Iraq oil workers fight privatisation

On May 25th-26th the General Union of Oil Employees in Basra held ahistorical conference on the privatisation of Iraq’s public sector. Ewa Jasiewicz was there.The conference attracted 150 trade union activists, mostly GUOE members and union council leaders from Nassiriyah, Amara and Basra, plus Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions reps and local party activists. International delegates, organised by Iraq Occupation Focus, and representing civil society organisations in the UK and USA also participated and spent a further four days touring oil sector locations and interviewing workers. Local and national media also covered the event.

The conference was ‘scientific’ meaning that it dealt with the nature of privatisation, approaching the issue in a research-based way. The opening speech from GUOE President Hassan Jumaa Awad al Assadi attacked the conspiracy against the Iraqi people by Saddam Hussien’s tyranny and American imperial interests, asserting the need to fight the economic occupation of Iraq.Eight Papers were presented by professors from Basra University, covering different aspects of privatisation. One key topic was the fact that no democratic debate had taken place on the subject within parliament or anywhere else and that no commission had been established to publicly discuss privatization, as elsewhere in the Middle East. The use of Iraq's debt to force through privatisation was also discussed. Amjad Sabbah al Assadi, a researcher at the Centre for Arab Gulf Studies spoke of the need for social welfare as a priority before any privatisation could even be considered. Unemployment stood at 70%, and 80% of Iraq's private companies had gone bankrupt since the war, as they could not compete with cheap imports. Privatisation would create foreign monopolies as the Iraqi private sector was too weak to compete. The failure of privatisation systems in Lebanon, Algeria and Egypt wasalso discussed, as was the corruption it engenders in state and private sector. Hussein Fadhil and Samir Hanoon, President and Vice-President of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions spoke at the conference in support ofthe GUOE and against the privatisation of Iraq's oil wealth.Trade union leaders from the GUOE repeatedly raised their experiences and efforts. The head of the Southern Drilling Company spoke passionately of the independent reconstruction efforts workers had undertaken in thedrilling sector and affirmed that Iraqi workers had brought the sector back to life despite mass looting and deliberate degradation under the watch and de-facto permission of the Occupation forces. Others described how they had thrown out American company KBR representatives from work locations. They repeatedly stated they would rebuild the public sector using Iraqi labour and ingenuity and that this was a source of pride and honour for them and the country, which should not be exploited by foreign companies.

Contributions from international delegates included Greg Muttitt, researcher from PLATFORM, on plans to open Iraq's oil reserves to multinationals and Production Sharing Agreements that deprive host governments of revenue and control over their industry. Justin Alexander of Jubilee Iraq, an organisation focusing on the cancellation of Iraq’s foreign regime-incurred debts, explained how Iraq's foreign debt is being used as a lever to prise open the economy. David Bacon, representing the million-strong US Labor Against the War described how Mexican workers in the electrical power and oil sector successfully prevented the sell-off of their industries.

International solidarity messages were sent from over 40 organisations, including the South Africa Anti-Privatisation Forum, Liga Manggawaga (Philippines), the Canadian Autoworkers Union, Fiom-Cgil (Italy), Patagonia oil workers (Argentina), UNT (Venezuela), ZZG - National Union of Miners (Poland) and in Britain, the NUJ, UNISON, NATFHE and TGWU.

The GUOE’s conference didn’t just make history in industrial politics on a local and national level - it also marked a chapter in the Union’s own history. From its beginnings in the Southern Oil Company, blockading against British occupation forces, to rehabilitating their war-smashed work sites, strike action by workers in various oil-related companies and tireless negotiations with the authorities over wages, profit-sharing and risk and location payments, the union has grown into a major force with 23,000 members. It is winning support from managers too, who at the Basra Oil Refinery and Iraqi Drilling Company articulated their appreciation of the Union’s reconstruction efforts and honesty. The conference was a show of collective consciousness and strength, an affirmation of the past two years of struggle and service on the behalf of Iraqi workers and their families. Now, the union is looking to struggle on behalf of Iraq’s inhabitants against the pillage of their one key resource which is capable of dragging millions out of poverty and rebuilding the country, if it stays under democratic control.

The GUOE needs our support. Questions regarding the illegality of Bremer’s Orders and Iraq’s odious debts which form the structural basis for the imposition of privatisation on Iraq must be asked in Parliament, at trade union meetings, conferences and throughout the anti-war movement. MPs should be called on to raise the illegality of the privatisation of Iraq’s economy at every opportunity. Even if the military occupation of Iraq may be preparing for a step back, the economic occupation is moving in for the kill.For details on how to support the GUOE please see www.iraqoccupationfocus.org.uk