Australian Labor and Iraq

LFIQ Joint President Dave Anderson has tabled a Commons motion congratulating the Australian Labor Party on its victory and urging increased support for the Iraqi labour movement. Former Labour Party Chair Ian McCartney and SDLP Deputy Leader Alasdair McDonnell are amongst the initial supporters.

Gary Kent

AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY AND THE IRAQI LABOUR MOVEMENT 26.11.2007

That this House warmly congratulates the Australian Labor Party and its leader Kevin Rudd on a stunning election victory; wishes the Labor Party the very best in its goals of social justice; and hopes for its support in seeking to provide moral assistance and solidarity to the new Iraqi labour movement, not least its trade unions which are a beacon of non-sectarianism and part of wider Iraqi efforts to build a thriving, democratic and federal Iraq.

Understanding Iraqi realities

LFIQ Vice-President Harry Barnes gives some reasons to be cheerful at his blog as well as the darker side of life in Basra.

Packed classes hint at peace in battered Iraq

See this Observer report which begins thus: It begins and ends with the children. They stayed away from the al- Gazaly school in southern Baghdad when the streets were murderous - their parents moved out and their PE teacher was shot dead during the mundane act of having a haircut. Now, one by one, cautiously, determinedly, noisily, they are returning to their desks, bringing the school back from the brink. Their hopeful faces reflect, perhaps, the new and fragile optimism dawning in Iraq.

ICEM Calls Attention to Killing of Iraqi Trade Unionist, Hassan Hamza

The International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions calls attention to the brutal political killing of Hassan Hamza, a secular trade unionist in Iraq who was murdered in October. He was the president of the Hotel and Tourism Employees Union, part of the Federation of Workers’ Councils and Unions in Iraq (FWCUI), the union that won a highly successful wage arrears strike at the Sheraton Hotel in Baghdad in March 2007.

He had been receiving death threats from Islamic Sunni extremists in the Baghdad suburb of Hor Rajab due to the secular and progressive work he had been doing in his community. A report said that he went to Syria in early October to evacuate his family, but he returned to Iraq to live in a different neighbourhood.

The FWCUI received confirmation of his death on 25 October. The union had been trying to reach him for the previous three weeks.

In March, Hassan Hamza attended an International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) seminar in Amman, Jordan, that had participation from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. He was a long-time and dedicated trade unionist even before the Baathist regime of Saddam.

FWCUI commended his courageousness and competency, recounting that the difficult circumstances of extremist terrorism groups in his neighbourhood did not deter him from fighting for his beliefs.

“During these sad times, and while we are mourning the loss of a capable trade union leader,” read a FWCUI statement from Falah Alwan. “We hereby announce to all trade unionists in Iraq and the world that one of the most prominent leaders in Iraq has joined the long row of trade unionists who have sacrificed themselves in the battle against terrorism.