No freedom for Iraqi workers

The illegal war on Iraq launched by Bush and Blair in March 2003 was referred to by the occupying forces as Operation Iraqi Freedom. In the subsequent 8 years over 100,000 innocent lives have been lost and supporters of the illegal invasion are hard to find: http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

Whatever freedoms are purported to have been established by the allied occupation they clearly do not extend to independent trade unions. Yesterday the British TUC condemned the withdrawal of union recognition rights by the Iraqi government. General Secretary Brendan Barber yesterday wrote Iraqi Prime Minister Al-Maliki calling on him to repeal the sudden withdrawal of union recognition rights from the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW): http://www.tuc.org.uk/international/tuc-19550-f0.cfm

Protests against the Federal Government in Iraq are not confined to the workplace. An Amnesty International report published last month details the killings, injuries, torture and other ill-treatment of protesters who have demonstrated for democratic rights in their tens of thousands across Iraq. http://www.stopwar.org.uk/index.php/iraq/433-amnesty-reports-on-killing-and-torture-used-to-crush-iraq-protest-movement