Texas Labor Against the War

On December 23, 2011, U.S. Labor Against the War sent this solidarity statement to the unions in Iraq.

Dear Comrades in the Iraqi Labor Movement:

U.S. Labor Against the War recognizes that the end to formal U.S. military occupation of Iraq does not end continuing U.S. interference in the internal affairs of Iraq. The Maliki regime has given
permission to the U.S. to continue to operate unarmed Predator drones from Iraqi
bases, purportedly to provide the Turkish government with intelligence on the
activities of PKK fighters operating in the mountains of Iraq. These can be
armed and redeployed elsewhere in Iraq whenever the U.S. desires.

Many thousands of private mercenary security forces will remain and the U.S.
government has constructed the largest embassy in the world to manage and direct
its continuing interference in Iraqi affairs. It may redeploy many of the
departing troops to bases in Kuwait and other areas in the region, positioned to
reenter Iraq on short notice if U.S. interests appear to be threatened.

The Maliki regime is a political creation of the U.S. occupation, not a
legitimate expression of the democratic will of the Iraqi people. Already
parties that had been cobbled together to provide Maliki with a majority in
Parliament have abandoned him as he aggravates sectarian tensions for partisan
advantage. As a predictable outcome of the U.S. divide and conquer policies that
pitted religious, sectarian, ethnic and regional interests against one another,
Iraq will now likely see escalating sectarian conflict. The responsibility for
this belongs first and foremost to the U.S. government.

Predatory multinational corporations have not abandoned their plans to gain control over
Iraq’s abundant oil and gas reserves. Therefore, the struggle by the Iraqi
people to regain full sovereignty over the nation’s natural resources will
continue because the neo-liberal scheme to privatize the Iraqi economy has not
been abandoned.

The struggle to establish human and labor rights will continue because under U.S. occupation, those rights were a fiction, and were and continue to be regularly violated. The Iraqi government has ignored the country’s own constitution, which calls for the adoption of a basic labor rights
law that conforms to international standards, and continues to enforce the 1987
antiunion decree of the dictatorship, adding even more repressive edicts in an
effort to cripple the Iraqi labor movement and suppress the movement for true
democratic rights. In this the U.S. and Maliki regime will fail because the
Iraqi labor movement will not forfeit its rights. The will of the Iraqi people
for a true democracy and Iraqi sovereignty will prove stronger than the schemes
of a corrupt regime that serves as a willing pawn for U.S. interests.

The U.S. debt to Iraqis will not be paid by the withdrawal of U.S. military forces.
We consider it our honor and duty to stand in solidarity with you, to hold our
government to account, to demand that our government abandon its interference in
the internal affairs of Iraq, to struggle in support of your national
sovereignty and human and labor rights, and to demand that reparations without
strings be paid for the horrific damage inflicted on Iraq and its people.

The U.S. military was driven from Iraq by the iron resolve of the Iraqi
people to be free of all foreign domination, supported by the solidarity of U.S.
and other antiwar forces around the world which finally made it politically
untenable for the occupation to continue. The work of U.S. Labor Against the
War, founded nine years ago in January in response to the threat of the illegal
U.S. invasion, does not end with the departure of U.S. troops. The bonds of
solidarity USLAW forged with the Iraqi labor movement through nine years of
struggle will continue.

We extend to you and the courageous labor movement and working people of Iraq our heartfelt wishes for peace, democracy, justice, security and sovereignty in the new year.

Yours in solidarity and struggle,

USLAW Co-convenors: Kathy Black, Gene Bruskin, Bob Muehlenkamp, Brooks Sunkett, Nancy Wohlforth, Michael Zweig

Staff: National Coordinator Michael Eisenscher, National Organizer Tom Gogan, Administrative Coordinator Adrienne Nicosia

On behalf of the Steering Committee and 195 labor organizations affiliated with U.S. Labor Against the War

MAY DAY RALLIES CELEBRATE UNITY; LABOR UNIONS AND IMMIGRANTS PLAN TO MARCH SIDE BY SIDE

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/4/29/may_day_rallies_celebrate_unity_labor

Excellent program on Democracy Now!, April 29, 2011.  Read (or listen to) the whole thing.  Juan Gonzalez and Amy Goodman interview Clarence Thomas, member of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10 in San Francisco–”The local has a history of shutting down the ports of Oakland and San Francisco in protest, most recently on April 4th in solidarity with workers in Wisconsin;” and Christine Neumann-Ortiz, director of Voces de la Frontera, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin–”On May 1, 2006, she was key organizer behind the 70,000-strong march in Milwaukee.”

HERE ARE A FEW HIGHLIGHTS:

Juan Gonzalez:  “The immigrant rights movement has in essence resuscitated May Day and now is building closer ties with the organized labor movement. . . . immigrants have continually renewed the radicalism and the fighting capacity of the American labor movement.”

Clarence Thomas:  “So many of our younger members in the trade union movement have very little knowledge about May Day. They associate it with countries overseas celebrating International Workers’ Day, [but] it started here in the United States with the fight to establish the eight-hour workday and to eliminate child labor exploitation. . . . we believe that solidarity is not an empty slogan. Solidarity means making a sacrifice. And on April 4th [anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.] our members did not go to work. We did not get paid. And for 24 hours, international commerce was shut down. And we believe that more unions need to do the same. . . . [Immigrants] are the most exploited sector of the trade union movement. And as such, the issues that they face have to do with the fundamental rights of workers. . . . The labor movement is very small, when you talk about the percentage of workers that are represented by a union. The overwhelming majority of workers don’t belong to a union, so that the labor movement has the responsibility for charting a course for all workers. That’s why it’s so important that this year that we’re going to have a united May Day action.”

