29 October 2007

Visit of Iraqi trade unionist - Abdullah Muhsin

Iraqi trade unionist Abdullah Muhsin will be in New Zealand in late November as a guest of the Association of University Staff (AUS) and will be available for a limited number of media interviews and meetings.

He will be speaking to the AUS about the plight of educationalists in Iraq and the development of trade unions in that country.

Abdullah Muhsin will be in Wellington between Monday 26 and Wednesday 28 November, in Christchurch on Thursday 29 November and Auckland on Friday 30 November.

Abdullah Muhsin is the International Representative of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers, formerly known as the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU), whose 200,000-strong membership is drawn from a wide range of ethnic and religious communities organised throughout Iraq's core industries.

Background

A former student-union activist, Abdullah Muhsin fled Iraq in 1978 after Saddam Hussein waged his campaign of terror against that country's civil-society organisations independent of Ba'athist control, including trade unions, student groups and women's organisations. After spending a few years in Italy, Muhsin moved to England, where he has resided ever since.

From exile, Muhsin was active in the Workers' Democratic Trade Union Movement (WDTUM), an underground organisation that resisted Hussein's Ba'ath Party until its collapse. The WDTUM, a collection of trade unionists, intellectuals, liberals, communists and civil-society activists, collected information on Hussein's crimes against humanity and publicised them to trade unions around the world.

Abdullah Muhsin recently attended the Education International Congress in Berlin, where he spoke of the courage and dedication of Iraqi teachers in attempting to reconstruct that country's education system in spite of violence, sectarian interference, international terrorism and the failure of internal Iraqi political forces to work together in reconstructing civil society. In what was described as an exceptionally moving speech, Muhsin criticised the failure of the Iraqi government to effectively address education and other social issues and told delegates of the personal hardship and suffering experienced by teachers, students and ordinary families in their struggle for survival and to establish reasonable living standards.

Abdullah Muhsin recently co-authored a book on the history of Iraqi unions, Hadi Never Died: Hadi Saleh and the Iraqi Trade Unions. The book commemorates the life of Hadi Saleh, a former International Secretary of the IFTU who was tortured and murdered in 2006 by assassins loyal to Saddam Hussein.

At the launch of the book in July, Mushin described Iraq's economy as pulverised by Saddam's wars, bled by sanctions and further devastated by the invasion, looting and rampant corruption. He said that Iraq's economy needs emergency investment and widespread reconstruction, adding that free and independent unions will play an important role in making sure investment in Iraq provides quality jobs and decent public services.

Abdullah Muhsin believes that unions are important to Iraq's democratic future and national identity, but says the United States occupation forces have waged a campaign of harassment and intimidation against the IFTU.

His articles on the Iraqi trade union movement have appeared in the Guardian, Tribune and International Union Rights.

Abdullah Muhsin has an Honours degree in Sociology and Masters in Politics and Government, and has taught Trade Union Studies at University London Metropolitan.

The emerging signs of vibrant civil society, such as organisations of women,
trade unionists and students, present a real opportunity to end the occupation and isolate the forces promoting sectarian, communal and religious violence.

Abdullah Muhsin,- 'We are nobody's pawns', Guardian, 23 October 2004

ENDS

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