Al-Ghad

Iraqi Trade Unionists to tour the US

Demonstration Against the Oil Law

A demonstration will be held on June 5th by US Labour Agianst War against the US contractor paid by the US to help write and promote law in Iraq to put most of Iraq’s oil under control of multinational oil corporations. As part of the campaign two Iraqi trade unionists will tour the US this month at several venues around the country.

Join Faleh Abood Umara, General Secretary of the Iraq Federation of Oil
Worker, and Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein, President of the Iraq Electrical
Utility Workers Union, to protest BearingPoint’s and the US government’s
efforts to take control of Iraq’s greatest natural resource away from the
Iraqi people.

Tuesday, June 5, 2007, at 5:00 p.m. ET

Offices of BearingPoint (80 M St., SE, Washington, D.C. - near Navy
Yard Metro) with a march to the U.S. Capitol at 5:30 (3/4 mile)

More details here

BACKGROUND:

A new oil law in Iraq is set to take control of Iraq’s oil out of the hands
of its government and give it to international corporations. Since 1972,
the Iraqi government has had exclusive control of Iraq’s oil wealth,
allowing for a sizeable increase in the standard of living despite the
corruption of Saddam Hussein’s regime. Now, under a new law drafted and
promoted by the US, the Iraq National Oil Company will have exclusive
control of just 17 of Iraq’s 80 known oil fields, leaving two-thirds of
known-and all of its as yet undiscovered-reserves open to foreign control.

Foreign companies would have no requirements to invest their earnings in the
Iraqi economy, partner with Iraqi companies, hire Iraqi workers or share new
technologies. Most of Iraqi’s oil would be under foreign control for 20 to
30 years. Foreign companies would not even be subject to Iraqi courts if
there were a dispute over their role or operations.

BearingPoint, a Virginia-based contractor, has been paid $240 million by the
US Agency for International Development (USAID) to draft the law and lobby
for it in the Iraqi parliament (in violation of US and Iraqi law). [Do we
know if all that was just for drafting the law, or did it cover other
services?] The law was first shown to major oil companies and the US
government in July of 2006, then to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in
September of last year, and only then to the Iraqi Parliament in February of
this year.

Five of Iraq’s trade union federations, including the oil workers’ union,
representing hundreds of thousands of workers, released a statement opposing
the law and rejecting “the handing of control over oil to foreign companies
which would undermine the sovereignty of the state and the dignity of the
Iraqi people. ” They ask for more time, less pressure and a chance at the
democracy they have been promised. They want an opportunity for Iraq’s
alone (without outside pressure or interference) to develop the law that
will govern development of Iraq’s oil resources and industry.

Join two of Iraq’s most important union leaders in a protest against
BearingPoint and the US government’s efforts to take control of their
natural resources away from the Iraqi people to enrich already grotesquely
wealthy Western oil interests.

The US and other foreign countries should be looking to help the Iraqi
people cope with the disaster wrought by the Bush Administration. They
should not be exploiting them further. Iraqi oil for the Iraqi people, not
for ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, BP and the other oil barons.

___________

Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein, President
Electrical Utility Workers Union,
General Federation of Iraqi Workers
Sister Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein is the first woman to head a national union
in Iraq. Following high school, she went to work at the Southern Company for
Electricity, where she became active in the labor movement. She rose to
leadership of the Electricity Workers Union in Basra and recently was
elected its national president. She serves on the executive committee of the
Basra Work Unions Coalition. She is head of the Women Workers’ Bureau and is
a leader in the Iraqi Women’s Association. She and her 7-year old son have
received death threats as a result of her activism.

Faleh Abood Umara, General Secretary
Southern Oil Company Union,
Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions
Brother Faleh Abood Umara is a founding member of the oil workers union and
worked for the Southern Oil Company in Basra for 28 years. In 1998, he was
detained by the Hussein regime for his activities on behalf of his
coworkers. He has served on the union’s negotiating team with both the Oil
Ministry and British occupation authorities to defend the rights and
interests of oil industry workers in the post-Saddam era. The Southern Oil
Workers Union has conducted strikes against outsourcing to foreign workers
and schemes to privatize the oil sector.

http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org