Iraqi trade unions

The following letter was sent by Pauline Bradley, the Convenor of Iraq Union Solidarity, to the Morning Star at the end of last year. A cut down version of this letter was published. It's very sad to see the anti war "left" so shallow and devoid of strategy and critical analysis. Like a huge number of people on the left today, I was in the SWP 20 years ago, but left after three years for many reasons. The Morning Star's editorial, front page and article about the "peace" conference on 10 December could easily have been published in Socialist Worker. Only once is the word "worker" mentioned, in...

By Colin Foster There are some signs of the hard-pressed labour movement in Iraq reviving, especially a strike by textile workers in Baghdad. For the 15 December elections, though, things look bad. The Communist Party (the leading force in the Iraqi Workers’ Federation) has joined a coalition behind Iyad Allawi, former Ba’thist, former CIA favourite, and prime minister in the 2004-5 Interim Government. The Worker-communist Party of Iraq and its Iraq Freedom Congress refuse to contest the election because “ethnic and sectarian militias are taking control of the cities”. Incongruously, the WPI/...

On the Sydney (Australia) demonstration of 18 March, as well as London’s, there was a voice for the Iraqi labour movement. Members of Workers’ Liberty Australia and other supporters of “Aus-Iraq” distributed a leaflet headed: “No to occupation, no to ethnic and sectarian division, yes to the civilising, unifying power of Iraq’s trade unions”. The Sydney demonstration, however, was small — fewer than a thousand. There were 800 in Dublin, 450 in Warsaw, and according to the Los Angeles Times 1000 in New York, 7000 in Chicago, 200 in Washington. 1000 in Stockholm, 2000 in Copenhagen. The London...

As well as organising our own meetings, paper sales, discussions with people interested in our ideas and so on, and as well as our work in the trade unions, AWL also helps build campaigns with a more specific focus. One of the main ones we are engaged in at present is Iraq Union Solidarity. From immediately after the US/UK invasion and the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003, AWL began to seek contacts and allies for the task of building a support network for the new Iraqi trade-union movement whose emergence we considered both likely, and essential if the peoples of Iraq were to assert their...

By a PCS member Following a motion passed at my central civil service union branch’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), about raising funds for the TUC Iraq Appeal, a sub-committee of our Executive Committee (BEC) was set up. It discussed a number of fund raising ideas including karaoke, showing a film about the trade union movement in Iraq and a quiz night but finally we settled on the idea of a second hand book stall including a weigh the cake competition and a cake making competition. Once we decided on the event we booked a room close to the staff canteen, put an appeal out to branch members to...