Interview with Michael Zweig, delegate to Iraq International Labor Conference
Between the Lines
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As President
Barack Obama moves forward with his plan to withdraw many U.S. troops
from Iraq, a spike in the number of bombings and assassinations has
signaled a reversal of the dramatic decrease in violence seen in the
country over recent months. Observers note signs of restiveness by
former Sunni insurgents on the U.S. payroll, known as the "Sons of
Iraq," many of whom have yet to receive jobs promised to them within
the Iraqi military, police and government. On the sixth anniversary of
the war in March, more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died, 4,200
U.S. service men and women have lost their lives and over $657 billion
has been spent.
But in a sign of progress toward the development of
institutions of civil society, Iraqi union activists held the nation's
first International Labor Conference in mid-March, where three of the
country' major labor organizations announced the formation of a new
labor confederation. The two-day labor conference took place in the
northern city of Erbil within the Kurdish region, where Iraq's
Federation of Oil Unions, the Electricity Association and the General
Federation of Workers Councils and Unions came together to create the
new labor confederation.
Among the 200 delegates from Iraq and around the world
attending the conference were six observers from America, representing
the group U.S. Labor Against the War. Between The Lines' Scott Harris
spoke with one of the delegates, Michael Zweig, professor of economics
and director of the Center for the Study of Working Class Life
at New York's Stony Brook University. Zweig discusses the goals of
Iraq's new labor confederation and their relationship with U.S. unions.
For more information on the Iraqi labor conference visit the website www.uslaboragainstwar.org
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