Details here; an excerpt:

[T]he Federation of Workers’ Councils and Unions of Iraq, one of Iraq’s three trade union federations, announced the formation of the Iraqi Freedom Congress. The union called it "a broad organization committed to establishing a free, secular and non-ethnic government in Iraq," composed of "political parties, trade unions, people’s councils, associations and institutions." The FWCUI sees the present situation as a "civil abyss," in which "the fabric of the civil society in Iraq has been torn apart under the US occupation and the domination of the Islamic, tribal and political gangsters." In the following interview, the president of the Federation of Workers’ Councils, Felah Alwan, explains the way the union proposes to end Iraq’s occupation, and the occupation’s impact on workers.

Q: What political process can end the occupation?

A: Iraq is now in a state of anarchy. There are no civil institutions. There’s nothing except the occupation forces and the government. The structure of the government imposed by the occupation forces has been divided along lines of ethnicity and religion. That makes some people believe that there is popular support for it….

Q: What was the attitude of the members of the Federation of Workers’ Councils and Unions of Iraq toward the January elections in Iraq?

A: Our federation issued a statement criticizing the way the elections were conducted. We said that for people to choose between more than one alternative, they would have to know the programs of the different political parties and groups. This hasn’t happened in Iraq. So this was a violation of the right of the people. Most women in Iraq outside the capital, in the rural areas, can’t read or write. So the supervisors of the election centers there themselves filled out the ballots for the parties they wanted.

As an example, one important Shiite cleric told people to participate, and said that those who boycotted the voting would go to hell. This was an intervention by religious orders, threatening people if they refused to participate. Sistani also threatened people with hell if they refused to vote for the electoral list of the group of Shiite parties. On the other hand, the party of the Prime Minister [Issad Allawi] waged a propaganda campaign telling people that if the election failed, everyone who boycotted or refused to participate would be punished. In the cities, in areas under the hegemony of the Islamist militia, people were threatened if they refused to participate or if they didn’t vote for the list of the Shiite candidates of Sistani’s party.

So the election took place without a real desire on the part of the voters. People were also afraid that the election centers would be attacked, and even that people would be beheaded. In this case, it is unfair to call this an election. It was a ridiculous thing.

We tried to enter one of the centers to take pictures, and the armed men there prevented us from doing that. They stopped people from going in to see what was happening. The supervisors and the supporters of the armed militia called on people to support their alternative, and no other, especially the list of Sistani. In Kurdistan, people were already announcing the result of the election before it happened.

So we called on workers to boycott these elections, because people were divided according to their ethnicity, language and religion. The purpose of the elections was to impose the American project on Iraq, and give legitimacy to the government imposed by the Americans and the occupying coalition. The same parties we saw in the old Governing Council will remain in power, and the political balance will remain the same. They called on people to participate to give this legitimacy.

We do know that many workers in the State Leather Industry Factory, and in others, boycotted the election. But we don’t know the exact number, because in Iraq we’re prevented from knowing such things. I can prove that a large number of workers boycotted the elections. But the religious workers, especially those who follow Sistani, were given religious orders to vote. That is the main why a large number of religious people took part.