Supporters of Hands of the People of Iran have produced a bulletin on working class struggle in Iran for trade unionists and anti-war activists. We will be giving out hundreds of copies at demonstrations, meetings and conferences over the coming months, starting with the PCS Conference beginning on May 18. If you would like copies for your trade union branch or would like to help distribute the bulletin please email office[at]hopoi.info
Click the links below to view the bulletin:
Iranian authorities are continuing to clamp down on student activists by restricting their activities and throwing more activists in jail.
As student organizations are faced with severe limitations on their activities, close to 70 student activists are currently in Islamic Republic prisons on various security and political charges.
Ashkan Zahabian, a student at Fardowsi University in Mashhad and a member of Takim-e Vahadat, Iran’s largest student organization, was arrested yesterday for the third time since the controversial re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which triggered widespread protests across Iran in 2009.
In Tehran, officials seeking to arrest activist and Amir Kabir university student Pedram Rafati have raided the home of his parents over the past two days.
Rafati was arrested by the Revolutionary Guards in June 2009 and sentenced to two years in prison.
Daneshjoo News also reports that new charges have been brought against Bahraeh Hedayat, Mehdieh Golrou and Majid Tavakoli, three prominent student activists who are already serving harsh sentences in Evin Prison.
They were reportedly taken to court from prison and sentenced to an extra six months in jail.
The new charges stemmed from the announcements they issued to student activists marking National Student Day in Iran.
… Payvand News – 05/04/11 … —
On the occasion of the International Labor Day on 1 May, seven Iranian labor organizations have published a statement, objecting to the violations of Iranian workers’ most basic rights. “While all over the world, the workers’ show their joy and passion and will to fight on 1 May, and their free million-strong protests against their living conditions shake the world, Iranian workers are not only deprived of the social rights to establish organizations and street protests, they are exposed to the most severe attacks on their lives and livelihood”, the statement expresses. The statement briefly describes the current state of affairs for Iranian workers and illustrates the many problems they currently face.
The seven labor organizations are the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, Iran Free Trade Union, the Committee To Restart The Paint and Decoration Construction Workers Syndicate, The Committee To Restart the Mechanical Metal Workers Syndicate, Center For The Defense of Workers, The Committee To Pursue Building Labor Coalitions, and The Coordinating Committee To Help Establish Labor Organizations.
“Any objection or demand of rights by the workers is answered with arrests and prison; the so-called ‘Targeted Subsidies’ plan which have been started by the ruling capitalists with the help of international capitalist organizations, is further destroying the lives and livelihoods of millions of workers’ families, and no one has the right to freely express their opinion about this; with the dizzying rise in the prices of energy and factory closures, every day hundreds and thousands of workers join the other unemployed millions, and the unemployment insurance laws are changed to the detriment of the workers simultaneously; hospitals and government medical centers collect co-payments from workers and new obstacles are created for retirement benefits; the construction workers’ insurance is made ineffective in the labyrinth of office hallways; and while they have taken measures which would increase the prices of basic staples at an alarming pace, they have insultingly reduced the minimum wages of workers by 9%,” says the statement, describing the current conditions of Iranian workers.
“From our viewpoint, all these actions will result in nothing but further desperation for earning a livelihood and imposition of poverty and an increasing state of misery for the millions of labor families who are unable to provide a minimum livelihood under the current circumstances. But we, the workers, will not be mere observers of the gradual deaths of ourselves, our spouses, and our children. We shall not tolerate the daily attacks on our lives and livelihood, and will persevere united and seamlessly against poverty and misery and the imposed deprivation of social rights,” said the seven labor organizations.
“We, the Iranian workers, express disgust at the the existing situation, and call on everyone all over the country to raise their demands in a united and sweeping way,” express the labor organizations, asking for immediate action on the following demands:
1. The unconditional freedom to set up independent labor organizations, to strike, to protest, to demonstrate, and to have freedom of belonging to political parties, freedom of assembly, freedom of expression, and a free press are our inalienable rights and while all government-made organizations must be eliminated from the work and living environments, these demands must be formally recognized as indisputable social rights of the Iranian workers and general public.
