The Struggle for Independence, Philadelphia, July 2 2008
In celebration of the American Revolution, Iraq Veterans Against the War will hold a “Patriots’ Town Hall Gathering” on July 2 at 5:30PM on the 3rd Floor of the AFSCME District Council 47 Union Hall, located at 1606 Walnut St.
The keynote speakers for this event will be John Braxton, U.S. Labor Against the War Steering Committee Member, and T.J. Buonomo, IVAW Organizer and Former Military Intelligence Officer, U.S. Army.
After the fall of Baghdad in 2003, U.S. officials rewrote the laws of Iraq to enable foreign investors to buy up Iraqi national assets without any requirement to reinvest much-needed capital into the country. One of the few Iraqi laws they kept in place was a Saddam-era law which prohibits public sector workers from unionizing. This legal measure has been used to suppress grassroots dissent against ongoing U.S.-Iraq negotiations over the role of foreign oil companies in Iraq’s energy industry. These highly secretive negotiations have in turn contributed significantly to political instability throughout the country, frustrating the ostensible U.S. military mission there. Iraq Veterans Against the War will highlight these issues and relate them to our own nation’s struggle for independence.
Mr. Braxton will speak on the struggle of Iraqi workers to unionize in the face of U.S. and Iraqi government repression. Mr. Buonomo will speak on the legacy of the American Revolution and its relevance to U.S. foreign policy in Iraq.
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