Congressional Record on Iraqi Labor Rights
For the past several months, IVAW and U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW) have been gathering signatures from members of Congress in support of Iraqi labor rights. To date, 21 out of 435 members of the House of Representatives have signed on to the letter below, including one member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight- Bill Delahunt (D-MA, 10th District).
Labor rights are an integral element of democracy and, on a more basic level, help create the social, economic and political conditions for internal stability and security. In contrast, countries in which business interests are permitted to treat their workers with impunity suffer from social unrest and political violence that is detrimental to the international community as a whole.
Our elected officials have told us that our troops are in Iraq to provide the security conditions necessary for the evolution of democracy in Iraq. They therefore have a tacit obligation to American taxpayers as a whole and particularly to our troops, their families and the Iraqi people to promote the basic elements of democracy in Iraq, including labor rights.
IVAW thanks those legislators who signed on to the letter below for demonstrating their commitment to democracy in Iraq and calls on those who have not yet signed on to do so. We will continue to press the State Department to issue a public statement in support of Iraqi labor rights, as the British Foreign Office has done, and will be requesting the support of our elected representatives to obtain it. For more information on how you can support this initiative please contact tj@ivaw.org. Periodic updates can be found at ivaw.org/reparations.
