Texas Labor Against the War

5/30/10, Amjad Ali

A demonstration that began May 7 in Basra intensified today with new threats upon the workers and union leaders being relocated 1000 km from their jobs.

Dock workers rally in Basra (ITF photo)

In response to a call made by the leaders of the general union of harbor workers in Basra (an affiliate union with the General Federation of Worker Councils and Unions in Iraq) hundreds of employees of the Iraqi Harbor Corporation walked off the job on May 7, 2010, demanding better wages and living conditions.
Immediately after being informed, Iraqi Harbor Corporation director sought aid from U.S. troops who quickly arrived and formed a parameter on scene to protect the director, and sent Iraqi troops to surround and intimidate the demonstrators.
In a strange reaction, the mayor of Basra asked to meet union leaders Hirman Kaghim, Ali Khuthayer Abbas and Kadhim Kareem, and told them that they are implementing a foreign agenda and threatened to arrest them if they insist on their demands and continue the demonstration.
The leaders, however, denied links to any agenda except the interests of workers and vowed to continue the strike. In the meantime, the head of the troops asked to meet with union leaders instead of the corporate director, but the leaders rejected his request stating that he has nothing to do with the workers. This stance lead the mayor to back down from his threats. The mayor promised to hold a negotiation in the presence of the director of the corporation who in turn did not attend the meeting that was scheduled for May 28, 2010.
On May 29, 2010, the union leaders met with the director of Iraqi Harbor Corporation who threatened the delegates and vowed them ill fate should they continue. The delegates were ordered relocated to the Iraqi Railroad Corporation in Mosul (1000 km north of Basra).

We extend a plea to all federations and unions around the world to support our delegates in their struggle.

Amjad Ali
General Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq
www.workerstoday.com
phone# 1-416-264-1131

Basra: Workers at the South Refineries Company protest Feb. 18 2010. (STAFF/Iraq Oil Report)

Picture–Another case where the government transferred 5 union leaders from Basra to Baghdad.  Refinery workers were demanding bonuses due to them since 2007.

TxLAW note:  British Petroleum (Biggest Polluter) around the world–is also one of the oil giants trying to take over control of Iraq’s oil reserves: http://txlaboragainstwar.org/wp-content/uploads/stop_pamphlet.pdf

CodePink demonstrators at BP headquarters in Houston, May 24, 2010. Photos from CodePink / Flickr.

Naked truth:
Exposing BP’s criminal behavior

By Medea Benjamin / May 27, 2010

HOUSTON — Diane Wilson, a fourth generation shrimper from the Texas Gulf and a founder of CODEPINK, has been watching the BP spill and the botched clean-up with a mixture of dread and anger. After all, it’s her livelihood and that of her community that’s at stake.

“I’ve lived all my life in the Gulf Coast, in the oil, chemical, and gas hellhole we call an energy corridor,” said Diane Wilson with her Texas twang. “I’ve been fightin’ these polluters for 21 years. But this BP spill is the nail in the coffin of the people who make their living along the Gulf Coast. This is our 9/11 in slow motion.”

Diane has been incensed by the cavalier attitude of BP CEO Tony Hayward, who said that the largest oil spill in U.S. history is a tiny speck in the vast ocean. “He had the nerve to say that those miles upon miles of underwater oil plumes that stretch to who knows where and do who knows what to the fisheries, the ecosystem, and Gulf of Mexico for possibly generations, is really going to have a ‘very, very modest impact.’ Sittin’ there listening to BP’s lies made my blood boil,” Diane fumed. “I realized I better get off my butt and do somethin’ about it.”

This 61-year-old grandmother of five is all about action. To protest chemical companies polluting her bay, in 2002 Diane climbed a chemical tower, chained herself to it and then did a 30-day water-only hunger strike. As a CODEPINK co-founder who tried to stop the invasion of Iraq in 2003, an invasion she knew was all about oil, Diane got arrested confronting Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld at a Congressional hearing. Then she scaled and tied herself to the White House fence (and almost got shot by a sniper). She even traveled to Iraq when the U.S. military was about to attack, putting herself forward as a human shield.

So Diane put out a call for people to join her in Houston on Monday, May 24, to protest at the BP headquarters. Looking for a creative way to expose the company’s criminal behavior (and entice the media, who rarely cover protests in Texas), Diane was inspired by the example of a group of women from Nigeria who took over a Chevron oil rig and threatened to strip naked if the company didn’t hire more local workers and invest in the community. Faced with just the threat of nudity, Chevron gave in.

