Celebrate national sovereignty day in Iraq

Today has been declared a public holiday – national sovereignty day – as US combat troops withdraw from towns and cities. This is a great day for Iraq and in tune with the desire of Iraqis to retrieve and control their destiny. The outstanding question is how Britain, America and other countries can move from military support for the elected Iraqi government to a wide range of economic, political, cultural and social ties which are wanted by Iraqi leaders, unions, independent groups, universities and so on. Withdrawing troops does not mean leaving Iraq in the lurch, seeking to overcome the legacy of decades of fascist-type rule by itself. For LFIQ, building a strong and deep relationship between Britain and Iraq is the key project for years to come.

Gary Kent
Director LFIQ

Improving relations between Turkey and the Kurdistan Region

Ranj Alaaldin examines the changing nature of relations between Iraqi Kurdistan and Turkey and says that geopolitical realities demand the cultivation of new relations to meet new challenges. By taking genuine steps to remedy its internal Kurdish problem – for example by establishing a 24-hour state-run Kurdish broadcasting station – Turkey takes itself towards stability, prosperity and eventual EU accession. But it also lays an otherwise difficult-to-lay foundation on which to build a sustainable relationship of mutual interests with the KRG – one based on security and strategic co-operation, and which counters the increasing reach of Iran.

Inquiry should hear from Iraqis

At Progress. Denis MacShane hopes Iraqi civil society representatives are allowed to speak. They were ignored by democracy as they suffered under Saddams tyranny. They have been ignored by many as they have fallen victim to the all-out assault on the elected Iraqi government by its state-sponsored and jihadist Islamist opponents. Let us hear from the people of Iraq as much as from our own politicians and officials.

Jeremy Dear on a visit to Baghdad

Writing in Tribune NUJ Leader Jeremy Dear describes a recent trip to Baghdad for a union conference and calls for solidarity.

Global solidarity action day on Iran

Please support TUC solidarity actions with Iranian workers

Protest at Iranian Embassy

Global Solidarity Action Day

12:30-1:30pm, Friday 26 June 2009

ACTION: protest at Iranian Embassy on Friday 26 June 2009, 12:30-1:30pm
Against the background of post-election turmoil in Iran, the TUC is joining Amnesty International and the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) to organise a protest at the Iranian Embassy this Friday. Please come wearing black if possible.

As part of the Global Solidarity Action Day: Justice for Iranian Workers, we will protest from 12:30-1:30pm opposite the Iranian Embassy, 16 Prince's Gate, London SW7 1PT in Knightsbridge.

TUC International spokesperson Sally Hunt (UCU General Secretary); Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen; and ITF General Secretary Dave Cockcroft will attempt to deliver over 1`6,000 postcards calling on Iran to release jailed Iranian prisoners.

And protesters dressed in black will hold up placards bearing the names of those arrested at trade union demonstrations on May Day last month in Tehran and still not released.

Take action today

Even if you can't join us on Friday (there is a separate action in Newcastle), the TUC is urging British trade unionists to join Amnesty International's Urgent Action for these trade unionists. You can register your protest online.

Background information

Eight members of the Metal workers and Mechanics Union who were also arrested on 1 May have been released in recent days. The arrested trade unionists were all part of a larger group arrested in the course of the commemorations marking International Workers' Day on 1 May.

Iranian workers continue to face tough times. They often wait for months to receive wages, are made 'redundant' when they complain, and are beaten up and arrested when they protest.

Only puppet unions are allowed by the Iranian government. Independent unions are brutally repressed, their leaders flung in jail and their protests broken up.
May Day demonstrations this year were attacked with tear gas, beatings and arrests. Many are still detained by the police.

Trade unionists like Farzad Kamangar (teachers), Ali Nejati (sugar workers), Mansour Osanloo, Ebrahim Madadi (bus workers) and Mahmoud Salehi (bakers) are regularly arrested and harassed.

This repression is an unacceptable denial of fundamental human rights. Iran refuses to sign the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions on the freedom to join unions and negotiate with employers.

Unions around the world, together with Amnesty International, demand justice for our brothers and sisters in Iran. On Friday 26 June, we are protesting worldwide for:

• the release of all imprisoned trade unionists
• recognition of all independent workers' organisations in Iran
• ratification of ILO Conventions on freedom of association and right to collective bargaining
• the reinstatement of unfairly dismissed workers.

For more information about the global solidarity action day please visit www.justiceforiranianworkers.org

Kirkuk bomb

Our thoughts go out to the families of those killed and injured in this atrocity. We urge the authorities at all levels to work together to bring those responsible for this action to face the full force of the law. The international community must stand together with those whose lives are in turmoil because of the activities of terrorist organisations and refuse to give way to them no matter how low they stoop in their campaign of terror.

Dave Anderson, Joint President, Labour Friends of Iraq and Gary Kent,
Director of LFIQ

ICP condemns bombings in Baghdad

The Iraqi Communist Party has condemned a series of bombs in Baghdad saying that the recent wave of bombings serve, ultimately, to obstruct the restoration of Iraqs full sovereignty and independence, and the implementation of the timetable for withdrawing foreign forces, thus prolonging the presence of occupation forces.

Thoughts on the inquiry

At LabourList there is a comment on the inquiry by Gary Kent, Director of LFIQ

Given the huge investment that this country made in the lives of its soldiers and public money, it is only right that there should be a comprehensive inquiry into the causes and conduct of the military intervention in Iraq in order to learn the lessons for the future.

Labour Friends of Iraq was founded by supporters and opponents of that intervention but who deliberately sought to respond to the new Iraq that emerged from the intervention.

For the last five years our priority has been working with Iraqis who are seeking to build independent organisations such as trade unions and to create a federal and democratic country.

The sad thing about much of the discussion about Iraq is that it either ignores or obscures the reality of Saddam’s murderous regime or that Iraqi voices are invisible in that debate.

My worry is that a large number of activists have little or no knowledge of the crimes of the previous Iraqi regime which include genocide against Iraqi Kurds, massacres of Shias in the south and external aggression in which about a million people died.

It is important that the inquiry recognises that this story didn’t start with the invasion but examines this suffering of the Iraqi people under Saddam. It should take evidence in Iraq.

After five trips to Iraq since 2006, I would say that many Iraqis welcomed the intervention, especially in Kurdistan which had benefited for 12 years from the US and the UK policing a no-fly zone for Iraqi bombers and gunships over the Kurdistan Region.

I would add that many were deeply angered by the litany of errors committed after the intervention which gave vent to Shia fundamentalists, Baa’thist die-hards anxious to protect their former privileged position of dominance and Al Qaeda.

Iraq came very near to full-scale civil war but security has vastly improved and its sovereign government is increasingly taking charge of its own security. There are still problems with delivering public services, in relations between the central government in Baghdad and the Kurds and with the country’s neighbours.

There is a desperate need for foreign investment and trade as well as all sorts of cultural, political and social contacts to overcome the legacy of decades of neglect and destruction of the economy and Iraq’s isolation from the outside world.

British troops are on the way out but we now need a new, deep, long-term strategic relationship between Iraq and Britain based on political, diplomatic and economic issues.

By all means, let’s examine how we got here but let’s also make a greater effort to work with the new Iraq in their interests and ours.

Please vote Labour today

Victory for Iraqi Teachers Union

LabourStart reports a welcome victory for union rights in Iraq - the Iraqi Teachers Union won a legal battle against the government on 7 May. The landmark ruling against the government decision ... to take control of the ITU was a symbolic victory and stopped the government move to dismiss the ITU's democratically elected leadership.

LFIQ will continue to campaign for full union rights and compliance with international standards