[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [uslawaffiliates] USLAW Condemns Assassinations of Iraqi Labor Leaders

[Al Kagan]

FYI

>
>
>
> US Labor Against the War Condemns the Murders of Abu Fahad and Ahmed 
> Adris Abbas
>
>
>         US Labor Against the War (USLAW) strongly condemns the 
> continued assassinations of Iraqi union leaders.  On February 18, Ali 
> Hassan Abd (Abu Fahad), was murdered.  He was a leader of the Oil and 
> Gas Workers Union at Baghdad's Al Doura refinery, an affiliate of the 
> Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions.  His assassination was especially 
> brutal, as he was walking home with his young children when gunmen ran 
> up and shot him.
>
>         Less than a week later, on February 24, armed men gunned down 
> Ahmed Adris Abbas in Baghdad's Martyr's Square.  Adris Abbas was an 
> activist in the Transport and Communications Union, another IFTU 
> affiliate.  The murder of the two followed the torture and 
> assassination of Hadi Saleh, the IFTU's interational secretary, in 
> Baghdad on January 4.
>
>         Abu Fahad, Ahmed Adris Abbas and Hadi Saleh were all 
> courageous activists, who sought to organize their fellow workers to 
> win the elements of a better life, the same basic things sought by 
> workers in the US and around the world.  Iraqi workers need a living 
> wage that can support their families, not the oppressive $35/month 
> imposed by the occupation.  They need secure and safe jobs and lives, 
> and an end to violence and terrorism.  Their unions need an end to the 
> 1987 law banning bargaining in the public sector, where most Iraqis 
> work.  Iraqi unions seek to stop the US-initiated privatization of 
> their workplaces that would put control of the Iraqi economy in the 
> hands of powerful multinational corporations, not Iraqi workers or 
> Iraqi society.  They want the occupation to end.  They want to 
> determine for themselves, free of outside interference, the future of 
> Iraq.
>
>         These are the ideals that Abu Fahad and Ahmed Adris Abbas 
> lived for.  They are the demands they died for.  As trade unionists 
> committed to solidarity, we in USLAW offer our sincere condolences to 
> their families and coworkers. We share their desire for a democratic 
> and peaceful Iraq free of occupation and terrorism.  USLAW recommits 
> itself to ending the occupation -- which is the principal cause of 
> destabilization in Iraq --  and the immediate return of all US troops 
> to their homes and families.
>
>  US Labor Against the War
>  1718 M Street NW #153
>  Washington DC 20036
>  <info at uslaboragainstwar.org>
>
>

Al Kagan
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61820
USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax 217-333-2214
akagan at uiuc.edu
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