Class War in Iraq
July 2003:
The US army uses bayonettes to disperse a demonstration of unemployed workers.
August 2003:
The union of unemployed workers organizes a 45-day sit-in outside the offices of Paul Bremer, the representative of the US administration.
September 2003:
The workers council of the Northern Oil Company in Kirkuk demonstrates against the arrest of one of its members, Muhammad Raadi
Oraybi.
November 2003:
In Baghdad, cotton workers kick out their ex-Baathist factory director and organize themselves to sell their products directly, under the control of freely-elected union delegates.
After 11 days of their sit-in, the unemployed workers' union in Kirkuk obtains new jobs from the local council.
December 2003:
The Federation of Workers' Councils and Unions (FWCUI) is created in Baghdad during an assembly of workers from Kirkuk, Nassiriyah, Ramadi, Hilla and Kut.
Baghdad leather workers strike against increased working hours.
January 2004:
The leather workers' action gets tougher. Just like the cotton workers, they kick out their bosses. Two strikers are injured by police bullets.
In Basra, workers at the Southern Oil Company obtain a pay increase after threatening armed action. An Islamist group, al-Siwanah, opens fire on a demonstration of unemployed workers, killing four people.
The government decides that only the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU), linked to the Iraqi Communist Party, but pro-US, is legitimate. The FWCUI protests to the
ILO.
February 2004:
Mobilizations against new pay cuts and the cost of living involving the oil, leather, cotton, carpets, food distribution, tobacco and healthcare sectors.
March 2004:
Workers at the Basra power station go on strike. They face police with molotovs and occupy management offices, eventually winning a pay rise.
The FWCUI publishes a platform of radical social demands together with the Union of the Unemployed in Iraq (UUI), which unites with it.
April 2004:
Workers in the aluminium sector in Nassiriyah stop Al-Sadr's Islamist militia from transforming their factory into a recruitment camp.
University students in Baghdad protest against new wage cuts and the lack of recognition for their scientific work.
May 2004:
Nabil Nadim, the UUI webmaster, dies in a car accident caused by US gunfire.
June 2004:
The Federation of Trade Unions of Moqdadyia federates with the FWCUI.
July 2004:
Street traders in Kirkuk, threatened by the local council with the loss of their only sources of income, are defended by the UUI.
The UUI in Kirkuk manages to organize a free people's health clinic and struggles for the defence of the disabled and also opens offices in Basra.
August 2004:
The FWCUI participates along with other associations in the Conference of Re-Organizing Civility in Iraqi Society.
October 2004:
In Basra, the FWCUI rejects the creation of negotiating committees with the management, ensuring any agreements are made during full assemblies of the workers.
November 2004:
In Baghdad, new strikes break out in bottling factories.
In Basra, 200 factory council delegates meet and demand the withdrawal of occupying forces. They also make a statement against ethnic and religious division.
December 2004:
In Shahraban, near Baghdad, the governor attempts to outlaw the FWCUI in favour of the government federation. Abdulhakim Rahim and Basim Kazim, union activists in the manufacturing industry, are given transfers after demanding an explanation of certain strange accounting practices and are accused of being members of an illegal union.
In Nassiriyah, power station workers go on strike against their working conditions, also demanding technical improvements to the plant following a long series of power cuts to civilians.
In Kut, masked men open fire on textile workers who were demonstrating for pay rises, injuring four.
January 2005:
Workers at the Chemical and Plastic Industry refuse to be represented by government trade unions seeking to fine the workers for striking and instead elect a factory council to represent them.
(translation by fdca)
Article from "Alternativa Libertaria" January 2005, online news-sheet of the FdCA