2. We will not stand for a society in which a minority holds wealth and huge capital, and the majority have no dinner at night. In our opinion, the 9% wage increase, especially in view of the plan to cease subsidies and the accelerated increase in living expenses, is an insult to human decency and the workers’ right to live. We consider such wages an increasing imposition of poverty and absolute misery on millions of labor families. We reject the current manner of determining the wages and emphatically demand a cessation of the plan to cut subsidies and that wages are determined by the workers’ real representatives according to the highest standards of life for today’s human beings.
3. We demand the elimination of the temporary and blanket contracts and the elimination of contractors and [we demand] direct group contracts, providing workers with job security, and observation of the highest standards of hygiene and safety inside work and living environments.
4. The outstanding wages of workers must be paid immediately and without any excuses and the failure to pay them must be treated as a crime which may be pursued in the judicial system, and the related damages must be payed to the workers.
5. Dismissing the workers and making them unemployed on a variety of excuses must end and all those who have been dismissed or who have reached working age [but are unemployed] must be able to have unemployment benefits sufficient for human living.
6. Though today Iran’s Social Security Organization is an organization with astronomical wealth supplied by the efforts and funds of Iranian workers, the organization is involved in a cycle of profits and profit-making, only concerning itself with reducing medical services and receiving co-payments from sick workers. We consider social security insurance as the inalienable right of all members of the society and demand this organization to be managed in the hands of representatives of workers from all over the country.
7. While we condemn any attack on worker and public protests, we demand the revocation of death sentences and immediate and unconditional release of all imprisoned workers and members of other social movements, and an end to the judicial proceedings against them, and an end to the existing security atmosphere.
8. We demand that all laws that are discriminatory to women be revoked, and that the total and unconditional equality of men’s and women’s rights is guaranteed in all social, economic, political, cultural, and family realms.
9. We demand that all retired individuals have access to a comfortable life, free of economic concerns, and that all discrimination in the retirement wages of the retirees is eliminated and that they are all covered by social security and medical insurance.
10. Child labor must end. Children and their parents must have complete and full social security, access to uniform and free education, welfare, and medical coverage, regardless of their family’s economic and social status, their gender, ethnic, racial, and religious ties.
11. We consider the demand for change an inalienable right of all human beings all over the world and through assertive support of people’s struggles and protests in all Middle East countries, we strongly condemn any government crackdown on public protests or plots to change the directions of the people’s demands, and any kind of intervention in the fate of the people of the Middle East.
12. We are a part of the international labor force and condemn the deportation and imposition of any discrimination on the refugee workers from Afghanistan or any other country.
13. We appreciate the international labor and public support of the Iranian workers’ struggles, and we assertively support the protests and demands of workers all over the world and consider ourselves united with them. Now, more than any other time, we emphasize the international solidarity of workers for release from the hardships of capitalist system.
14. First of May must be made a national holiday and included in the official calendar of the country, and all limitations and bans on holding ceremonies on this day must be removed.
Over the last year workers in Iran have struggled on several fronts. The subsidy cuts coupled with the crisis in world capitalism are driving living standards down for the majority of Iranians. Basic food stuffs are rising in price at a phenomenal rate, with bread rising a massive 25% and unsubsidised fuel increasing 7 fold. This is in a country with the third largest oil reserves in the world and the necessary refining abilities to produce cheap and affordable fuel for the entire population. The sanctions regime continues to undermine Iranian industry, robbing many workers of their jobs whilst the elite continue to amass great wealth. We stand with the Iranian working class fighting austerity and call for an end to all sanctions. We also call for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners.
