Morning Star article
August 2005
(Picture: The GUOE Executive Committee, activists from the Iraqi Drilling Company Union and international delegates in South Rumeilla, Basra May 2005)
Basra oil refinery is towering above us. A wheezing, whirring,
oil-products factorium rooted in the She'iba desert. Refinery manager Mr
Wahid gestures up at the decrepit structure. 'All of this was destroyed'
he says, referring to the damage caused by the Kuwait-Iraq war. 'And
Iraqi workers repaired all of it'. Mr Wahid is a supporter of the GUOE
and has stood by the union, echoing its' demands when it has taken
strike action. Asked about his views on privatisation, he is candid,
'Not now. Iraq is in no way at a level where it can accept any
privatisation. It's not the time now'. Unbeknownst to me, Mr Wahid is
standing within earshot when I ask General Secretary Falih Abood Amara
about whether it is possible to have an oil industry without bosses?
Falih explains that structure, managers, supervisors are necessary but
that definitely a boss can come from the ranks of the workers. Mr Wahid
then chips in saying, 'Managers should not be authoritarian. We need to
have a co-operative effort and collective responsibility. Decisions
should be taken collectively'. But not all managers are so conciliatory.
Following strike action at the Basra Pipeline Company in June 2003,
strike organisers were punished. 'We were deprived of land for building
employee homes, forbidden from taking part in foreign delegations and
many other things', says Hadi Shabood Mootlek, GUOE rep at the Basra
Pipeline Company. 'The boss is still angry from that time and considers
us enemies. We are still hurting'.
A violet-orange sunset is spreading across the sky when myself, Faraj
Rabat Mizban, Executive Committee Member responsible for cultural
affairs and Ibrahim Radi Abd Wahid, Responsible for company affairs,
meet a group of around 10 engineers and manual workers, along with their
supervisor. The supervisor is an older, white-haired, steely-eyed man in
his 60s. I ask them a provocative question. 'Western companies like KBR
and Bechtel, they think they know better than you'. It's the bedrock
propaganda of the bomb-and-build industry, one of the key lies of the
privatisation through reconstruction racket, the one that tries to hide
the fact this it is working class people who build and rebuild
industries, and know their industries better than anyone else.
Particularly in Iraq. 'Without offence' begins the older, worn-faced
supervisor, 'We are the cradle of civilisation, the birthplace of
science, law, and mathematics, yes, the dictatorship regressed us. But
we have the skills and intelligence and resources to be the most
developed country in the world! We could be at the same level as America
if we had the chance. The science, the knowledge, the talents, the faith
we have them all but we were cut down, with wars, sanctions, and
Saddam'. Asked what they want for the future, the whole group responds,
'to rebuild our country'. 'But on our terms' interjects the supervisor,
'If we need assistance or experts in any field, we will ask for them. It
has to come from us, it should not be imposed on us'.
Despite being conscious of the national and international political
dynamics around them, many Iraqi workers are not clear on what the
oncoming dynamic of privatisation will really mean. Iraq's oil industry
has been nationalised since 1972 and the state sector was, before the
Iran-Iraq war, the most advanced in the Middle East. Privatisation is an
alien term for people who have only known a state-run economy. And the
group I met was no exception.
Faraj Mizban begins to explain. And when Faraj talks, you listen.
Currently chief fire-fighter at the Basra Refinery, he was jailed and
tortured for organising protests in the 1991 uprising against the
regime. Now he writes essays and communiqués in his spare time on union
principles, workers rights and the political battlefield that is
post-totalitarian dictatorship occupied Iraq. Dusk is descending and the
flare from the Basra refinery is warping and licking the sky behind him.
It lends the optical illusion of his words being punctuated with flames
of fire. He begins intently, calmly, addressing the workers before him.
'With privatisation, there are four phenomena, four essential
ingredients. Capital, Means of Production, Production itself and the
Human element. Privatisation puts the human element and contribution as
the lowest denominator; it is in the last place. In our concept, as
people from the East, as Muslims, it is the human element, which comes
first; this is top of the list, followed by production and means of
production and capital in the last place. The value system held by
advocates of privatisation is the opposite of our value system. We
emphasise the human element because we believe humanity carries the most
value'.
