DC: Iraqi Solidarity Tour Celebratory Farewell

DC

Washington

Where: Westminster Presbyterian Church, 400 I Street SW, Washington DC 20024 - Waterfront Metro (Green Line)

Map to Event

Join Ron Pinchback of WPFW 89.3 FM who will MC as we bid farewell and safe travels to our new friends, Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein, President, Electrical Utility Workers Union, General Federation of Iraqi Workers, and Faleh Abood Umara, General Secretary, Southern Oil Company Union, Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions.

Sister Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein is the first woman to head a national union in Iraq. Following high school, she went to work at the Southern Company for Electricity, where she became active in the labor movement. She rose to leadership of the Electricity Workers Union in Basra and recently was elected its national president. She serves on the executive committee of the Basra Work Unions Coalition. She is head of the Women Workers’ Bureau and is a leader in the Iraqi Women’s Association. She and her 7-year old son have received death threats as a result of her activism.

Brother Faleh Abood Umara is a founding member of the oil workers union and worked for the Southern Oil Company in Basra for 28 years. In 1998, he was detained by the Hussein regime for his activities on behalf of his coworkers. He has served on the union’s negotiating team with both the Oil Ministry and British occupation authorities to defend the rights and interests of oil industry workers in the post-Saddam era. The Southern Oil Workers Union has conducted strikes against outsourcing to foreign workers and schemes to privatize the oil sector.