I think the social question is at the core of all the violence and instabilities and extremism that [are] taking place since years in Iraq--and, by the way, not only in Iraq, but the whole Middle East. You see, according to the ILO, the International Labor Organization, almost 23 percent of the young population in the Arab Middle East are unemployed, and thats the average. But when we talk about Iraq, I would argue its above 40 percent. And if you would think about that the majority, two-third of the Iraqi population are under 30 years old and 45 percent under 14 years old, you will see hundred of thousand of kids in Iraq--a new phenomenon. These kids, they sell cigarettes and chewing gums and so on on the street to help the parents survived. Decades ago, you wouldnt encounter a single kid on the street. The reason was simple. In 1972, the Baathist Party, they wanted to nationalize the oil, so they needed the Communist Party, they needed the working class and trade union. So they built at that time a popular front. And the outcome of this popular front was one of the most progressive constitution in Iraq, or maybe in the Middle East, in which the social rights of the people--free health care, free education, unemployment, and pention, etc.--were constitutionally guaranteed. Even Saddam Hussein, in his worst times in the 1990s and before 2003, didnt dare touch on this constitution. What happens is the first thing that the U.S. did after Bremer--or what people in Iraq call the caliph of Baghdad--in May 2003 issued more than 100 decrees to privatize the economy, the public industry, gas, oil, water, communication, agriculture, etc. What happens is the first thing when they draft the new constitution, the first thing they did away with was precisely the social securities of the people.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 13:42:31 +0000
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