Appeal for Nozad gathers wide support in the Commons

LFIQ supporter, George Howarth MP has tabled a Commons Early Day Motion supporting our global appeal to avert the assassination of the IFTU leader, Nozad Ismail. The motion has so far attracted support from across the political spectrum. It is backed by Labour MPs, from right and left and who took different positions on the war. Liberal Democrats, Conservatives and Plaid Cymru have also backed the motion, which is expected to gather further support. The motion itself “appeals for the widest possible support for this initiative not only from supporters of the British Labour movement but from anyone with an interest in nurturing Iraqi democracy.” The broad and cross-party support for our initiative shows that this has been taken to heart.

Such motions are not debated but do afford MPs the opportunity to put opinions on the record.

Labour MPs so far include: David Anderson (LFIQ Joint President), Martin Caton, John Cummings, Jeff Ennis, Lynne Jones, Jeremy Corbyn, David Drew, David Lepper, Rudi Vis, Michael Connarty, Andrew Dismore, Ronnie Campbell and Greg Pope.

The most vital issue is not, however, who supports the motion but how to help ensure that this motion and other initiatives make a difference in Iraq and avert the murder of a brave trade union leader.

The text of the motion is as follows: “That this House supports the Labour Friends of Iraq global appeal, which has been supported by numerous rank and file trade unionists and others across the world, to publicise the severe threat to the life of Nozad Ismail, the President of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions in Kirkuk, who has twice escaped assassins and who receives regular death threats; believes that the self-styled resistance in Iraq is deliberately targeting the leadership of the Iraqi labour movement and, therefore, the prospects for a united, secular and democratic Iraq, as was exemplified when Hadi Saleh, the International Secretary of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) was tortured and strangled before his house was ransacked for his comrades' contact details, when Ali Hassan Abd, of the IFTU's Oil and Gas Union, was gunned down in front of his children, and when Ahmed Adris Abbas of the Transport and Communication Workers Union was assassinated in Baghdad; and appeals for the widest possible support for this initiative not only from supporters of the British Labour movement but from anyone with an interest in nurturing Iraqi democracy.”