Worker rights in Iraq: more assaults

Juan Cole includes in a post today this short blurb:

A prominent trade unionist was also assassinated, but apparently only New Zealand cares.

Speaking of which, as a parting gift the interim Allawi government has [Arabic link] dissolved a number of civil society organizations, including the Lawyers' Union. Iraqi attorneys abroad accused the interim government of violating a number of international treaties and agreements to which Iraq is signatory.

US mainstream media appears to have behind the scenes instructions not to mention unions if at all possible (older television actors remember this instruction being explicit back in the 1960s with regard to dramas.)

Please see my previous post on labor conditions in Iraq under the US occupation. Juan Cole's suggestion that there is a US news embargo on reporting about these labor conditions explains a lot about why Americans are so woefully informed on the true nature of the disaster the invasion has visited upon Iraq.