In October 2003, prior to its founding assembly, a delegation from U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW) went to Baghdad to meet with Iraqi trade unionists and tour union workplaces—the first postwar international labor delegation to go to Iraq. Delegates learned that unions have had an important history in 20th-century Iraq, starting with the oil, railroad, and dock workers’ unions that formed in the 1930s as British colonialists began developing an infrastructure to exploit and develop Iraq’s oil industry.
Unions and the Communist Party played an important role in the 1959 popular revolution that threw out the British-supported monarchy. Although the Baathists and a young Saddam Hussein (with help from the CIA) overthrew the nascent democracy in the 1963 coup, unions reasserted themselves under Hussein in the early 1970s and helped lead the fight for the nationalization of oil and other Iraqi industries. By the late 1970s, Hussein consolidated his dictatorship and the trade unionists were either killed, jailed, or went underground. Unions ceased to function.
But exiled and underground trade unionists kept hope alive during this time, maintaining their networks in place. Immediately following the U.S. invasion in 2003, with Hussein’s government in collapse, the unions reemerged in the oil sectors, the ports, manufacturing, transportation, and the service sector, and among teachers and even the unemployed.
In a startling move, U.S. Administrator Paul Bremer eliminated all but one of the laws decreed by Hussein, keeping in place Saddam’s 1987 law denying union rights to all public-sector workers. In a nation whose industry was almost entirely under government control, this essentially denied workers the right to form unions. To this day, despite repeated international appeals and protests inside Iraq, this law stands, in defiance of internationally recognized standards established by the International Labor Organization of the United Nations.
Despite war and occupation, the lack of legal rights, and near-impossible conditions, Iraqi unions have been organizing daily, striking, demanding better conditions, marching, calling for rights for the unemployed, educating their members, fighting for their legal rights, and traveling the world to build solidarity with other unions. They have endured constant threats, jailings and assassinations, violent attacks by both the U.S. occupation forces and the Iraqi security forces, raids on their offices, and more.
In June 2005, USLAW brought the first delegation of Iraqi trade unionists to the United States. They went on a national tour and visited more than a dozen cities, meeting with thousands of U.S. workers and explaining the Iraqi workers’ opposition to the war. They lobbied Congress and spoke with the media, participated in antiwar demonstrations, visited churches, and met with other peace groups and national labor leaders. Inspired by the Iraqis, unions and workers raised thousands of dollars to pay for this trip and more to help the Iraqis build their organizations when they returned. A compelling film, Meeting Face to Face, was made to show the powerful impact that personal contact between Iraqi and U.S. workers had on both groups.
Continued Solidarity
The Iraqis have visited several more times, including the March 2007 tour of the leading woman Iraqi trade unionist, Hashmiya Mohsen, president of the Electrical Utility Workers Union of Basra. USLAW and the Iraqis helped organize an international conference in support of Iraqi workers and unions in Erbil, Iraq, in February 2009. It was attended by 200 Iraqi workers, USLAW representatives, representatives of Iraq Veterans Against the War (USLAW’s close allies in the peace movement), and labor delegations from several other countries.
In the past few years, USLAW and its affiliates have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to support Iraqi unions. In addition, it has led international protests against the continued denial of the labor rights in Iraq and the ongoing repression against Iraqi unions.
The relationship with Iraqi trade unionists has given U.S. workers and the peace movement something to be for in Iraq, to balance being against the war. This work has put a human face on Iraqis, who, like people in the United States, get up every morning and go to work (if they can get it) to earn money to feed their families.
The struggle to help Iraqis gain basic labor rights continues, and holds tremendous importance in shaping Iraq’s future. The unions represent the most important democratic and secular force in Iraq, and they provide a counterweight to the plans of U.S. and foreign corporations for the unbridled exploitation of Iraqi workers in the oil sector and beyond.
Labor Against War
With some exceptions, such as the Industrial Workers of the World prior to World War I, organized labor and specifically unions within the AFL-CIO have lined up in support of, or been silent on, every war and invasion since the formation of the AFL in 1886 (starting with the invasion of the Philippines in the 1890s). Individuals or groups within labor have dissented, including during the Vietnam War and in opposition to the wars in Central America in the 1980s, but they had neither the broad support nor the longevity of USLAW.
USLAW is an independent organization made up of 186 labor organizations, mostly local and regional unions within both the AFL-CIO and Change To Win, as well as the National Education Association, the United Electrical Workers, and some independent rank-and-file labor committees.
USLAW was initiated prior to the invasion of Iraq at a January 2003 rank-and-file meeting in a Teamsters hall in Chicago, where representatives of dozens of labor organizations came together. Its founding was based on opposition to the war in Iraq, but at its first national assembly in October of 2003 it adopted a mission statement calling for an end to the U.S. occupation of foreign countries and the redirection of the nation’s resources from military uses to social needs.
USLAW’s funding has come almost entirely from contributions of its affiliated labor organizations, whose total membership is several million. Through the work of USLAW affiliates and members, virtually every major union in the United States, including the AFL-CIO, has gone on record opposing the war in Iraq, putting organizations with more than 10 million workers on record opposing the war in Iraq.
USLAW’s membership consists entirely of workers and their organizations, a constituency that peace groups have historically had a difficult time attracting. USLAW unions represent janitors, healthcare workers, factory workers, teachers, grocery store workers, telephone workers, and others.
In opposing the war in Iraq, USLAW has done many of the things that other peace organizations have done: educated its members, pressured congress, and demonstrated.
Perhaps its greatest contribution, however, has been building a lasting and meaningful relationship of solidarity with the workers and unions in Iraq.
USLAW convened in Chicago in December for its biannual National Leadership Assembly, which brought together trade unionists from the United States and international labor guests from Iraq, Pakistan, and Venezuela. This was an unprecedented meeting of workers from countries in conflict with U.S. foreign policy.
Although opposition to the war in Iraq has been the predominant focus of the work of USLAW, the assembly debated the war in Afghanistan, which has moved front and center in the Obama administration. Popular opinion among Obama’s supporters reflects a consensus that there can be no “victory” in Afghanistan and that Obama’s attempt at a military victory will undermine his domestic agenda, not to mention resulting in death and trauma for soldiers and Afghanis.
USLAW overwhelmingly passed a resolution against the war in Afghanistan, calling for the redirection of resources from war to the domestic economic crisis at home. The assembly committed to building broad labor opposition to this war, even as we keep the up pressure to bring the troops home from Iraq. Labor delegates from around the country watched a short film produced for USLAW called Why Are We in Afghanistan? (available from USLAW) and are determined to take it back to union halls across the country to educate union members and their families. The people of Iraq and Afghanistan will need our economic assistance for years to come, but our troops, bombs, and tanks will do them no good. We need to put attention on rebuilding the U.S. economy and dealing with the profound social and economic needs of people in the United States.
LINK | uslaboragainstwar.org
