Strikes and labour unrest increase in Iran

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Sunday May 06, 2007 21:14

by pat c - Hands Off the People of Iran

Here is an excerpt from a report on a Hands Off the People of Iran public meeting held in London immediately after the May Day march. HOPI activist Torab Saleth introduced the discussion. You may access the full article at the link.

Hands Off the People of Iran will have its Dublin launch on Thursday 10 May at 7.30 pm in the Teachers Club, Parnell Square. The initiative to set up this important campaign was taken by Iranian political activists and organisations who oppose the Islamic regime in Iran and also stand against any imperialist sanctions or attack. It has links with students, womens' organisations and workers struggles in Iran who are fighting for their rights there and are also against US or UN intervention.

Irish Supporters include: Senator David Norris; Aengus O'Snodaigh TD; Tony Gregory TD; Des Derwin; DCTU (Pers Cap); Joe Moore CWU (Pers Cap); Patrick Nulty Labour Youth.

Strikes and labour unrest has seen a big increase in Iran. A large number of oppositional committees have been set up: both in terms of the volume of protest and the intensity of their demands, there has been a significant shift.

Although there were sporadic struggles, nothing of much significance occurred for some time in terms of class struggle. But over the last three years we have seen a huge increase in the number of strikes. And, what is more significant, a number of initiatives in terms of organising the working class in trade union-type bodies. Just last week there was an attempt to bring together all the various committees that have been set up to organise workers into cooperation councils.

A prominent example of the new militancy is the current Tehran busworkers’ dispute - the busworkers’ union was disbanded by the regime, but they have tried to revive it and are standing firm against all the machinations of government. The regime suppressed the first busworkers’ strike by raiding the homes of almost 1,200 worker activists the night before, arresting their kids and taking them hostage. And now union leaders have been arrested for calling a May Day demonstration. But the Tehran demonstration took place despite this and featured vehement calls for their release.

We should emphasise that May Day is a day for international workers’ solidarity. Obviously that does not mean solidarity with the regime, despite what some on the British left would have us believe. The left in Iran is dismayed by the idea that working class activists should behave as apologists for Tehran.

http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/671/iran.htm

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May 1 Iran Demonstration

by pat c - Hands Off The People of Iran

Thu May 10, 2007 15:42

May 1 Iran Demonstration

Despite a wave of repression and arrests before and after this year’s May Day in Iran, workers’ still managed to disrupt the official government events in Tehran. Representatives of ‘pro-reformist’ front organisations set up by sections of the reactionary regime were loudly booed. Militant demonstrations broke out after the official gatherings and demonstrators clashed with security forces who tried to quell the protests. For a time, street battles stopped traffic in Taleghani Ave, one of the main streets in central Tehran.

These protests saw Mansour Ossanlou (president of Tehran Vahed Bus workers) briefly arrested. He was only released after protests and interventions by demonstrators and passers-by. Yagoub Salimi of the Vahed Bus company was also arrested and is currently in custody. Subsequently thirty workers from Vahed Bus company staged a sit-in outside Tehran’s prosecutor’s office demanding the release of their fellow worker.

These protests are typical of a rising mood of revolt and resistance that has seen militant action and explicitly anti-regime protests from workers, students and women.

There is an urgent need to build a principled solidarity campaign with the people of Iran. Such a movement must unambiguously oppose both the imperialist war plans as well as the repressive theocracy in Tehran which is using the threat of attack to divert attention away from the country's endemic crisis, deflect popular anger onto foreign enemies and thus prolong its reactionary rule.

Hands Off The People of Iran:

* unconditionally opposes all imperialist pressure on Iran, whether this takes the form of sanctions, diplomatic pressure, limited strikes or bombing the country back to the stone age.

* opposes attempts by the reactionary regime to cynically use the pretext of external threats to justify increased internal repression.

