Building new relationships between Iraq and Britain

Text of LFIQ leaflet to be distributed at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton

Iraq is on the mend but it will take a vast and continuing effort for some years to overcome the tragic physical and psychological legacies of one of the most vicious regimes in modern history. The potential for Iraq as a whole is shown by major progress in the Kurdistan Region which liberated itself from Saddam in 1991.

British troops have left Iraq but that shouldn’t end other links. Trade unions, women’s organisations and ministers in Iraq have told us of their desire to maintain and increase good relations to mutual benefit. A Labour Friends of Iraq (LFIQ) delegation to Iraqi Kurdistan met 22 leaders of the independent labour movement from across Iraq who told us that they wanted solidarity so “we can stand on our own two feet.”

Progressives should do much more to back their comrades in a country that is becoming more stable, democratic and peaceful but where progress is precarious. LFIQ was established five years ago to unite people who differed on the 2003 intervention but who united to provide urgent moral and material assistance to Iraqi reformers. We helped establish this as party policy.

Since then, we have organised many meetings with Iraqi groups and sent three fact-finding delegations to Iraqi Kurdistan and to Baghdad. Each trip sought to understand Iraq 'warts and all' – friends should tell it as it is.

Campaign for free trade unions and wider civil liberties

LFIQ urges progress towards full trade union rights in Iraq (as in Iraqi Kurdistan where unions are respected as social partners). Iraqi unions were once very powerful but were nearly liquidated by Saddam. They now seek to help build a thriving civil society and to bolster democracy. But the old ban on public sector organisation remains in place and their assets have been frozen. We have directly urged the Iraqi PM to reverse these restrictions and have been promised progress.

We fully back the TUC and others in assisting Iraqi unions to win freedoms consistent with Iraq’s obligations under International Labour Organisation rules.

Women’s Rights

Compared to the rest of the Middle East, women play a greater role in public life. There is a higher proportion, for instance, of women parliamentarians than here and a female union leader which is very rare in the region.

However, there are many so-called “honour” murders and attacks. Many women were murdered, beaten and intimidated when the militias controlled Basra. There is also a high incidence of rape in prisons. Women are imprisoned for adultery although men are not. Gay rights is another major concern, as it is in the rest of the Middle East.

We welcome various efforts to overhaul antiquated laws and practices and build a new judicial system in which Britain is already playing a positive role.

Support for women’s advocacy organisations in Iraq, which are stronger in the Kurdish north and supported by its government, is vital to effecting cultural and legislative change.

Making federalism work

Iraq’s sectarian divisions are deep. A major looming issue is the divide between Arab Iraq and the Kurdistan Region between which there are long-standing disputes over territory and the management and distribution of resources, chiefly oil on which the country relies for most of its income.

Having visited the Kurdistan Region, we are keenly aware of the history of relations between the Kurds and the previous regime in Iraq. Saddam Hussein conducted a genocidal onslaught against the Kurds over many years. Nearly 200,000 men, women and children were murdered – the mass graves are still being uncovered. Thousands of villages were razed to the ground, to the last brick, and agriculture was liquidated, despite its being the crucible of modern farming and a great natural resource. The historic Kurdish city of Kirkuk, for instance, was forcibly settled by Saddam and the Kurdish inhabitants expelled.

The Kurds rose up against Saddam in 1991 and forced his withdrawal at which point the current boundaries of the region were arbitrarily fixed with, the Kurds say, 40% of their territory placed outside the region. Procedures agreed in the Iraqi constitution, agreed by a majority popular vote across Iraq in 2005, have yet to be implemented. There is considerable tension between Baghdad and the Region although once ice-cold relations with Turkey are thawing considerably.

We support a federal, democratic and pluralist approach to solving the historic tensions in Iraq. The people of Iraq will negotiate their own solutions. However, its friends can help build democratic capacity so that politicians and others, new to democratic politics, can better make their new institutions work with necessary checks and balances on the powers of the state.

We believe that the UK should build deep and broad diplomatic and political relations. UK businesses and public institutions should seek opportunities to increase trade, investment and all forms of educational, cultural, sporting and social exchanges, including tourism, in Iraq, which is the common request of all those we have met there.

There is a very high regard for the UK in Iraq where English is widely spoken and where education and medicine are based on British models.

LFIQ co-operates with like-minded organisations such as the Iraqi trade union movement, the Iraqi Women’s League and the London-based Iraqi Association in the UK which promotes the interests of British Iraqis. We value our links with the Kurdistan Regional Government and other associations, the Islamic Dawa Party (with which we are sharing a stand at this conference) and with the Iraqi Communist Party.

We work with the Conservative Friends of Iraq to build relations on a bipartisan basis, although we emphasise supporting the Iraqi labour movement so that it can fight for greater social justice as Iraq uses its huge natural resources to increase its prosperity. We are open to working with other groups and individuals that wish to build ties of friendship.

We are a small group with limited resources but one that has done a fair amount to enable Iraqi voices to be heard in this country. Those voices have often been excluded and need to be heard as we build a long-term relationship with Iraq and its people. Both our countries, and wider peace and reform in the Middle East, could benefit from this.

Dave Anderson MP, Cllr Clive Furness and Gary Kent

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