BY ROHAN PEARCE
On July 29, some 1000 Iraqis marched to the former presidential palace in Baghdad. The protest, organised by the Union of Unemployed People in Iraq (UUPI), an organisation led by members of the Worker-Communist Party of Iraq (WCPI), called for jobs for Iraqis and for unemployment insurance.
At the palace, now used by US occupation forces, the demonstrators staged a sit-in. Unemployment has soared since the US-led invasion. Even Washington's Coalition Provisional Authority, which rules the country, acknowledges an unemployment rate of at least 60% — and the real rate is likely to be much higher.
As the sit-in continued into a second day, the protest was attacked in the early hours of the morning by US troops. They arrested 19 people, including Ghasam Haadi, the UUPI's president. An attempt by the occupation forces to remove the protesters' tent and disperse the demonstration was thwarted by a human blockade.
After a meeting with a protest delegation, which included the UUPI's vice-president, a member of the Organisation of Women's Freedom in Iraq and a representative WCPI, the detained protesters were released. The released prisoners were greeted with chants of "Long live the Worker-Communist Party of Iraq!" and "Long live the Union of Unemployed in Iraq!".
According to a statement issued by the UUPI, on the fifth day of their sit-in, August 2, US troops arrested 55 members of the group, including Haadi. In response, the organisation released an appeal for solidarity, calling on "all international organisations, all workers unions and humanitarians to strongly condemn" the arrests and demand that the US release the protesters. "Our union will do its best to expose the practices of the US as an occupying force in Iraq and its indifference to the agony of the masses in Iraq", said the statement.
A WCPI statement issued on August 3 explained: "The US forces have ruined Iraqi society and its infrastructure, created millions of unemployed, and denied any responsibility for the security and safety of the people of Iraq. They have not shown any concern for the absence of the minimum requirements of life for the people of Iraq during the last three months. They do not care about the absence of electricity for much of the day in Baghdad, the home city for 6 million human beings [and] where the temperature is so high that tens of children and ill people die every day. On top of all this, they prevent the unemployed people from protesting peacefully."
The party called "on all progressive and freedom-loving organisations and individuals and human rights defenders in Iraq and world-wide to build an international front to put pressure on the US administration in Iraq to meet the demands of the UUPI which represent ... the demands of the whole people in Iraq."
[For more information on the UUPI or the WCPI, visit .]
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, August 13, 2003.
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