Maine Owl

But, the delete key from history has been pressed


Not on teevee

We had a nice meeting today at the Eastern Maine Labor Council in Brewer with a few peace people. A couple of folks associated with labor were there. We showed THIS Democracy Now! interview with Iraqi union leaders. It was a good event and a very appropriate discussion for the size of the group. But the smallish turnout suggests an uphill struggle in mounting any sort of effective education program on the imperial basis for the war in Iraq.

Same holds true for international protests called for today, the 1st anniversary of presentation of the Iraq Oil Law, called a "robbery" by the union leaders in that Democracy Now! program. Here is the ONE decent report on yesterday's U.S. Labor Against the War press conference I was able to find:

Kicking it Down K Street: Rolling Out the (Oil)
In a town awash in irony, this particular example of it couldn't have been more striking
Written by Mike Ferner - Saturday, 23 February 2008

Yesterday, in Washington, D.C., former Marine Corps Sergeant and Iraq War vet, Adam Kokesh, kick-rolled a 55-gallon oil drum lettered "Hands Off Iraqi Oil" across K Street, an avenue that has become synonymous with the power of corporate lobbyists.

Kokesh, former Army National Guard Sergeant Geoff Millard, and former Army Private Marc Trainer, in the center of a knot of demonstrators, took turns kicking the barrel up 16th Street towards Lafayette Park, adjoining the White House, for a protest sponsored by U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW), Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), and Oil Change International.

The protest and an earlier news conference at the Institute for Policy Studies was called to bring public attention to the Oil Law passed by the Iraqi Cabinet one year ago and now waiting approval by Parliament.

Citing a letter USLAW sent yesterday to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and George Bush, Gene Bruskin, co-convener of USLAW, said that under Paul Bremer, the man Bush put in charge of running Iraq right after the invasion, the Hussein administration laws were wiped off the books, except for Law 150 and Law 151 which prohibit Iraqi workers from organizing unions in the public sector, some two-thirds of the nation's economy. For there to be freedom in Iraq, "Bruskin said, "Working people have to have representation. And not just on labor contracts but on social policy."

He pledged the continuing support of USLAW, whose member organizations represent some three million U.S. workers, to Iraqi oil workers and their union, the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions.

Kokesh, who said his time in Iraq taught him that "we are making enemies faster than we can kill them," called the U.S. presence in Iraq a military and an economic occupation, and that they are "inherently tied."

Excellent. And HERE is a link where you may find USLAW's page for the Action and another link to that open letter, which I will reproduced below the fold.

The sad thing, though, is the list of media covering the event. Truth seeking is not part of the corporate agenda when the event is aimed at revealing the real reasons for the permanent occupation of Iraq.

U.S. LABOR AGAINST THE WAR

Open Letter
February 22, 2008

From: American labor leaders
To: The governments of Iraq and the U.S.

Hon. Nouri Kamel Mohammed Hassan al-Maliki State Prime Minister, Iraq
George W. Bush President, United States

Dear Prime Minister Maliki and President Bush: Labor rights are human rights. It’s time to bring both to the Iraqi worker. Iraqi workers today are in dire need of an essential pillar of any democratic society: a free and independent labor movement. The basic right to form unions, to bargain over terms and conditions of labor, and to act collectively in defense of workers’ interests must immediately be recognized and codified into law.

We stand with our Iraqi sisters and brothers in calling upon you to immediately repeal Laws 150 and 151 which were put into effect by Saddam Hussein in 1987 to prohibit workers in public enterprises and public employment from forming or joining unions or bargaining over the conditions of their labor. We urge the Iraqi government to rapidly present to Parliament a basic labor law that conforms to all the standards established by the U.N. International Labor Organization (ILO) Conventions governing the rights of workers.

We call upon our own government to assure that its military forces and private citizens in Iraq fully respect the rights of Iraqis to freely organize and operate unions. The Iraqi and U.S. governments to should immediately unfreeze the bank accounts of Iraq’s labor organizations and permit them to operate normally without interference.

Eight of the ILO Conventions are widely recognized as defining fundamental workers’ rights. The ILO itself launched a campaign for their universal ratification. At its 1998 Conference, they were enshrined in the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. These “core” conventions are:

• Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize (Convention 87 - 1948, ratified by 148 states)
• Application of the Principles of the Right to Organize and to Bargain Collectively (Convention 98 - 1949, ratified by 158 states)
• Forced or Compulsory Labor (Convention 29 - 1930, ratified by 172 states)
• Convention 105 Concerning the Abolition of Forced Labour (Convention 105, ratified by 170 states)
• Equal Remuneration for Men and Women Workers for Work of Equal Value (Convention 100 - 1951, ratified by 164 states)
• Discrimination in respect of Employment and Occupation (Convention 111 - 1957, ratified by 166 states)
• Minimum Age for Admission to Employment (Convention 138 - 1973, ratified by 150 states)
• Prohibition and Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor (Convention 182 - 1999, ratified by 165 states)

While Iraq has ratified all but one (87), the United States has ratified only two (105 and 182). Despite these ratifications, and statements by both of you proclaiming your shared commitment to freedom and democracy, labor rights are under assault in both the U.S. and Iraq. In the United States basic rights to organize, bargain and strike are increasingly eroded, notwithstanding laws that purport to guarantee them. In Iraq these rights are denied altogether. Where workers’ rights are abridged, democracy is imperiled. Where those rights are denied, democracy is impossible.

That this might be so under Saddam Hussein would come as no surprise. But Mr. President, despite your stated commitment to bring democracy and freedom to Iraq, your own appointed Director of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance Paul Bremer nullified much of the Saddam-era legal code. Yet Mr. Bremer kept Laws 150 and 151 in effect, denying Iraqi workers the right to organize unions in the public sector which comprises more than three-quarters of the Iraqi economy. The Interim Governing Authority, created by the U.S., also continued to enforce those undemocratic and oppressive laws.

Mr. Prime Minister, despite your stated commitment to creating a democracy in Iraq and liberating its people from all vestiges of the dictatorship, your government too has continued to enforce these laws, even though the Iraqi Constitution calls for adoption of a labor law that codifies the basic rights of workers. To date, no such labor law exists.

Just as American workers organized and struggled to improve their lot prior to the adoption of collective bargaining laws, Iraqi workers also organized without the protection of the law as soon as the dictatorship ended. They have created vital, democratic and broadly supported labor organizations under the most difficult conditions – even in the face of active interference and repression by U.S. and Iraqi forces.

Unions and union leaders in Iraq have experienced and continue to experience repression, death threats, and even assassinations. Specifically, we call your attention to attacks on the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions in their attempts to protect Iraq’s most precious natural resource, its oil, from private control, ownership or appropriation.

We join with Iraqi workers in opposing any effort to introduce, adopt or enforce any law with that result so long as the occupation continues. Iraqis should determine for themselves, free of any pressure or duress, how their nation’s resources should be owned and managed. That cannot occur while there are foreign troops and foreign private contractors occupying their country.

We recognize one universal standard for human rights in the world. We ask you to use the authority and power of your offices to move both our countries rapidly toward that universal standard by repealing Iraqi Laws 150 and 151 and passing a labor law that conforms to the ILO core Conventions. We ask our government to cease its efforts to secure a hydrocarbon law that would transfer control over Iraq’s oil resources from the Iraqi people to private corporate interests.

[Four hundred signatories]