The GUOE started out as the Southern Oil Company Union. Their first
strike focused on wages for the workforce, which had not been paid for
two months. June 2003 saw around 100 activists blockade Basra Refinery,
preventing oil tankers leaving to service British occupation troops.
Workers laid a crane across the road and sat behind it. During the
four-hour stand-off, British troops allegedly threaten to kill workers,
pointing their weapons at them and physically assaulting them. Some
workers slid under the tankers and signalled with their cigarette
lighters that if anyone was shot, they'd blow up the tanks. Negotiations
ensued and the protest ended peacefully with workers paid within hours.
Following the protest, union membership leapt from 100 to 3000. Since
then it has expelled Halliburton subsidiary KBR from oil sector
locations, shut down oil exports over low wages, eradicated the last two
levels of Bremer's Order 30 wagetable, found work for Petroleum
institute graduates, and reconstructed port equipment, pipelines,
refineries and drilling rigs. Yet despite a current membership of 23,000
and trade union councils in nine oil sector companies in Amara,
Nassiriyah and Basra, the GUOE is still illegal. The government still
refuses to grant it any legal status or recognise it for bargaining
purposes.
Autonomous reconstruction is a great source of pride for the Union. In
the past two years, workers at the Iraqi Drilling Company (IDC) have
rebuilt 12 drilling rigs in a sector which was looted post-war for four
months. British forces did nothing to protect the sector says Ghafla
Talib Dahmash, head of the IDC Union. 'The military strategy of America
was to destroy the public infrastructure of Iraq' he says, 'On the other
hand, American forces undertook protection of some private sectors. This
was in order to steer the country in a capitalist direction, to create
the conditions, which would force privatisation. But we succeeded in our
reconstruction achievements, and under great pressure; under American
missiles, tanks and warplanes'. Proud, measured, and steadfast, Ghafla
continues, 'We did this ourselves. Foreign companies have brought us
nothing, and they have reconstructed nothing. We have had no help, not
from the occupation and not even from the government of Iraq'.
Hassan Jumaa calls workers like Ghafla 'mujahadeen' or 'fighters'.
'Because they succeeded in making something out of nothing'. And
challenged the privatisation agenda or economic imperialism agenda, as
Hassan refers to it, of the occupation.
Packed into the office of a two-room IDC cabin in the Basra desert are
four international delegates, seven GUOE reps and IDC manager Nasser
Muhsin Mohan. The back room, around 7ft by 12 contains three beds, and a
small television perched on a small cabinet. The office, of the same
size, consists of two desks, a few chairs, a notice board and a rattling
1970s air conditioner.
'Look at this cabin' says Hassan, gesturing around the room, 'Is this
the kind of accommodation an engineer should have? This is where
engineers sleep and work. Look at it', he goes on to say, 'In Iraq, an
engineer with 15 years of experience earns less than the lowest paid,
basic-skilled worker in the North Sea in Scotland. See the neighbouring
oil states like Kuwait, Saudi, and Jordan? These are oil countries, like
Iraq, but their workforces have much higher wages, and better conditions
than we do, even though we have increased efficiency and oil production
and we are creating new wealth.'
The Leadership of the GUOE has repeatedly stressed the need for
organisational training. For 16 years, since Saddam outlawed them in
1987, unions were illegal throughout the public sector (including the
oil industry) - with the exception of the 'yellow' unions which
represented not workers but Saddam's security apparatus. Key goals of
the GUOE are the creation of shop stewards and organisational structures
which can ensure the perpetuation of the union, generation after
generation.
The struggle against the economic occupation of Iraq can be won through
the united action of effectively organised workers. Workers who are able
to translate their consciousness of their own power and opposition to
occupation and privatisation, into a culture and structure of open
organisation, accountability and collective responsibility. A structure
that can cultivate and sustain struggle, counteract co-optation, and
recover from attacks, an institution of solidarity, a union.
Ewa Jasiewicz is an freelance journalist and a member of the UK
committee of solidarity with the GUOE. More information about the union
can be found at
www.basraoilunion.org
