Event begins at 5 PM. At 5:30 p.m.- march to the Capitol for a picket line (about ¾ of a mile)

PUT A SPOTLIGHT ON THE CONSULTING FIRM HIRED BY THE U.S. GOVERNMENT TO WRITE THE NEW IRAQ OIL LAW!

A rare opportunity for people in the US to dialogue directly with Iraqi workers and labor leaders about current attempts to control Iraq’s oil, women's issues under the occupation, and the role of unions in creating a non-sectarian, progressive Iraq.

These courageous leaders struggled for years against Saddam Hussein’s repression. Now they have stepped forward to organize workers seeking to improve conditions at their workplaces and in their lives under the difficult conditions of occupation, sectarian division, and violence. They are fighting not only for basic labor rights for all workers but also for women’s equality and against privatization of their national resources.

Featuring:

Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein, President
Electrical Utility Workers Union,
General Federation of Iraqi Workers

Sister Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein is the first woman to head a national union in Iraq. Following high school, she went to work at the Southern Company for Electricity, where she became active in the labor movement. She rose to leadership of the Electricity Workers Union in Basra and recently was elected its national president. She serves on the executive committee of the Basra Work Unions Coalition. She is head of the Women Workers’ Bureau and is a leader in the Iraqi Women’s Association. She and her 7-year old son have received death threats as a result of her activism.

Faleh Abood Umara, General Secretary
Southern Oil Company Union,
Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions

Brother Faleh Abood Umara is a founding member of the oil workers union and worked for the Southern Oil Company in Basra for 28 years. In 1998, he was detained by the Hussein regime for his activities on behalf of his coworkers. He has served on the union’s negotiating team with both the Oil Ministry and British occupation authorities to defend the rights and interests of oil industry workers in the post-Saddam era. The Southern Oil Workers Union has conducted strikes against outsourcing to foreign workers and schemes to privatize the oil sector.

Bush and the US Congress are putting tremendous pressure on the "Iraqi Parliament" to pass a new oil law that would transfer control of most of the Iraqi oil reserves to foreign corporations. This is not a new development. As early as December 2002, the US State Department devised a plan to open Iraq to international oil companies "as quickly as possible after the war." In March 2003, the Heritage Foundation called for full privatization of Iraqi oil. The Iraq Study Group calls for the reorganization of the Iraqi oil industry into a commercial enterprise with " US assistance.”

To further this end, the Iraqi constitution must be amended and a new oil law passed. In July 2003, BearingPoint, the reincarnation of a division of KMPG LLP, an accounting firm brought down during the Enron scandal of 2002, received a contract from USAID to re-write Iraqi economic laws. It was commissioned to write the new oil law and lobby for its passage. This intrusion is illegal under both Iraqi and US law.

Iraq’s five trade union federations, representing hundreds of thousands of workers, released a statement opposing the law, rejecting “the handing of control over oil to foreign companies which would undermine the sovereignty of the state and the dignity of the Iraqi people."

Together we will expose the "Oil Law" for what it is, the bitter fruit of Invasion, Occupation, and Plunder.

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