Support the International Campaign for Labor Rights in Iraq!
On May 15th, Daniel Gluckstein, coordinator of the International Liaison Committee for a Workers' International (ILC) and a member of the Continuations Committee of the Open World Conference, traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with central leaders of US Labor Against War (USLAW) and with the antiwar activists in DC Labor for Peace and Justice.
The purpose of this trip was to urge support from the U.S. trade union movement for the ILC-initiated June 15th Conference in Geneva in Defense of the Conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO). The first point on the agenda of this conference -- which will be attended by leaders of unions and federations from more than 40 countries, including leaders from the main trade union federations in a great number of Arab countries -- is a proposal to launch an international campaign for labor rights in Iraq.
The ILC is an international coalition of unions and political parties of varied origins and viewpoints which, for the past 10 years, has championed a broad-based effort to defend and promote the ILO Conventions and the fight for labor rights the world over. The ILC has affiliates in 92 countries. It played an important role this past February in obtaining the endorsements of unions representing more than 130 million workers in 52 countries in support of the US Labor Against War international declaration.
In recent weeks, the ILC was contacted by a representative coalition of Iraqi unionists and political dissidents, most of them living for many years in exile in Europe or in the rest of the Arab world, with a request that the ILC help them undertake a campaign for labor rights in Iraq. The ILC agreed to work on this campaign and to summon the international labor movement -- particularly the U.S. labor movement -- to work on this effort.
In the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, with the U.S. Army now becoming an army of occupation to protect the corporate interests of Bush's anti-union cronies (Bechtel, SSA, MCI, Hailliburton, etc.) who've received the big contracts to "rebuild Iraq," organizing a concerted campaign to promote labor rights in Iraq, we believe, must be a top priority for all unions and labor activists fighting for peace and social justice the world over.
Working people in Iraq will need independent unions and all other rights codified in the ILO conventions in the weeks and months to come. Independent unions and full labor rights are the backbone of any society that claims to be democratic. A statement adopted last March 28th by the International Labour Office, the governing body of the ILO, underlines the importance of this international campaign. The ILO statement reads as follows:
"War has broken out in Iraq despite the dedicated efforts to reach decisions to solve the problem through peaceful means.
"History has taught us that wars have far-reaching ramifications that affect people's lives, going beyond those directly involved in the conflict. The loss of lives on all sides will represent a tragedy for families everywhere and disruption of economic activities in the region will jeopardise the sources of income for millions of workers.
"In this situation, the founding principles of the ILO, based on social justice and protection of workers, respond to the needs of people who will be affected by the war. "Looking at the immediate and daunting task of post-war reconstruction, the ILO stands firm in playing its role in assisting the efforts to create jobs and guarantee the livelihoods of the maximum number of people.
"In response, the ILO is taking a number of emergency measures as part of a UN-wide initiative on Iraq designed to address immediate needs, through an action plan to protect displaced workers, assess the needs of the job market after the conflict, and launch a number of reconstruction projects designed to create jobs and ensure adequate social protection for vulnerable groups.
"The ILO is ready to participate with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the proposed programme for rebuilding Iraq.
"In the longer term, the ILO will want to play a major role in the international community's efforts for reconstruction ... in such a way that labour rights are fully recognised and respected." (Statement on Consequences of the Iraq Conflict and Response by the ILO) From 1919 to the early 1980s, Iraq had ratified 57 Conventions of the ILO. Will these be ratified -- and duly enforced -- under the new regime in Iraq? If the purpose of this war was really to re-establish democracy, would this not require, for example, that ILO Convention 98 (concerning freedom of association and collective bargaining) be upheld so that the Iraqi workers can organize their own independent unions and push for their own demands in the framework of fully respected collective-bargaining agreements? Iraq has a long tradition of trade unionism and codified labor rights. It is not necessary to re-invent the wheel. At the very minimum, the new regime in Iraq must uphold, ratify and enforce all the ILO Conventions ratified by the various Iraqi governments over the past 84 years.
Defending the ILO and its Conventions is part and parcel of this campaign to promote labor rights in Iraq.
Not surprisingly, the Bush administration has just announced it will be cutting drastically its financial contributions to the UN institutions -- including the ILO. Such cuts will deal a major blow to the ILO -- an institution which over the years has established conventions codifying basic labor rights that are binding in all the countries that ratify them. This fact was acknowledged by the AFL-CIO leadership which this past Feb. 6th issued a press release lambasting the Bush administration for cutting its funding to the ILO. The release states, in part: "The International Labor Affairs Bureau will have its budget slashed from $147 million to $12 million, effectively eliminating most of its programs. The ILAB, working closely with the International Labor Organization, works to protect workers' rights abroad, preventing child labor and educating workers about HIV/AIDS." The Bush administration's retaliation against the ILO will represent a severe attack on workers' rights all over the world. It will also represent a blow to peace -- as the ILO's mission, formulated in the preamble of its founding charter, states explicitly: "Universal and lasting peace can only be founded upon social justice; existing labour conditions result in injustice, poverty and deprivation for a great many people, creating such discontent that universal peace and harmony are endangered. ..." We in the Continuations Committee of the Open World Conference call on trade unionists and supporters of labor rights across the United States and all over the world to join us in actively supporting this campaign for labor rights in Iraq. We are extremely heartened, as you will read in the interview with Gene Bruskin below, that US Labor Against War will be sending its national organizer, Amy Newell, to the June 15th ILC conference in Geneva and that USLAW is open and ready to play a leading role in this ambitious effort to establish genuine labor rights in Iraq. An undertaking of this magnitude, as you can surely understand, requires a lot of money. We in the OWC Continuations Committee have launched a $5,000 fundraising effort to assist this effort for labor rights in Iraq. We need your support urgently -- within the next three months -- to ensure that this campaign can be launched without delay. Please send a check, large or small, payable to OWC, to: OWC, c/o San Francisco Labor Council (AFL-CIO), 1188 Franklin St. #203, San Francisco, CA 94109. Please fill out and return to us via email the coupon below so that we know your check is in the mail. We thank you in advance for your generous support. As you will see from the comprehensive dossier we are publishing below, this is not a campaign that concerns only the unions and labor activists who opposed the U.S. war against Iraq. It's a campaign that concerns all unions and supporters of labor rights who agree with the words in the ILO's preamble, that "universal and lasting peace can only be founded upon social justice." There is a lot of talk about making the world safe for democracy. If this is to be the case, a good place to start is by strengthening the system of ILO conventions and ensuring that full labor rights exist and are respected in post-war Iraq. In solidarity, Ed Rosario and Alan Benjamin, Co-coordinators, OWC Continuations Committee *******************