Appeal to Labour organisations and activists of the world
Class brothers and sister!
This year, as in previous years, we the workers of Iran commemorated May Day under the conditions of having absolutely no organisations and rights. Today difficult conditions reign over the future of the workers and teachers of Iran. The low standard of living, the difficulty of making ends meet, below poverty-line wages, temporary contracts and delays in the payment of the meagre wages, which in some cases stretch for 32 months, have pushed the workers towards the depths of a hellish life. Even under these conditions, with the various forms of repression and security pressures, on May Day Iranian workers came out on to the streets and demanded free labour organisations together with other demands.
This is their situation even though the Iranian government, by accepting ILO conventions 87 and 98, must be committed to and bound by the aims of these conventions. But in opposition to its commitments in relation to accepting these agreements it cannot stand any independent ceremony and treats the workers severely in all fields of struggle.
On May Day this year the workers in various Iranian cities, including Tehran, Kermanshah and Sanandaj, were determined to have their own independent ceremony like previous years, even under the very heavy police presence. As usual they were attacked by the officers of the security forces. But the attack in Sanandaj [in Iranian Kurdistan] was done in a very savage way.
On May Day workers with their families gathered in front of the Labour Relations Office in Sanandaj to commemorate May Day. Seeing the very heavy police presence and fearing a police intervention, the workers were forced to read the resolution they had prepared at the beginning of the ceremony. The moment the last article of the resolution was read the security forces attacked the crowd taking part in the ceremony and attempted to arrest its organisers. This was met by the resistance of other workers and their families. This scuffle lasted for half an hour.
Then a special guard (the suppression guard) came to the area. From this moment the workers were confronted by unbridled savagery. The special guard crushed the workers, forcing their wives and small children to disperse and seek refuge in nearby streets. The anti-worker special guard force used pepper spray, and chemicals that make people unconsciousness, on the eyes and faces of workers and then continued beating them with truncheons. About 20 workers who had passed out because of the pepper spray, the chemicals and truncheon blows, were arrested and taken to prison. Some of the other injured were freed from the clutches of the police by the people and then treated. The injuries of some workers are very severe, including some broken arms, legs and so on. Workers in Sanandaj are still being arrested according to a blacklist prepared by the security forces.
Labour organisations and activists of the world!
Considering our own struggles that are increasing by the day, and those of other layers of Iranian society, on the path to international workers' solidarity, we Iranian workers count on your wholehearted support at an international level, so that under the shield of international workers' solidarity we can make those who suppress us retreat and, at the same time as freeing the jailed workers, pursue our demands in an ever more robust way.
Labour organisations and activists of the world!
We the workers of Iranian ask you, in the name of international working class solidarity, to support the struggles of Iranian workers in every way possible. We count on your support on the path to: achieving the rights of workers, teachers and other sections of the Iranian working class; the release of Mahmoud Salehi, who is charged with taking part in the 2004 May Day ceremony and imprisoned; the unconditional release of those who were arrested during this year's May Day ceremony; banning any form of harassment and persecution, surveillance and arrest of workers and labour activists; as well as setting up free organisations and preventing savage suppression.
Co-operation Council of Labour Organisations and Activists
4 May 2007
1- Committee for the Pursuit of the Creation of Free Labour Organisations
2- Co-ordination Committee for the Creation of Labour Organisations
3- Workers' Cultural and Support Organisation
4- The Union of Labour Committees
5- A group of Labour Activists
6- A group of Iranian University Students Demanding Freedom and Equality
Translated by Iranian Workers' Solidarity Network