U.S. Labor Against War (USLAW) will tour six Iraqi trade unionists across the country soon. Many trade unionists and activists are interested in the experience of Iraqi trade unionists organizing under the U.S. occupation of Iraq, but anti-war and labor activists should be cautious about the message of these events.

We are on ‘yellow alert,’ because the USLAW tour is missing the most important piece – it does not clearly oppose the U.S. occupation. Some of the invited Iraqi trade unionists support the U.S. occupation of their country – the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions accepts funding from and collaborates with the U.S. puppet governments. Other Iraqi trade unionists say in words that they oppose the U.S. occupation, but in practice support it by spending the majority of their efforts in denouncing the resistance to U.S. occupation, like the Federation of Workers Council and Unions. There may be an Iraqi trade unionist on the tour who opposes the U.S. occupation in words and deeds, but it has yet to be made clear. For this we think the flag must go up to advise friends and allies to proceed with caution when it comes to this tour.

The main goal of USLAW is in danger of being subverted by this tour. USLAW has a responsibility to project its own slogan of, “End the U.S. occupation, bring the troops home now!” across the country to workers and union officials. Whatever wrong or confused message the USLAW tour is sending, the message needs to be loud and clear from American workers and unions that we oppose U.S. war and occupation.

#UnitedStates #News #Iraq #IraqiFederationOfTradeUnions #LaborAgainstTheWar