Workers' Liberty

According to US Labor Against the War and the Iraqi Freedom Congress, a flurry of strikes and demonstrations has scored one of the most important victories for Iraqi workers since 2003, and put the question of a proper labour law on the agenda.

USLAW reports (14 September): "Following days of demonstrations and strikes by thousands of workers, the Iraqi government reversed its order to cut wages by up to 30% and eliminate many industrial labor benefits".

As I understand it, the wage cuts were imposed as a result of IMF pressure to reverse a wage rise granted by the Iraqi government to public sector workers (a large proportion of Iraq's regularly-employed labour force) earlier in the summer.

USLAW continues: "The authorities agreed to direct negotiations with the representatives of the workers...

"The government agreed to retroactive payment of the wage cuts put into effect and to meet with worker representatives over other issues, such as workplace hazards". The government also agreed to bring to parliament a labour law in conformity with International Labour Organisation standards.

The demand for such a labour law has been a major concern for Iraqi unions ever since 2003. Until now the Iraqi government, and the occupation, have kept on the statute book Saddam Hussein's 1987 law banning unions in the public sector.

A couple of days later, on 16 September, according to the Iraqi Freedom Congress: "Thousands of electricity workers took to the street in Firdaws Square in Baghdad in a demonstration called and led by the General Federation of Workers' Councils and Unions in Iraq... and the Labor Movement Unifying Bureau, represented by Hassan Jumaa, president..."

The workers demanded the dismissal of the Minister of Electricity and increased security for workers.

A few days before, in the same square in Baghdad, the General Federation of Iraqi Workers reports that: "Hundreds of workers and employees of the Oil Products Distribution Department in Baghdad demonstrated... on 10 September 2008".

In Iraqi Kurdistan, the ruling nationalist parties, PUK and KDP, have generally kept a lid on union activity, but on 28 August a workers' demonstration in Sulaimaniya scored some victories.

According to the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions: "Cement workers and their union were demonstrating against the sudden decision to close the Taslooja cement plant and the regional authority’s decision to transfer jobs to far-off locations at reduced pay. They also protested the withholding of past salaries that have gone unpaid...

"The regional government agreed to comply with the demands, and approved overtime and a hazard allowance as a first step. The union and authority then also agreed to establish a committee to work out other issues".

The precarious and partial stabilisation of civil administration in Iraq over the last year - shifting conditions from outright civil war to the merely hellish - is the obvious background for these beginnings of a revival of the Iraqi labour movement from the huge pounding it took from sectarian militias in 2005-6. As more workers are able to get work, or demonstrate on the streets, in manageable safety, conditions for labour organisation improve.

The improvement may be temporary. In the first place, the civil stabilisation is very precarious. Any one of a series of flashpoints coming up could tip Iraq back into chaos.

The first comes as early as next week - 1 October. On that day, some 100,000 members of the Sahwa Sunni militias whom the US (after long negotiations) managed to hive off from Al Qaeda last year are to be handed over the control of the Baghdad government.

The militiamen have been getting $300 a month, a good wage by Iraqi standards, from the US. They want to be integrated into the Iraqi army. Press reports suggest that the Shia-led Maliki government may block that, and instead try to disperse the militiamen and prosecute some of their leaders. That could throw the country straight back into outright Sunni-Shia sectarian civil war.

Even if the US manages to persuade Maliki to be more conciliatory to the Sahwa militias, there remains the problem of the character of the Maliki government itself, dominated by Shia clerical-fascist parties in uneasy coalition with Kurdish warlord parties whose main concern is to keep autonomy for Kurdistan.

The Los Angeles Times of 16 September painted Maliki's increased strength in bold colours. "Once dependent on American support to keep his job, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has consolidated power and is asserting his independence, sharply reducing Washington's influence over the future of Iraq... Iraq's police and army now operate virtually on their own..."

Maliki has refused to sign the State Of Forces Agreement which the US wanted for its troops in Iraq; he is negotiating hard over a short-term replacement agreement, insisting on US promises to withdraw from Iraq's cities by June 2009 and from Iraq altogether by December 2011.

The Los Angeles Times attributes much of Maliki's strengthening to his "military victory against the radical Mahdi Army militia in Basra" in March. At the time it didn't look like much of a victory. Thousands of Iraqi army troops deserted.

The ceasefire in Basra was arranged not by the Americans, but by the Iranian government and in Iran. And it seems that is a factor in strengthening Maliki. It looks like Iran has told Moqtada al-Sadr, leader of the Mahdi Army, to scale down his military ambitions, let the Maliki government consolidate, and focus on political agitation.

Maliki's government has now promised to put a new labour law before parliament. Amjad Al-Jawhary, an international representative of the Iraqi Freedom Congress, told Solidarity: "We do not expect the government to keep this promise".

Instead, if the government continues to consolidate power, it may well enforce the Saddam-era laws still on the statute book, and Decree 8750 from 2005 (authorising the government to seize all union funds), thus crushing workers' organisation.

The situation hangs in the balance. The outcome depends on which proceeds quicker, the strengthening of workers' organisation or the consolidation of Maliki's power. Support from trade unionists and socialists outside Iraq could help tip the balance in the workers' favour.