| Iraqi union workers protest oil privatization { June 5 2007 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active) http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/0605-02.htmhttp://www.commondreams.org/news2007/0605-02.htm
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JUNE 5, 2007 8:15 AM
CONTACT: Congressman Dennis Kucinich Natalie Laber (202) 225-5871 (o); (202) 365-1040 (c) Congressman Kucinich to Receive Statement By Oil Workers Union on U.S. Government's Role in Privatizing Iraqi Oil
WASHINGTON - JUNE 5 - When: Tuesday, June 5, 2007 Time: 6 p.m. Where: Cannon Terrace; Corner of New Jersey Avenue and Independence Avenue
Just two weeks ago, Congress passed and President Bush signed legislation that set several benchmarks for the Iraqi government, including the passage of a hydrocarbon law by the Parliament. The Administration misled Congress by emphasizing only a small part of this law: the so-called 'fair distribution of oil revenues.' Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), a staunch opponent of the Iraqi Hydrocarbon Act, will receive a statement by the Oil Workers Union to BearingPoint tomorrow afternoon. BearingPoint is a consulting firm that received a U.S. government contract to assist the Iraqi government in drafting its oil law, which would privatize control of Iraqi oil.
Two top leaders in Iraq's labor movement, Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein, President of the Electrical Utility Workers Union and Faleh Abood Umara, General Secretary of the Iraq Federation of Oil Unions, will begin a 12-city U.S. tour, which concludes in Atlanta on June 29. They will describe the likely consequences if the occupation continues, what might occur if it ends and prospects for a stable, democratic, non-sectarian future for Iraq.
Kucinich, along with leaders in Iraq's labor group, will discuss the extensive deception about the content of the hydrocarbon law, a deception which has taken in members of Congress and the media. Misdescribed tactically as a revenue sharing plan, it is in fact a radical plan to privatize Iraq's oil. The law before the Iraq Parliament contains 3 vague lines about revenue sharing and 33 solid pages of a complex legal restructuring, facilitating the privatization of Iraq's oil resources.
This event is part of a "Voices of Iraqi Workers Solidarity Tour" sponsored by U.S. Labor Against the War, United for Peace and Justice and the American Friends Service Committee.
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