WAR AND OCCUPATION OPENED THE DOOR TO IRAQ’S VIRUS PANDEMIC

To fight COVID-19, Iraqi workers want political change
By David Bacon, © 2020
The Nation, 4/8/2020


Union leader Falah Alwan, president of the Federation of Workers Councils and Unions of Iraq, and leather goods factory workers argue with the plant manager about their union rights in 2003.

Solidarity, Then the Virus

Many U.S. union activists remember Falah Alwan. As the occupation of Iraq unfolded in the summer of 2005, he and several Iraqi union leaders traveled here to make clear the impact of sanctions and invasion on his country’s workers. From one union hall to another, on both coasts and through the Midwest, Alwan and his colleagues appealed for solidarity.

In the end, the war’s damage went virtually unhealed, but the ties forged between workers and unions of the two countries have remained undiminished. Last week, as both face the coronavirus pandemic, Alwan wrote to the friends he made in those years. “The news from New York is horrible,” he commiserated. “I believe the days to come will be much worse than they are now, not only in Iraq but for you also.”

In 2005 the Iraqis effectively dramatized the human cost of U.S. policy. Today, as both countries face the coronavirus, the devastating situation of Iraq’s people calls for revisiting that question of responsibility.

On paper, the virus’s toll in Iraq today stands at 1,031 officially confirmed cases, with 64 deaths. While Iraq’s per capita count is still much smaller than that in the U.S. – 22 cases per million people to the U.S.’ 910 – the numbers don’t tell the real story. In Iraq very few people can access medical treatment, and the number of infections and deaths is much higher than that given in official statements.

This past week Reuters reported that confirmed cases numbered instead between 3000 and 9000, quoting doctors and a health official – a report that led the Iraqi government to fine the agency and revoke its reporting license for three months. The higher figure would give Iraq a per capita infection rate higher than South Korea, one of the virus’ early concentrations.

Unions and civil society organizations must now try to make up for Iraq’s political paralysis and the partial dysfunction of its government. “Because of our ruined healthcare institutions,” Alwan explains, “the government hurried to impose a general curfew [a stay-at-home order] to stop the outbreak and a rapid collapse in the whole situation.”

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Philippine Banana Farmers:
Their Cooperatives and Struggle for Land Reform and Sustainable Agriculture

From FoodFirst,
by David Bacon, © 2020

PANABO, DAVAO, PHILIPPINES (8-31-19) – Workers harvest bananas in the field of the DARBCO cooperative in the Mindanao city of Panabo. Denmark Aguitas catches the bunnch of bananas on his shoulder as it’s cut from the tree, and carries it to the cableway where it’s hung from a hook and then pulled to the packing shed.
Copyright David Bacon

Thirty years ago many banana workers in the Philippines made a radical change in their work and lives. They transformed the militant unions they had organized to wrest a decent living from the multinational corporations that control much of the world’s food production. Instead of working for wages, they used the country’s land reform law to become the owners of the plantations where they had labored for generations.

It was not an easy process. They had to fight for market access and fair prices against the same companies that had been their employers. But they developed a unique organization to help them, that provided knowledge and resources for forming cooperatives. Twenty years ago FARMCOOP and these worker/grower cooperatives defeated the largest of the companies, Dole Fruit Company (in the Philippines called Stanfilco). As a result, today the standard of living for coop members has gone up, and workers have more control over how and what they produce.

FARMCOOP became the source of everything from financial planning and marketing skills to organic farming resources and political organizing strategy. FARMCOOP then developed an alliance with one of Mindanao’s indigenous communities, helping it start its own coops that combine the use of local traditions with organic and environmentally sustainable agriculture.

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AN URGENT CCDS MESSAGE: Take Action Now to Stop War with Iran!

Dear CCDS members and friends

Trump’s assassination of Iran’s military commander Qassem Soleimani has escalated with the news that missiles have been launched on U.S. bases in Iraq. We are at a “grave and serious moment” in the words of Rep. Barbara Lee.

Trump’s crazed plot to distract the public’s attention from his impeachment and pending trial in the Senate is putting U.S. troops in harm’s way. If the escalation continues, the safety of the entire world is at stake with the use of nuclear weapons an ever-present danger. We must do all we can to stop this madness.

CCDS is urging turn-out for protests on Thursday, January 9th. See below a message from MoveOn.org. If your area is not holding a protest, work to organize one. All hands on deck.

On Wednesday, January 8th at 8 PM ET, a national strategy call will take place organized by MoveOn, Indivisible and others. Join the call if at all possible.

CCDS National Executive Committee

**************

Dear MoveOn member,

Just as we were about to hit send on this email about nationwide anti-war protests Thursday, alarming news broke that Iran has launched an attack on the American al-Asad air base in Iraq in response to Donald Trump’s reckless, illegal provocations. News is continuing to develop, but it’s already clear that the following email has become even more important.

Assassinations don’t make us safer. Tonight’s attack is clear evidence of that. And that is why on Thursday, we will join together for a day of action across the country to protest and say #NoWarWithIran.

Trump’s unhinged foreign policy has needlessly endangered the lives of U.S. troops and Iraqi, Iranian, and countless other civilians.

We will not be led into another illegal war.

No War With Iran Nationwide Events

Join us on Thursday, January 9 for a #NoWarWithIran demonstration near you and make the anti-war majority in this country visible.

Don’t see an event near you? Sign up to host one.

People in the United States and across the globe are tired of war, from the military families who have seen multiple generations in the same conflicts, to the Iranian, Iraqi and Afghani families in the United States who worry for their loved ones back home.

We’ve learned our lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan and Yemen and global endless war. We will not be led into another costly, unnecessary war of choice. We will not allow our neighbors to be targeted by law enforcement. We will not be divided.

On Thursday, January 9, join MoveOn, Indivisible, Win Without War, the National Iranian American Council and About Face: Veterans Against The War to say #NoWarWithIran and oppose Trump’s war—and spread the word!

Already, we’ve seen Trump’s actions unleash xenophobia, with Iranian-Americans detained at the border in Washington state and asked about their political allegiance. That’s not the country we want to build in 2020. And tonight we’ve seen a dangerous response to these actions.

Where Trump acts with ignorance, fear, war, and moral weakness, we will show up with diplomacy and political courage. We are the majority, we stand united, and we oppose Trump’s war with Iran.

Thanks for all you do.

–Kate, Eric, Reggie, Jayne, and the rest of the team

P.S. Also, join us on Wednesday January 8th for a national strategy call at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT to hear from Senator Elizabeth Warren, Representative Barbara Lee, foreign policy experts, MoveOn leaders, and more to learn how we can take action together to prevent another endless war.

P.P.S. And say you’ll be there Thursday to make the anti-war majority in this country visible!

Want to support our work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump’s agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation’s pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your support, now more than ever. Will you stand with MoveOn?

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Contributions to MoveOn Civic Action are not tax-deductible for income tax purposes. You’re receiving this email because you took action with MoveOn. This email was sent to Rafael Pizarro on January 8, 2020.