4-25-05, 8:37 am

From IFTU Originall form Morning Star



INTERVIEW: Iraqi trade unionist MAHDY ALI LAFTA talks about the huge challenge of renewing education in his country.

WHEN Mahdy Ali Lafta, the head of Iraq?s teaching union in Baghdad, started his career in 1970, he had no idea what life would later hold in store.

That was the year that he first started out as a teacher in Iraq.

After Saddam Hussein became president in 1979, Lafta's life, like those of many other Iraqis, was changed forever.

When the new regime began to force all teachers to join the Ba'ath Party, he refused and was dismissed.

Eking out an existence taking any job that he could find, he worked as a taxi driver and even a labourer. 'I did any job to survive,' says Lafta.

He was arrested several times by the authorities but released. Lafta's brother was not so fortunate.

'My brother lost his life, we don?t know his fate. He was a teacher as well,' he says.

Lafta took part underground political activities within Iraq and, when Saddam's regime collapsed, he saw his chance to return to education to build a free teaching trade union.

'I'm a patriot – I love my country and I love my profession. I am committed to rebuilding a proper civil society and teaching is a part of that.'

Education was one of the key pillars for the former regime and Ba?athist propaganda dominated the curriculum and textbooks. But years of war and sanctions have taken a heavy toll. The country's schools and universities are now in a dire situation. Lafta describes the challenges as 'enormous.'

'First, there needs to be a demilitarisation of education and deba?athification of education. You can?t just change things overnight,' he says.

'The curriculum must be based on proper consultation with teachers. Human rights and respect for rights must be paramount in education.'

Lafta highlights the kind of pressure that teachers are currently being placed under, with teachers in Iraq often taking classes of around 50 children, in three shifts a day.

But he reports that wages have increased since the collapse of the former regime. Before, many teachers were forced to take on side jobs just to make ends meet, but pay rises mean that this is no longer the case.

Textbooks still contain many reminders of the dictatorship. While for some subjects, like science, the old books are useable, Lafta points out that there are references to Saddam and war even in geometry textbooks, for example. A new curriculum is currently under discussion by a committee convened by the education minister with consultation from unions and civil society.

Lafta says: 'Education has to be separate from politics and must not be dominated by one political party.

'But you can't transform education overnight – you're talking about the legacy of dicatorship over decades – a generation that's lived under dictatorship.'

Teachers and lecturers have been frequent targets for attacks by Iraq's insurgency.

Lafta is adamant that such attacks are being carried out by enemies of democracy – 'Saddam remnants and forces from across the border.'

He condemns the attacks, which have seen union members in universities and schools have been killed across Iraq, from Mosul to Baghdad, Al-Ramadi and Basra.

'We are patriots,' Lafta says. 'We are defending unions and our members, we are struggling under a difficult situation to build our country.

'They target the most prominent people with a lot of things to say about the occupation, about terrorism and who are prominent defenders of Iraq's integrity.

'Those who are targeting and killing our members are not resistance fighters but terrorists,' he says.

When the possibility of Islamic or US influence on the curriculum is raised, Lafta points out that, since the Shi'ite group in the country's interim parliament does not have a government-forming majority, it would be difficult for it to get its own way.

Besides, he adds, when Islamists talk publicly, they say that they don?t want an Iran-style regime.

The US, says Lafta, is working to ensure that no group has outright power in the country in order to protect its strategic interest.

He argues that trade unions can play a large part in educating the people to ensure that outside influence is not brought to bear on Iraq's education system.

'We can?t just sit and wait. We must campaign to educate our people,' says Lafta.

'You cannot build democracy without proper civil society and trade unions are at the heart of that. We are the real resistance.'

The trade unionist says that he is 'pleased and grateful' to have met British education trade unions and the TUC.

Some have offered physical support and training and others have pledged to take part in delegations to the country to witness the situation on the ground.

This support is welcome – while some things are improving, Iraq's teachers, like most of the country, still face plenty of hardship.