Iraqi trade unionist remembered

HADI SALEH, International Secretary of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions who has been murdered in Baghdad aged 56, was a lifelong fighter for right of workers to join and form trade unions and to organise together to advance their interests. Saleh was born at a time of great working class uprisings against the British-backed monarchist government. He was a printer by trade, his professional life brutally interrupted in 1969, following the second Ba’ath coup, when he was sentenced to death for trade union activities. He served five years as a prisoner on death row along with many other Iraqi trade unionists, before fleeing to Sweden, from where he continued to work for labour rights in Iraq. Along with other exiles and trade unionists operating clandestinely within Iraq, Hadi Saleh, known as Abu Furat, established the underground Workers’ Democratic Trade Union Movement (WDTUM) in 1980 to keep alive an independent labour movement in Iraq during the years of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship. He was hunted by the regime for his trade union activities. At the founding conference of the WDTUM, held in Kurdistan in 1980, all the participants wore scarves to conceal their identities. Saddam Hussein’s security apparatus had been ordered to find the whereabouts of the meeting and to destroy it, but only managed to set off a bomb after the conference had ended. Hadi Saleh opposed Bush’s illegal war against Iraq. He returned home at considerable danger to himself, even before the collapse of the dictatorship. Saleh worked to end the occupation by democratic and popular means and saw the re- building of independent trade unions as essential in this task. The work of Saleh and others led to the formation of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU), which now represents over 200,000 workers in the transportation, printing, construction, oil, electricity, railways and food production industries. Last year Saleh visited London, meeting amongst others RMT president Tony Donaghey. He outlined the problems facing Iraqi trade unionists including lack of funds, the continued implementation by the occupying powers of anti-union laws brought in by the Ba’athist dictatorship and attacks from US forces on IFTU offices. Last month Hadi was targeted by the extremists. He was seized in his home bound, tortured, blinded, terribly beaten and garrotted with electrical wire. Finally, his body was riddled with bullets. His comrades in the Iraqi workers’ movement described the killing as bearing all the hallmarks of the former security services of the Ba’athist dictatorship. The killers also ransacked his house for his union files and records of union members. Hadi Saleh understood that civil society institutions, partic- ularly trade unions, are the key to preventing a repeat of the past. That is why he gave his life to the cause of the workers’ movement. G For more information: www.iraqitradeunions.org/en/ RMT expresses revulsion RMT expressed disgust at the brutal torture and murder of IFTU International Secretary Hadi Saleh last month. “This callous murder was aimed at undermining the development of free trade unions in Iraq,” said RMT president Tony Donaghey. He said that the tragedy only reinforced the union’s policy of opposing the illegal attacks on Iraq and in support of Iraqi trade unionists. “I only met Hadi in London recently and his commitment to building independent and democratic trade unions in his country was clear. “On behalf of RMT I wish to pass on our condolences and sympathy both to the family of Hadi Saleh and to the IFTU,” Tony said. The TUC Aid for Iraq Appeal is raising money and unions and providing material support and courses. G You can find out more and donate online at www.tuc.org/iraqappeal Hadi Saleh, Iraqi trade unionist; born 1949 – murdered 2005 MURDERED: Murdered Iraqi trade unionist Hadi Saleh (right) outside RMT headquarters with fellow Iraqi Abdullah Mushin last year A LEADING IRAQI trade union leader kidnapped by gunmen in a Baghdad factory last month has been released. Talib Khadim Al Tayee, who is president of the Iraqi Mechanics’, Metalworkers’ & Printworkers’ Union (IMM&PU), was meeting workers when the gunmen attacked him, hitting him repeatedly on the head with the butts of their guns. The kidnapping represents the latest attack on leading Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) officials, following the murder of Hadi Saleh. They tied Talib’s hands and legs and took him to an unknown location. Talib is well known as a community activist and a champion of workers’ rights. He was elected president at the union’s first open conference last year in Baghdad. An IFTU spokesman said that it was the latest criminal act, instigated by extremists who want to stop Iraq moving forward to embrace new politics of tolerance, peace and democracy. “This criminal act is closely linked in the methods and intentions of the brutal assassination of Hadi Saleh,” he said. The IFTU Executive Committee thanked all labour movement bodies that demanded the release of Talib Khadim. Kidnapped Iraqi trade unionist released 21