far-right fascist's idea of paradise.

[tom_paine]

9. Resistance is NOT Futile!

So stop saying that...

:evilgrin:

[tom_paine]

8. Abolsutely, w4rma, that is the Bushevik Plan

They said they were going to bring "Amerikan-style democracy" to Iraq.

That isn't quite 100% true, what they are doing is testing the shackles that Emperor Jeb or perhaps Emperor Ahnold will impose on the Imperial Subjects of Amerika once they have totally captured the Amerikan Empire and reduced Free American opposition to rubble.

You are absolutely right, IMHO.

[izzie]

4. When they work because......

I read they are bring in workers from other countries and not putting the Iraq people to work.But do not worry when you pay an american $900 a day you do not hire many others besides the Army, the US army to protect him. Lets face it out army is protecting people all over this world. Not you but a business and who works for it in some country we have invaded. Shades of Brits in their haydays. Money does not last for ever and either does Empire. Sad way for us to go but we have not learned at all.Bases in 150 countries now to protect the likes of A fast food joint. Just great for a country that once thought it had some good plans for the way people lived.Let me know when you hear of some one that looks up to us? Even now Russian, India think they can invade countires as they 'may' be harmed if they don't.Who is to stop them? USA?

[Resistance Is Futile]

5. *punt*

[everythingsxen]

6. Heh

Thanks. Was gonna *kick* it myself.

I'm still fuming! Grrr! :mad:

[tom_paine]

7. They already have "liberated" us

Their Shock and Awe Invasion of the Old American Republic started on 12-12-2000, continued with the 2002 electronic vote thefts in Georgia, Minnesota, and Missouri, the mopping up of the Bushevik Invasion is now procceding in Colorado, Texas, California, and now Pwennsylvania and Maryland with the beginning of the poltical prosecutions of African-American Democrats in those cities, while Bushevik Republicans are enjoying an utterly free hand to perform whatever lawbreaking they desire, free of investigatory fears...

But they are FAR from finished.

[Zuni]

11. 2002 vote thefts?

Please give me a reliable source on this. If this is true, then it is a whopper.

I am a Marylander--what did you say was going on in MD? We do have a GOP govenor, the first since Spiro Agnew (!), but that is only because Kathleen Kennedy Townshend alienated all but the most solid Democrats.

[JHB]

10. Plus ca change, plus c-est la meme chose

From a 1911 essay critical of patriotism (of what we would call the "Republican-style mindless flag-waving" variety) by activist Emma Goldman.

It does not require much wisdom to trace every war back to a similar cause. Let us take our own Spanish-American war, supposedly a great and patriotic event in the history of the United States. How our hearts burned with indignation against the atrocious Spaniards! True, our indignation did not flare up spontaneously. It was nurtured by months of newspaper agitation, and long after Butcher Weyler had killed off many noble Cubans and outraged many Cuban women. Still, in justice to the American Nation be it said, it did grow indignant and was willing to fight, and that it fought bravely. But when the smoke was over, the dead buried, and the cost of the war came back to the people in an increase in the price of commodities and rentHthat is, when we sobered up from our patriotic spree it suddenly dawned on us that the cause of the Spanish-American war was the consideration of the price of sugar; or, to be more explicit, that the lives, blood, and money of the American people were used to protect the interests of American capitalists, which were threatened by the Spanish government. That this is not an exaggeration, but is based on absolute facts and figures, is best proven by the attitude of the American government to Cuban labor. When Cuba was firmly in the clutches of the United States, the very soldiers sent to liberate Cuba were ordered to shoot Cuban workingmen during the great cigarmakers' strike, which took place shortly after the war.
http://www.connix.com/~harry/emma.htm