SOLIDARITY WITH THE IRAQI INDEPENDENT TRADE UNION MOVEMENT

Early day motion 1120, tabled 30 April 2003 by Harry Barnes (Labour). Signed by 74 members.

That this House recalls that on May Day 1959 the Iraqi Labour Movement mobilised one million people out of the then population of 14 million for a massive march in Baghdad to celebrate International Workers' Day; sends its heartfelt solidarity to the Workers' Democratic Trade Union Movement in the Iraqi Republic on the occasion on 1st May 2003 of the first free labour movement march since the demise of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship; further notes that the Iraqi trade union movement is working for the creation of a unified, federal and democratic Iraq that transcends religious, ethnic and nationalist divisions and also guarantees political and trade union rights, which were denied by the Ba'athist regime and its bogus trade union machine; and supports their call for the transfer of power from the occupying forces to an interim and broadly based coalition government which could remove the remnants of Saddam's dictatorship and prepare a permanent constitution which would provide the basis for free and fair elections under the direct supervision of the United Nations.

Signatures by party: Labour 60, Labour/Co-operative 6, Liberal Democrat 3, Plaid Cymru 2, UUP 2, DUP 1.