[URPE] Iraq labor tour film update

[mzweig at notes.cc.sunysb.edu]

PLEASE FORWARD TO INTERESTED INDIVIDUALS AND LISTS

Dear Friends and Colleagues - 

I am happy to report that the recent tour of Iraqi labor leaders in the 
United States was a big success and that we were able to mobilize a team 
of fifteen videographers to document most of the seventy events in 26 
cities where the tour stopped.  We are now reviewing more than 80 hours of 
tape to create a DVD documentary of the tour.  Our hope and plan is that 
tens of thousands of people will share in the tour's powerful moments as 
Iraqi workers for the first time address American workers, labor leaders, 
peace activists, religious leaders, students, and scholars to speak of 
their lives under occupation and their aspirations as working people. 

Film maker Jonathan Levin is taking on the task of creating a lively 
27-minute documentary, which we hope to have available in the fall.  I am 
writing to ask for your financial support for this project.  I will send 
you a copy of the DVD when it is finished for a contribution of $100.  For 
$500 we will list you as a sponsor in the credits.   

We will get the documentary in front of audiences through networks of 
activists and organizations in the peace, labor, student, and religious 
communities.  We believe it will help our movement to have the opportunity 
for people to share in the tour as the Iraqis speak eloquently about their 
opposition to the continuing occupation and plans to privatize Iraqi oil 
and other national assets, and their efforts to build free trade unions in 
a democratic Iraq.  If you would be interested in using the documentary 
when it is finished, please contact me.

To support this video project with a tax-deductible contribution, please 
make your check payable to 
"The Stony Brook Foundation" 
and mark on the check "for the Iraq Labor Video." 

Send the check to me at the address below.

Thank you for your consideration. 

All the best,

Michael

Michael Zweig

Director, Center for Study of Working Class Life
Department of Economics
State University of New York
Stony Brook, NY 11794-4384
631.632.7536
michael.zweig at stonybrook.edu 

p.s. 

What follows is an historic document, the joint statement drafted by the 
leaders of three of Iraq’s main labor organizations who participated in 
the tour and leaders of US Labor Against the War, the tour's sponsor. The 
statement was crafted and agreed to in Washington DC on June 26, 2005, the 
final day of the tour, and sums up the feelings of all concerned. 
 
The English language version of the statement is posted at 
http://uslaboragainstwar.org/downloads/Iraqi%20USLAW%20Joint%20Statement.English.pdf 

 
The Arabic language version of the statement is posted at 
http://uslaboragainstwar.org/downloads/Iraqi%20USLAW%20Joint%20Statement.Arabic.pdf 


You can get more information about the tour at 
<www.uslaboragainstwar.org>.