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Congress 2005 debate on Iraq Emergency Resolution

Issue date

Women in Iraq

The President: I now call Emergency Motion 5, Women in Iraq. The General Council supports the motion. I will be calling Sally Hunt to explain the General Council's position.

Tony Kearns (Communication Workers Union) moved Emergency Motion 5.

He said: I do not know if it is just me but I am getting really sick and tired when I wake up in the morning to see these type of images on the paper and on the television screens about the continual bombings taking place in Iraq. The situation facing the Iraqi people, and women in particular, continues to degenerate and continues to be of great concern, but this motion differs from the debate we had yesterday because it is about after the occupation. It is about where we go from here. Nothing distorts a nation's development more than foreign occupation.

The debate on the new constitution in Iraq has been completely distorted by the United States' Government. The people who we are appealing to here are trade unionists. We are trade unionists because we know that a trade unionist will defend working people. The bomb that exploded yesterday killed more than 150 people but it killed 150 working people.

The artificial timescales introduced by George Bush have made the constitution unacceptable. The constitution has now been forced to go to a premature referendum. This is what the constitution says on the position of women. It talks about equality. I refer to article 2(1), section A, of the constitution, which says: 'No law can be passed that contradicts the undisputed rules of Islam', and contained within that is the position of women. It was said from this rostrum to loud applause earlier this week that if your religion discriminates, your religion has got it wrong.

However, the constitution goes further. The constitution has enshrined that discrimination into the national law. At the same time, it weakens the role of the trade unions. It is clear now that a danger is emerging that Iraq could slide into civil war. The United States' occupation forces are so unpopular that they can only remain in Iraq by fostering divisions amongst the Iraqis. It is the classic tactic of divide and rule. The shocking condemnation of the position of women and religious minorities is that they appeared to be more respected under Saddam Hussein than under the United States' occupation. This demonstrates that the constitution is solely the business of the Iraqi people and not those of the foreigners who seek to impose their ideas by jets, tanks and guns.

Of course, one notable problem, as I said, is that it Decree 875 puts the position of trade unions in jeopardy. As Mary from NATFHE said yesterday, the decree seizes trade unions' money to be controlled and dispensed by the Government. The IFTU has asked the Director-General of the ILO to personally to intervene in an effort to restore trade union rights.

Conference, in any war civilians are amongst the casualties. In the First World War, 5 per cent of the casualties were civilians. In armed conflicts today, around the world, 75 per cent of casualties in war are civilian, and the vast majority of them have proved to be women. The United States' and the UK Governments have refused to count the victims. In relation to the position of women in war and the position of women in Iraq, I think it was Barbara from Amicus who, yesterday, said that it is quite clear that tens of thousands of women have been abused, raped, tortured, maimed and killed by the Coalition armed forces and heavily armed private security forces. This has given to the green light to the reactionary forces inside Iraq to attack women in a similar manner.

Under the constitution, as we have seen, women in Iraq are threatened with being excluded from society. We think that the TUC must play a part in supporting our goal of achieving better conditions for women.

If you look at the emergency motion, it is not exhaustive. It lists organisations that we believe the TUC should be working with and lobbying to enhance this position. As I have said, the list is not exhaustive.

I remember seeing one particular image from the Balkan war which remains in my mind more than anything else. It was a picture taken on a sunny morning in a woodland area and hanging still from the branch of a tree was a woman who had hanged herself. She had got to the point of giving up because in the village she came from the men had been taken away and murdered and the women who were left were abused, raped and attacked as an instrument of war.

As I said, this is different from the debate about the occupation that we had yesterday. This is about where this trade union Movement lays its cards and how it deals with this issue in the future. We are trade union.

Let me show you this picture, which says: 'Politicians are voted the world's least trusted people'. That is hardly a surprise. So it falls on us as trade unionists to defend the right of other trade unionists and to defend women's rights around the world. Yes, we support the end of the occupation; yes, we support the demonstration on the 24th September but, as trade unionists, we offer the best chance of raising the condition of women in Iraq after the occupation.

