The Other Iraq Insurgents: "No One Can Speak On Our Behalf"

[Itsthetruth]

San Francisco Bay Guardian
June 22-28, 2005

The other insurgents
Iraqi labor unions resist US designs on that country's oil
By Sadaf Siddique

Guns and bombs aren't the only tools that Iraqis are using to resist the US occupation. They're also using labor unions and a belief that the Iraqi people own their natural resources.

That was the message sounded by Hassan Juma'a Awad and Faleh Abbood Umara of the General Union of Oil Employees, who spoke June 19 at St. Joseph the Worker Church, in Berkeley. The GUOE – with 23,000 members, the strongest independent and secular union in Iraq – has boldly resisted the privatization and foreign control of Iraq's oil sector. The event was part of a US tour by Iraqi labor leaders sponsored by US Labor Against the War.

Awad, president of the GUOE in Basra, began with a demand that President George W. Bush "leave our country alone." He noted that when the coalition forces invaded Iraq, they allowed hospitals, universities, and factories to be destroyed while they protected the oil fields and refineries. "This," he said, "was the corporate invasion of Iraq."

Awad called on those in the audience to extend their support and solidarity to trade unions in Iraq and to pressure members of Congress to end the occupation. He reminded the audience that while Iraqis wish to live in a democratic Iraq free of occupation and terrorism, "Iraqi people have the right to self-determination, and no one can speak on our behalf."

http://www.sfbg.com/39/38/news_iraq.html

[whistle]

1. So all Iraqi Union members are considered insurgents by the....

...Bush Administration and the U.S. Military, eh? That will help justify the killing of thousands of Iraqi citizens according to George Bush. Well Iraq's union leaders see it quite differently. Now that they are speaking out are U.S. assassins being given new targets to kill? Bastards!

[spindoctor]

2. Good luck to them

Typically the idea that countries own their own resources doesn't fly too well when that resource is oil. Iran, Venezuela, Nigeria... Europe is as guilty as the US when it comes to modern colonialism.

I heard some AM screwball (was it Hannity?) say yesterday that if our efforts in Iraq were an act of colonialism we would have nationalized their resources by now. I thought: "Why? That's the way of old. Today we would PRIVATIZE their resources, and that is EXACTLY what we're doing. We don't need their complicated social struggles. We outsource those to the local governments. All we want is the profit."

[Itsthetruth]

3. News Articles On The Iraqi Union Leaders Tour

Click On This Link

http://uslaboragainstwar.org/article.php?id=8330