Model motion for trade union branches, trades councils or anti-war groups

This organisation (or stewards’/branch/regional committee) notes:

1. A credible study by public health specialists, published in The Lancet, suggesting that some 100,000 Iraqis had died between 20 March 2003 and late summer 2004 as a direct result of the war and occupation – the vast majority at the hands of US/UK coalition forces, particularly aerial bombardment. The figures exclude the high number of civilian deaths in Fallujah in 2004.
2. The mounting number of deaths among both US and British forces, which both include large numbers of reservists.
3. Substantial evidence of the widespread torture and harassment of Iraqi prisoners at the notorious Abu Ghraib, other prisons and makeshift detention centres.
4. The long-term failure to re-construct basic infrastructure including water and electricity supplies across much of the country.
5. That opposition to the occupation is widespread among the Iraqi population.

This organisation believes that:

1. Iraq remains an occupied country, and its current government, lead by Iyad Allawi, is an illegitimate puppet regime.
2. The principal concerns of the US and UK governments are neither the security nor democratic rights of the Iraqi population but to secure permanent military bases in a strategic, oil-rich region and to complete the wholesale privatisation of huge swathes of the Iraqi economy.
3. The occupation forces do not have any progressive role to play in Iraq and their continued presence can only intensify and prolong the suffering and bloodshed.
4. Developments such as Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Against the War and UK Veterans and Families for Peace should be welcomed as a key component of a renewed movement to end the war and occupation.
5. Both UK and US forces should leave immediately, and those countries should pay substantial reparations to Iraq for the invasion and the sanctions that preceded it.
6. Trade unionists in Iraq should have the right to organise freely in defence of their rights and against the privatisation of Iraqi industries and services.

This organisation therefore resolves:

1. To support the call for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of British, US and other coalition troops from Iraq.
2. To work with national campaign groups to make our opposition to the occupation known both to the general public and to the government.
3. To affiliate to Iraq Occupation Focus* and to promote its work among our members.
4. To send a message of solidarity to the Southern Oil Company Union in Basra** and to donate (£25/£50/£100) to their organising funds.

* Annual affiliation fee for organisations: local groups £20; national groups £50.

** Iraq Occupation Focus is coordinating a UK solidarity appeal to support the Southern Oil Company Union. For more details, see www.iraqoccupationfocus.org.uk/socu.htm.

Please send any donations and affiliation fees to: Iraq Occupation Focus, PO Box 44680, London N16 7XX. Cheques should be made payable to ‘Iraq Occupation Focus’. If you are sending a donation for the Southern Oil Company Union appeal, please make clear in an accompanying letter. Enquiries can be emailed to us at iraqfocus@riseup.net.