May Day Message

From: The General Union of Port Workers in Iraq

To: The International Longshore and Warehouse Union in the United States

Dear Brothers and Sisters of ILWU in California:

The courageous decision you made to carry out a strike on May Day to protest against the war and occupation of Iraq advances our struggle against occupation to bring a better future for us and for the rest of the world as well.

We are certain that a better world will only be created by the workers and what you are doing is an example and proof of what we say. The labor movement is the only element in the society that is able to change the political equations for the benefit of mankind. We in Iraq are looking up to you and support you until the victory over the US administration's barbarism is achieved.

Over the past five years the sectarian gangs who are the product of the occupation, have been trying to transfer their conflicts into our ranks. Targeting workers, including their residential and shopping areas, indiscriminately using all sorts of explosive devices, mortar shells, and random shooting, were part of a bigger scheme that was aiming to tear up the society but they miserably failed to achieve their hellish goal. We are struggling today to defeat both the occupation and sectarian militias' agenda.

May 21, 2007

Rail workers in Iraq continue their indefinite strike this morning, demanding a pay raise and increased on the job security from attacks. According to the International Transport Worker¹s Federation the workers walked off the job last Tuesday essentially paralyzing transportation along the North/South rail corridor. Rail and public sector workers do not have the right to strike in the war torn Middle Eastern country.

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Hands Off Iraqi Oil!

WHEREAS, in the opening days of the 2003 Iraq invasion, US soldiers were ordered to protect the Oil Ministry, oil fields and refineries while wholesale looting of Iraq’s antiquities unfolded. The message to Iraqis was clear: “We’ve come for the oil.” There were no weapons of mass destruction. Rather than democracy, the US brought massive destruction and civil war to Iraq; and

WHEREAS, giving credence to Iraqi fears, the oil cartel has prepared a new Oil Law which, if enacted by the parliament, will put effective control of Iraq’s vast oil resources in the hands of foreign companies. Nationalized since 1975, Iraq’s oil was, before the years of US sanctions and invasions, the foundation for a relatively high standard of living, producing more PhD’s per capita than the U.S. and a health care system prized as the best in the region; and

WHEREAS, President Bush says the war is not about oil but his actions belie that claim. Before the 2003 invasion, the State Dep’t “Oil & Energy Working Group” met to plan how to open Iraq to foreign oil companies. The proposed new Oil Law is virtually a photocopy of the “Options” plan first conceived in Texas long before the US occupied Iraq. The law would create an Oil & Gas Council, on which would sit representatives of Chevron, Exxon-Mobil, Shell, BP, etc., whose tasks include approving their own contracts; and