Friday, May 15, 2009

Condemn the Attacks on May Day Demonstrators in Iran!

Letter from the Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan)

Dear Comrades,
On May 1, 2009, workers were gathering In Laleh Park in Tehran to celebrate the international working class day that the Security and Intelligence forces, along with uniform and plain-clothes police, of the Islamic Republic of Iran brutally attacked them. The repressive security forces tried to disperse 2000 workers who were already in the Park and to shut down the May Day demonstration before it started. Many activists have been savagely beaten and injured by the police. The Security and Intelligence forces have arrested more than 150 labour activists, men and women. This year May Day rally in Tehran was sponsored by several independent labour organisations and workers' right centres. The "Organising Committee" of the May Day rally had carried out extensive agitation and propaganda on this event. Several days prior to the celebration, the Islamic Republic's security forces had threatened the labour activists and had made phone calls to families of the activists in order to prevent the May Day rally. Also, the security forces based on several major companies and factories had brought to the Park to identify the participants. The Police have taken photos of the people gathered in the Park.
Also, May Day demonstration in the city of Sanandaj was attacked by the thugs of the Islamic Republic and six activists were arrested.
Following these attacks on May Day events, the police of the Islamic Republic raided the Consumer and Housing Cooperatives of the Metal Mechanics Workers of Tehran and have arrested several
members of the Cooperatives.
The Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan) strongly condemns the attacks on May Day events in Tehran and Sanandaj. We demand the immediate and unconditional release of recent detainees. We demand the release of all political and labour activists from the dungeons of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Dear Comrades,
In recent years, the worker-activists in Iran were able to establish independent trade unions after many years of hard and continuous struggles against the capitalist regime of the Islamic Republic.
Since 1980, the Islamic regime has harassed, suppressed, beaten, and jailed the workers who tried to organise independent May Day celebrations. The capitalist regime of Iran has illegalised the formation of independent worker-syndicates. The activists who have tried to establish free and independent unions have been tortured, imprisoned, and even lashed publicly. Mansour Ossalou, Mahmoud Salehi, Ali Nejati, Farzad kamangar, … have been imprisoned for such activities.
Several independent trade unions and workers' right centres arranged the May 2009 rally in Tehran.
In response to this new development, the regime of the Islamic Republic has intensified its repression against the labour activists. On May 1st, 2009, police used buttons, electric shocks, and pepper spray on the workers gathered in Laleh Park in Tehran. The detainees from different age groups were taken to notorious Evin prison. The families of the detainees who were contacting the Islamic Revolutionary Court were told that authorities have issued bails of 50-100 million tomans (40-80 thousand Euros) for the temporary release of the each detainee!
The capitalist regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran has never recognised or respected the workers' rights to form their organisations, to assemble, or to strike. On the contrary, following the dictates of the "World Trade Organization", the regime has intensified the violation of even the most basic rights of working men and women of Iran. The statement issued by the "Organising Committee" of the May Day rally addresses some of the violation of the rights and suppression of the workers' activities.
"We celebrate May 1st while the capitalist system is in a deep quagmire of economic crisis,…. shifting the burden of the crisis on the back of the labourers all over the world,…" . " Extreme low wages, mass layoffs and firings, imposition of temporary contracts…., such conditions have continued for many years and their severities have increased each year".
The demands put forwards by the Committee's statement include:
-guaranteed job security, elimination of temporary job contracts, increase in minimum wage, payment
of unpaid wages,
- the right to form independent organisations, to assemble, and to strike
- full equality of men and women in all spheres of life
- prohibition of child labour
- release of all imprisoned worker-activists
- end the expulsion and exploitation of Afghan and other migrant workers in Iran
- to build international solidarity with the working class

Dear Comrades,
The demands put forward by the several workers' organisations in Iran are the demands of millions of working men and women who have been living under very harsh conditions for many years. These demands have the support of all sections of the Iranian society who fight for their long-suppressed
rights. The Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan) calls on all fraternal Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organisations, progressive and revolutionary organisations and individuals to condemn, in any suitable form, the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran for its attacks on May Day events in Iran. We call on you to demand immediate and unconditional release of the recent detainees in Iran. The attack on May Day demonstrators in Iran is an attack on the entire working men and women of the world. Long Live the International Solidarity of the Working Class!

The Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan)
May 6, 2009
WWW.Toufan.org

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