From the TUC debate on Iraq

Iraq

Mary Davies (NATFHE) moved Motion 82.

(Insert Motion 82 and amendments - Iraq)

She said: To its credit the TUC opposed the war, and to its credit last year we passed a motion calling for the withdrawal of troops from this country and from the United States. The next step is practical solidarity, and that is what this motion concentrates on. At the same time, however, there should be no mistake whatsoever about our opposition to war and occupation. We do not support Anglo/US imperialism masquerading as a moral crusade to rid the world of tyrants. We want the cost of this war to be counted, both for the Iraqis and for us. How many hospitals and schools could have been built with the appalling waste of money on this continued occupation. We want an end to the abuse and torture of Iraqi prisoners. We want an end to military and economic occupation.

The only sure way of defeating occupation, defeating Bathism and the threat of fundamentalism is by strengthening the forces of civil society so brutally crushed for 25 years under Saddam Hussein. Chief amongst these forces are the forces of the working class represented through their trade unions. This is the untold story of Iraq. Since the war the media would have us believe that Iraq has descended into barbarism. Look at today's front-page headline in the Guardian. It says 'Iraq, a descent into civil war'. The truth is that despite the devastation of war, the horrors of occupation and the misguided fundamentalist elements -- I cannot call them an opposition if they target Iraqi civilians -- civil society, once so rich in Iraq, is being re-born. Chief amongst them, and most significant amongst the elements of civil society, is the development of the Iraqi trade union Movement, in particular the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions.

Within 17 months hundreds of thousands of workers have been recruited to trades unions in 12 single trade unions in the Iraqi Federation. This is a very enviable rate of recruitment that we would do well to emulate in this country. Amongst those recruits women are a very important factor. They are 35 per cent of the workforce and they are playing a significant role. For example, Hashima Hussein, a woman, is the new President of the Electricity and Energy Workers' Union -- I think it is a male dominated membership but a woman President.

So why has this happened? Why has there been this success of the Iraqi trades unions? It is because Iraq actually is a highly developed society and has a long history of a strong and powerful labour Movement. Just for example, in 1959, on May Day, one million workers marched in Iraq out of a population of 6.5 million. Saddam Hussein, like all fascists, sought to smash the organisations of the working class first and therefore he concentrated on the trades unions. He set up his own stooge corporatist unions, just like Hitler did, but the underground trade union Movement was formed, the Workers Democratic Trade Union Movement, men and women of great bravery who still organised in Iraq and outside Iraq. This is the backbone of the new trade union federation now existing in Iraq. The federation has no resources. It needs support, not just for its own sake; it is key to ending the occupation and privatisation, and the development of a democratic secular Iraq. Support and solidarity are needed. Individual unions have already done much and the TUC fund is very welcome, but we need greater coordination of efforts as contained in the motion, including in particular solidarity between women trades unionists.

We do not need to tell the Iraqi Federation what to do; they know what to do. They have a clear program but they need the means to do it. Solidarity is not just a word, it is the core of what it means to be a trade unionist. In supporting our sisters and brothers in Iraq we can re-discover what is best in our own Movement. They deserve their solidarity and that is the key to building the secular Iraq that will end the awful privatisation, the dreadful occupation and the devastation that has been wrought on Iraq after years of war and occupational opporession.

Please support this motion. Workers of all countries unite.

Dennis Doody (UCATT) in seconding the motion said: I am very very disappointed.

Four or five minutes ago we heard from Seb Coe speaking about the possibility that we might create jobs as a consequence of the Olympic bid. I hope this Movement is not suffering from convenient amnesia because let me tell you what he was part and parcel of. He and his Party destroyed thousands upon thousands of jobs in mining communities the length and breadth of this country. It is an absolute disgrace! It is about time this Movement got back to its grassroots and where we emanated from. We should not be inviting people like him and Digby Jones here.

Two years ago this Congress was bitterly divided about Iraq. The majority opposed the conflict without United Nations backing. A minority opposed the war full-stop. As it turned out, the Movement was united in opposition to the war, and rightly so. It is important that we are also united today and that we send an unambiguous message to this Government that the forces of occupation, British included, the United States and the coalition, need to be removed from Iraq rapidly. As long as the US and United Kingdom forces are in Iraq there will always be instability and continuing resistance. The occupation prevents the Iraqi people from developing their own society, a society free from Saddam and a society free from foreign occupation. It is for the people of Iraq to determine their own future and not the coalition of the criminal masquerading as liberators.

The trade union Movement in Iraq will play a vital role in the reconstruction of that country. The trade unions are no friend of Saddam Hussein. Under the then Iraqi labour code trade unions were banned in the public sector in 1987 which, at that particular time, formed a major part of the Iraqi economy. Trade unions could not operate independently from the regime. It is hardly surprising that the trade union Movement in Iraq is divided politically.

Earlier this year the ICFTU organised a fact-finding mission to Iraq, which included a representative of the TUC. This should give us the confidence that independent trade unions will help to develop Iraq, provided of course they are give the freedom to organise.