“If the Nigerian women could use their bodies on the Niger Delta, why can’t we do it in downtown Houston?” Diane reasoned.

Diane doesn’t take nudity lightly. She didn’t grow up in a hippie commune, but in a fundamentalist Pentecostal family in rural Texas.

I was taught that flesh is sinful, it’s the devil. I was so modest that if my sister said the word ‘bra’, I would climb under the table. I was horrified by anything intimate. So for me, using nudity to expose the truth about BP was WAY outside my comfort zone. But I realized that it’s the destruction of our ecosystem by corporate greed that’s obscene, not a woman’s body.

To prepare for the action, Diane got 100 pounds of fish from her fishing buddies, old fishing nets to drag the dead fish and fake oil to dump on them. She and one of her daughters made beautiful signs saying “Expose BP” and “The Naked Truth about Drill, Baby, Drill” and put them on big sandwich boards. “You could say we was cheatin’ because we decided to use sandwich boards to cover our private parts, but that’s about as nude as those of us from Texas can get,” laughed Diane. “We’ll leave the full-on nudity to the women from California.”

The action was superb. About 100 people showed up from all over Texas and six other states — including California. Some people wore pasties that said “No BP,” some dressed as fishermen, oily birds, and fish. Diane put on her white rubber fishing boots, smeared herself with oil and wore a sandwich board that read “Expose BP’s Obscene Side.”

Two imposter oil workers in BP uniforms doused the group with fake oil, causing the birds and fish to recoil and die on the sidewalk. The police and BP security stood by watching, as nice as could be. It was obvious that BP higher ups had the good sense to tell them that arresting protesters would not help their image.

The group was having fun mocking BP, but when Diane took the megaphone to speak, the tone changed. “I am here because I’m outraged,” she said, her voice shaking. “My family has lived on this gulf for 100 years, we’ve been fishing these waters for generations and now we’re seeing it decimated. All we’re getting from BP is lies. We’re not getting any answers from the government. That’s why people have to hit the streets to demand solutions.”

After the action, I sat down with Diane to hear her solutions and ideas for future actions. “BP should be shaken down like a rotten fig tree,” she said.

The government should seize their profits and use them for the clean up and then to invest in clean energy. We should shame those senators who want to stop the Big Oil Bailout Prevention Act legislation that would raise oil companies’ liability from a pitiful $75 million to $10 billion. And we should demand that our government stop offshore drilling. No new permits, period. We have to seize this moment to move our country away from fossil fuels that are responsible for environmental devastation and wars.

CODEPINK has asked supporters to email letters to Senator Murkowski, asking her to stop blocking the Big Bailout Prevention Act. It’s time to protect the fishermen, the coastal residents and the wildlife, not the corporation at fault for the disaster.

But for Diane, sending emails is not enough. She is calling on people throughout the country to boycott BP — not just passively, but by getting out to BP gas stations to protest and educate their communities on the company and the catastrophe. CODEPINK supports her call to action and is providing resources for action on our website. We’ll also be bringing Diane to Washington, DC, to confront Congress, the White House Administration, and BP executives with the crude awakening about Big Oil.

“Pass out fliers to drivers. Ride your bikes around the stations. Get creative. Hey, maybe you even want to do your own nude protest,” she grins. “Expose BP. Expose that Drill, Baby, Drill means Spill, Baby, Spill. After all, what’s at stake is nothing less than our planet. And that’s the naked truth.”

[International peace activist Medea Benjamin was a founder of CODEPINK.]

Thanks to Fran Hanlon

For lots more photos, see the Rag Blog:

http://theragblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/medea-benjamin-getting-naked-in-houston.html

See also CODEPINK: Women for Peace at http://www.codepinkalert.org/

and CODEPINK Austin at http://www.codepinkaustin.com/

Joint resolution for International Workers’ Day (Labor organizations of Iran)

Written by Saeed Valadbaygi Editor’s Choice, Videos, Workers’ Rights Apr 27, 2010

Link to the video at http://www.astreetjournalist.com/2010/04/27/joint-resolution-for-international-workers-day-labor-organizations-of-iran-2/

May 1st is the day of international solidarity of the working class and a day for laborers to protest global poverty and inequality. On this day millions of workers around the world stop working, to conquer the streets and show their anger and disgust with the announcement of the numerous disasters that capitalism has inflicted on humanity, and scream for liberation from oppression and exploitation.

