"Voices of Iraqi Workers" Comes to DC

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)Two Iraqi labor leaders -- Faleh Abood Umara and Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein – will be in DC next week for the first stop of the National “Voices of Iraqi Workers Solidarity Tour.” Abood Umara and Muhsin Hussein will join labor and community activists for a rally against the US-engineered Iraqi oil law Tuesday at 5P. The law, currently before the Iraqi Parliament, “would transfer control of most of the Iraqi oil reserves to foreign corporations,” says Denice Lombard of US Labor Against the War. The tour continues on Wednesday with a public forum at 5:30P at Busboys and Poets, hosted by Metro Council President Joslyn Williams. The Iraqis will discuss privatization of Iraqi oil, women’s rights issues, and the role of labor unions in creating a non-sectarian, progressive Iraq in the face of occupation. Muhsin Hussein recently became the first woman to head a national Iraqi union. She is also involved in women’s rights issues as a leader of the Iraqi Women’s Association and head of the Women Workers’ Bureau. Abood Umara is head of the Iraq Federation of Oil Workers and a major voice against privatization of Iraqi oil. In 1998, Saddam Hussein detained him for his labor activities. “These courageous leaders struggled for years against Saddam Hussein’s repression” and continue to organize workers to “improve conditions at their workplace and in their lives under occupation, sectarian divison, and violence,” says Lombard. The DC events are part of a month long, 12-city tour, sponsored by USLAW, to provide the opportunity for people in the US to dialogue directly with Iraqi workers. To download an event flyer, click here. Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein (far left in photo above) participating in an Iraqi May Day rally, photo courtesy of USLAW