After three decades of increasingly brutal repression under Saddam Hussein's regime, the once powerful Iraqi labour movement is trying to rebuild itself. But it is doing so against the background of continuing occupation, led by British and US troops.

Nearly a year after the war that claimed thousands of civilian lives and further devastated the country's infrastructure, evidence mounts that the occupation's primary concern is to ensure the speedy sell-off of the Iraqi economy rather than the rights of the country's workers.

Following a visit by British trade unionists to Iraq in October 2003, and the recent attack on the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions by US forces in Baghdad, Camden UNISON is hosting a discussion about the defence of trade union rights in occupied Iraq.

The meeting will include photographs taken during the October 2003 trade union visit. Please come along to hear first-hand accounts of trade unionism under siege.


Speakers:

Abdullah Muhsin - London representative of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions

Alex Gordon - Secretary of the South Wales and West of England Region of the Rail Maritime and Transport Union

Guy Smallman - Photojournalist and member of the National Union of Journalists, London Freelance Branch