Iraqi labor leader to speak in Hiawatha

[CornField]

"Struggles for Survival: Iraqi Workers Respond to War and Occupation"

Speaker: Amjad Aljawhary, North American Representative of the Federation of Workers’ Councils and Unions in Iraq (FWCUI)

7 pm -- Friday, June 9
Community of Christ Church, 1500 Blairs Ferry Road, Hiawatha

In Iraq today, up to 40% of workers are unemployed, and a devastated economy and a lack of institutions to provide necessities like health care has crippled society. Please join us to hear from and speak with Amjad Aljawhary during his visit to Iowa to speak about the realities of everyday life for Iraqi workers and how workers are organizing in the face of war and occupation.

Aljawhary, born in Baghdad in 1966, was blacklisted by the Hussein regime in the 1990s for his political views and for organizing among sewing workers. Since 1996 he has lived in exile in Toronto, Canada, where he has spoken widely on Iraqi issues. Currently, Aljawhary works on spreading the message of Iraqi’s working people and linking the labor movement in North America to the labor movement in Iraq.

The FWCUI supports organizing workers in their workplaces and in the public sphere to demand workers’ rights and labor law reforms. The organization formed in 2003 in Baghdad, and today has members in almost every sector and industry from Basra in the south to Mosul in the north. Its major goals are building a strong working class that leads to a modern society, and intervening in policy decisions that will shape Iraq’s future. Key issues of focus for the FWCUI are working hours, wages, women’s rights, social benefits and unemployment insurance.

Sponsored by the University of Iowa Labor Center, the Inter-Religious Council of Linn County, and the Hawkeye Labor Council, AFL-CIO.