There's a teacher's union in Iraq?

[pnutchuck]

well, from the sound of it, they were a hell of a lot more organized than the regime the US was puppeteering.

I'm surprised they were alowed to organize at all. I guess with all the chaos at the time, the teachers took full advantage of it.

Go teachers!!

http://www.iraqitradeunions.org/archives/000263.html

[pnorman]

1. Here a a few links on that topic:

http://www.spectrezine.org/MiddleEast/Bacon3.htm
and
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2003/560/560p15.htm

Here's an excerpt from the latter:
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The Iraqis who met with Bacon and Thomas said they fear the worst is yet to come if Washington gets away with its privatisation schemes for Iraq. Already, the CPA has legalised 100% foreign ownership of Iraqi enterprises and set the corporate tax rate for the “new Iraq” at just 15%.

When it comes to trade unions, however, the US occupation authorities have “found a law passed by Hussein that they like”, Bacon said. Passed in 1987, it forbids workers in the state oil industry from organising a union. US officials continue to apply this law.

“To back it up, in June Bremer issued another regulation about `prohibited activity'. Item B under prohibited activities is encouraging anybody to organise any kind of strike or disruption in a factory or any kind of economically important enterprise. The punishment for this is being arrested by the occupation authority and treated as a prisoner of war”, explained Bacon.

As Thomas put it, “The US administration is creating this fictionalised picture that goes like this: If we pull out, there's going to be Islamic fundamentalism, ethnic strife and all kinds of chaos. And what they really are afraid of is democracy. They don't want to see Iraqi workers organise and have power — have union rights.”

However, within days of the US invasion and the fall of the government, Iraqi workers in factories, on the docks and at oil industry facilities began to organise, “not just to get a wage raise, but also to fight for the control of their jobs and control of the institutions that they work for”, said Thomas.
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pnorman

[pnutchuck]

2. Thanks!

I guess there's more to the "insurgency" than just foreign Islamic extremists.....

Can't blame them for wanting control over their own lives and land....