Open Letter to

Congress of WFTU – T.U.I. Transport

Brazil December 10-11, 2007

From: International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran

To delegates and participants in the Congress of TUI Transport in Brazil,

As you may be aware, another wave of threats, oppression, attacks, assassination, arrests and imprisonments against labour activists in Iran have been taking place in recent months. Imprisonment of Mahmoud Salehi, a founding member and former president of the Saqez Bakery Workers’ Association and the spokesperson for the Coordinating Committee to Form Workers’ Organisation, Mansour Osanloo, the president of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, Ebrahim Madadi, the vice-president of the syndicate of bus workers of Tehran, prosecution of Seyed Davood Razavi, also an executive board member of the syndicate of bus workers, assassination attempt against Majid Hamidi a labour activist in Iran’s Kurdistan, ever-growing persecution, intimidation and arrests of leaders of labour protests and strikes, including that of Haft Tapeh sugar cane factory whose representatives, Ghorban Alipour and Mohammad Heydari Mehr, have been incarcerated; all this are just small illustration of the anti-worker actions of the Islamic Republic of Iran in recent months.

Congress of TUI Transport which will be held on December 10 and 11, 2007, in Bello Horizonte, Brazil, in the name of millions of workers and in defense of their rights, is obligated to support the Iranian workers’ rights and struggles as well.

We are asking Congress of TUI Transport in Brazil to issue an open statement with the following demands:

- Condemn the Islamic Republic of Iran for the persecution and arrests of labour activists.

- Demand the immediate and unconditional freedom of jailed labour activists, including Salehi, Osanloo, Madadi, Alipour and Heydari.

- Support free and an unconditional establishment of workers’ independent organizations in Iran.

- Support the demands and struggles of the transport workers organized by the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Vahed Bus Company.

- Condemn any threats of military action or economic sanction by imperialist states against Iran.

In the end, we strongly protest against and condemn the presence of representatives of Workers’ House of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is an anti-worker, government-sponsored organization, in your congress. We declare that labour gatherings and congresses must be places for the real and genuine representatives of workers, i.e. the representatives of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company as your colleagues in transport sector, and not anti-worker individuals and establishments such as the Workers’ House. 

Respectfully yours,

International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran

cc:

George Mavrikos, W.F.T.U. General Secretary; [email protected] / [email protected]

Corrente Sindical Classista of Brazil, [email protected]

Labour organizations and activists in Iran and around the world

For more information, contact [email protected] or [email protected].

International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran (IASWI)

Background Information: www.workers-iran.org

http://www.etehadbinalmelali.com/INDEXI.htm