Mr Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias,
President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
Dear Mr President:
Since our first letter to you in November 2004, in which we highlighted the deplorable working conditions, economic hardship and lack of rights that are bearing down on Iranian workers, the economic and social situation has deteriorated significantly for workers and the poor in Iran. The problems of Iranian workers, which have become much worse than in 2004, are threefold:
(i) Official (and underestimated) inflation at 20.2%, unemployment at between 20% and 30%, and every other economic and social indicator rapidly advancing in the wrong direction;
(ii) A wide-ranging privatisation programme and a push to cut subsidies and other measures that cushion the full effect of the economic crisis on workers;
(iii) An even more oppressive political scene within which there is almost no scope for workers to voice their dissatisfaction with their working and living conditions and the slightest peaceful protest comes under attack.
Independent trade unions or labour organisations have been illegal for decades. Any protests for the improvement of pay and conditions - let alone attempts to show solidarity with other workers - are smashed quickly and viciously. Even protests for the payment of back pay - unpaid wages of several months have been a common problem for a number of years - are systematically broken up by the security forces. Now, in a move that has been designed to push back the labour movement by years, the Iranian government has resorted to flogging workers for taking part in a May Day celebration!
So far three workers have received 10 lashes each - with eight further workers awaiting the same punishment for the May Day celebration 'crime'. As you are probably aware whipping workers was a common occurrence throughout Western Europe at the end of the 15th and during the whole of the 16th century. Under the guise of fighting "vagabondage" thousands of workers were thrashed until they submitted to the infernal discipline of the newborn manufacturing industry. This discipline was absolutely necessary for the exploitation of thousands of men (and later women and even children) by a handful of men who lived on the profits of this toil. Flogging, sometimes until these men bled, was the way to force them into being absorbed into the early forms of manufacturing after masses of labourers were forced off their land and into the precursors of today's factories.
Yet this was something that was outlawed in most of Western Europe in the 18th century (in England in the early 18th century). While there is a system like that of the Islamic Republic of Iran on the face of the Earth, however, history is condemned to repeat itself in ever more bloody and tragic ways. In the first decade of the twenty-first century - three centuries after the laws allowing this type of punishment were repealed by Queen Anne in England - the Iranian labour movement is faced with this seemingly giant step backwards in history.
We regard this as a move calculated to cow the workers into submission as more and more sections of the economy are privatised, subsidies and bonuses are cut and the grounds prepared for multinational companies to come into Iran. This, the regime's elite think, will make the exploitation of Iranian workers even more attractive to Exxon Mobil and similar companies. The sinister logic behind this regressive step is designed for a high-tech sort of 'barbarism in the 21st century'.
We therefore request that you, as a leader who advocates the building of socialism in the 21st century, use your influence and close relations with the elite of this regime to persuade them to stop flogging workers, free all jailed labour activists, legalise trade unions and labour organisation, allow workers' gatherings and May Day celebrations, and the right to strike.
Yours respectfully,
Iranian Workers' Solidarity Network
13 March 2008
BM IWSN, London WC1N 3XX, England.
iranwsn@fastmail.fm - http://www.iwsn.org/