Abdullah Muhsin - Iraqi trade unionist

Hear
Abdullah Muhsin

Iraqi trade unionist

Abdullah Muhsin is the International Representative of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers and a former student-union activist who fled Iraq in 1978 to escape Saddam Hussein.

Abdullah Muhsin will be speaking about the courage and dedication of Iraqi teachers and trade unionists in their attempts to reconstruct that country’s education and social system in spite of violence, sectarian interference, international terrorism and the failure of internal Iraqi political forces to work together in reconstructing civil society.

Date: Thursday 29th November 07
Time: 7.00 pm
Venue: TUC (1st Floor 199 Armagh St)
Refreshments will be provided

Abdullah Muhsin is the International Representative of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers, formerly known as the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU), whose 200,000-strong membership is drawn from a wide range of ethnic and religious communities organised throughout Iraq’s core industries.

A former student-union activist, Abdullah Muhsin fled Iraq in 1978 after Saddam Hussein waged his campaign of terror against that country’s civil-society organisations independent of Ba’athist control, including trade unions, student groups and women’s organisations. After spending a few years in Italy, Muhsin moved to England, where he has lived ever since.

From exile, Muhsin was active in the Workers’ Democratic Trade Union Movemen (WDTUM), an underground organisation that resisted Hussein’s Ba’ath Party until its collapse. The WDTUM, a collection of trade unionists, intellectuals, liberals, communists and civil-society activists, collected information on Hussein's crimes against humanity and publicised them to trade unions around the world.

At a recent Education International Congress in Berlin, Abdullah Muhsin spoke of the courage and dedication of Iraqi teachers in attempting to reconstruct that country’s education system in spite of violence, sectarian interference, international terrorism and the failure of internal Iraqi political forces to work together in reconstructing civil society. He criticised the failure of the Iraqi government to effectively address education and other social issues and told delegates of the personal hardship and suffering experienced by teachers, students and ordinary families in their struggle for survival and to establish reasonable living standards.

Abdullah Muhsin has co-authored a book on the history of Iraqi unions, Hadi Never Died: Hadi Saleh and the Iraqi Trade Unions. At it’s launch in July Mushin described Iraq’s economy as pulverised by Saddam’s wars, bled by sanctions and further devastated by the invasion, looting and rampant corruption. He said that Iraq’s economy needs emergency investment and widespread reconstruction, adding that free and independent unions will play an important role in making sure investment in Iraq provides quality jobs and decent public services.

Abdullah Muhsin has an Honours degree in Sociology and Masters in Politics and Government, and has taught Trade Union Studies at University London Metropolitan.

The emerging signs of vibrant civil society, such as organisations of women, trade unionists and students, present a real opportunity to end the occupation and isolate the forces promoting sectarian, communal and religious violence.
Abdullah Muhsin,- ‘We are nobody’s pawns’, Guardian, 23 October 2004