Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein, president,
Iraqi Electrical Utility Workers Union
(first woman to lead a national union in Iraq)

Faleh Abood Umara, general secretary,
Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions

Find out...
• What are conditions for working people in Iraq
• How the occupation has affected families and children
• Why unions oppose the proposed oil investment law
• What will happen if the occupation continues
• What will happen if it ends rapidly
• What Iraqi working people want to happen
• Whether a peaceful, stable, non-sectarian Iraq is possible

Background:

A new oil law in Iraq is set to take control of Iraq’s oil out of the hands of its government and give it to international corporations. Since 1972, the Iraqi government has had exclusive control of Iraq’s oil wealth, allowing for a sizeable increase in the standard of living despite the corruption of Saddam Hussein’s regime. Now, under a new law drafted and promoted by the US, the Iraq National Oil Company will have exclusive control of just 17 of Iraq’s 80 known oil fields, leaving two-thirds of known—and all of its as yet undiscovered—reserves open to foreign control.

Foreign companies would have no requirements to invest their earnings in the Iraqi economy, partner with Iraqi companies, hire Iraqi workers or share new technologies. Most of Iraqi’s oil would be under foreign control for 20 to 30 years. Foreign companies would not even be subject to Iraqi courts if there were a dispute over their role or operations.

BearingPoint, a Virginia-based contractor, has been paid $240 million by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to draft the law and lobby for it in the Iraqi parliament (in violation of US and Iraqi law). [Do we know if all that was just for drafting the law, or did it cover other services?] The law was first shown to major oil companies and the US government in July of 2006, then to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in September of last year, and only then to the Iraqi Parliament in February of this year.

Five of Iraq’s trade union federations, including the oil workers’ union, representing hundreds of thousands of workers, released a statement opposing the law and 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. “ They ask for more time, less pressure and a chance at the democracy they have been promised. They want an opportunity for Iraq’s alone (without outside pressure or interference) to develop the law that will govern development of Iraq’s oil resources and industry.

Join two of Iraq’s most important union leaders in a protest against BearingPoint and the US government’s efforts to take control of their natural resources away from the Iraqi people to enrich already grotesquely wealthy Western oil interests.

The US and other foreign countries should be looking to help the Iraqi people cope with the disaster wrought by the Bush Administration. They should not be exploiting them further. Iraqi oil for the Iraqi people, not for ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, BP and the other oil barons.

Sponsors: U.S. Labor Against the War, Bay Area Labor Cmte. for Peace & Justice, United for Peace & Justice, American Friends Service Committee, Alameda Council Central Labor Council, Berkeley Fed. of Teachers, KPFA, San Francisco Labor Council

Endorsed by: Alameda County Green Party, Arab American Union Members Council, Bay Localize "For a More Livable and Resilient Bay Area”, California Teachers Association Peace & Justice Caucus, Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, CWA Local 9423, Declaration of Peace (Bay Area), East Bay Coalition to Support Self-Rule for Iraqis, East Bay Labor-Community Coalition, East Bay Peace Action, Ecumenical Peace Institute, El Cerrito Democratic Club, Fed. of Retired Union Members, Hayward Demos Democratic Club, International Solidarity Movement, Inter-religious Witness for Peace, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement-SF, Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute, Middle East Children's Alliance, Mustard Seed Affinity Group, Oakland Education Association, Progressive Democrats of America, California Faculty Association/SEIU Local 1983, SJSU, San Mateo Central Labor Council, SEIU 1021, SEIU Public Services Div. No.CA Staff, So. Alameda Cnty. Peace & Justice Coalition, Unitarian Universalists for Peace NOW, Voices of the Middle East and North Africa, War Resisters League West, Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club, Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom-San Jose, Women for Peace

For more information: mlprophet@earthlink.net
or (510) 527-1222 or (510) 436-6125