The two young members of Iraq Veterans Against the War were nervous about speaking to a crowd of Iraqis, in the Kurdish city of Erbil. They’d seen and done actions in Iraq they would do anything to undo. How would the crowd receive them?

As they finished their presentation to a conference of Iraqi union leaders March 14, an older man rushed the stage. No one knew what to expect—he was an ultra-nationalist who’d lost family members in the six years Iraq has been occupied.

The man grabbed the mic and said in Arabic, “I’ve come up here to embrace my comrades from America.” Tears flowed as they all hugged and the room burst into applause.

REBIRTH

The anti-war veterans were there as part of U.S. Labor Against the War’s delegation to the First International Labor Conference in Iraq, witnessing the rebirth of its labor movement after years of repression.

As a dozen TV cameras whirred and the conference was reported all over the Middle East, delegates founded a confederation that brought together the powerful Federation of Oil Unions, the Electricity (utility) Union, and the General Federation of Workers Councils and Unions. The conference included 200 delegates from a broad cross-section of the workforce and 15 of 18 provinces.

Under both Saddam Hussein and the newly installed regime, Iraq’s unions have struggled for the right to exist. In 1987 the dictator declared public workers “civil servants,” making it illegal for them to unionize. They are 80 percent of Iraq’s labor force.

That law was on the books when the U.S. invaded in 2003. Paul Bremer, director of the Coalition Provision Authority, ditched most of the Iraqi legal code, but he found one law he liked, and he kept it. That labor law was passed on to the incumbent Iraqi regime, which has enforced it energetically.

In that way, the situation in Iraq resembles the U.S. labor movement before the Wagner Act of 1935. Workers had no legal protection to organize a union and no legally guaranteed rights, but they organized unions anyway, and the Iraqis have done so as well.

The government applies the anti-union laws selectively, primarily to weaken labor’s influence in high-value public enterprises, especially oil. At times, including in the last six months, the government has gone beyond simply regulating or repressing union operations.

It has used the power of the state and the military to invade union offices, destroy equipment, seize records, freeze bank accounts, and on occasion arrest union leaders. The current Maliki government even sought to certify who is entitled to lead unions and tried to impose government-controlled elections. It backed off in the face of massive resistance by workers.

Early in the occupation, the U.S. military was involved directly in these actions, but now has subcontracted that job to the Iraqi government. Union leaders were tortured and assassinated in the first years of the occupation by sectarian militias and death squads widely believed to be acting on behalf of the occupation forces.

The government’s raids of union offices are a response to organized workers’ demands to change the way the country operates, both on the job and off. Unions have ardently defended public ownership of Iraq’s oil and have fought privatization of government-owned enterprises. They have demanded that the reconstruction not be dictated by foreigners.

This contradicts the government’s and the U.S. agenda. Right now, the government is demanding that the teachers union hold government-run elections—although its leadership has already been democratically elected. Five hundred teachers turned out for a demonstration in Baghdad March 28.

STRIKES OVER LIGHTS OUT

The unions are finding remarkable ways to resist the conditions rising from a foreign army’s occupation and help serve the people of Iraq. One challenge has been the fight for reliable electric power.

After the invasion the U.S. military occupied a power station serving four provinces and 5 million people. They declared it a military encampment, which turned it into a target, and resulted in several union members becoming casualties when insurgents attacked the base.

The local union at the power station demanded the military leave, but was ignored. The U.S. military decreed that no Iraqis would be permitted in the station after dark—making it impossible to maintain the station 24 hours a day. When some workers tried to enter the station one night to make repairs, they were arrested.

The union called a strike that compelled the military to release its members. That led to more strikes over workplace issues and the demand that the station be demilitarized. The Iraqi government ultimately negotiated for removal of U.S. troops, and today there’s no military presence.

All this came without firing a shot—and from a union that is technically illegal. That same kind of power has been demonstrated repeatedly by oil workers, dock workers, and others, responding to the conditions of occupation.

Meanwhile, while the U.S. government pontificates about building democracy in Iraq, it is silent about union rights.

Iraqi unionists want the same things we want: democracy and the right to run their own affairs, respect for union rights, to rebuild their country without interference. They are eager to meet unionists in the U.S. Civil engineers want to learn how to rebuild infrastructure, and utility workers are thinking about how the power industry should be administered. The moment is ripe for U.S. unions to invite their counterparts.

Eisenscher is national coordinator of U.S. Labor Against the War. Read more about solidarity with the teachers’ demonstration, and donate at USLAW .