Iraq

Kurdish oil workers strike

All 223 oil workers at Shiwashok oil company in Iraqi Kurdistan began an indefinite strike at 5am on Monday 1 August, which has stopped work at the entire field. The workers, who are residents of the area, are suffering from a lack of basic services like electricity and suitable paved roads to the workplace. They demand provision of electricity, building roads, and equal working conditions with colleagues from other nationalities. The workers also demand some money from the profit of oil production, which is a portion of the oil income to be distributed to the population in the areas which...

Fighting privatisation in Iraq

By Falah Alwan, president of Federation of Workers' Councils and Unions in Iraq After the passing of the so-called Economic Reform Act, the privatisation programme is going ahead. The aim is to attract foreign corporations and investment into the country to take over sections of the economy which were previously state owned. There have been protests against this by electricity workers and oil workers, which have been met with victmisation from the authorities. 16 trade union activists in the oil sector have been victimised and there are threats against oil workers' leader Hassan Juma'a. We're...

In memory of Sardasht Osman

This is a speech by Houzan Mahmoud on behalf of the Freedom Umbrella campaign, at an event in the memory of Sardasht Osman hosted in the UK Parliament 15 June 2011. *** I'm speaking in memory of Sardasht Osman and in support of the 62 days of mass uprising violently suppressed by the Kurdistan Regional Government. On behalf Chatre Azadi, the Freedom Umbrella Kurdish Action Group, I would like to welcome you all and thank you for coming to commemorate Sardasht Osman, who is a symbol of the fight for freedom in Kurdistan. I would also like to thank John McDonnell for hosting and chairing the...

Attacks on Iraqi unions

There are escalating attacks on Iraqi union leaders and activists in the Kurdish area of Northern Iraq and in Baghdad. In Kirkuk, management of the Northern [State-owned] Oil Company, punitively transferred Jamal Abdul-Jabbar, President of the Oil and Gas Union, to a remote location in retaliation after he led a major walkout in defense of contract workers and for better conditions and safe work environment. • More: uslaboragainstwar.org and www.labourstart.org .

Iraqi oil workers' wildcat strike

More than 300 Iraqi oil workers have staged a wildcat strike in Basra and demonstrated outside the headquarters of the state-owned Southern Oil Company. The walkout included workers from oil fields in Basra; from North and South Rumaila, Albirjisya, West of Qurna and Majnoon. Their slogans focused on corruption among company managers. They also demanded the levelling-up of their pay and conditions to the rates of workers employed by foreign oil companies. Oil bosses used private security to confront demonstrators, and worker activist Sami Hassan was imprisoned for two hours. Quoted in the...

Oil workers protest in southern Iraq

From the Iraqi Freedom Congress, 9 May: Hundreds of workers walked off the job in protest, which rocked the headquarters of Southern Oil Company in Bab al-Zubayr in the southern city of Basra. The workers have come from oil fields in Basra; from North and South Rumaila, Albirjisya, West of Qurna and Majnoon and were led by the General Federation of Workers Councils and Unions. The workers raised slogans condemning corruption, while trying to bring all corrupt officers to justice. Among the corrupt officers includes the deputy director-general's of Southern Oil Company and director of trade. To...

Iraqi government cracks down on unions

The General Federation of Iraqi Workers has called for support from the international labour movement against a crackdown by the Maliki government. According to the GFIW a ministerial committee has "dismiss[ed] the Executive Bureau of the GFIW [and] authoris[ed] the Ministerial Preparatory Committee (MPC)... to renew and issue memberships to trade unionists". These measures "pave the way for rigging [the] elections" for union committees now due to be held by ministerial decree. The GFIW "call[s] upon... Iraqi civil society organisations... the International Confederation of Trade Unions, the...

Kurdish ruling parties escalate violence against protesters

An appeal from Worker communist Party of Kurdistan/Abroad Committee. Two militia ruling parties are escalating the violence against civilians in Kurdistan! Since yesterday militia forces from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) violently have been attacking demonstrators in the city of Sulaymaniyah and the other districts nearby. Shots were fired into the crowd in ‘Freedom Square’ in the centre of the city. Tear gas, stones and batons were used against the people every where. They then occupied the Freedom Square and burnt demonstrators’ tents. More than 100 people were injured; some are...

New social protests in Iraq

Martin Thomas spoke to Falah Alwan ( FWCUI), Toma Hamid (WCPI in Australia), and Mansour Razaghi (Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union in Australia who has been in close touch with the Iraqi unions) about recent protests in Iraq. FA: On Friday 4 March there was a very rough curfew imposed by the authorities to stop people from attending the demonstration in Tahrir Square, Baghdad. But despite that around 15,000 attended. It lasted until 5.30pm and after that they started shooting the demonstrators. One of our comrades was injured by a bullet, and another one was injured in Samara...

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