URGENT APPEAL: SOLIDARITY WITH IRAQI OIL WORKERS!

The Southern Oil Company (SOC) trade union is the biggest and most powerful union in the South and since the almost total paralysis of the Northern Oil fields in the North since last November, the only company regularly exporting.

The SOC Union is a leading force in the newly established Basra Oil Union, of which Hassan Juma’a, General Secretary of the SOC Union was unanimously voted President of in July.

The Basra Oil Union has stressed its autonomy and independence from any political parties and agendas and as such is a leading force in independent trade unionism in Iraq

The Basra Oil Union represents over 30,000 oil sector workers in the British-occupied south.

Due to its’ size and pivotal, crucial role to the Iraqi economy and also the profits and privatisation motives of the Occupation and neo-Baathi government, the Union is on the front line of the struggle to keep Iraqi resources and reconstruction in the hands of Iraq workers and communities.

SOC workers have achieved the following:
Collectively physically expelled a number of their Baathist managers. Some however were brought back to work, albeit in different oil company sectors by the Occupation Authority.Last Autumn workers threw out Kellogg Brown and Root employees - both the imported Pakistani and Indian labourers and the top brass of the company, declaring the SOC a no-go zone for all foreign occupation-serving workers and interests.

KBR staff have been re-admitted now but their presence according to Hassan Jum'aa 'is very limited' and basically controlled by the Union.Since the beginning of the Occupation, SOC workers have also carried out autonomous reconstruction of their workplaces with little or no input from foreign workers or companies.SOC Workers also succeeded in raising their own wages from 69,000ID to 102,000ID in December when they threatened to 'Shut Down Iraq from North to South' and go on armed strike over the Occupation's Order Number 30 decreed wage-table. Southern Oil Company workers and Basra Pipeline workers shut down all exports for a period during the siege and attack on Najaf this August in resistance to the Occupation forces' devastation of the holy city and in solidarity with the people of Najaf.

How To Help?*Please pass motions and resolutions of recognition, solidarity and support through your local union branches

*Write messages of solidarity direct to Basra oil workers. This can apply to unions or solidarity campaigns, NGOs, pressure groups, direct action groups, associations and organisations. Written collective messages or statements of solidarity make trade unionists in Iraq make feel much less isolated and vulnerable, and also show employers and occupation administration officials that there are people watching the backs of workers in struggle.

*Raise money for the Union – from official Union donations to bucket-shakes, benefit gigs or jumble-sales – funds will go towards further autonomous reconstruction, strike support funds, publicity and out-reach for the Union.
*Provide research on British companies currently active in the British-occupied south in terms of corruption, corporate crime, ties to the British government, plus policy regarding unionisation, workers rights and strike activity.
For more information please contact: Ewa Jasiewicz, UK Contact for the Southern Oil Company Trade Union and Iraq Occupation Focus activist freelance@mailworks.org (0044) 7749 421 576

Call Out for Support and Solidarity from Hassan Jumaa Al Asaadi, President of the Basra Oil Union
After 35 years of severe oppression by Saddam’s Regime on trade unions and with the help of God, and after the start of the British occupation to the Mesopotamian land, the land of history and civilisation, several worker activists from the Southern Iraq oil company put their first poster in the offices of the company and asked to rebuild the trade union organisation in Basra and particular in the government offices where it is needed the most. This organisation is needed to remove the oppression of the Baathist criminals. At the beginning we started with 30 activists and then we grew to several areas in Basra, including the deep port, north Rumaila and other places where we worked secretly as we were not sure what the occupying force would do. With the help of God we started organising our trade unions in places of work and we managed to establish democratic trade union organisations in 10 different places within the Southern oil company area. After we established all our organisations, I was unanimously electedthe leader of the Basra oil company trade union. In last 31 years I have worked and leaved the criminal oppression of Saddam’s regime.
We have now identified our goals for our trade union works in thiscritical time which are as following:

1. The trade union will work hard to improve the wages of the workers under these hard and difficult conditions.
2. To protect the oil installations from the terrorist attacks, asthese installations are needed to improve the standard of living forIraqis.
3. Ensure that workers work in accordance to the agreed time in to not give excuses to the occupiers to take over our oil installation. #
4. To ensure that the union will be involved in all companyactivities to improve reconstruction.
5. To meet the managers within the ministry of oil, in order toexplain how to improve the working and living standards of the workers.6. The union is working hard to return all the workers who have been sacked for political reasons
   Finally the trade unions in the Southern oil company are in a very difficult situation and we are asking all international trade unions to help and to co-operate with us, as we are a free trade union, which does not belong to any political party and we are an independent trade union. We hope that God will help us all and will be with all of us.