Iraqi Union Leaders Seek US Troop Withdrawl And Solidarity From Americans

[Itsthetruth]

Iraqi union leaders seek troop withdrawal, solidarity
By Barb Kucera
Workday Minnesota editor
June 17, 2005

ST. PAUL — More than 300 people packed the Carpenters hall for discussion with Falah Awan, president of the Federation of Workers Councils and Unions of Iraq (FWCUI), and Amjad Ali Aljawhry, an Iraqi union leader in exile in Canada and a representative of the FWCUI in North America.

"It is very hard to imagine the kind of life people are living under the occupation," said Ali Ajawhry. He and Awan said the withdrawal of U.S. troops is the only way to end the violent insurgency that has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of U.S. troops and thousands of Iraqis. "We believe when the occupation troops are out, these people (insurgents) won't have this pretext to carry out their acts," Ali Ajawhry said. The creation of a new government split along religious and ethnic lines, also has exacerbated tensions, he said.

The labor movement is part of a secular, progressive movement that is working to rebuild Iraq – but it's not getting any help from the Bush administration, the two union leaders said. The unions have been working to get a labor code included in the new Iraqi constitution, but thus far have been shut out of the process, they said.

"I believe the secular movement does not lack the numbers – it lacks the organizing" and resources, Awan said. "The workers must participate in building this society." "We consider ourselves as an international movement," Awan said. "Any victory we achieve in Iraq will be a victory for all the international labor movement."

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/view_article.php?id=2d5c9695e0faefc060c7993bb66e1dcd



Iraqi labor leaders Falah Awan (left) and Amjad Ali Aljawhry addressed a huge crowd at the Carpenters hall.



Dave Foster, district director of the Steelworkers Union, said unions are critical to the creation of democracy in Iraq.



Maxine Hughes of St. Paul, a member of Minneapolis Federation of Teachers Local 59, was among more than 300 people listening to the Iraqi labor leaders speak.

[Itsthetruth]

1. 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.

Please read the interview with brother Aljawhry at:

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

[kliljedahl]

2. "earn enough money to put food on the table"

Too bad for you people, here's what * wants:
"working hard to put food on your family."- Nashua, New Hampshire, Jan. 27, 2000



Keith’s Barbeque Central

[Itsthetruth]

3. kick

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