Iran
Content about workers' struggles, revolution, war and events in Iran.
Class war in the Middle East
Capitalism and Islam are twin parasites in the ‘Arab states’ – but workers are fighting back hard reports John Shute
The Gulf city-state of Dubai is, according to recent estimates, the fastest-growing city on earth, and is, after Shanghai, certainly the world’s biggest building site.
Tehran: a letter from the bus workers' union
The following letter, addressing world labour organisations, was issued in Tehran on Monday by the Tehran bus workers’ union Syndica Vahed.
The Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (Sherkat e Vahed) is most grateful to all the world’s labour organisations for their unsparing support for our newly-formed organisation.
Day of action for Iranian bus drivers: 15th Feb
A demonstration will be held tomorrow evening in support of the arrested Iranian bus drivers who've been striking since the end of last month.
The protest will be outside the Iranian Embassy, 16 Princes Gate, London SW7 on Wednesday 15 February at 11.00am. It was called by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions:
Transportation workers resist global attack
The latest attack on workers' rights around the world is now hitting the people who make public transportation possible in many of the world's metro areas.
Tehran and New York City are both in states that are bitterly opposed to one another but share the similarity of not allowing public transportation workers to organize and fight back against the attacks by local transportation companies.
Tehran: 200 workers released
200 imprisoned union bus workers released; all were denied the right to return to their jobs. Hundreds more are still in prison.
According to the reports by Mr. Gholamreza Mirzaei, the current spokesperson of the Syndicate of workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, about 200 workers have thus far been released following the mass arrests on January 28th. Mr. Mirzaei reported that none of the 200 released workers have been able to return to their jobs and hundreds others are still in prison.
Tehran bus workers under attack - update
Hundreds of striking bus workers of the state-owned Vahed bus company are still in detention in Tehran today following the vicious attack by thousands of members of the security forces on their strike on Saturday 28th January.
Reports are coming in of more arrests last night and today, in particular in transport districts 4, 5 and 6. A gathering of workers in district 6 last night to press for the release of their jailed colleagues was attacked by the security forces, resulting in more arrests. Workers are being intimidated into signing pledges to give up strike and protest actions or risk being fired.
Tehran - mass arrests of striking bus drivers
Iranian bus drivers in Tehran are on strike again, in the face of mass arrests and repression, including the families of the four main union leaders.
Iran focus reported that agents of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), Iran’s notorious secret police, raided the homes of bus drivers in Tehran in the early hours of the morning, arresting hundreds of bus union activists and in some cases their relatives as well, according to one resident.
Those arrested have been taken to unknown locations.
Iranian bus drivers arrested after no fares action
Fourteen leaders of Tehran’s transport workers’ union were arrested last month after staging a no-ticket action (when bus drivers refused to collect fares) against Sherkate Vahed, a state owned bus company, to demand higher wages.
By an Iranian socialist, Thursday 5 January 2006.
1990-1991: A Comrade's Testimony: A Journey to Iraq (includes leaflets from Kurdish areas)
From Communism #7
On August 1st 1991 there was a loud bang during the night in Tehran and we heard that a food storage warehouse had been blown up in protest at delays in distribution of welfare food allowances. People had been waiting two months for their social security food supplies. Apparently, nighttime explosions are quite common, public buses being the most frequent targets.
Appeal from sacked Tehran transport workers
Organising efforts by the Syndicate of Workers Of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company in the Vahed Bus Company have resulted in the dismissal of 17 union activists.
The union is calling for solidarity in the face of what it describes as the company’s extremely harsh reaction to the workers organising efforts.
As well as the dismissals many have been harassed and have undergone interrogations at the hands of the Company’s security forces.
