Image of the Day

surreptitiously in a conspiratorial manner. The other unions in Iraq
received copies of the latest draft, via the Solidarity Centre, only one year
ago.
The recent draft of the labour law is not merely the result of a normal
development of the economic necessities, or a kind of cure to the
economic crisis. It is the direct result of the IMF policies which have been
imposed by the US occupation in collaboration with their loyal
government, so the struggle against it is part of the struggle against the
occupation policies and the neo-liberal agenda.
The spirit of the draft is to legitimize the capitalist interests, and to
defend them within an officially authorized framework. The notes are so
numerous, that we cannot list them all in detail; here we focus only on the
main key points.
The new labour law confirms the laws of the former regime, which
consider the workers in the public sector as officials, depriving them of the
most basic rights and guarantees, denying them the right to organize and
the right to strike.
Most of the articles of the new labour law are to guarantee the
interests of the capitalists. More than one article gives the full right to the
capitalists to lay off workers for no reason. The dismissals of the workers
are up to the owners of the factories or the projects.
In 2004 the Iraqi government had accepted the 6 demands of the IMF
as conditions for a compulsory loan of about US$436million. All those
conditions are undoubtedly expressions of the neo-liberal policies.
The new labour law reflects clearly and overtly the class interests of
the capitalists before the workers' interests. It gives legitimacy to
exploitation, while justifying the greed of the capitalists. In a word, the
new labour law is a framework within which to intensify and justify the
exploitation and the suppression of the workers and to enable the neoliberal
model to control the economy in Iraq.
The preamble of the draft is to facilitate the investment conditions for
the capitalists. There is no real confirmation of the rights to strike, to sitin,
to assemble or to demonstrate. There are no guarantees for the workers'
rights, such as,