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The Ministry of
Transportation issued another arbitrary and
despotic decree to transfer four leaders of
the Port Workers Union from the city of
Basra in the south to the city of Mosul in
the north. Those leaders are president of
the Port Workers Union Ali Khither, deputy
president Hirman Said Kathim, Secretary of
the union Abdul Kathim Karim Wadi, and
member of the Committee of Stores Union in
the ports Raid Abdul Hussein. This decree
was in response to workers protesting
against the dismissal of 340 workers from
various sections of the General Company of
the Iraqi Ports on 26th of May
2010. The considerable dismissal has
outraged workers, as it signifies more
impoverishment and deprivation for the
hundreds of workers and their families as
their future hangs in the balance. As of May
the ministry has stopped paying salaries to
the workers, who have lost their only source
of livelihood.
In response to this
decree, the workers organized a
demonstration in front of the office of the
General Company of the Iraqi Ports in Basra
asking for the resolution to be immediately
abolished. Instead of talking to the workers
and listening to their concerns and demands,
the administration of the company sent
heavily armed troops to put siege on their
demonstration. The workers refused to talk
to the military officer who asked them to
end the demonstration.
In a city rich of natural
resources, which has the opportunity to
insure a very good standard of living for
both the residents and for the entire
country, rather than insuring jobs and
providing unemployment benefits to
unemployed citizens the government has
indulged in corruption, plunder,
disrespected the workers rights by
dismissing workers from existing jobs,
changing their contracts to casual
employment has only employed those who carry
certificates which in turn leaves those with
no certificates no right to work or survive.
A government like the
current Iraqi government will never be
concerned about securing the livelihood of
people or regard itself responsible for
doing so. Its only responsibility is to
guarantee its own security, existence and
the plunder of more wealth while leaving the
masses of people famished.
We in the
Worker-communist Party of Iraq while
witnessing a continuous onslaught by the
government during last few years on oil
workers, south refinery workers, textile
industry workers, leather industry workers
and today on port workers, believe its
attempt to gag the working class in Iraq and
force it to accept poverty and hunger is
futile. The working class will not accept
further impoverishment and hunger while
watching billions of dollars being stolen by
the state officials without any
accountability and while ministers and the
government personnel enjoy enormous salaries
and privileges, not only for their terms in
office but for many years after their terms
have ended.
The worker masses will
not keep silent and will not accept these
despotic outcomes. They will do their best
to force the ministry to abolish its decree.
The Iraqi workers will not accept more
poverty and hunger, as they know they live
in a country very rich in natural resources
enough to ensure a prosperous life for them
and for the coming generations. They will
raise their voice and proclaim if the
government is unable to ensure jobs or
unemployment benefits, the current
government clearly is not fit to rule and
should step aside.
The Worker-communist
Party of Iraq calls on the workers of the
Iraqi ports and all workers across the
country in vital industries in particular
oil, railways and in manufacturing to unite
their ranks in defence of the dismissed
workers and to force the ministry to abolish
its decree aimed at bringing workers to
their knees and imposing slavery conditions
on them. The Worker-communist Party of Iraq
will do its best inside Iraq and abroad to
expose the oppressive practices of the
government of plunder, dismissing workers
and disrespecting their rights.
Worker-communist Party of Iraq
11th June 2010.
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