Sue Bond (Public and Commercial Services Union) seconded the emergency motion. She said: President, Congress, let me spell out for you the reality of what life is like now for women in Iraq. For most it is a living nightmare. For the thousands and thousands of women who once worked in the public sector their jobs have now gone. Unemployment is now running at 70 per cent. Yes, you heard me right: 70 per cent! The occupation has confined them to their homes. Each day begins with a struggle to get the basics of survival for their families, risking their lives in the dangerous streets for food, water, gas canisters and medicine. Each day ends with relief at surviving death threats, car bombs and violent attacks. In a country awash with oil, food is scares and acute child malnutrition has doubled.

Of the one hundred thousand civilian deaths since the invasion, half have been women and children. The land is now riddled with depleted uranium and the terrifying landscape of past and present conflicts.

This motion argues that free trade unions are vital to defend the violation of women's human rights in Iraq absolutely. PCS believes that to bring peace and democracy in Iraq and for free trade unions to build and flourish the occupation must end because that is the main barrier to the development of a democratic civil society. The occupation is the key architect of institutionalised sectarian and ethnic divisions. In the United States opposition to the occupation is accelerating and Mr. Bush's approval ratings are plummeting.

What must happen in the UK is that we must keep up the pressure. The anti-war protests here have been an inspiration to others around the world, protests in which trade unions have played a crucial role. We now have a responsibility to make the demonstration on September 24th as big as possible to show that the opposition to the occupation is global. Support our sisters and brothers in Iraq, building genuine free trade unions and organisations in line with the statement to be made by the General Council, and bring the troops home. Bring them home by Christmas and give the Iraqi people back the right to determine their own future.

The President: I call Sally Hunt to speak for the General Council.

Sally Hunt (General Council): President, I will keep this contribution brief as much has been said already. The General Council will be supporting this emergency motion but with an explanation. The explanation is very simple. We believe that our primary focus if we are to help women and men, although this motion is focused on women, and trade unionists in particular, and women in general in Iraq, it must be done through the trade union Movement as our primary way of working.

The emergency motion is broadly in line with Congress policy. As you will see from bullet point (iii), it singles out just one women's organisation, which is the Organisation for Women's Freedom in Iraq. We do not, at the same time, have reference to unions such as the Iraqi Teachers' Union, the Journalists' Union and many others. However, it was welcomed to hear the CWU note that this was not meant to be the absolute in terms of those unions which we should work with. It is very much the General Council's view that we will continue to work with all relevant organisations but primarily with the trade union Movement in order to take that work forward. Thank you.

Chris Morley (National Union of Journalists) speaking in support of Emergency Motion 5, said: Last month I had the honour of taking part in a UNESCO sponsored conference of Iraqi journalists in Amman, Jordan. It was too dangerous to hold the conference in Iraq. Many women journalists were present from all parts of Iraq, but particularly from the south whose experiences moved me. They were passionate that the emerging Iraq should not snuff out their rights and leave them condemned to irrelevance in that society. About 25 per cent of media workers in Iraq are currently women but there are virtually none in senior positions, no editors or owners.

One delegate put the situation in perspective when she said that a newspaper boss had told her, 'I don't want women in my newspaper. Women aren't interested in politics'. Another from the Sharia south told movingly how from the day they were born many women felt that they were anonymous even in their own families. This is part of a wider cultural issue but the important question is how do we support women who want to break free and live their lives how they want?

The irony of the invasion and occupation, with all of its blood and tears, is that Bush and Blair threaten to preside over the ending of a secular based society in Iraq. Iraqi women trade unionists are desperate not to be sold out and that is what we are in danger of doing. We must not be complicit in that by our own silence. We must reach out and give support and the benefit of our experience in the struggle for equality to our sisters and brothers in Iraq. We must not let women's rights in Iraq slip into darkness because Bush and Blair need to surrender them to get a short-term deal on the new constitution. Support the emergency resolution.

* Emergency Motion 5 was CARRIED

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