· Day of Action for Iran – Demonstration at Iranian Embassy in Ottawa
· Demonstration outside Iranian Embassy - London
· Demonstration outside Iranian Embassy in Paris
· Demonstrate against Islamic Republic of Iran- New York
· Statement # 1 by Coordinating Committee to Help Form Workers’ Organizations about
· Presidential Election and recent unrest
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Day of Action for Iran – Demonstration at Iranian Embassy in Ottawa
Canadian unionists and human rights activists will protest outside the Iranian Embassy in Ottawa on June 26th as part of the Global Day of Action called to support the rights of workers and against the persecution of labour activists. Members of CUPE, CUPW, CTF, NUPGE, PSAC and CAW will be there as well as Amnesty International and Paul Dewar, NDP Foreign Affairs Critic. Activists from the Iranian-Canadian community including the non-partisan Solidarity Campaign with the Workers’ Struggles in Iran will gather to demand the respect for human rights and workers rights in Iran.
Speakers include:
Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada
Denis Lemelin, National President, Canadian Union of Postal Workers
Paul Dewar, MP Ottawa Centre, NDP Foreign Affairs Critic
Rhonda Spence, International Officer, Canadian Union of Public Employees
Emily Noble, President of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation
Demonstrators will call on the Iranian government to:
· Free all arrested workers, students and political prisoners
· Justice for people who have been killed or injured by security forces during recent protests in Iran
· For the right to organize independent organizations and for the right to free speech, protest and freedom of assembly
· Free bus workers’ union leaders, Mansour Osanloo, and Ebrahim Madadi, and Farzad Kamangar, a teacher on death row
· Drop all charges and prison sentences against labour, social and political activists in Iran, including May Day detainees and those arrested during recent protests.
Where: The Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran – 245 Metcalfe St. Ottawa
Time: 12:00 to 2:00 PM
Date: Friday June 26, 2009
For more information, please contact:
415-835-8296/ [email protected] or [email protected]
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Demonstration outside Iranian Embassy - London
Global Solidarity Action Day
Justice for workers and people of Iran
FRIDAY 26 JUNE 2009
12 NOON
16 Prince’s Gate, London SW7 1PT
The international Trade Union organisations have called for global solidarity action day in support of the workers of Iran. The amnesty International has also joined this action.
For 30 years the Islamic Regime of Iran has imposed appalling political, economic and social conditions on workers and impoverished people. The independent workers organisations are banned in Iran. Many worker activists have been jailed for trying to set up their own worker organisations. The current wave of mass protests in Iran following the rigged election is a clear indication of people’s total dissatisfaction with the Islamic regime. So far the Islamic regime has used brut force to suppress protestors; to date more than 30 people have been killed since the election and many hundreds more injured and imprisoned.
The Islamic regime is attempting to hide the extreme oppression imposed by security forces on the people of Iran from the International media. Now more than ever the workers and people of Iran need international support from trade unionists, human rights organisation and progressive organisations in their struggle against the suppressive Islamic regime.
At the protest we will demand:
* Immediate and unconditional freedom of all arrested workers, students and political prisoners.
* Justice for people who have been killed and injured by security forces in the recent protests in Iran.
* Right to organise, strike and protest; free speech and assembly.
* Freedom of jailed bus workers union leaders: Mansour Osanloo, Ebrahim Madadi and Farzad Kamangar, a teacher on death row.
* Dropping of all charges and prison sentences against labour, social and political activists in Iran including all May Day detainees and those arrested during recent protests.
INTERNATIONAL ALLICANCE IN SUPPORT OF WORKERS IN IRAN (IASWI) – LONDON- UK
The TUC/AI/AITF protest outside the Iranian embassy in London on Friday is from 12:30-1:30pm – see http://www.tuc.org.uk/international/tuc-16651-f0.cfm
See also: http://www.justiceforiranianworkers.org
Demonstration outside Iranian Embassy in Paris
Labour federations and trade unions in France including CFDT, CGT, FO, CFTC and UNSA will be a gathering in front of the Iranian Embassy in Paris to protest the violation of workers’ rights in Iran and demand immediate freedom of all workers and detained activists. Amnesty International will also participate.
