Hadi Salih, the International Officer of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) has been murdered on the night of January 4th in Baghdad.
The Labour Friends of Iraq, LFIQ, have compiled statements of condemnation from leading trade unionists that we reproduce below.+ Update/ Iraqi unions unite in condemnation. See FWCUI statement.
Harry Barnes MP of the LFIQ believes the murderers to be ‘fascist Saddam loyalists’. Whoever was responsible for the murder,it cannot be denied that the major reason for the targetting of Hadi Sadih can only have been his role as a working class activist opposed to both the former Saddam regime and the present so-called 'Resistance'. His murder has to be unequivocably condemned.
Some on the left may unfortunately refuse to condemn such actions as the murder of Hadi Salih, under some deluded belief that it aids the Iraqi people in their struggle for democracy and to be rid of the predatory and brutal US/UK occupation. Such people, as they have refused to publicise the murders of other working class activists, of the WCPI or the persecution of women in Mosul and Fallujah by Islamists, such people do not understand the elementary principles of international working class solidarity.
The AWL has its differences with some of the activists of the LFIQ; their exclusive orientation to only one union federation, the IFTU; and the LFIQ’s seeming endorsement of the occupation and its Blairite apologists. We however have no hesitation in expressing our solidarity with the IFTU faced with the assault that they appear to be under from elements of the so-called ‘Resistance’.
For FWCUI statement of condemnation and comprehensive news features on solidarity with Iraqi workers matters view the Iraqi Workers Solidarity group website
View the US Labor against war article on Hadi here
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The Murder of Hadi Salih
Labour Friends of Iraq have posted three statements condemning the murder of Hadi Salih, International Officer of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions on 4 January 2005.
http://www.labourfriendsofiraq.org.uk
January 05, 2005
INTERNATIONAL TRANSPORT WORKERS' FEDERATION SLAMS MURDER OF HADI SALIH
David Cockroft, General Secretary of global union federation the ITF, said today: "I have to report with sadness that we have learned of the murder at his home last night of Hadi Salih, International Officer of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU)."
"A month ago at the congress of the ICFTU (International Confederation of Free Trade Unions) Hadi Salih was telling us of his hopes to build a democratic union that would, in his words ' bring together all Iraqis no matter what their background, ethnicity or religion'."
"This was a man who was imprisoned, sentenced to death and driven into exile by Saddam Hussein. Yet he returned to Iraq to try and help its people build democratic institutions that would protect their rights as citizens and workers. He was the kind of person that Iraq needs now and in the future. His murderers have done that country no favours. They deserve only contempt."
HARRY BARNES MP CONDEMNS MURDER OF IRAQI TRADE UNION LEADER
"The terrible news that Hadi Salih, International Secretary of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU), was murdered at his home in Baghdad last night is a tragedy for his family and friends. A great working class leader, who I was privileged to meet when I chaired a briefing at the Commons last year, has been murdered by fascist Saddam loyalists. The best tribute we can pay to this decent and honourable man is to redouble all efforts to support the IFTU and civil society in Iraq. His murder should force everyone to recognise that the so-called resistance is no friend of the labour movement and that there should be no truck with it whatsoever. All left-wingers should now urgently give active solidarity to the IFTU who have lost a leader who suffered under Saddam and lost his life in trying to build a decent society in Iraq." (Harry Barnes is a Labour MP and Vice-President of Labour Friends of Iraq)
TUC CONDEMNS THE MURDER OF TOP IRAQI TRADE UNIONIST
5 January 2005
The TUC today (Wednesday) condemned the murder of Hadi Salih, the international secretary of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU), who was shot last night by assassins who broke into his Baghdad home.
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: "Hadi was a very brave man, who with no thoughts for his own personal safety, returned home as soon as Saddam was gone to try to make Iraq a better place to live and work.
"Like all trade unionists, Hadi believed in peaceful solutions to working people's problems and his commitment to rebuilding the trade union movement as part of a democratic Iraq has cost him and his family dear. Sadly, Iraq has now joined the list of countries where trade unionists live under the almost daily threat of violence and death, and Iraqi working people have lost someone who worked tirelessly on their behalf."
Hadi Salih had, on many occasions, condemned those who seek to use violence and terror in Iraqi. Only last month he had been at the ICFTU World Congress in Japan where he had met Brendan Barber and other senior British trade unionists.
Hadi Salih was 56, and was a former printing worker, who helped found the IFTU last May. Under Saddam Hussein's regime, Hadi Salih was sentenced to death in 1969 for his labour activism. But after five years in jail, he escaped the gallows when his sentence was commuted. After fleeing Iraq, Hadi became a political refugee in Sweden but rushed back to Baghdad shortly after the war began in a bid to rekindle the labour movement.
For information about Labour Friends of Iraq contact info@labourfriendsofiraq.org.uk
Gary Kent, Director, Labour Friends of Iraq
Alan Johnson, Research and Publications Officer, Labour Friends of Iraq