Whilst in Iraq the ICFTU found a vibrant grassroots organisation dealing with day to day issues such as non-payment of wages, unemployment and poor management. Whilst trade union organisations are still hampered by the code left behind by the old regime, 17 months of the collapse of the Hussein regime, the ’87 labour code still exists.

I have to wind up now. If I had been given a real opportunity without having to make some interventions because of what the ex-Minister for Sport said, I would have got my message across more clearly. The Iraqi trade unions deserve our support. I hope that delegates in this hall do not believe that the new organisation is a stooge to American imperialism. It is not.

Mitch Tovey (TSSA) speaking in support of the motion said: We are seeing in Iraq day by day the logical and completely foreseeable results of the US inspired attack backed by Britain and others with the destruction of that nation. This daily barrage and slaughter of Iraqi people continues apace, so much so that we have no absolute idea of how many Iraqis have absolutely died, and certainly Bush and Blair do not seem to care. It appears that the so-called coalition have a very unsectarian approach to the slaugher, be it oil workers, bakers, railway workers or teachers. It does not matter. Be they men, women or children, it does not matter. Any religion, any time and in any way, it doesn’t matter. All of this is paid for by public money. Blair and Brown seem to have no trouble in finding the money for munitions that destroy another country’s infrastructure. There is much more difficulty in funding building at home. It is cheaper and easier to destroy a hospital in Bagdad than to build one in Britain. Before the war people marched in vast numbers to try and stop the war. School children, including my own daughter, came out on the streets but Blair ignored them. We should not be too surprised if, come the General Election, those people ignored Blair.

An important and increasing aspect is the willingness of the families of those service men and women killed in Iraq to speak out, to demand answers, to make clear their opposition to the war, and I pay tribute to the courage of those relatives for speaking out. They have let the population know the real angish, agony and tragedy of the reality of war.

The key aspect and reason for the war was, of course, oil. The Bush Government knows fullwell that a cheap oil supply owned and controlled by American-based multi-nationals need a flexible and cowed workforce. If they are not non-union, then they want passive and controlled unions like some of those around under Saddam Hussein. What it cannot afford is an organised and independent workforce. That is the reality behind the systematic wrecking of the offices in Baghdad of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions. It is vital for the Bush regime that the Iraqi people are not allowed to organise, and that is why a small office with a dozen laptops could not be tolerated, and that is why it was ransacked by US forces. We must offer our full and unqualified support to our comrades working in the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions in this hour of need. Destroying the Trade Union Federation in Iraq would be a great achievement for Bush. He must be stopped and he can be stopped. Support the motion.

Keith Sonnet (UNISON) speaking in support of Motion 82 and amendment, said: Congress, each day we watch with horror the continuing carnage in Iraq. We must remember who is to blame for the chaos - George Bloody Bush and Tony Blair. Just as we know that there will never be peace in the Middle East until Israel stops occupying Gaza and the West Bank, and an independent viable Palestinian State created, so we know that there will never be peace in Iraq until the occupying British and American troops leave. We demand in the motion that our Government take immediate steps to end its occupation of Iraq and to return Iraqi assets back to the Iraqi people. The war was illegal, based upon lies and deceit, and it has spawned continued human rights abuses by occupying forces and now by the so-called interim government headed by a former US intelligence agent.

We have seen the systematic abuse and torture of prisoners in gaols throughout Iraq, just as we know takes place in Guantanamo, personally endorsed, as we learn in the newspapers this week, by Donald Rumsfeldt. We have seen the bombing of civilian areas in Faluja and in Najaf, with bodies piling up in the streets. We have seen the harassment of journalists and the closure of Al Jazera in Iraq because they do not want the full horror of the situation in Iraq being reported. Congress, we have no moral right to be in Iraq or to remain there, and we must leave completely. There must be no bases left behind to guard the oil fields.

As Mary Davis said in moving the motion, the motion and amendments are calling for support for the Iraqi trade unions. I was proud that the General Secretary of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions was able to address my union conference in June and that a group of Iraqi trade unionists will be coming to UNISON in early November, and other initiatives are planned. It is important for all the unions to develop relationships to assist the emerging Iraqi trade unions. Equally, we must keep the pressure up at home. We cannot simply concentrate, as some people would like, on domestic issues whilst the suffering continues to take place in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. That includes building support for the anti-war movement, including supporting the demonstration called by the European Social Forum supported by the Stop the War Coalition in London on Sunday 17th October I hope all unions here will be encouraging their members to attend. Let us stop the occupation and let’s stop another Bush-inspired war.

Stewart Brown (FBU) speaking in support of the motion said: What many of us opposing the invasion of Iraq feared has come to pass and worse. Iraqis - men, women and children - are paying a terrible price. We heard yesterday of at least another 47 people killed as a result of an explosion in a Baghdad market. In total some 14,000 civilians, men, women and children, have been killed according to some estimates. More than 1,000 American troops and some 70 British troops have been killed. Meanwhile, Britain continues to send working class young men and women to their deaths in Iraq. They are just teenagers with rudimentary training. Many are like 19 year old Gordon Gentle from Glasgow.