Activists of the IASWI-Paris invite all labour, progressive and human rights activists to join this rally outside Iranian embassy in Paris
Friday, June 26, 2009-06-25 12 PM
The Embassy of Islamic republic of Iran- Paris
International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran (IASWI)—Paris
_____________________________________________________________________________________Demonstrate against Islamic Republic of Iran- New York
When: Friday June 26th, 2009 from 4:00 to 6:00 PM
Where: Third Ave and 40th Street,
Across the Islamic Republic’s permanent mission to the UN
Join us in an International Day of Solidarity with the Iranian Labor Movement, and in opposition to the recent electoral coup!
Iranian society for the past 30 years has been a hotbed of struggle against the theocratic, murderous tyranny of the Islamic Republic. Whereas in the early 80’s the regime was successful in physical, and political annihilation of popular mass social movements, in the past few years with the emergence of a new generation of radical popular mass social movements ( labor, women, students, Kurdistan…) the regime has consistently demonstrated its utter inability to suppress and keep these social forces in check.
One of the latest instances of such futile thugishness was the regime’s vicious attack on workers, their family members and supporters on May 1st, while they were peacefully assembling in a park to celebrate May Day. June 26th was chosen by four International Labor Federations: The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), International Union of Food workers (IUF), International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) and Education International (EI) to protest the imprisonment of labor activists detained on May 1st in Tehran. For more information on worldwide labor solidarity actions please see www.workers-iran.org .
While preparations were under way to protest the Islamic Republic’s vile anti-labor policies and conduct, an even more unthinkable, brazen crime was committed in broad daylight by Islamic Republic, and its front man, “Mahmud Shah.“ Iranian history has had its own fare share of coups (from palace coups in Achaemenids era, to the coups in 20th century engineered by Western powers responsible for the establishment of the brutal, corrupt Pahlavi dynasty: itself an indirect source and practical incubator of Islamic Republic). Yet none has been as blatant and futile as the electoral coup carried out last week. Obviously the sea of humanity spread throughout the country during the election campaign was too alarming for the ruling theocracy to contemplate, and in their desperate attempt to “control” the situation they have resorted to yet another devious ploy. But if Iranian history is any indication, this coup like every single other one before it, will not succeed, and won’t be able to hold back the people’s aspirations for freedom, democracy, equality, and peaceful coexistence with other nations. Join labor, anti-war activists in solidarity with Iranian people’s struggle against the doomed theocracy of the Islamic Republic. Let us vociferously raise our cry of freedom and say:
- Free all arrested workers and political prisoners
-Down with Islamic Republic of Iran
-Long live freedom, peace and equality
- Long live International Workers’ Solidarity
Sponsored by: International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran (IASWI)-New York
For more info please contact: [email protected]
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Statement # 1 by Coordinating Committee to Help Form Workers’ Organizations about
Presidential Election and recent unrest
Iranian people have witnessed the presidential elections in Iran. During the debates between candidates there was never any mention of destitute conditions of the working class, non-payment of wages, temporary-work contracts, medieval sentences of floggings, killings and incarceration of workers and labor activists, suppression of May 1st events….
The reality is that these candidates themselves are collaborators in creation of such impoverished conditions facing working class and majority of the population in Iran. That is exactly why amongst hundreds of candidates only these four were hand-picked.
In the election process all resources of capitalists, familiar and unfamiliar liberals, media networks of world capitalism: BBC, VOA, was utilized to convince people of elections as an arena for change. In various styles they attempted to convince people that their votes held some power and value. After the election it became obvious that all their propaganda were naught.
Voters discovered that their votes were misused. And now they are protesting in hundreds of thousands. People should have defended their rights by a boycott of the election, but in any instance the votes tossed into ballot boxes are being utilized by the regimes officials. People have a right to protest such mistreatments. While condemning all the attacks on protesters we remind all that such protests should not be led by likes of Mousavi, Khatami, Kahroubi, or any other executives or elements of the capitalist order. These protests shall become a part of justice seeking by workers and toiling masses against the capitalist order.
Iranian working class has been struggling for its basic rights for years and in the process has been vigorously attacked by the protectors of Capital. In the 80’s simultaneous with execution and incarceration of hundreds and thousands of activists of social movements, especially labour movement, they executed Jamal Cheragh Vaisi, the speaker for May 1st event in Sanandaj. In the era of so called “political reforms,” labor activists in Saghez were arrested and incarcerated for participating in May 1st events, egalitarian and freethinking writers were portrayed as hired pens, and some of them were killed in a process of chain murders.
