Working and Living in Iraq

“We have to work so that life goes on,” Iraqi labor leader Hasmeya Muhsin Hussein told the standing-room-only crowd at Busboys & Poets Wednesday night. Under the watchful eyes of Langston Hughes, Mahatma Gandhi and Rev. Martin Luther King, the roomful of local activists listened eagerly to Hussein’s first-hand account of worker’s lives in Iraq. A diminutive woman dressed in traditional headscarf and loose-fitting coat, Hussein is the only female union leader in Iraq, heading up the electrical worker’s union. Her appearance was part of a U.S. tour organized by U.S Labor Against the War that kicked off this week in Washington. During the hour-long question-and-answer session at Busboys& Poets she spoke fiercely, emotionally and humorously of the struggles by workers in Iraq. “The only Saddam-era law still on the books is the one banning unions,” Hussein said through an interpreter. After Saddam’s fall from power, “workers rushed to join unions,” Hussein said, noting that unions continue to survive because of the Iraqi government’s ineffectiveness. Bosses who “pull the ban out of a desk drawer when we go in to negotiate with them” are simply ignored. A strike by oil workers earlier this week quickly escalated when security forces intervened and threatened the workers. Though the situation has been defused somewhat since Monday, the workers are still threatened with arrest and surrounded by armed forces. Hussein reported that many Iraqi labor leaders and activists have been killed, imprisoned or have lost their jobs. Yet workers continue to organize, especially women, who – along with young men – bear the brunt of unemployment in Iraq, which is now at 60% and which Hussein blames for much of the brutal violence in her native land. “The workers of Iraq and the workers of the United States must remain united,” Hussein said. “Your solidarity will be relayed to the workers of Iraq.” Local organizers collected postcards against a proposed Iraqi oil law that would divert oil profits from the Iraqi people. The DC Labor Chorus opened and closed the evening with antiwar songs of protest and Metro Council President Jos Williams emceed. (above right) Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein; (r) DC Labor Chorus performing, photos by Andy Richards
-Report by Chris Garlock