There have been important centres of working class resistance where the working class has shown its strength. At the Alborz tyre factory in Iran over 800 workers have held protests outside of the presidential office after 9 months of unpaid wages. There has been a recurring struggle over wages being withheld on a regular basis since privatisation of the factory in 1991.
The state-run Haft Tapeh sugar cane factory workers have faced consistent repression and attempts to crush their union. Ali Nejati, the President of the Union, is in prison and in ill health facing further charges of endangering national security. This continued repression, failure to pay wages and the refusal of the management to allow sacked workers to return have forced workers to down tools and strike several times over the last 12 months.
The strikes in the Petrochemical industry starting on March 19 at the Imam Port complex were contagious and spread across the industry. The initial demands focused on ending the current contract system that offers only precarious work and little security. Thousands of workers have been on strike demanding the introduction of the 2005 directives on hiring.
At the Pars Paper Company over a thousand of workers struck in defence of 60 laid off workers who had been at the company for over 10 years. In Qazvin workers at multiple textile plants have struck against unpaid wages, with some workers going unpaid for over a year. They were also joined by workers from the city’s Ziaran slaughterhouse who have unpaid wage claims going back two years.
At Iran Khodro the overworked yet militant workforce has continued to be a beacon of resistance. In January 4 workers were killed and 13 injured as a worker who was ill and tired after repeated back-to-back shifts collapsed at the wheel of the truck he was driving. Workers immediately demonstrated and called on the CEO to resign. Scuffles broke out between security and revolutionary guards.
The protest movement that erupted in 2009 was savagely put down by the security forces with violence not witnessed since 1999. Many leaders and activists remain in jail, many have fled and gone underground and hundreds have been murdered. Yet flickers of open defiance continue and below the surface the Iranian masses have rejected the theocratic regime. It is only a matter of time until mass action will threaten the existence of the Islamic Republic.
The uprisings in the region are a nightmare vision of the future for the regime as the revolts creep closer to the border. The imperialists have also suffered defeats, with Mubarak, a lynchpin of their domination, falling along with Tunisia’s Ben Ali. Yemen’s Saleh is soon to go. In this chaotic atmosphere the war threat has increased as we must not rule out further military action by the imperialists to demonstrate their power and reassert political domination. As part of threatening war with Iran, Saudi troops have gone in to suppress the people in Bahrain. This is what the intervention in Libya is about: not protecting civilians. The current interventions in the region must end and there must be no attack on Iran.
Hands Off the People of Iran reiterates our commitment to oppose the war threat and sanctions whilst supporting the struggle against the theocratic regime.
Hands Off the People of Iran Steering Committee
The Guardian – Four Iranians, including a 17-year-old boy, are on hunger strike and have sewn their lips together with fishing wire in protest at plans by the British government to send them back to Tehran.
The men, who are among six protesters to have not eaten for 16 days, say they were beaten, tortured and in one case raped after taking part in anti-regime protests that swept Iran in 2009. They claim that although their lives would be in danger in Iran they have been “ignored and dismissed” by UK authorities since they sought refuge in the country last year.
“We have sewn our mouths because there is no other way,” said Keyvan Bahari, 32, who has scars across his back and arms from what he said was 12 days of being slashed with razor blades by the Iranian authorities when he was a student. “Nobody in the UK hears us or cares what we say so we have no other option but to do this.”
Bahari, a former champion wrestler who ran his own training centre in Tehran, said the media and government in the UK and US had encouraged him and tens of thousands of other young people to stand up against the regime but had now “washed their hands” of the protesters.
“When I was back in Tehran, I was seeing Obama and British officials on our illegal satellite TVs, encouraging us day in day out to continue our protest,” said Bahari, who is one of three men camping on the pavement outside Lunar House immigration centre in Croydon. Speaking with difficulty through his sewn-up lips, which are already sore and infected, he said: “They said that they will support us but now that I’m stuck in here and need help, they are nowhere.”
