So yesterday I had my third major political experience of the summer.
First was my trip to DC, and my seeing all of the Congress up close (and coughing over Bill Frist's speech); also, my visit to all the offices of congressmen.
Second was my 1-day job at homeland security (forced onto me by my Homeland intern sister), where I got to find out that "they" really ARE watching us..
And now, probably the best one yet (because it didn't make me so repulsed of our government to the point of wanting to be an anarchist...): I had the privelege of seeing two Iraqi Union leaders speak at the Black Radical Congress 2005.
Their names (to the best of my spelling and hearing ability) and bios:
Anjem Ali Aljwari (I'm going to call him Ali because ... it's easy to spell) : He is the North American representative of the union of the unemployed and the federal workers council union in Iraq. He fled Iraq around the time of the Gulf War, and he eventually came to live in Canada. From there, he was a prominent activist for the workers of Iraq, and also joined in the antiwar/antisanctions movement against the people of Iraq. Contary to US government thought, not liking saddam didn't mean you wanted your country to be bombed the hell out of..
The other was:
Falah Iwan (one website spells it "Iwan" I'll just call him Falah. Again, it's easy to spell):
He's the president of the FWCUI, the The Federation of Workers Councils and Unions of Iraq, and he only spoke Arabic. Ali mostly translated what he had to say. He was a really jolly guy; I thought he would make a good neighbor because he's always smiling and shaking his head and waving his hands in the air. During Saddam Hussein, he was an underground union leader, and he organized the workers in many spots.
The first leader to speak was Ali. I had an Israel/Palestine pamphlet with me at the time, so I tried my best effort to take notes on what the two of them said. Before Ali spoke, several Georgia Black Radical Congress member spoke, and even a Georgia senator (not US congress, but Georgia congress) gave really great speeches against the war and occupation.
Ali was pretty much fluent in English (he sometimes had to pause to recollect his thoughts, but he definitely could convey them). Near the beginning of his speech, he said, "Two years ago we were promised freedom and democracy. I will tell you a little later what freedom and democracy we got." He went on to tell us a few statistics (I was jotting notes all over the place, so some of these may be from Falah's speech instead, sorry for the mixup):
The new Iraqi government admits to 40% unemployment, but the unions, which are much older than the new iraqi government, estimate it to be as high as 70%.
Most families can only recieve water for 4-5 hours a day.
Garbage is being placed in downtown dumpsters and being burned right there (horrible environmental effects, I'd imagine)
Sewage is in the streets. During the winter, you cannot walk through the streets without having to go through it.
The average family that has all its members working an attain maybe 40-50 US dollars a month in pay. The average expense among an Iraqi family is 80-90 dollars a month.
Ali's utmost message was to us, the American people, about the US occupation:
"
society has been uprooted to nowhere."
" devastated every aspect of life"
"The main problem we see is the occupation. It is stopping the society from progressing."
He exercised an incredible amount of restraint when it came to having anger at our country for what it has done to Iraq. In fact, he said he had met many people in the United States which he considered "brothers and sisters" to him, and said many Americans share the same "feelings and hopes" as the Iraqi workers (80% of the Iraqi population).
Next came Falah's speech. I love this guy, because he's just so cool. First of all, he spoke only in Arabic, and one of his first words were "Assalam Wa Leikum," and, to my surprise the audience responded in Arabic, even though most of the audience was either white american or black african american, not muslim. Educated people, no?
Falah spent less time on statistics and more on the feelings of the Iraqi people -- mainly the Iraqi workers. One of the things he spoke about was how the occupation has "divided Iraqi society based on religion ." I noticed how the US government was trying to keep a certain amount from every ethnic group in power. The Iraqis rightfully see this as a divide-and-conquer strategy, not a helpful affirmative action. He again repeated the message for the American people to "stand by the Iraqi workers." Some of his last messages were calling for organization and liberation of all workers both in Iraq and the world.
After this came a question and answer session. One of the first questions pertained to the insurgency. This one I really wanted to hear. An older man, probably a professor, asked about what the Iraqi workers' thoughts were on the "armed resistance." Falah began by saying (via translation from Ali) that the "Geneva convention allows for all occupied countries to resist occupation," so the Iraqis fighting back had a RIGHT to fight back. But at the same time, Falah said, he believes the insurgency has no unified vision for Iraq's future (unlike the unions and other groups), and that they are part of a lot of bloodshed, and are not properly resisting.
At some other point in time, another person (obviously not content with the last answer) asked again about the "resistance." This time, Falah responded, "We consider ourselves resistance." This evoked applause from all of us. It became very clear to me personally very quickly that the Iraqi unions considered themselves the most efficient and effective form of resistance to the occupation, and that the various fighting groups were much less effective.
The issue of privatization of Iraqi economy came up. Falah and Ali explained how the largest sector in Iraqi recent history has always been the public one, and how the invasion and occupation has threatened the robust public sector. For example, one member of the new Iraqi government has commented that 40-60% of the public sector is "unneeded," so the unions worry that all those Iraqis may be laid off.
The two union leaders also went into how the unions were organizing workers all over the country, and they were striking and demonstrating to try to end the occupation of their country.
Another interesting question was asked. One woman wanted to know the fate of Iraq's women. Falah responded by saying women's rights in Iraq is now worse than "maybe even the 1950's." Women are "afraid to walk the streets," because they don't know what will happen to them. In Kurdistan, the northern Iraqi region free from Saddam Hussein for about 11 years, there have been reported more than 5,000 "honor killings" by husbands against their wives. They said the US sanctions reduced the role of women greatly, because they needed to work harder in home to sustain for the family.
They spoke briefly about the role of US warplanes still bombing Iraqi provinces, many which the US soldiers refer to as "Talabani." They said most of the casualties of these US bombs are "civilians."
The subject of Muqtada Al-Sadr also came up, and the two basically didn't like him too much. They said many young people joined his movement of resistance, but that in the end it really didn't accomplish much, and "so many people died for nothing."
In Kirkuk they tried to form a multiracial union, of "Christian, Muslims, Arabs...," but the Kurdish militias ordered the Kurds to pull out of the united oil union, and to form their own union to try to take over the oil supplies of the city.
They also said the Iraqi healthcare system at this point in time is perhaps "The worst in the world." I don't know if that's entirely accurate, but they live in Iraq and I don't...so who am I to say? On the subject of Depleted Uranium (slightly radioactive material used in US bombs), he said it was a problem facing "The entire society, not just Iraqi workers." He said some Iraqi doctors are so untrained that their remedy to that problem was to tell the workers to drink milk before they start work on anything. Milk vs radiation. Maybe it is the worst in the world?
Their overall message was very clear: American workers must have solidarity with Iraqi workers, and all of us must work to make an end to this occupation NOW (he used the word "now"), because there is no progress being made while the occupation continues. All of what Bush, Wolfowitz, and other Establishment members are saying (both parties, there's really very little difference) is a complete lie. The US is not helping the Iraqi populace by staying; it is seeking to further dominate their society with military bases and economic imperialism. The US presence is illegal and detrimental.
I'm sure the Establishment/military-industrial complex knows this, but what reason do they have to care for the Iraqi people? They just want to be a dominant force in Iraq and the Middle East. They really do not care. I've known that for a long time.
It would help if everyone knew that.
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