Christine Neumann-Ortiz:  “[The May Day mobilization] has always been supported by labor and has had a greater diversity each and every year. But this year, because of the attacks on public employees, like teachers, we know that, you know, there’s a level of support and mutual support. And that’s really what is historic about this march, is these movements coming together at a scale that hasn’t been seen before. . . . [Governor Walker's] budget is also an attack on immigrant rights and poor people.  In terms of immigrant rights, one of the biggest threats that’s pending, you know, in the budget is the repeal of in-state tuition rights for immigrant youth that was won in 2009, as well as the institutionalization of discrimination against legal immigrants, low-income families that would be denied access to food stamps or healthcare because they’re non-U.S. citizens, as part of this broader attack on poor people’s access and privatization of the public sector, like public education and so forth.  But one of the biggest things that’s motivating the Latino and immigrant community as part of this broader platform that we have is that there’s a pending Arizona copycat bill that’s being circulated in the state legislature . . . we’ve had a number of unions, maybe now close to 10, including the South Central Federation of Labor, that have passed resolutions rejecting this bill and also asking for—or building for May 1st.”

TxLAW note:  Sunday, May 1, San Antonio holds its Gran Marcha por los Derechos del Migrante on May Day–El Dia del Trabajo.  See http://txlaboragainstwar.org/2011/04/20/san-antonio-march-on-may-day/

And in Houston, also:  http://txlaboragainstwar.org/2011/04/30/houston-may-day-march-for-immigrants-and-working-families/

Sunday evening, March 28, 7 pm, at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church. UT professor Robert Jensen will interview Fletcher onstage, questioning him about the social justice movements that have been the focus of his life and work. What lessons about today’s crises can we draw from Fletcher’s experience in the struggle for racial and economic justice, at home and abroad?  Sponsored by: Third Coast Activist Resource Center, MonkeyWrench Books, and Workers Defense Project.  Free (suggested donation of $10 for Austin People’s Community Center).  St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church is at 14311 Wells Port Drive (1 block west of IH-35 on Wells Branch Parkway).

Monday evening, March 29, 7 pm, National Association of Letter Carriers Br. 181 union hall, 601 Williams St. (off N. Lamar near Airport). Bill directs his remarks at union members and friends.  What are the challenges we face?  How can we help lead a resurgence of the labor movement as part of the broader social justice movement?  Be ready with your questions and plenty of opportunity for discussion.  Sponsored by the Austin Central Labor Council, NALC Branch 181, and Pro-Care Spine & Medical Center.  (Free; door prize; light refreshments start at 6:45 pm.)

Bill Fletcher, Jr., is Director of Field Services & Education for the American Federation of Government Employees and has been a fighter for workers rights, racial justice, and international causes for decades.  He has worked for the AFL-CIO, SEIU, UAW, and National Postal Mail Handlers Union.  He is Executive Editor of The Black Commentator, past president of the Trans-Africa Forum, founder of the Center for Labor Renewal and of the Black Radical Congress, and is a Senior Scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies.  Bill co-authored Solidarity Divided with Fernando Gapasin, and co-authored a provocative article, “Reimagining Socialism” with Barbara Ehrenreich.

Thanks to Professor Bob Jensen for bringing Mr. Fletcher to Austin.  

27 July 2009

This report is from the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions.

Upon invading Iraq in 2003, the U.S. government kept in force Saddam Hussein’s edict banning labor unions in the public sector (which is the majority of the economy, including oil).  Nonetheless, Iraqi trade unionists have fought to rebuild their labor movement.  They have had to withstand attacks by both the U.S. and Iraqi authorities.  Iraqi unions have called for an end to the illegal occupation and for an end to U.S.-promoted plans to privatize industries and contract out control of Iraq’s oil resources to multi-national, U.S.-allied corporations.

This report is also available on the U.S. Labor Against the War website:

http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org/article.php?id=19956

Negotiations are presently taking place between the ICEM-affiliated, Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU) and the Iraqi Drilling Company, following demonstrations and a workplace strike 24 June, 2009.

Management called in Iraqi security forces, who cordoned off the demonstrators and workplaces. We are informed that only the demonstrators’ determination and good will prevented violence, given that the management had informed the military forces that the demonstrators were terrorists. Workers left at the end of their working hours but returned on the second day, gathering in front of the worksites and halting operating machines.

Workers submitted their demands to the management which include: reopening the trade union, which had been closed by the Director-General, upon the Minister’s directive; re-activating the productivity allowances payments and various other allowances; and moreover, the workers called on the ministry to be patient in the signing of licensing contracts which the ministry want to conclude.

Iraq’s oil workers are legally prevented from forming unions, based on remaining Saddam Hussein-era laws. The workers have organized nonetheless. The 2005 Constitution calls for new labour laws.

Iraqi oil unions have repeatedly protested working conditions; including pay and housing, and opposition to the draft oil law, viewed as too open to foreign investment. The Oil Ministry has instructed its state oil companies not to deal with the unions and has come down hard in the past, as often reported by the ICEM. See recent ICEM reports on Iraq here.

Iraq has the world’s third largest oil reserves, with considerable potential for increased levels of production. Iraq earns around 95 percent of state income from oil sales, nearly $62 billion last year.

Negotiations are continuing with workers at the Iraqi Drilling Company. The ICEM will report further developments in this brave struggle for trade union rights.