The men say they are taking liquids, but doctors say that even so, they could deteriorate quickly, especially if they have pre-existing medical conditions.
Mahyar Meyari, 17, lying in the small tent next to Bahari, recalls how he was raped after being arrested following a demonstration on al-Quds day in 2009. “I was blindfolded and taken to an unknown place where I was kept for a week. I was kicked on the head by batons many times … and even raped,” he said before breaking down.
Mahyar paid a smuggler to get him out of the country but says he did not know where he was being taken before he arrived in the UK 16 days later. “I can’t explain how I feel here, I can’t believe what’s happening to me,” said Mahyar, who does not speak English. “When I claimed asylum with the Home Office, they first didn’t believe that I’m 17 years old, they said I was lying. There’s a culture of disbelief in the Home Office, everybody thinks you are lying by default.”
The men’s asylum claims were all turned down, although some are still involved in appeals. They say they feel let down by the legal system and the lawyers appointed by the Home Office to represent them.
“I’m very discontent about my legal representation,” said Bahari. “I saw my lawyer more as a Home Office officer than a lawyer there to protect my rights. He was more looking after the rights of the Home Office.”
A government spokesman said the UK Border Agency “takes every asylum application it receives seriously” adding the men were given “every opportunity to make their representations to us as well as a right to appeal the decision to the courts”.
He added: “They all had access to free legal advice as well as a designated UK Border Agency caseowner who considered their case on its individual merits.”
However, the men say they have had very little contact with the Home Office since they began their protest and campaigners – and fellow Iranian activists – say asylum seekers are fighting a culture of disbelief across the government.
“The people who are supposed to interview asylum seekers in the Home Office, they do not interview these people, they interrogate them,” said Akbar Karimian, an Iranian activist who has been helping the group. “They search for an error or a mistake in their testimonies so that they can find a contradictory evidence to reject their claim. You imagine that the officers in a refugee organisation of this government are there to help these vulnerable people, but they are there to find a way to send them back.”
Campaigners say the UK hunger strike is a sign of the increasing desperation among Iranian asylum seekers. One man died after setting himself alight in Amsterdam this month and 25 Iranians sewed their lips together in Greece in an attempt to secure refugee status. The Medical Foundation, which is preparing a report on Meyari’s condition for his next appeal, says 293 Iranians were referred to the organisation for help in 2010.
Lying in the tent, Mahyar said the UK hunger strikers, like many fellow Iranians, were prepared for drastic action. “I prefer to die here than going back to Iran. I’ll continue this protest until somebody comes here and asks me why I’m doing this, until somebodycares about what has happened to me.”
Supporters of Workers Fund Iran will be pounding the streets in the Hamburg marathon on May 22. They will be getting their running shoes on to raise sponsorship money for the important and unique work of this charity – can you support them?
Workers Fund Iran (WFI) was founded in December 2005 inspired by suggestions from veteran Iranian labour activist Albert Sohrabian (1927-2004). WFI aims to reduce and relieve poverty amongst Iranian workers (both employed and unemployed). This results from both the economic policies of the Iranian regime and the sanctions imposed by other countries. The charity puts at the centre of its activities the drive to rebuild international working class solidarity, directly with the workers of Iran. The charity is an independent organisation. Funds sent to Iran will be distributed amongst the most needy working class families who are facing destitution, regardless of political affiliation. We hope the funds will stop families sending their children to the streets as beggars or peddlers and selling their body parts, which is a common practice.
You can sponsor us on line using Charity Choice’s website
https://www.charitychoice.co.uk/donation.asp?ref=154051
So far runners from England, France, Italy, Germany, Sweden and USA will participate to raise funds for this cause. You can show your support by wearing Workers Fund Iran T-shirt and walking with us. If you would like to run the half marathon or the marathon with us and support our cause please send us an email workersfund@gmail.com.
