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Model resolution on Iran's labour conditions and
support for the Iranian Workers' Solidarity Network (IWSN)This branch believes that:
- Thirty years after Iranian workers toppled the Shah's brutal dictatorship - a regime that trampled on their trade union and human rights as well as subjected them to severe hardship - they are repressed by an even more despotic regime with a worse economic record than the monarchy.
- The Islamic regime of Iran crushes any attempt at setting up independent trade unions. Beatings, unlawful arrest, routine torture and even execution are used against labour activists.
- Iranian workers are denied basic trade union rights, including the right to strike, to form independent unions and to elect genuine representatives.
- Unpaid wages is one of the most acute problems that Iranian workers face. Yet, because of the general economic hardship and lack of rights, an explosive mixture is formed that often escalates the basic demand for backpay to calls for "general anti-capitalist united action", taking over production and workers' control.
- Even after relations with the US and international organisations eventually improve, and the office of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) is opened in Iran, workers will still have to rely on their own unity to achieve their demands.
- The Iranian Workers' Solidarity Network (IWSN) is one of the bodies active in mobilising international support for the daily and ongoing struggles of the Iranian working class. IWSN aims to help Iranian workers achieve all of their demands.
This branch supports:
- The struggles of Iranian workers for the right to strike, to form unions that are independent of the regime (and its supporters) and to elect genuine representatives.
- The fight-back by Iranian workers to obtain unpaid wages.
- The resistance of Iranian workers to prevent sackings and redundancies, factory closures, privatisation, deregulation and other government policies (whether Islamic or neo-liberal).
- The opposition of Iranian workers to any reduction to the already limited protection of the Labour Code, particularly in workshops where many women work.
- The work of IWSN in defending Iranian workers and publicising their lack of trade union rights and economic plight.
Last updated: January 23, 2009