Special Event: Back from the Labor Movement in Iraq

Wed., December 12, 7 p.m., Rockville Library
Featured Speaker: Gene Bruskin
Co-Convener of U.S. Labor Against the War

Cosponsors: Montgomery County Education Association;  UFCW 1994 MCGEO;  Peace Action Montgomery; New Beginnings Initiative

Labor leader Gene Bruskin has recently returned from a week in Basra, Iraq as part of a U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW) delegation to the International Civil Society Solidarity Initiative conference.

The conference brought together trade unionists and other supporters from the U.S. and Europe with women's, student, environmental and other Iraqi organizations seeking to develop popular campaigns for labor rights and justice for Iraqi working people.  The USLAW delegation had extensive conversations with Iraqi union leaders that led to the creation of a signed agreement calling for international support for a united campaign for labor rights in Iraq. Unions in Iraq are still largely illegal and are governed by Saddam Hussein's 1987 anti-union declaration. 

On Dec. 12, join Gene for an informative discussion on Iraq. We’ll discuss what it is like for ordinary Iraqis now that the U.S. military has mostly left the country. What did we leave behind? What does this say about “wars of choice”? What was the impact of the war on the labor movement? What can we do now?

USLAW consists of 200 labor organizations across the U.S. that advocate spending public money for human needs, not unnecessary foreign wars.