Bush Tyranny In Iraq Surpasses That Of Saddam.

[LynnTheDem]

I so agree with this Evidence File. :D

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9304.htm

[katinmn]

1. Excellent, Lynn!

:applause: Nice wrok!!

Following your theme, here's one more comparison.

Saddam outlawed labor unions.

So does Bush. But he takes it a step further. He is outsourcing the former union jobs to Halliburton contractors.

http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org/
IRAQ’S LABOR MOVEMENT
Iraq’s labor movement has a long history, going back to the formation of the oil workers and railway workers unions in the 1920s and 1930s under the British. Unions played an important role in the Revolution of 1958 which set up the first popular Iraqi government.

In the late 1970s, the Saddam Hussein regime crushed the trade union movement in Iraq by murdering and imprisoning unionists and forcing others underground or into exile. He banned unions in railways and aviation, in the printing and machine production industries, in oil, in electricity and power generation, and in textiles and leather products – which were all publicly-owned industries.

The regime also removed workers pensions and stole billions of dollars to finance wars of aggression.

What remained of unions under Saddam became additional tools for controlling the Iraqi people.

In 1987, Saddam issued Law 150, which prohibited workers in state-owned enterprises from joining unions.

Although the transition law, established when the first transitional Iraqi government came to power, make union activity legal, there are no governmental processes for the functioning of unions in Iraq. Also, Saddam’s 1987 law is still being enforced. The law affects workers employed in the enterprises set to be privatized, and that is why it hasn’t been repealed as hundreds of other Saddam-era laws have been. If those workers have no legal union, no right to bargain, and no contracts, then privatization and the huge job losses that will come with it, will face much less organized resistance.

Furthermore, last year CPA head Paul Bremer issued a decree called Public Notice Number One, prohibiting "pronouncements and material that incite civil disorder, rioting or damage to property."

Hadi Saleh, a leader of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unionists (IFTU), was assassinated on January 4, and Ali Hassan Abd, a member of the General Union of Oil and Gas Workers (GUOW) was assassinated on February 18.

And members and leaders of the Federation of Workers Councils and Unions of Iraq (FWCUI) have been arrested and fired from their jobs, along with members and leaders of the Union of the Unemployed.

Last year, U.S. occupation forces arrested eight members of the IFTU’s governing board. They were released the next day, but no explanation for their arrest has been given

Despite deaths threats and constant harassment, Iraqi working people have been joining together in unions and have been negotiating with employers for the same things that workers throughout the world demand: higher wages, better benefits, and job security.

THE SELLING OF IRAQ

US continues to develop strategies for the transformation of the Iraqi economy from publicly-owned to privately held.

In 2003, the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) published Order #39, which permits 100 percent foreign ownership of all Iraqi businesses, except the oil industry. Most of Iraq’s basic industry is publicly owned, including oil, electricity, railroads and many of the basic manufacturing industries.

Last year, Thomas Foley, director for private sector development for the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), announced a list of the first Iraqi state enterprises to be sold off, including cement and fertilizer plants, phosphate and sulfur mines, pharmaceutical factories and the country’s airline.

To make the sell-off of Iraqi resources easier, the CPA issued Order No. 37, which suspends income and property taxes a year and imposes a flat tax of 15 percent on individuals and corporations in the future.

Conferences are taking place regularly in Washington and London in which Iraqi enterprises and contracts are put on display, and transnational corporations come to examine profit making opportunities. One recent conference at Washington’s National Press Club sponsored by Equity International, a business consulting service, featured executives from Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Rockwell Automation, Foster Wheeler, The Livingston Group, Nissan Motor Co, M/A-COM, Federal Security Systems, Danimex Communications, Global Transportation Systems, Applied Industrial Technologies, Comprehensive Health Services, Washington Group International, International Truck and Engine Corporation and diplomats from countries participating in the occupation coalition.

Iraqi workers in the vast publicly owned industrial sectors look at the prospect of privatization with dread. Dathar Al-Kashab, manager of Baghdad’s Al Daura oil refinery, predicted that privatization would have an enormous effect. "A worker starting here today has a job for life, under the old system," he explains, "and there’s no law which permits me to lay him off. But if I put on the hat of privatization, I’ll have to fire 1500 workers. In America when a company lays people off, there’s unemployment insurance, and they won’t die from hunger. If I dismiss employees now, I’m killing them and their families." The privatization of the Umm Qasr docks would undoubtedly have the same effect on the port’s longtime workforce.

[Kurovski]

2. All the pieces of the puzzle are out there, scattered far and wide.

And once again, LynntheDem puts them all together.

Nominated for greatest American, er, I mean post!