{"id":1815,"date":"2011-11-14T10:19:13","date_gmt":"2011-11-14T10:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hopoi.org\/?p=1815"},"modified":"2011-11-14T10:19:13","modified_gmt":"2011-11-14T10:19:13","slug":"an-iranian-suggests-questions-for-a-corrupt-dictator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hopoi.org\/?p=1815","title":{"rendered":"An Iranian suggests questions for a corrupt dictator"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tThis article was commissioned and first published by http:\/\/tv.thestruggle.org\/node\/495<\/a><\/p>\n

by Yassamine Mather<\/p>\n

A number of comrades in the United States have asked if I could list questions one should have\u00a0asked Ahmadinejad during his dinner with\u00a0the\u00a0US ‘Left’. How anyone who dines with a corrupt dictator championing neo-liberal anti-working class policies can be considered to be on the Left is beyond me so the following questions are hypothetical and I do not suggest anyone on the Left should accept future invitations to meet Iran’s\u00a0discredited president.<\/p>\n

suppose the two most topical issues to start with would have been the current scandal about financial fraud\u00a0in the highest echelons of Ahmadinejad’s government and the strike in Mahshahr Petrochemical company as examples of corruption and neo liberal economic policies.<\/p>\n

What does the Iranain president say about the\u00a0$2.6 billion financial fraud\u00a0that has shaken his\u00a0government in the last few weeks? How does he explain the ousting\u00a0of\u00a0the heads of three of the country’s major banks , his appointees? So far 19 people have been arrested\u00a0for a scam\u00a0involving the fraudulent opening of bank letters of credit by the Amir Mansour Aria investment group. What is his response to\u00a0members of Iran’s Islamic parliament who have signed a petition to impeach Economy Minister Shamseddin Hosseini over the affair?<\/p>\n

How does he respond to accusations by the conservative Islamic paper Kayhan, that a letter written by Ahmadinejad’s chief of staff and principal adviser, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, to the economy minister is at the root of this fraud and that Mashaei instructed
\nthe minister to facilitate the group’s operation.<\/p>\n

What would I ask of Mr Ahmadinejad?\u00a0I would ask him to explain why his government and security services under his authority resort to torture when dealing with young students arrested for\u00a0their political opinions?\u00a0Can he explain the rising\u00a0rate of suicides amongst these former political prisoners?<\/p>\n

What has he\u00a0to say about claims by the religious establishment that Abbas Ghaffari, a close ally,\u00a0is\u00a0his \u201cexorcist\u201d or \u201cjinn-catcher\u201d? The website Ayandeh described one president ally as \u201ca man with special skills in metaphysics and connections with the unknown worlds\u201d.<\/p>\n

Can he explain his involvement in the production of the\u00a0Iranian documentary \u201cThe appearance is imminent\u201d celebrating the expected \u2018return\u2019 of the Mahdi – the 12th or ‘hidden\u2019 imam of the 9th century and naming Ahmadinejad as his earthly ally?<\/p>\n

Can he explain why he is called ‘Ahmadi the liar’ in Iran and why two years into his second term\u00a0Iran’s Supreme Religious Leader , Khamneii is considering ‘abolishing’ the post of president?<\/p>\n

Iran’s president might pretend he is on the side of the poor and the disinherited when he is in New York, but in Iran people would laugh at such claims.\u00a0\u00a0 In his second term as president he presides over a country where the gap between the rich and the poor was never as wide as it has been. The divide is so obvious that even\u00a0visitors passing through Tehran can’t miss it.<\/p>\n

\u201cGold-flecked ice cream wasn\u2019t part of the picture that Shiite Muslim clerics painted during the Iranian Revolution, when they promised to lift the poor by distributing the country\u2019s vast oil income equally across society.\u00a0But more than three decades later, record oil profits have brought in billions, and some people here are enjoying that decadent dessert. The trouble is, it\u2019s just a small group of wealthy Iranians.\u201d reporter Thomas Erdbrink, Friday, August\u00a05 2011.<\/p>\n

Last month\u00a0saw the start of another major strike in Bandar Imam Petrochemical Complex in Mahshahr\u00a0. Strikes are illegal in Iran.\u00a0However, according to reports from Iran workers from Arvand, Amirkabir, and Tondguyan Petrochemical plants\u00a0 have joined this strike, making this the first nationwide strike by \u2018oil\u2019 workers since 1980.\u00a0\u00a0 6,000 workers employed in separate shifts are now participating in the\u00a0Mahshahr protest, gathering every day in front of the company\u2019s headquarters chanting their demands.<\/p>\n

The main demand of the petrochemical workers in Mahshahr\u2019s Special Economic Zone is an end to \u2018contract employment\u2019. Contractors impose inhumane conditions on workers in this and other sectors. The Iranian government has privatized most of Iran’s manufacturing and many sector of the oil industry. Privatisation plans are notoriously corrupt and generally benefit the factions in power in the Islamic state. But in the oil industry it is different from elsewhere. Privatisation has been undertaken with the aim of dividing workers and hampering national negotiations over wages and conditions, in the knowledge that for oil workers deployed in various sectors of the industry, working for so many different contractors, it would be impossible to negotiate common terms and conditions.<\/p>\n

Private ownership of some oil functions is still prohibited under the Iranian constitution, but the government has permitted buy-back contracts, allowing international oil companies to participate in exploration and development through an Iranian affiliate. The contractor receives a remuneration fee, usually an entitlement to oil or gas from the developed operation. Last year Ahmadinejad\u2019s minister of Labour announced that by the end of 2010, 100% of Iran\u2019s workers will be employed on contracts. Although Iran hasn’t achived this ‘goal’ , more than 90% of Iran’s workers are employed by contractors. Many workers are employed with “white contracts”. These are contracts where the worker signs his\/her name on a white piece of paper and the employer adds the conditions of employment during the contract or at the time of sacking a worker.<\/p>\n

Iranian workers constantly complain of systematic non payment of wages by unscrupulous capitalists supported by the regime. There is on average 4-5\u00a0industrial disputes every week on the issue of non payment of wages. Protesting workers and their supporters face the brutal repression of the Islamic guards and Bassij called by factory owners.<\/p>\n

Unemployment is around 25% according to the government figure. The Iranian left believes this figure to be much higher especially amongst youth where there is apparently 50%\u00a0\u00a0 unemployment\u00a0and this figure is higher amongst women especially graduate women.<\/p>\n

The terrible\u00a0plight of Iranian workers is a direct consequence of the neo liberal policies\u00a0of this government applauded by the IMF in August 2011 for ending all food and fuel subsidies . The abolition of these subsidies has created huge increases in fuel and food prices with spiralling inflation to such an extent that\u00a0the government has banned publication of the ‘official’ rate of inflation (usually far below the real rate) by Iran’s Central Bank.<\/p>\n

Instead of having dinner with Ahmadinejad real Leftists should look at website such as :<\/p>\n

Iran Labor Report<\/a> http:\/\/iranlaborreport.com\/<\/a>
\nHands Off the People of Iran http:\/\/www.hopoi.org<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article was commissioned and first published by http:\/\/tv.thestruggle.org\/node\/495 by Yassamine Mather A number of comrades in the United States have asked if I could list questions one should have\u00a0asked Ahmadinejad during his dinner with\u00a0the\u00a0US ‘Left’. How anyone who dines with a corrupt dictator championing neo-liberal anti-working class policies can be considered to be on … <\/p>\n

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