Labour Friends of Iraq

In a wide ranging statement, to commemorate World Labour Day, the GFIW urges the Iraqi government to tackle the problems of unemployment and to revoke all anti-union legislation.

A statement issued by the General Federation of Iraqi Workers
24 April 2007
The Executive Committee of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers mourns the martyr Vice President of the General Federation of Iraqi workers of the province of Nineveh and his martyred wife on the 9th of April 2007.
A statement issued by the General Federation of Iraqi Workers: said we mourn our martyred trade union leader, brother Moaaid Hamid, the Vice President of our Federation in the province of Nineveh and his martyred wife following clashes between forces of the Iraqi army and terrorist elements in the province.
The deceased was one of the first trade union leaders who contributed to the creation of the IFTU after the fall of the former dictator in 2003 and has played an active role in building a genuine democratic trade union movement despite all the difficult circumstances.
The martyred was subjected to persecution and prosecution by the repressive machinery of Saddam’s regime.
Two years ago, he was abducted by terrorist elements and was subjected to severe violence at the hands of terrorists before he was freed by Iraqi security forces.
Glory and eternity to our fallen comrade trade union leader Hamed and his wife.
Glory to the martyrs of the Iraqi working class.
Shame on the murderous terrorists.
The Executive Office of the General Union of Workers of Iraq March 16 April 2007

Henry Porter of the Observer and Mohammed of Iraq The Model both consider it a crime against humanity for Iraqi insurgents to use chlorine bombs.

Abdullah Muhsin (International Representative of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers), Dave Anderson MP (Joint President Labour Friends of Iraq) and Sue Rogers (Chair TUC Iraq Solidarity Committee and Treasurer NASUWT), remember a fallen comrade.
The Iraqi labour movement has lost another courageous trade union leader – a patriot who wanted to see Iraq free, to see his family live in a decent and prosperous environment and to see the steady growth of free, independent and democratic unions.
Veteran leader, Najim Abd-Jasem, the General Secretary of the Mechanic Workers’ Union, was abducted by criminal militias in Baghdad and found three days later on 30 March 2007. There were signs of torture all over his body.
We all met Najim almost exactly one year ago on a Labour Friends of Iraq delegation that held a summit in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, with twenty two leading figures from Baghdad, Basra and Babel.
We spent five hours in their company and agreed a strategy of moral and material assistance to the fledgling Iraqi labour movement, which has since been taken up by the TUC.
Assembled in that room were men, and some women, who had taken great risks in standing up for freedom against Saddam’s fascist-type regime and who were trying to build a movement that brings together workers regardless of religion.
They asked us to provide aid so that they could stand on their own two feet and contribute to social justice in their war-ravaged country.
Each had a distinguished record of bravery in confronting Saddam and then the sectarian militias.
Najim was one of the key leading trade unionists who help to establish what has now become the General Federation of Iraqi Workers after the fall of Saddam’s dictatorship and was elected as the General Secretary of the Mechanics Workers Union in late 2003.
Under the former dictatorship of Saddam, Najim worked for the Health Ministry as a mechanic before he was dismissed because of his opposition to Saddam’s yellow unions.
He joined the underground trade union movement (WDTUM) and fought against the former dictatorial regime.
Najim was one of a generation of trade union activists who each knew the risk they were running. There have been many attacks on union activists and they all knew Hadi Saleh, an exiled printer who had returned home to revive free unions in 2003.
In January 2005, he was tortured at his home and murdered by remnants of Saddam’s secret police. A world-wide chorus of condemnation greeted his tragic fate. But it is clear that the murder of Hadi (who had impressed people with his cheerful disposition in meetings at the Commons and elsewhere) and now Najim are part of a concerted campaign to eliminate the leadership of the newly formed independent and democratic unions that strongly oppose sectarianism.
Najim leaves a wife and four children. He also leaves a movement that needs urgent assistance for they are facing attacks from all sides. The barbaric murder of Najim and Hadi illustrate the lengths to which sectarian militias and former Baa’thist security men will go.
But, sadly, the unions are also being frozen out by the current central government in Baghdad. Saddam’s ban on public sector organisation remains in place. A decree freezing other unions’ assets was issued in 2005 and needs to be rescinded. After decades of totalitarian government, ministers remain suspicious of independent unions. They should come to recognise that such unions are the best friends a decent civil society and democracy can have.
And to cap it all, the movement faces occasional and inexplicable hostility from US and Iraqi military forces. The headquarters of the GFIW has been raided on two occasions in the last few weeks.
Yet the new Iraqi trade union movement is a success story. It unites all sectors of Iraq society. It does not see itself as Shia or Sunni, Kurd or Arab, Assyrian or Turkoman but as workers, citizens and above all Iraqis though they celebrate their differences.
It has gone from nearly nil in 2003 to many hundreds of thousands of members across Iraq. Its leaders were mostly opposed to the invasion of Iraq, preferring to rely on internal means to overthrow of Saddam’s fascist-type dictatorship, but they are enthusiasts for the political process of building a democratic, federal and pluralist society.
Najim was murdered for advancing the cause of social justice, equality and human rights. He wanted a free Iraq with lasting and genuine democracy and independent trade unions at its heart.
He was brave and outspoken person. He firmly opposed all forms of sectarianism. He championed workers’ and women’s rights. He lived in a very poor and ordinary working class area of Baghdad and spared no efforts to advance the fundamental rights of workers, as enshrined in International Labour Organisation conventions.
His killers have silenced him, as they silenced Hadi before. Their martyrdom is a heavy tragedy for their families and comrades. But we are sure that if either Hadi or Najim were with us now, they would be saying that the loss of a comrade should not be in vain.
The loss of Najim must spur people here to increase their solidarity with the Iraqi labour movement. They are on the same side as ourselves. Let’s stop ignoring them or sitting on our hands.

