more iranian comrades attacked

Based on the reports by the Coordinating Committee to Help Form Workers’ Organizations in Iran, on June 15, the police raid with machine guns on the meeting of the sixth general assembly of the organization resulted in the arrest of sixty of the labor activists. On June 16, Cyrus Fathi, Alireza Asgari, Jalil Mohammadi, Saeed Marzban, Massoud Salimpour, Maziar Mehrpour, Reihaneh Ansari, Faramarz Fetratnejad, and Mitra Homayouni remained arrested while the rest of the detainees have been freed. Reihaneh Ansari has received 20 days incarceration and 66 thousands dollars bail.

According to the committee, the arrests were done at a house in the city of Karaj without showing any warrants and using machine creating an atmosphere of terror and fear in the neighborhood.

Coordinating Committee to Help Form Workers’ Organizations in Iran released the following statement:

Yesterday, Friday 15th of June at 12 noon 60 members of the Coordinating Committee to Help Form Workers’ organizations and a number of labor activists were arrested by agents of the city of Karaj.

According to the latest news, Mitra Homayooni, Vafa Ghaderi, Reyhaneh Ansari, Khaled Hosseini, Mahmoud Salehi, Saeed Moghaddam, Cyrus Fathi, Ghaleb Hosseini, Mohammad Abdipour, Jalal Hosseini, Alireza Asgari, Masoud Salimpour, Abbas Andriyany, Sediq Amjadi, Fattah Soleimani, Maziar Mehrpour, Mhommad Molanai, Vahed Seyyedeh, Jalil Sharifian, Sediq Khosravi, Yusuf Ab Kharabad, Faramarz Fetrat Nejad, Jalil Mohammadi, Nezam Sadeghi, Afshin Nadimi, Hussain Pilooti, Rahman EbrahimZadeh, Abbas HashemPoor Are among the detainees. (If new names appear they will be added to the list).

urgent news about the arrests of labour activists in iran

From Eshterak

Yesterday, Friday 15th of June at 12 noon 60 members of the Coordinating Committee to Help Form Workers’ organizations and a number of labor activists were arrested by agents of the city of Karaj.

According to the latest news, Mitra Homayooni, Vafa Ghaderi, Reyhaneh Ansari, Khaled Hosseini, Mahmoud Salehi, Saeed Moghaddam, Cyrus Fathi, Ghaleb Hosseini, Mohammad Abdipour, Jalal Hosseini, Alireza Asgari, Masoud Salimpour, Abbas Andriyany, Sediq Amjadi, Fattah Soleimani, Maziar Mehrpour, Mhommad Molanai, Vahed Seyyedeh, Jalil Sharifian, Sediq Khosravi, Yusuf Ab Kharabad, Faramarz Fetrat Nejad Are among the detainees. (If new names appear they will be added to the list).
According to the news, the detainees were transferred to Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj and until now no further news is available.

arash sadeghi, iranian student activist goes on hunger strike

Taken from the Iranian website Eshterak

 

On Thursday May 24th, Arash Sadeghi, the Iranian student and political prisoner finally was allowed to receive visitation from his grandfather after 130 days of detention. This visit took place in section 209 of Evin prison in Tehran and lasted less than 5 minutes in presence of the interrogator.

reza shahabi must be free!

Omid Rezai looks at the case of a jailed militant on hunger strike in Iran

Reza Shahabi, an Iranian labour activist, has been in held in Block 209 of Tehran’s notorious Evin jail, for months without conviction or even proper charge. Paying attention to the reality of his case shows that the situation for workers and working-class movements in Iran is different to that in Europe only in degree; bureaucratic and bourgeois-legalist excuses manufactured ad hoc to justify his continuing political incarceration, his alleged second trial remaining always just around a corner, since he was found to have no case to answer to on 25th May.