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طرفداران صندوق کارگری ایران در ماراتون 22 ماه می 2011خیابان های هامبورگ را به لرزه در میاورند. آنها کفش های دو به پا میکنند تا برای اهداف بزرگ این موسسۀ خیریه پول جمع آوری کنند – آیا شما میتوانید از آنها حمایت کنید؟
صندوق کارگری ایران، با الهام از پیشنهادات کارگرباسابقۀ ایرانی آلبرت سهرابیان (2004-1927) بنیان گذاشته شد. صندوق کارگری ایران بر آنست که فقر را در میان کارگران ایران کاهش و نهایتا از بین ببرد ( شاغل و غیر شاغل )، فقری که نتیجۀ سیاستهای اقتصادی دولت ایران و محاصرۀ اقتصادی توسط دولتهای دیگر است. این موسسۀ خیریه، طبقۀ کارگر ایران را بمثابه مرکزفعالیت و نیروی محرکه برای بازسازی همبستگی طبقۀ کارگرجهان قرار داده است. صندوق کارگری ایران موسسه ای است مستقل. وجوه ارسالی به ایران بدون توجه به وابستگی سیاسی کارگران در میان خانوداه های کارگری که در معرض فقر قرار دارند توزیع میشود. ما امیدواریم که صندوق کارگری بتواند مانع از تکدی کودکان در خیابان ها،اعتیاد آنها به مواد مخدر و یا فروش اعضاء بدن این کودکان شود، چیزی که هم اکنون در جریان است.
شما میتوانید از طریق اینترنت و سایت زیر ما را حمایت کنید https://www.charitychoice.co.uk/donation.asp?ref=154051
تا بحال دوندگانی از انگلستان، آمریکا، فرانسه، آلمان، ایتالیا و سوئد برای جمع آوری پول آمادۀ همکاری شده اند. شما میتوانید با پوشیدن زیرپوش صندوق کارگری و راهپیمائی با ما در هامبورگ حمایت خودتان را نشان دهید. چنانچه مایلید ماراتون یا نیمه ماراتون را با ما بدوید و حمایت خود را از اهداف صندوق کارگری نشان دهید لطفا با ایمیل زیر تماس بگیرید. workersfund@gmail.com
همبسته باد اتحاد کارگران ایران
در ماراتون هامبورگ 22 ماه مه 2011 با ما باشید
صندوق کارگری ایران
According to the Daneshjoo News website, since the onset of Arash Sadeghi’s hunger strike on March 15, 2010 until the present, his physical condition has severely deteriorated. The effects of torture by government agents has been so severe that the student activist fell into a coma today, forcing the Evin prison officials to transfer him to Modarres hospital.
A few days ago, due to the tortures inflicted on Arash Sadeghi in ward 209 of Evin prison, his shoulder blade and ribs were broken. The prison guards refused to send Arash Sadeghi to the prison clinic. Instead, he was transferred to solitary confinement.
According to the Arash Sadeghi Facebook page, prison officials informed the Sadeghi family that their son passed out as a result of severe weakness.
In a phone conversation with Arash Sadeghi’s family members, security officials instructed them to not visit him in the hospital since it is not permitted. Nevertheless, Arash Sadeghi’s family still intended to go.
This campaign is at the heart of Hopi’s work for the coming year. We formed Hopi at a time when there was a real danger of imminent attack on Iran, right after the war on Iraq. While opposing any imperialist attacks, we positioned ourselves in clear, active solidarity with the people of Iran who are fighting against their theocratic regime. That also led us to clearly oppose all sanctions on the country, because in our view that is just another form of imperialism attacking the people of Iran. I think we have successfully engaged others in that discussion.
It is clear that threat of a military attack and an invasion has still not gone. For example, you will have heard Tony Blair’s speech before the Chilcot enquiry. With his last words he effectively called on the imperialist powers to invade Iran. And, of course, we have seen the recent cyber-attacks on the country. The threat continues and the imperialists will not give up.
