AFL-CIO Condemns the Murder of Top Iraqi Trade Unionist

* statements by the AFL-CIO and USLAW (United States
Labor Against War)

* AFL-CIO Condemns the Murder of Top Iraqi Trade
Unionist January 05, 2005

The AFL-CIO today condemned the murder of Hadi Salih,
the international secretary of the Iraqi Federation of
Trade Unions (IFTU), who was shot last night by
assassins who broke into his Baghdad home.

AFL-CIO President Sweeney said, "Hadi was a courageous
trade unionist fighting for Iraqi workers. He put aside
all thoughts of his own personal safety, returned home
even before the fall of the Saddam Chasseing regime.

From exile, he actively supported an underground labor

movement committed to organizing workers. He returned
to Iraq as soon as it was possible to help make Iraq a
better place to live and work.

"Like all trade unionists, Hadi believed in peaceful
solutions to working people’s problems. His commitment
to rebuilding the trade union movement and a more
democratic Iraq even under dangerous circumstances has
cost him his life and thus a great loss for his family.
He will be sorely missed by all of us who have met him
and by the workers whom he valiantly fought for. Sadly,
Iraq has now joined the list of countries where trade
unionists live under the almost daily threat of
violence and death, and Iraqi working people have lost
someone who worked tirelessly on their behalf."

On many occasions, Hadi Salih spoke out against the use
of violence and terror in Iraq. Last month he
participated in the ICFTU World Congress in Japan where
he met President John Sweeney and other American trade
unionists.

Hadi Salih, 56, was a former printing worker who helped
found the IFTU last May. Under Saddam Chasseing’s
regime, Hadi Salih was sentenced to death for his labor
activism in 1969. But after five years in jail his
sentence was commuted. After fleeing Iraq, Salih became
a political refugee in Sweden but returned to Baghdad
shortly after the war began to help rebuild the labor
movement.

Contact Sarah Massey 202-637-5018

Copyright © 2005 AFL-CIO

==========

* US Labor Against the War Condemns the Murder of Hadi
Salih

Hadi Salih, International Officer of the Iraqi
Federation of Trade Unions, was a courageous union
activist. His assassination in Baghdad yesterday is a
crime against Iraq’s working people and its labor
movement. The cowardly manner of his killing - he was
shot in his bed - is intended to send a message to
Iraq’s workers and trade unionists - that their efforts
to participate in any peaceful process of political
change will be met with death. We stand in solidarity
with the IFTU in rejecting this brutal intimidation.

Hadi Salih was killed because of his commitment and
dedication to making Iraq a democratic and progressive
country, building a society in which its people can
lead safe and secure lives, with full employment at a
decent standard of living. US Labor Against the War
shares his vision of a peaceful and progressive Iraq,
and sends its condolences to his family and fellow
workers.

The ultimate source of violence in Iraq is the US
occupation. The Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions calls
for the end of the occupation and the US war. Salih’s
murder does not bring this end one step closer.
Instead, it seeks to terrorize Iraq’s labor movement,
and other parts of its civil society, to keep them from
seeking any peaceful means of gaining political power
in the interest of its working people.

In the past three months, IFTU members and rank-and-
file workers have been murdered and kidnapped as they
tried to carry out normal union activity, or simply do
their jobs. On November 3, four railroad workers were
killed, and their bodies mutilated. On December 25,
two other train drivers were kidnapped, and five other
workers beaten. On the night of December 26, the
building of the Transport and Communications Workers in
central Baghdad was shelled. Together with the
assassination of Hadi Salih, these horrifying crimes
are making Iraq as dangerous a place for union
activists as Colombia.

The murderers of Hadi Salih and other Iraqi workers and
unionists must be brought to justice. Iraq must become
a safe and secure society in which people can exercise
their rights as workers and unionists without fearing
death and terror. The rights and security of Iraqi
unionists are must be ensured and respected. This must
include the full right to belong to a union and bargain
with employers, the dismantling of the old Saddam-era
laws banning unions in the public sector, and an end to
the attempt to privatize Iraq’s workplaces in the
interests of transnational corporations.

The occupation must end, and the security of Iraq’s
unions and workers guaranteed. Bring the troops home
now!

Hadi Salih, presente!

========================================

Hadi Salih, International Secretary of the Iraqi
Federation of Trade Unions, Assassinated December 4,
2005

Brother Hadi Salih was a 56-year-old former printing
worker, a founding member when the IFTU was formed in
May last year. He had been sentenced to death in 1969
for his labour activism. After five years in jail, Mr
Salih escaped the gallows when his sentence was
commuted. He became a political refugee in Sweden but
rushed back to Baghdad shortly after the war began in a
bid to rekindle the labour movement.

"The biggest struggle at this time is to educate
members and leaders on real, democratic work and the
nature of trade unions," he said at the 18th World
Congress of the International Confederation of Free
Trade Unions (ICFTU), held in Japan December 6, 2004.
"We are definitely interested in global support for
labour education and training of members and leaders
because real trade union work was absent in Iraq for
the past 35 years."

"War does not serve the people of Iraq. Occupation
doesn’t help democracy," Salih said. Salih voiced
optimism that the labour movement in Iraq could play a
role as it did in Japan, where trade unions were key in
the country’s stunning economic comeback after the
devastation of war. "The labour movement in Japan has
been fighting for the future of Japan ever since the
end of World War II, and they are living this future
today and tomorrow," he said. "If they can do it, we
can too," he said. "There is no reason why we can’t
fight for the future of Iraq. That’s why I am
enthusiastic."

Salih told a trade union meeting in England on January
22, "We need new progressive laws that recognise and
guarantee workers’ rights and trade unions need to be
involved in the formulation of any new labour laws."

More information will be posted as it becomes
available.

============================================

U.S. Labor Against War (USLAW)

www.uslaboragainstwar.org

info@uslaboragainstwar.org

U.S. Labor Against War (USLAW)
1718 "M" Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20036

===

Gene Bruskin and Bob Muehlenkamp, Co-convenors
Amy Newell, National Organizer
– Michael Eisenscher, Organizer & Web Coordinator
Adrienne Nicosia, Administrative Staff