The authorities have attacked him still further. He has been subjected to aggression and intimidation, pressured to cut even his scheduled fortnightly telephone conversation with his family. In response, Reza began a hunger strike, demanding his immediate and unconditional release. Beginning on 1^st November, his hunger strike led to the formation of a committee for his defence which attracted hundreds of signatories from across the Iranian labour movement. Mahmoud Salehi, himself recently released from jail, has become the spokesperson for the group. The authorities increased their attacks on Reza, at one point using his weaknesses as an excuse to stop him from talking to his family, telling them that he would not see them.

free reza shahabi, iranian trade unionist imprisoned without trial

A communique from the Reza Shahabi Defence Committee, upon the twenty-first day of the jailed Iranian trade unionist’s hunger strike. For updates, see http://www.workers-iran.org.

On Monday 21st Azar (14th December) the members of Reza’s family went to Evin prison to visit him.  They were informed that, owing to his physical condition, it was impossible for him to be moved to the visiting room and that they were to move to Evin’s prosecutor’s quarters because he could be moved there by car.

On the twenty first day of his hunger strike, Reza Shahabi is in such a state that he can not even shake his head.  Before Reza was moved from block 209 to block 350, he was told that if he gave up his activities in the workers’ movement the authorities would free him, and that he must answer immediately, but Reza refused.  Another security operative came to block 350 to tell him yesterday that if he ceased his hunger strike he would be freed, and he replied that he had been told the same thing before and although they knew he is innocent, they went back on their promise.  ‘This time I will not cease my hunger strike to the point of death, and ask for immediate and unconditional release. ‘ 

‘one hundred unions. thirty countries. one class’

Omid Rezai of the International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran reports on the Labourstart conference in Istanbul 

‘One hundred unions. Thirty countries. One class.’ – Derrick Blackadder, of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, advanced this as the slogan for trade unionists to take home.  It was an accurate summation of the discussions and workshops of the last two days.  It was an exciting conference to be part of.  The Internationale was sung in more languages than I had ever heard spoken before, by avowedly class-conscious trade unionists, who were calling for international solidarity against capitalist exploitation.

workers in Iran need class solidarity, not US interference

The conference began with participants taking part in a picket line with 62 locked-out members of Birlesik Metal-Is, outside GEA Klima Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş. (ATR) in Gebze.  Members of the International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran took part and reported a lot of good feeling on the picket line as links were made between Metal-Is workers and German comrades who work at related factories.  Full details of the dispute can be found here. 

petrochemical workers in mahshahr join those in tabriz on strike

Communique from striking workers in southern Iran, translated for the International Association in Support of Iranian Workers.

More than 70% of Iranian workers are on contracts and work under very hard conditions. 80% of them are beneath the poverty line. Workplaces with fewer than ten workers are not even controlled by labour legislation. There are contracts known as “blank signatures”, which means no term of employment is given. The average wage for workers was aprox £190 a month in 2010 for the poorest 8 million workers, not counting those who work in factories with fewer than ten workers. The lack of health and employment legislation as well non payment of wages for up to eighteen months in some cases, are the some of the harshest working conditions.

cricket match to raise money for iranian workers, august 29th

August 29th will once again see Hands Off the People of Iran play the Labour Representation Committee in their annual solidarity cricket match to raise £1,500 for the charity Workers Fund Iran, which raises money for Iranian workers. (workersfund.org). In the face of an enormous political and economic crisis, a new round of UN sanctions and war threats, Iranian workers are in a very difficult situation.

This is why it is absolutely vital that the workers’ movement in this country organizes material and ideological solidarity with workers’, women’s and students’ struggles in Iran – they are our natural allies and a true beacon of hope for genuine democracy and freedom.

solidarity screenings of ‘offside’ with comedy from shappi khorsandi

Wednesday, May 12, 6pm. Soho Theatre, 21 Dean Street, London W1

With an introduction by John McDonnell MP. The event is co-sponsored by the Labour Representation Committee (click here to read their letter, urging support for the event). For details of screenings in Glasgow and Manchester, click here.