However, at the moment there is a certain quietude. Partially this has to do with other activities in their spheres of influence that the imperialists are anxious about, for example in Afghanistan. And there is an acceptance that, as long as the Iranian regime is quiet, ‘maybe we can turn a blind eye’. And that is why we have not had any major political leader in the west take on the question of Iranian political prisoners in a serious way. We have not heard any British politician in government raise the issue of Jafar Panahi, for example.
There is a certain acquiescence that the barbarity will go on and, as long as this barbarity in Iran does not affect the rest of the Middle East or the rest of the world, it is almost acceptable – very much in line with what goes on in other barbaric countries in that region. There is a real vacuum on the question of human rights in Iran, whereby those who look can easily discover the brutality of the executions, the hangings, the tortures, the arrests, the denials of human rights. But the media and mainstream politicians are not interested.
Just as Hopi had to stand up and put forward a principled position against war and against the theocratic regime, we now have to stand up and fight for the freedom of all political prisoners. The responsibility falls on our shoulders, because nobody else is doing it.
We are focusing on Jafar Panahi, because campaigns like this need a symbolic figure – in the same way that in the anti-apartheid campaigns we focused on Nelson Mandela, but, of course, we fought for the freedom of all political prisoners. By focusing on a well-known name like Jafar Panahi, we will be able to raise the campaign to a higher level.
We all have to set time and resources aside for this campaign and approach it in a systematic manner. Just like when we launched Hopi, we again have to focus on the union and labour movement, get articles in their journals and websites, organise for resolutions and fringe meetings at union conferences, and conduct discussions with MPs and political parties.
The parliamentary wing of Hopi, which includes myself, Jeremy Corbyn and a few others, will put forward early day motions and will try to lobby other MPs, including those who are now in government. We are also trying to organise some activities in parliament – for example, show some of Panahi’s films and get along intellectuals and artists to discuss the campaign and the issues. In other words, we will also run a parliamentary campaign.
Of course, we also need to mobilise artists and film makers to act in solidarity with Panahi. In addition to that, we also want to reach wider civil society and in that respect I think last year’s film showing in the Soho Theatre was a breakthrough, which attracted a whole new audience. We should also not shy away from engaging with religious groups, for example, who are working on human rights matters.
All the way through we have to discuss with these forces on how the theocratic regime can be got rid of. Clearly, this can only be achieved through the actions of the working people of Iran themselves. The only consistent force that can bring about long-term stability in a secular society is the workers’ movement.
That is a fairly extensive range of work. But we have done it before and I think we can do it again.
The situation in Egypt provides an ideal opportunity to raise these issues. I attended a demonstration in Trafalgar Square and, although the organisers had printed their placards only 24 hours earlier, they were already out of date and still contained the call for Mubarak to go. But this shows what is possible, how quickly things change and that this can also be achieved in Iran.
Only the people of Iran can bring down this regime. Our task is to assist them as best as we can. If our campaign brings just one release for one political prisoner, if just one prisoner can get some hope from a clipping about our activities smuggled into prison, then I think our campaign is already successful.
On March 4th five members of the Hands Off the People of Iran Manchester branch will be walking the Bogle, a fifty five mile walk round Manchester. We are walking to raise money for the charity Workers Fund Iran, which was set up in December 2005 with the aim to reduce and relieve poverty amongst Iranian workers (both employed and unemployed) who are victims of the economic policies of the Iranian regime, including mass non-payment of wages. The charity is not aligned to any political organisation. Funds sent to Iran will be distributed amongst the most needy working class families who are facing destitution. We hope the funds will stop families sending their children to the streets as beggars or peddlers and selling their body parts, which is a common practice.
In Iran at the moment, hundreds of thousands of workers are being consigned to poverty by the oppressive Iranian state. Practical solidarity is one of the greatest things we can do for Iranian workers; it helps the revolutionary struggle against the Islamic Republic continue. Give generously!