See this report of the first mass event in Baghdad in years by any secular democratic group. The ICP sees national reconciliation and unity as necessary to ending foreign occupation and regaining political and economic sovereignty.

Harry Barnes remembers meeting Najim Abd-Jasem a year ago

The General Federation of Iraqi Workers has just published this statement on the abduction, torture and murder of a senior and veteran leader of the independent Iraqi labour movement in what is most clearly a part of a deliberate and systematic campaign to physically liquidate the non-sectarian leadership of the new Iraqi trade unions.
Members of the Labour Friends of Iraq delegation to that country met our comrade Najim Abd-Jasem last year when he was part of a 22 strong delegation from the Iraqi trade union movement to discuss solidarity work with us. His barbaric murder is a great loss to the Iraqi and international labour movement and we condemn it with the utmost vigour.
His tragic loss should not be in vain and should prompt far greater material and moral assistance to the Iraqi trade unions in their fight to build a new civil society and democracy in Iraq. As the old saying goes: don’t mourn, organise.
Gary Kent
Director Labour Friends of Iraq
GFIW Statement
Najim A Jasem was kidnapped by militias on 27 March. His body was found on 30 March 2007. His body bears huge signs of torture. He was member of the underground Workers’ Trade Union Movement (WDTUM) and fought against the regime of Saddam. He was dismissed from his job because of his trade union activities. He was reinstated after the fall of Saddam. He was one of the key founder of the new democratic IFTU, now the GFIW, and was elected the General Secretary of the Mechanics Workers’ Union. He participated in many national and international seminars and training – by Unison and the American Solidarity Center.

The ICEM, the Global Union Federation for oil workers, is calling for strong condemnation of the two recent US and Iraqi military raids on union offices in Baghdad. The raids, during which one worker was arrested, and computers and fax machines at the central office of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW) confiscated, occurred on 23 and 25 February.
The ICEM, with affiliates in 125 countries, is calling on trade unions worldwide to directly protest this unprovoked attack on a trade union federation that stands for nation building and bettering the living conditions inside Iraq.
ICEM is calling on trade unions and others to write to Iraqi embassies in their home countries, as well as to send messages of solidarity to GFIW leaders that their efforts to build strong trade unions in Iraq will succeed and with it, fair and just reconstruction for all Iraqi people.
Trade unions are asked to register a protest with the Iraqi embassy or consulate in their country by visiting: http://www.mofa.gov.iq/index.aspx . They are also being strongly urged to write GFIW leaders in Baghdad to tell them they protest these forceful and menacing acts.

The diary of Saad Eskander as he, with his Sunni and Shia staff, struggle to re-open the Iraq National Library and Archive.

Tim Lezard talks to a soccer-star headteacher who will not be intimidated by daily threats of death. Hassan, who is a member of the Iraqi Teachers Union, believes he has a responsibility not only to his 500 pupils, but also to wider society. Though depleted by law and starved of resources, the unions offer a rare glimpse of hope amid the wreckage of Iraq. Their leaders have been at the forefront of creating a new democratic and secular civil society and are often targeted because of that.