How Britain’s trade unions support occupation of Iraq

On October 20, Mick Rix, former general secretary of the rail union ASLEF and an ostensible “left,” resigned from the StWC’s steering committee, accusing the organisation of making “stupid and wild accusations” against representatives of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) of being “collaborators” with the British government and the US-led occupation of Iraq.

One day later, the public sector union Unison threatened to sever its relations with the StWC, condemning its “campaign of vilification against representatives of the IFTU.” A Trades Union Congress statement also attacked “the attempts of a few to prevent the views of Iraqi trade unionists from being heard.”

The unions’ complaints centre on the supposed mistreatment of an IFTU representative at the Third Annual European Social Forum (ESF) meeting in London, October 15-17, when some delegates protested at the inclusion of the IFTU’s Subji al Mashadani on the platform, causing the meeting to be abandoned.

According to the trade unions, Mashadani’s treatment was indicative of the StWC’s sectarianism that has led it to oppose the building of independent trade unions in Iraq.

But any objective appraisal of the IFTU’s role over the last period proves that the charges made against it of collaborating with the occupation are entirely valid and that Mashadani’s appearance at what was billed as an anti-war debate had the character of a deliberate provocation.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2004/nov2004/tuc-n25.shtml