Jafar Panahi – the well known Iranian film maker – was arrested on March 1 and is still being held without any charges. He has twice been offered bail, but has refused in solidarity with all those incarcerated for their participation in the mass demonstrations against the regime that have shaken Iran since June 2009.

The Hopi showing of the director’s most popular film in the West – ‘Offside’ – is an important opportunity to raise the profile of Panahi and step up the pressure on the regime in Tehran. We believe that international solidarity of this sort – not the threat of military strikes or sanctions – is the way to deliver effective aid to the struggle of ordinary people in Iran for freedom and social change.

To buy your tickets and to find out more, please click here.

islamic republic mark II: theocracy with a smiley face?

by Nathan Coombs

In the Guardian Simon Tisdall recently asked whether the bloody protests we are currently witnessing on the streets of Iran herald a ‘second revolution?’

All the trademark signs seem to be there. Much like in the run-up to 1979 the protests are beginning to move in cycles locked into the mourning rituals of those who have died in support of the cause; all too familiar are the scenes of the streets filling with masses openly defying authority – which with every fumbling attempt at repression only loosen their legitimacy and hold on power.

attacks on mashhad university students

Report on repression of protests in Iran: see Hands Off the People of Iran for more info

On December 30th two students were critically wounded and scores injured by knife wielding members of Ansar-e Hezbollah and Basij militia. Up to 500 thugs were brought in to attack students at Mashhad University after they staged anti-regime protests during Ashura. One of the students’ professors was also attacked and sustained knife wounds, whilst a young female student was badly injured after being struck repeatedly over the head with a piece of wood. Students at the university were holding silent mourning ceremonies for the Ashura where they opposed the repression of popular protests. The police aided the Basij and Hezbollah by blocking the roads leading up to the University and attacking crowds of students with tear gas and batons. Around 210 students and youth were arrested by the state-repressive forces throughout the recent Ashura protests. Below is the video of the brutal attack by Basij and Hezbollah on students:

The day after over 4000 students and professors staged protests against the attacks and arrests at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad and Azad University of Mashhad but were laid siege by security forces and militia. Students, professors and parents have tried to find out information on the arrested and injured.

iranian regime threatens mass murder, arrests activists

Below is a brief report of the moves the regime has been taking against known leftwing activists and the threats that leading officials have been giving on state television. This report was sent to Hands Off the People of Iran by Anahita Hosseini of the ‘Independent Leftist Students’, who represent an anti-imperialist socialist tendency within the student movement in Iran.

After the mass protests of Sunday December 27th the regime is showing its fear of the people’s uprising by going to well known activists’ homes one by one and arresting them. This morning (Monday 28th) armed plain clothes forces went to the home of Mahin Fahimi, who is a member of the organization of mothers for peace, and arrested her and her son Omid Montazeri, who is a known leftist student activist. Omid is the son of Hamid Montazeri, a known communist activist who was executed by the regime during the mass murders of leftists and Mujahideen in prison in 1988.

report of hands off the people of iran agm

by Mark Harrison

Saturday 28th November saw 50-odd people congregate in central London for the 2009 Annual General Meeting of the Hands Off The People of Iran campaign. Being a internationalist socialist campaign this gave oneself the chance to mix with some of the more principled elements of the British left, from class struggle anarchists to the LRC.

hands off the people of iran agm, 28th november

Somers Town Community Centre, 150 Ossulston Street, London NW1 1EE (near Euston station). Registration from 10am. Download a leaflet here: (front/back)

Since the June 2009 elections, the situation in Iran has dramatically changed. Thousands have taken to the streets in defiant protest – despite the Iranian regime’s history of brutal repression. Initially, they were commonly portrayed as middle-class backers of the leading ‘reformist’ candidate Mir-Hossein Moussavi, but as protests have continued, and Moussavi himself has repeatedly shown his timidity and ties to the theocratic state, the mood has radicalised dramatically and this anger has embroiled wide swathes of the society. Many of those who were initially protesting against the election outcome now question the entire basis of Iran’s Islamic republic and there are daily strikes and protests. Come along to our AGM to discuss this and many other issues.