Resounding protest against the hardship of capitalism and inequality of workers will be heard all around the world on May 1st while prohibition of celebration of this day in Iran is in effect, and many organizing workers of the May 1388/2009 event have been convicted  and imprisoned and subjected to heavy sentences. Labor leaders and activists and are languishing in prison for defending their basic human rights.

Imposing such appalling lack of social rights for workers in conditions that in three decades of a capitalist system in Iran after the 1957 (1979) revolution, has reduced the minimum wage to a quarter below the poverty line and lack of timely payment of these wages and the firing of masses of workers, temporary contracts, have imposed hellish conditions on millions of workers families. Today more than ever to ensure the profitability of capital, factories are closed and subsidies cut in determination to cut the last threads of survival for millions of worker families and pour them into the pockets of investors.

But as we workers showed in the 1957 revolution as well as in recent years, we will not tolerate this misery and despite prison and repression will stand ahead with the people against violation of our most basic human rights and will not allow them to ruin our existence more. We are the main producers of all wealth and products in society and are entitled to human life in accordance with the highest standards of human life today.

In this context we also protest against circumstances since last Labor Day , since the masses in Iran have been exposed to suppression of their rights. We make the following demands and with immediate effect:

1 – We are free to act – independent of the government and our employers -to strike, protest, march, assemble and speak freely. This is our right and must be unconditional in recognition of the social rights of workers and the people of Iran.

2 – We see the plan to cut subsidies (by targeted subsidies) and the minimum wage of 303 Tomans as a gradual imposition of death of millions of working class families and demand immediate suspension of plans to cut subsidies and increase the minimum wage to one million Tomans.

3 – Workers wages in arrears are to be paid immediately and with no excuses. Non-payment should be prosecuted as a crime and damages caused to the workers must be paid for.

4 – The Dismissal of Workers by any excuse must be stopped and those who are unemployed or have attained the age of employment and are prepared to work must be given suitable unemployment insurance until employed.

5 – We want to eliminate temporary contracts and the signing of blank contracts and demand employment security for all workers and wage recipients in accordance with the highest standards of health and safety. We ask for the elimination of state governed environments from all facilities.

6 – We demand the eradication of the death penalty and the immediate and unconditional release of Ebrahim Madadi, Mansour Osanloo, Ali Nejati and all labor activists and other social movements and protestors from prison and a stop to the persecution against them.

7 – We condemn any aggression towards protest against violation of our rights and view this type of freedom expression as an irredeemable right of the public.

8 – We want to eradicate all laws that are discriminatory to women and to ensure full equality and the unconditional rights of women and men in all areas of social, economic, political, cultural and family life.

9 – We want all pensioners to enjoy a prosperous life without economic concern and to eliminate any discrimination in the payment of retirement pensions and benefits from their social security and health care.

10 – Child labor must be eradicated and all children must be entitled to educational facilities, health and welfare, independent of gender and race, religion, or social and economic status of their parents.

11 – We hereby announce our support for all liberal social movements, and strongly condemn arrest, trial and imprisonment of activists of any movement.

12 – We also announced strong support for the demands of teachers, nurses and other working classes of society and united with them, want to achieve their immediate demands

13 – We are part of the world’s workers and strongly condemn the dismissal and imposition of any discrimination of Afghan migrant workers and other nationalities.

14 – We appreciate all the support from international workers in and strongly support the protests and demands of workers worldwide and are united with them more than ever with emphasis on international solidarity of workers to escape the capitalist system.

15 – May 1st must be declared an official holiday in the country and included in the official calendar and any restrictions regarding recognition of the anniversary of this day will be abolished.

