Hooshang Tarreh-Gol

This is a campaign initiated in England.

Attempt to smash Iraqi oil workers union - protest now

This is not the first time I've written to you about Iraq - but I need your help again.

We have just learned that Jamal Abdul-Jabbar, a leader of the Iraqi oil and gas workers union, has been forcibly relocated in an attempt to destroy the union.

Please take a moment to learn more and to send off your messages of protest by clicking here.

And please spread the word to your fellow union members.

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This second one is based in the U.S.

As repression escalates, Iraqis need our solidarity.

Escalating repression in Iraq

calls for our response

In the last week, USLAW has received three separate reports from Iraqi labor organizations of escalating attacks on union leaders and activists in the Kurdish area of Northern Iraq and in Baghdad in retaliation for their leading militant struggles for basic rights and decent living and working conditions.

ITEM: In Kirkuk, management of the Northern [State-owned] Oil Company, punitively transferred Jamal Abdul-Jabbar, President of the Oil and Gas Union, to a remote location in retaliation after he led a major walk out in defense of contract workers and for better conditions and a safe work environment. [Read the ICEM Alert.]

ITEM: On May 28th, security forces of Baghdad Operations Command and 11th Brigade arrested more than 11 protest movement activists during a raid on the office of a popular civil society organization, Where Is My Right. Among those arrested are Shirin Alnajar Shireen Najjar, a member of the Executive Bureau of Iraq Freedom Congress and member of the Mass Protests Committee in Iraq, Qasim Mohammad, a member of the Baghdad chapter of Worker Communist Party of Iraqi, Alaa Nabil of the February 25th group, Mohammed Ahmed and Taha of (Where Is My Right), Abu Muhammad of the Anti-Unemployment group and others whose names have not yet been released. These arrests came on top of a day earlier arrest of 4 other activists, Hamid Aljaff, Moayed Altayeb, Ayad Jihad, and Ahmed, for similar reasons.

ITEM: A group of young people participating in peaceful demonstrations taking place every Friday in Tahrir Square (Baghdad) were arrested by security forces in civilian clothes. The raid took place near Tairam Square on Friday, May 27th. Those detained are - Jihad Jalil, Ali Abdul-Khaliq Al-Jaf, Mouayad Faisal Al-Tayyeb, and Ahmed Alaa al-Baghdadi. Other demonstrators previously arrested and released had been subjected to humiliation and torture and were forced to sign statements while blindfolded and unable to read what they were being compelled to sign.

It is increasingly clear that this wave of escalating repression is related to the scheduled departure of the remaining U.S. occupation troops at year's end. The Al-Maliki regime appears intent on squelching all forms of civil society and labor protests for fear that once foreign troops are gone, popular resistance to the neoliberal agenda the U.S. and U.K. imposed on Iraq will grow out of control, in the same way it has in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain and elsewhere in North Africa.

In the past, intervention by the international community has been critical in successfully getting the Iraqi regime to reverse punitive and retaliatory measures taken against union leaders and other social justice activists.

We ask you to once again take a couple of minutes to demonstrate solidarity with Iraqi working people by sending a protest message to the Iraqi government. Please urge your coworkers, colleagues, friends and allies to join in this action.

PLEASE ACT TODAY TO LET AL-MALIKI AND HIS CRONIES KNOW THAT THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY IS WATCHING AND STANDS IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE IRAQI PEOPLE, WHO WILL NOT TOLERATE THE IMPOSITION OF ANOTHER DICTATORSHIP IN IRAQ.

The international labor solidarity network LabourStart.org has also taken up the cause of Brother Abdul-Jabbar. After sending your message through USLAW's action page, you will be given the opportunity to sign onto the LabourStart protest as well.

Thanks in advance for acting in solidarity with our courageous sisters and brothers in Iraq.