HASSAN JUMAA AWAD - UK PUBLIC MEETINGS

Public Meeting Itinerary for Hasan Jumaa Awad, President, Iraqi Federation of oil Unions

Ahlan wa sahlan bikum, please attend one of Hassan's public events and find out more about the IFOU and the future fight against oil privatisation and the ongoing occupation - military and economic - in Iraq

Saturday 26th 10am-5pm. ‘Voices from Occupied Iraq’ Iraq Occupation Focus teach-in. University of London Union, Malet Street, London WC1

Other speakers include: Gilbert Achcar; Ismaeel Dawood (human rightsactivist, Baghdad); Rahul Mahajan; Professor Kamil Mahdi; Sami Ramadami;Haifa Zangana. www.iraqoccupationfocus.org.uk

Monday 28th 7.30pm Manchester ‘Iraqi Trades Unions Speak Out’ Friends Meeting House,Mount Street, City Centre. Public meeting organised by United for Peace(Greater Manchester STWC, Muslim Association of Britain and GreaterManchester and District CND) and Manchester Trades Council

Tuesday 29th 7.30pm Holiday Inn, opposite Lime Street Station. Liverpool. Public Socialist Workers Party Rally. Other speakers include Chris Harman,Editor International Socialist Journal and Chris Nineham, STWC.

Wednesday 30th7.30pm Glasgow 'Stop the Privatisation of Iraq's oil - troops out now'. Renfield St Stephens Centre, Bath Street. Public meeting organized by the Scottish Socialist Party and sponsoredby the RMT. Speakers include Richie Venton, SSP and an RMT Rep.

Wednesday December 7th Evening Public Meeting, London, Vtba (organising group tbc)

Thursday December 8th Evening Public Meeting, Vtba (organising group tba)

Saturday 10th 10am – 8pm Stop the War Coaltion International Peace ConferenceLawrence Hall, Greycoat Street, London SW1P 2QD
Ayattolla Jawad al Khalissi, (Gen Sec, Iraqi National FoundationCongress), Sheikh Hassan Al Zargani, (Al Sadr Movement), Hana Ibrahim,(Women's Will Association), Dr Khair Eldin Hasseeb, (Centre for ArabUnity Studies) Cindy Sheehan, Medea Benjamin (Code Pink), Judy Linehan,(MFSO), Kelly Dougherty (IVAW) www.stopwar.org.uk

Hassan leaves the UK on Monday December 12th

All enquiries, please call Ewa Jasiewicz, Iraq Occupation Focus andNaftana 07749 421 576 freelance@mailworks.org www.basraoilunion.org

Hassan Jumaa Awad in the UK - Nov 22th -Dec 12th

‘Iraq’s Oil Is Not For Sale’- Iraqi Oil Union Leader visits UK on anti-privatisation mission

Hassan Jumaa Awad, President of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU) formerly known as the General Union of Oil Employees, Basra (GUOE) will be touring the UK next month.

Hassan has been invited to the UK for Iraq Occupation Focus’ ‘Voices from Occupied Iraq’ Teach-In on November 26th and the Stop The War Coalition’s International Peace Conference on December 10th

The Union has stated that ‘The privatisation of the oil and industrial sectors is the objective of all in the Iraqi state/government. We will stand firm against this imperialist plan that would hand over Iraq's wealth to international capitalism such that the deprived Iraqi people would not benefit from it…we are taking this path for the sake of Iraq's glory even if it costs us our lives.’

The IFOU is the most powerful trade union in Iraq representing over 23,000 oil workers across 3 provinces in nine state oil and gas companies. It is independent of all current trade union federations in Iraq.

The Union has consistently held a ‘Troops Out Now’ policy, calling for an immediate withdrawal of all occupation forces from Iraq. Many of the Union’s executive committee were persecuted by the Baath dictatorship. Awad himself was jailed three times by the regime.

The Union has on two separate occasions halted oil exports through strike action over unpaid wages, repressive Baathist managers and officials in the Ministry of Oil and land allocations for employees. It has successfully reconstructed infrastructure, port equipment, drilling rigs and pipelines without the help of foreign companies. It also succeeded in cancelling the last two tiers of the Occupation’s Order 30 wage-table and raising the minimum wage for Iraqi oil workers from 69,000 Iraqi Dinar (£20) per month to 102,000 ID (£35) per month. It has also negotiated the return of 1000 foreign workers in favour of the employment of local Iraqi workers.

Ewa Jasiewicz, Co-Convenor of the IFOU Support Committee ‘Naftana’ (meaning ‘Our Oil’) said, ‘Hassan’s second visit to the UK is a wake-up call. Iraq’s oil has not yet been privatised, and the IFOU are in a position, physically, strategically and historically to make sure that it never will be. This union needs our maximum support’.

Notes

All public meetings, engagements and press briefings/photocalls TBA

The GUOE became the IFOU on October 12th 2005 after the affiliation of further oil unions from Maysan and Dhi Qar provinces. They are currently still in talks with an independent oil union in Kirkuk.

Contact

Ewa Jasiewicz or Sabah Jawad, Naftana, UK Support Committee for the IFOU
07749 421 576 freelance@mailworks.org or 07946 334 238 sabah.jawad@idao.org

See www.iraqoccupationfocus.org.uk for more details on the Teach In and www.stopwar.org.uk for more Peace Conference info.

See http://www.basraoilunion.org/ for more information and background on the union

GUOE Becomes Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions

Public Announcement

All are aware of the role that Iraqi labour unions have played in the previous and present phrases of Iraq's history as the most important basis of Iraqi society for development and construction. Unions continued with their work until they became the object of a conspiracy on the part of the despotic regime, which stripped them of their rights in 1987. After the dictator fell, on 20/04/2003, that is eleven days after the entry of the occupation forces, activists formed the oil Union, the first nucleus of which was the Southern Oil Company and the other oil companies.

The Union masterfully led the process of building and reconstruction and equipping of the plants and oil installations and the process of improving living conditions and obtaining the rights of its members. The Union has participated in many international conferences and enjoys extensive links with international organisations.

The Union has taken a courageous stand on many sensitive issues related to the capacities of the Iraqi people and has a clear position vis-à-vis the occupying forces. Building on what has gone before and in accordance with present experiences of Iraqis as part of embodying the practice of democracy for the new phase, we announce with God's blessing the formation of the Federation of Oil Unions in Iraq, with its centre in Basra, composed of unions representing the oil sector in Basra, Meisan, and DhiQar, as a Federation specialised in all aspects of the oil sector and part of the movement of Iraqi labour unions.

At this moment as we announce the establishment of the Federation, its doors are open to all workers in the oil sector throughout Iraq from the north to the south and we welcome the support of all civil society organisations to this federation which is in the service of the public interest.

God disposes,
The Executive Committee of the Federation of Oil Unions in Iraq Basra
12/10/2005