Long Live May 1st

Long live the international solidarity of workers

May 1, 2010

Ordibehesht 11, 1389

Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company

Syndicate of Workers of Haft Tappeh Sugar Cane Company

Liberties Union of Workers

Staff of Open Metalwork and Mechanics Union

Inaugurated Board of the Syndicate of Painters

Association of Kermanshah Electrical Workers and Metalworks

Committee in Pursuit of Free trade Associations

Coordination Committee for the Creation of  Labor Organizations

Association for the Defense of Dismissed and Unemployed Turpentine Workers

Women’s Council

Translated by Street Journalist

Reprinted from Street Journalist, http://www.astreetjournalist.com/

Susan Van Haitsma writes: “A few of us Austin CodePinkers went to Killeen yesterday to participate in
their “Sick of War” demonstration at the gates of Ft. Hood. Others I spoke
with came from Ft. Worth, Denton, San Marcos and Austin. Despite the
weather, a number of news people showed up to document the event. Here is
an article published today in the Killeen Daily Herald:

http://www.kdhnews.com/news/story.aspx?s=38454

Jan. 16, 2010

By Rebecca LaFlure
Killeen Daily Herald

Despite chilly wind and rain, anti-war protesters huddled outside Fort Hood’s East Gate for six hours Friday calling for increased mental health resources for soldiers and veterans.

The demonstrators, toting signs and the occasional umbrella, said the military overmedicates its service members and does not provide adequate counseling for those returning home from multiple deployments.

Standing in front of a black banner that read, “Sick of fighting your wars,” Cynthia Thomas, manger of Under the Hood Café in Killeen, said she worries the Afghan surge will increase mental health issues in the military.

“We’re sending soldiers to war and not taking care of them when they get back,” she said. “It’s going to be another batch coming back with that many more traumas, both physically and mentally.”

The protest began with a faithful dozen Friday morning and gradually increased to 30 people by the end of the afternoon.

Mike Prysner, 26, a former soldier who participated in the demonstration, traveled from Los Angeles to protest the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and advocate for soldier rights. Prysner said he had trouble obtaining mental health treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder upon his return from Iraq.

“It was a fight to get someone to see me,” he said. “When they finally did, they just wrote me a prescription and sent me on my way.”

Spc. Eric Jasinski, a Fort Hood soldier who also attended Friday’s event, turned himself in to Army officials last month after going absent without leave for a year.

The 23-year-old, who was diagnosed with PTSD and severe depression after he returned from Iraq, said he went AWOL at the end of 2008 after he was stop-lossed and ordered to return to Iraq. “I knew I couldn’t go back again,” he said. “We need to get a better understanding of PTSD. … I want the stigma to go away.”

The protesters hoped the demonstration would encourage more soldiers and their family members to speak out.

“We’ve gotten middle fingers and peace signs,” said Josh, a former Marine. “It’s been a good day.”

Contact Rebecca LaFlure at [email protected] or (254) 501-7548. Follow her on Twitter at KDHeducation

Escalate the Peace!

A Day of Peace and Resistance

Wednesday, February 10, 2010, 11:00am – 1:00pm

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=231199444930

Texas State University: Outside the Student Center

“In the great tradition of student protest, we will come together on Jan. 28 on Texas State’s campus to speak out against the criminal military actions of the United States government. With the recent escalation of the war in Afghanistan, the expansion into Pakistan and Yemen, and the continued occupation of Iraq, it is time to hold our leaders accountable. This day marks an opportunity to come together to discuss, to network, and to celebrate peace and resistance. As students, teachers, peace veterans, and musicians, we will make our voices heard against war. Not in our name!”

Everyone is welcome. Spread the word.

Hosted by CAMEO (Campus Anti-war Movement to End the Occupations)
[email protected]

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=231199444930

Following days of demonstrations and strikes by thousands of workers, the Iraqi government reversed its order to cut wages by up to 30% and eliminate many industrial labor benefits.  The authorities agreed to direct negotiations with the representatives of the workers.

Workers were able to achieve a number of major demands, such as stopping pay and benefit cuts, and above all advancing the demand for freedom of association and other labor rights that have been denied to Iraqi workers both under the dictatorship and by the U.S./British occupation.  The government agreed to retroactive payment of the wage cuts put into effect and to  meet with worker representatives over other issues, such as workplace hazards.  The Parliament must now consider a labor rights law that recognizes, respects and protects labor rights in conformity with International Labor Organization standards.

More than 275 people responded within 48 hours to the urgent appeal USLAW sent to its supporters asking them to sign electronic letters to the Iraqi Ambassador in Washington DC and the Iraq representative to the UN in New York.  Similar efforts were mounted in other countries around the world.  The combination of determined courageous worker protests in the face of threats and violence and international solidarity turned an attack on the living standards of workers into a victory.  However, promises are not the same as performance.  We must be ready to act again if the Iraqi government and parliament fail to follow through.

Thanks to all those who responded by sending protest messages to the Iraqi government.