Amir Amirgholi, a former student activist and leftist political prisoner in No. 8 wing of Evin prison, was charged with “blasphemy”, “insulting the Supreme Leader”, “gathering and colluding to act against national security”, “disturbing public order by participating in illegal gatherings” and “propaganda against the system” by branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Salavati. He was sentenced to 21 years in prison. According to Article 134 of the Penal Code and the aggregation of crimes, a maximum of up to seven and a half years will have to be served in jail.

In such circumstances, the duty of defending Amir Amirgholi and other imprisoned labour activists undoubtedly falls on the shoulders of the vanguard of the movement. Due to dispersion and fragmentation within the movement, this support can only be tangible and serve its purpose if it returns confidence to the movement and jailed activists. This can only come about through “unity of action”.

The different tendencies in the movement can have their united action, such as distributing leaflets and posters and joint activities in various localities, by demanding the release of imprisoned activists such as Amir Amirgholi. Especially now, during the week that the Islamic Republic is advertising the sham elections, we can combine the “active boycott” of the elections with these activities.

Workers’ Action Committee has had activities during the boycott of the 2014 presidential election and the upcoming parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections, including in Kermanshah, and we suggest that others also start activities in this context.

Workers’ Action Committee
23 February 2016

Photos and videos.

As previously mentioned, boycotting the elections does not mean staying at home, but that the election charade must actively be boycotted within the election campaign itself. Boycotting the elections is to continue the struggle and not a rest break. Active boycott of the elections is at the same time a method of struggle against passivity and pacifism. With their recent activity the Committee’s active comrades have demonstrated this matter. Let us build a broad united action on boycotting the elections by supporting political prisoners.

Photos sent by these comrades will be published.

Workers’ Action Committee

20 February 2016

However, the truth is that the Iranian Revolution was made by Iranian workers, fighting not only against the corrupt monarchy but also against the failure of the capitalist system to provide them and their families with the basics necessities of human life. They were robbed of their gains in the revolution and then savagely repressed for over 35 years.

We chose this day to protest at the Iranian state’s treatment of the labour movement that fought for freedom in 1979 and continues to fight for freedom today.

Republished from the Shahrokh Zamani Action Campaign website.

Following a management decision in September 2015 to test Khatoonabad’s 300 contract workers, many workers faced being laid off. According to management, the results of the tests meant that 150 workers were to stay on and around 130 were to be fired.

The management decision triggered weeks of protests at the Khatoonabad copper complex in Khatoonabad village, near the town of Babak, in Kerman province (in south east Iran). About 60 workers have been taking part in these protests.

Khatoonabad copper workers were involved in a similar protest in January 2004, when four of them were shot dead.

Iranian Workers’ Solidarity Network
31 January 2016

Update: On the morning of Monday, February 8th, after 13 days in detention, five of the workers were released. After paying 50 million rials (£1,140) bail they were set free. The other workers are still in Babak town’s jail.

Source: ILNA

Four copper workers shot dead in Iran!

Following a protest by laid off contract workers at the Khatoonabad copper smelting plant four workers were shot dead by riot police. It is feared that in addition to this official figure many more workers may also have been killed. The number of injured are said to be around 300, including many seriously injured people.

The workers, who were demanding permanent jobs, began their protest on January 5th. Then following promises made by the plant’s management, which did not come to anything, the workers protested again on January 17th. The protesters were also joined by their families and in total 200-500 people gathered outside the plant in Khatoonabad village, near the town of Babak, in Kerman province (in south east Iran).

Today the response of the Iranian government has been to use riot police, special police units and helicopters to kill and maim workers and their families to break up the protest. Death and serious injury is what awaits working class families for simply demanding their basic rights.

We call on all trade unionists, labour activists and progressive groups and individuals to condemn this barbaric act and to help us in organising solidarity action in support of the Khatoonabad copper workers.

Iranian Workers’ Solidarity Network
25 January 2004

Rohani’s European tour has already taken him to Italy and the Vatican. While in France he will be received by François Hollande at the Élysée Palace and will sign trade deals and memoranda that will help boost profits for French and Iranian capitalists.
As in Italy, the general repression in Iran and the severe measures taken against labour activists and the left will not be discussed. It is clear that the improvement in diplomatic and trade relations between the capitalists of Iran and Europe comes at the expense of Iranian workers’ rights.

The demonstrators unfurled the banner of ‘Iranian Workers Are Not Alone’ outside the embassy and chanted slogans in support of all imprisoned workers in Iran. They also demanded that the suspicious death of Shahrokh Zamani be investigated independently. Their placards called for freeing all jailed workers and political prisoners, for workers to have the right to organise and to go on strike.

The protesters included comrades from Alliance for Workers’ Liberty and Iranian Workers’ Solidarity Network. We thank all picketers for helping us to publicise the struggles of Iranian workers and showing their solidarity with the recent upsurge in protests and strikes.

Free all political prisoners now!
Long live independent workers’ organisations and the right to strike!
Investigate Shahrokh Zamani’s death!
Iranian workers are not alone!

Iranian Workers’ Solidarity Network
27 January 2016

Critics of Matteo Renzi’s government, mostly right-wing politicians in Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia and the Fratelli d’Italia party, have condemned the boxing up of Venus and other classical nude statues as “negating our own [culture]” and “a kind of surrender.”

This hoo-ha has missed two very important points:
1- For over 36 years Iranian women – i.e., real, living and breathing human beings – have been forced to cover themselves from head to toe so that the country’s male population are not ‘shamed’ or ‘sexually provoked’!

This nonsense is, of course, an excuse for the religious and political authorities of the regime to intrude in the smallest personal details of every woman’s life at home and the way she dresses outside the home. And the male relatives, whether they agree with the policy or not, have to ‘watch over’ the girls and women so that the family is not ‘shamed’ or hauled in front of a court for ‘offending’ the authorities.