Coalition forces must withdraw from Iraq and Iraqis themselves must choose how they start to deal with regaining normal life with the help of the international agencies, if necessary. We must learn the wider lessons of the war in Iraq. The US and the UK must never again take pre-emptive military action against sovereign nations. The world’s hyper-power and its lapdog, Britain, must never again ignore the UN and the rule of international law. We must be immediately moved to reduce, with a view to removing totally, their giant arsenals of weapons of mass destruction. We in Britain and in the trade unions must not forget Iraq.

We have a special responsibility to help ordinary Iraqi people find a way out of their nightmare. We must work with them to build a stable, democratic and prosperous Iraq. In particular, as trade unions, we must support the effort of the IFTU trade union federation to build a strong and democratic trade union Movement. We must support them in whatever way we can in achieving their aims. Practical solidarity is crucial.

A delegation from the FBU has visited the country twice in recent months; first, on a fact-finding mission and on the second occasion an FBU official returned with practical help for the country’s fire-fighters. He brought some fire-fighting equipment. Iraqi fire-fighters are in the frontline, risking their lives every day in ways in which those British public sector workers, like fire-fighters, would find difficult to image.

Great strides have been made in building trade union structures and building a trade union Movement which truly represents workers and is not an instrument of a former or current regime of occupying forces, but much more has to be done. It is time to stop the war. It is time for the UK to withdraw its troops. It is time for respect of international law. It is time for global disarmament led by the US and UK. It is the time to make peace, not war. We must strengthen links with the Iraqi trade unions, visiting the country and providing real practical help. Thank you.

The President: Motion 82 is supported by the General Council.

· Motion 82 was CARRIED.

Motion submitted by North East Derbyshire CLP to Labour Party conference

Original text of motion submitted by North East Derbyshire CLP to Labour
Party Conference. The motion was composited and then remitted in favour
of a statement from the National Executive Committee, which included all
the main points of this motion, which was also the subject of a speech
by Harry Barnes, MP for North East Derbyshire and Joint President of
LFIQ.

Conference notes the establishment on 15th August of an interim National
Assembly which reflects the diversity of Iraqi society and the aim of
holding direct democratic elections, by December 2004/January 2005, to a
Transitional National Assembly, which will have responsibility for
forming a Transitional Government of Iraq and drafting a permanent
constitution for Iraq leading to a constitutionally elected government
by the end of 2005.

Conference acknowledges that those who honourably supported and those
who honourably opposed military action in Iraq have united in support of
the efforts of the emerging civil society in Iraq, including various
parties, women's groups and the new, secular and independent Iraqi
Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) which strongly supports the process
endorsed by United Nations Security Council for a federal, democratic,
pluralist, and unified Iraq, in which there is full respect for
political and human rights.

Conference supports the TUC's appeal to raise funds to help rebuild the
Iraqi trade union movement and its battle for workers' rights and
against privatisation.

Conference encourages all party branches and members to support this
appeal and the work of these grassroots Iraqi civil society
organisations.

Conference urges the Department for International Development and the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office to continue and expand their support for
Iraqi non-governmental organisations.

Gary Kent, Director

I joined the Labour Party in 1976 and the ILP (Independent Labour Publications) in 1978. I studied International Relations with French at Sussex and was full-time Convenor for Sussex Area NUS. After periods of work as a trainee station manager, co-op education officer, FE lecturer, I started work with Harry Barnes MP in 1987. We organised London Against the Poll Tax in the late 80s. Ireland has been a major interest and I was an organiser of the British-Irish Peace Train Organisation (which assembled broad coalition against terrorism) and currently Chair of the cross-party New Dialogue peace group. Freelance journalist. Member of Beckenham CLP, TGWU and NUJ.

Jane Ashworth, Chair

I joined the Party in 76 and was active in the YS until going onto college. I supported the paper Socialist Organiser until 1989 and set up Socialist Students in NOLS. From then I went into the politics of women in sport and set up the Northern League of womens football and a team which made it to the FA Women's Premiership. In 2002 I published a novelised account of the struggles of working class women footballers called Kicking The Boys Balls. I am a member of Reading East and PCS.

Alan Johnson, Research and Publications Officer

I was born in North Shields and became a socialist in 1979 as a volunteer in Days of Hope bookshop in Newcastle. I joined the Labour Party in 1980 and have been a member of Natfhe since 1991. I helped set up the Merseyside Museum of Labour History in 1984 (now the Museum of Liverpool Life). I was the co-editor of the US journal 'New Politics: a journal of socialist thought' and an editor of the UK journal 'Historical Materialism'. My research work has focussed on the history of socialist thought and the political leadership of social movements. I co-edited 'Leadership and Social Movements' (Manchester University Press, 2001). I was one of the organisers of South Lakeland Stop the War group. I am a member of Westmoreland and Lonsdale Labour Party.