In the past few years we have also witnessed Khaton Abad workers getting riddled with bullets, Mansour Osanloo, president of the executive board of Vahed Syndicate getting his tongue cut and incarcerated, Mahmud Salehi being jailed and denied medical attention while in confinement, flogging of labor activists on charges of participating in May 1st ceremonies, and arrests and incarceration of tens of labor activists in this year’s May1st event….
Student protesters were viciously attacked and their dormitories ransacked. Women’s movement and their activists asking for their basic rights were also beastly attacked, and incarcerated. The just rights of teachers and nurses were also violated, by firing from jobs and confinement in prisons.
Now the protectors of Capital are facing a dire crisis and reproaching each other. Working class and noble liberated people of Iran should expose such demagoguery. Bourgeoisie in whichever shape from or color cannot and will not guarantee the just rights and demands of Iranian workers and toilers. At best the desperate attempts of capitalist class and their representatives are to turn workers into a reserve force that could be used to maintain their dominance. Working class and liberated people of Iran shall not trust them.
Workers, liberated and noble people of Iran!
Major tribulations for workers and all exploited masses are: exploitation, extensive unemployment and lack of any rights, inflation and unbearable high costs of living, lack of basics rights to from workers organizations, the right to strike, freedom of expression, and other civil liberties. Such obstacles could be overcome only by relying on the power of the working class as the main and most powerful societal force.
Workers and brave, justice seeking people of Iran and throughout the world, in their extensive, and freedom seeking protests could and should demand: the identification, arrest and prosecution of all those who ordered and implemented the recent suppressions and killings of people, and demand freedom of all those imprisoned during the recent workers’ and people’s protests. We also demand the annulment of all sentences against workers and labour activists as well as activists of women’s movement and students’ movement.
Capitalist order is an order of barbarism, suppression and exploitation, an order of corruption, poverty, prostitution, and deprivation. Let’s unite and call for the eradication of the capitalist system.
Coordinating Committee to Help Form Workers' Organizations
June 18, 2009
www.komitteyehamahangi.blogfa.com
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18 June Statement -Any Suppression or threat of civil liberty condemned
In line with the recognition of the labour rights, we request that June 26 Action Day – Justice for Iranian workers – to include the human rights of all Iranians who have been deprived of their rights.
In recent days, we continue witnessing the magnificent demonstration of millions of people from all ages, genders, and national and religious minorities in Iran. They request that their basic human rights, particularly the right to freedom and to choose independently and without deception be recognized. These rights are not only constitutional in most of the countries, but also have been protected against all odds.
Amid such turmoil, one witnesses threats, arrests, murders and brutal suppression that one fears only to escalate on all its aspects, resulting in more innocent bloodshed, more protests, and certainly no retreats. The Iranian society is facing a deep political-economical crisis. Million-strong silent protests, ironically loud with un-spoken words, have turned into iconic stature and are expanding from all sides. These protests demand reaction from each and every responsible individual and institution.
As previously expressed in a statement published on-line in May of this year, since Syndicate Vahed does not view any of the candidates support the activities of the workers’ organizations in Iran, it would not endorse any presidential candidate in the election. Vahed members nevertheless have the right to participate or not to participate in the elections and vote for their individually selected candidate.
Moreover, the fact remains that demands of almost an absolute majority of the Iranians go far beyond the demands of a particular group. In the past, we have emphasized that until the freedom of choice and right to organize are not recognized, talk of any social or particular right would be more of a mockery than a reality.
The Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Vahed Bus Company fully supports this movement of Iranian people to build a free and independent civil society and condemns any violence and oppression.
In line with the recognition of the labour rights, the Syndicate requests that June 26 which has been called by the International Trade Unions Organization ‘Day of action’ for justice for Iranian workers to include the human rights of all Iranians who have been deprived of their rights.
With hope for freedom and equality
The Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Vahed Bus Company
18 June 2009
http://www.hra-news.org/news/1160.aspx
http://www.justiceforiranianworkers.org/?p=594
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International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran (IASWI)
[email protected] or [email protected]
www.workers-iran.org