But did Rohani’s Italian hosts consider the sensibilities of nearly 40 million girls and women when glad-handing him? We don’t think so.

2- Hassan Rohani is the so-called ‘president’ of a regime that for decades has persecuted workers, women, youth, national and religious minorities, writers, artists and any other kind of dissident for the slightest expression of opinions that are not approved by the authorities.

And if anyone dares to take independent action based on such opinions and ideals then they are locked up in jail, tortured and even executed. This regime is particularly vicious in smashing the struggles of workers to form independent trade unions and establishing the right to strike.

Again, we don’t think that anyone in Matteo Renzi’s government mentioned anything about the systematic abuse of workers’ rights. There just wasn’t any time when there were €17 billion ($18.4 billion) of business deals to sign with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Danieli (the steel company) and their like!

Now that Rohani is in France we expect workers’ and women’s rights to get the same treatment.

Free all political prisoners now!
Long live independent workers’ organisations and the right to strike!
Investigate Shahrokh Zamani’s death!
Iranian workers are not alone!

Iranian Workers’ Solidarity Network
27 January 2016

Norman Lamont first found infamy as Chancellor of the Exchequer when he presided over Britain’s forced exit from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM). Although most people called September 16th 1992 Black Wednesday, an event that cost Britain’s Treasury around £3.3 billion, the next day Lamont was found to be very cheerful and claimed that he had been “singing in the bath this morning”!

Lamont’s second claim to infamy came when on October 17th 1998 the British government was forced to detain General Augusto Pinochet in compliance with an international arrest warrant issued by a Spanish judge, Baltasar Garzón. Norman Lamont became the Chilean dictator’s most vociferous supporter after Margaret Thatcher.

Even though the Pinochet regime had “killed at least 3,197 people and tortured about 29,000” (Obituary, Washington Post, December 11, 2006), that did not stop Norman Lamont from being very active at different levels, and using many channels, to help the dictator escape from Britain and not face any judicial process. He constantly tried to portray the twice-elected Salvador Allende, the prime minister toppled and killed by Pinochet, as a bigger evil than the head of the military junta who became an international symbol of state brutality against the left, workers, women and the poor! Lamont also peddled the notion that a trial could destabilise Chile’s new-found democracy!

Given the political history of Norman Lamont, who has now been ‘elevated’ to the House of Lords, we know that his dealings with the Iranian regime will at no point bring up the issues of political executions, political prisoners, detention without trial, torture and the many other forms of abuse that sustains the dictatorship.

More specifically we do not expect Norman Lamont to let the rights of workers to form independent trade unions and the right to strike, or women’s equal treatment by the state and society, or the rights of national and religious minorities and all other oppressed layers in Iranian society to come in the way of the multi-billion pound trade and investment deals that the capitalists of Britain and Iran are planning.

The capitalist classes of both Britain and Iran have their clear agenda and they have selected the experienced personnel who can deliver that agenda. It is now time for the workers of Britain and Iran to co-operate against this common enemy to make sure that their rights are not trampled on in the drive to make big profits for capitalists in both countries.

Free all political prisoners now!
Long live independent workers’ organisations and the right to strike!
Investigate Shahrokh Zamani’s death!
Iranian workers are not alone!

Iranian Workers’ Solidarity Network
25 January 2016

* “Norman Lamont has been appointed UK trade envoy to Iran as part of a wider government attempt to improve Britain’s disappointing export record.” (Financial Times, January 20, 2016)

It appears that the arrested workers were released on bail and nearly a month’s wage arrears were also paid to the workers.

In recent days the contract workers have held meetings demanding their unpaid wages but there is still no sign of their back pay.

There have been many protests by contract workers in the Asaluyeh Special Economic Zone, in Bushehr Province (southern Iran), during the past few months.

Iranian Workers’ Solidarity Network
14 January 2016

Source: ILNA

See also: Half-hour strike by Asaluyeh Phases 20 and 21 contract workers
Fourth day of South Pars Phase 13 workers’ protest
Third day of protest by Asaluyeh phases 22 and 24 workers
Asaluyeh contract workers end stoppage after officials promise to pay wages
Asaluyeh workers continue protest for payment of unpaid wages

In pursuit of trade deals worth billions of euros and co-operation on chocking off mass movements in the Middle East, in particular independent action by the working class, Hassan Rohani will be meeting President François Hollande. We can be sure that on this official visit they will not be discussing the general repression in Iran and the severe measures taken against labour activists and the left. Hollande will not be demanding an independent autopsy to find out what really happened to Shahrokh Zamani.

Join the picket so that together we can show our solidarity with the workers’ movement in Iran.

Facebook event page: French Embassy picket – Rohani’s official visit.

Date: Wednesday, 27 January, 2016 – 17:30.
Place: French Embassy, 58 Knightsbridge, London, SW1X 7JT.

Asaluyeh, 2 January 2016 (C) ILNA

On the morning of Saturday January 2 around 300 contract workers began their protest by remaining in their dormitory and not going to work. They were technical and service workers employed by a tertiary or third-level contractor (i.e., a sub-contractor’s sub-contractor).

After the main contractor intervened, and promises about the payment of wages and bonuses owed to workers were made, the workers returned to work.

There have been many protests by contract workers in the Asaluyeh Special Economic Zone, in Bushehr Province (southern Iran), during the past few months.

Iranian Workers’ Solidarity Network
3 January 2016

Source: ILNA

See also: Fourth day of South Pars Phase 13 workers’ protest
Third day of protest by Asaluyeh phases 22 and 24 workers
Asaluyeh contract workers end stoppage after officials promise to pay wages
Asaluyeh workers continue protest for payment of unpaid wages