IVAW News - IVAW Participates in Historic Iraqi Labor Conference

IVAW will be traveling with a U.S. labor delegation to participate in the First International Iraqi Labor Conference in Erbil, Iraq, which takes place from February 27-28. The conference will bring together trade unionists from across Iraq with international allies from labor movements around the world. The objectives of the conference are: (1) to unify the Iraqi labor movement; (2) to increase pressure on the Iraqi government to enact a labor rights law that conforms to all international standards in the International Labor Organization Conventions on the Rights of Workers; (3) to defend Iraqi national resources and public assets against foreign acquisition; and (4) to demand restoration of full sovereignty, which can only be accomplished by ending the occupation and removing all foreign troops and bases.
Since the U.S. occupation began, Iraqi workers have been targeted in an attempt to suppress the population and control Iraq's natural resources. The initial Coalition Provisional Authority upheld Saddam Hussein's law of banning unions; labor leaders have been killed, tortured, and imprisoned; worker's rights have been routinely violated; and union bank accounts have been frozen. In turn, Iraqi labor unions and workers have been among the leading non-sectarian forces defending Iraqi sovereignty and democracy by exercising their collective power through strikes to increase wages, resist privatization of Iraq's oil industry, and stand up to foreign contractors who threaten their livelihoods.
IVAW board member, Aaron Hughes and organizer, TJ Buonomo will represent IVAW as the only non-labor union participants at this historic conference. We have accepted this special invitation as an important opportunity to powerfully demonstrate our solidarity with the Iraqi people's struggle for a truly democratic and sovereign Iraq, free of foreign domination, both military and economic.