Morgue workers in Baghdad told independent journalist Rania Abouzeid that, this year, religious militias have repeatedly massacred people at sites allegedly linked to the sex trade. The largest of these killings occured last month. On July 13, thirty-two people were murdered in two apartment buildings in the Zayouna district of Baghdad:

Early on the morning of July 13th, the shot-up bodies of twenty-eight women and five men were retrieved from two apartments in a building complex Zayouna, a neighborhood in eastern Baghdad. Both apartments were said to be sites of prostitution. By 10 A.M., the police had delivered the bodies to a city morgue, where they were strewn over the dirty, blood-streaked floor, one woman’s outstretched arms abutting another woman’s head, someone’s splayed legs near someone else’s torso. This is the third time this year that a group of women suspected of being prostitutes has been killed; this group was the largest to date, according to morgue workers. [New Yorker]

A shopkeeper told NBC that the shootings happened after a group of suspected militiamen in uniform entered Zayouna. The Baghdad Police say the killers left notes saying that the killings were “punishment.” 

Why is Kathryn Slater-Carter, the owner of a McDonald’s franchise in California, joining forces with SEIU to advocate for the rights for franchisees in California? The short answer is that McDonald’s is forcing franchisees to practically give food away and demanding that they take the difference out of their workers’ wages, and franchisees can’t refuse because McDonald’s has all the legal power. SEIU and some small franchisees are backing a bill before the state legislature that could help small business owners stand up to the corporate behemoth. 

[Photo: Allen, Creative Commons.]

 A court in Greece has acquitted two farmers accused of shooting 28 Bangladeshi strawberry pickers after they demanded 6 months of upaid wages:

Scores of migrants, many sobbing in disbelief, protested outside the court house after magistrates allowed two of the men, including the owner of the farm who had been accused of human trafficking, to walk free.

Two others, accused of aggravated assault and illegal firearms possession, were handed prison sentences of 14 years and seven months and eight years and seven months but were also freed pending appeal.

The Bangladeshis were shot at in April last year when they demanded to be remunerated for six months of unpaid work at a farm in Manolada in the southern Peloponnese. Four of the strawberry pickers were badly injured in the attack. [Guardian]

The decision has sparked outrage in Greece, Bangladesh, and around the world. Greek trade unionists, anti-ractist activists, and politicians are condemning the verdict. 

[Photo credit: Shannon Kline, Creative Commons.]

The Best of the Week’s News

• AFSCME broke with the United Negro College Fund after the charity accepted $25 million from the Koch Brothers, the nation’s best-known funders of Black voter suppression.

• Courtney E. Martin, Editor Emerita of the Hillman Prize-winning blog Feministing, explores options to improve our decrepit daycare system.

• The UAW is establishing a toehold at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, and the Volkswagen is fine with that.

• Generous strangers are paying Detroit residents’ overdue water bills online.

[Photo credit: Wander Mule, Creative Commons.]