A statement from the General Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq, via the Iraq Freedom Congress, June 7:

The Ministry of Industry and Minerals Privatizes Its Companies
Brothers and sisters in the working class: Amid chaos and lawlessness, surprisingly the Ministry of Industry and Minerals decides to privatize its affiliate companies. The ministry announced privatization of a number of corporations, including manufacturers of cement, pharmaceutical and petrochemicals companies, despite the fact that these enterprises are economically feasible and substantially profitable.

It is known to the world that a government will resort to privatization when expenses are far over the earnings. In Iraq however, the occupation, IMF and international bank who dictate the sort of economy that should be applied.

They started off with revoking food subsidy by eliminating a number of items from the food stamp; put forward draft oil and gas law and finally the Security Treaty between US and Iraq which the US administration threatened to confiscate $ 50 billion of Iraqi's money that exists in the US banks if Iraqis refuse to ratify this treaty.

History attempts to repeat itself; that is after half a century since the British occupation and Treaty of Baghdad Pact, the Iraqis are asked to be slaves again by signing another unjust and disgraceful one.

Brothers and sisters: It is our responsibility to tackle such projects that will enslave us. It is also our responsibility to defend our companies and factories that are the source of our livelihood. We have to stand against these projects. The peace and freedom lovers of the world rely on you to save the society from this dark scenario that we are put through because of the irresponsible conducts of the puppet government.

We in the General Federation of Workers Councils and unions in Iraq, condemn and deplore the act of the Ministry of Industry and hold them responsible for sale out the public sector because these are the people property.

General Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq (GFWCUI)
June 7, 2008

See our last posts on Iraq and the labor and civil resistance to oil and resource privatization.