* demands the immediate release of Yagoub Salimi and all other activists and militants that the regime detains - now and in the future - in its crackdown on political opponents, workers, women and youth.

Appeal to Labour organisations and activists of the world

by Cogsy (M-L)

Thu May 10, 2007 17:34

By Co-operation Council of Labour Organisations and Activists
Thursday, 10 May 2007

Class brothers and sister!

This year, as in previous years, we the workers of Iran commemorated May Day under the conditions of having absolutely no organisations and rights. Today difficult conditions reign over the future of the workers and teachers of Iran. The low standard of living, the difficulty of making ends meet, below poverty-line wages, temporary contracts and delays in the payment of the meagre wages, which in some cases stretch for 32 months, have pushed the workers towards the depths of a hellish life. Even under these conditions, with the various forms of repression and security pressures, on May Day Iranian workers came out on to the streets and demanded free labour organisations together with other demands.

This is their situation even though the Iranian government, by accepting ILO conventions 87 and 98, must be committed to and bound by the aims of these conventions. But in opposition to its commitments in relation to accepting these agreements it cannot stand any independent ceremony and treats the workers severely in all fields of struggle.

On May Day this year the workers in various Iranian cities, including Tehran, Kermanshah and Sanandaj, were determined to have their own independent ceremony like previous years, even under the very heavy police presence. As usual they were attacked by the officers of the security forces. But the attack in Sanandaj [in Iranian Kurdistan] was done in a very savage way.

On May Day workers with their families gathered in front of the Labour Relations Office in Sanandaj to commemorate May Day. Seeing the very heavy police presence and fearing a police intervention, the workers were forced to read the resolution they had prepared at the beginning of the ceremony. The moment the last article of the resolution was read the security forces attacked the crowd taking part in the ceremony and attempted to arrest its organisers. This was met by the resistance of other workers and their families. This scuffle lasted for half an hour.

Then a special guard (the suppression guard) came to the area. From this moment the workers were confronted by unbridled savagery. The special guard crushed the workers, forcing their wives and small children to disperse and seek refuge in nearby streets. The anti-worker special guard force used pepper spray, and chemicals that make people unconsciousness, on the eyes and faces of workers and then continued beating them with truncheons. About 20 workers who had passed out because of the pepper spray, the chemicals and truncheon blows, were arrested and taken to prison. Some of the other injured were freed from the clutches of the police by the people and then treated. The injuries of some workers are very severe, including some broken arms, legs and so on. Workers in Sanandaj are still being arrested according to a blacklist prepared by the security forces.

Labour organisations and activists of the world!

Considering our own struggles that are increasing by the day, and those of other layers of Iranian society, on the path to international workers' solidarity, we Iranian workers count on your wholehearted support at an international level, so that under the shield of international workers' solidarity we can make those who suppress us retreat and, at the same time as freeing the jailed workers, pursue our demands in an ever more robust way.

Labour organisations and activists of the world!

We the workers of Iranian ask you, in the name of international working class solidarity, to support the struggles of Iranian workers in every way possible. We count on your support on the path to: achieving the rights of workers, teachers and other sections of the Iranian working class; the release of Mahmoud Salehi, who is charged with taking part in the 2004 May Day ceremony and imprisoned; the unconditional release of those who were arrested during this year's May Day ceremony; banning any form of harassment and persecution, surveillance and arrest of workers and labour activists; as well as setting up free organisations and preventing savage suppression.

Co-operation Council of Labour Organisations and Activists
4 May 2007

1- Committee for the Pursuit of the Creation of Free Labour Organisations
2- Co-ordination Committee for the Creation of Labour Organisations
3- Workers' Cultural and Support Organisation
4- The Union of Labour Committees
5- A group of Labour Activists
6- A group of Iranian University Students Demanding Freedom and Equality

Translated by Iranian Workers' Solidarity Network

http://www.marxist.com/iran-appeal-labour-organisations...2.htm

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Strikes and labour unrest increase in Iran

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