Open World Conference of Workers

In Defense of Trade Union                               Independence & Democratic Rights

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1) Presentation by Abbas Mansouran, representative of the Labour Council of Iran (in exile) to the Saturday, February 12 plenary session of the Open World Conference

Iran is a country with 65 million people. 18 million of these belong to the labor force but 25% of them are unemployed. 6 million workers constitute the working class.

Today there are millions of workers who have not received their wages for a period of a few months up to two years. Ordinary wages are not able to support a household causing one of the highest rates of suicide. Mental and physical disorder is prevalent among Iranian workers.

Half of the employed labor force and their families are covered by a social security system which recently was privatised. The current owner have turned it into a corrupt investing company robbing people in Mafia style operations.

The Islamic parliament decided in 1999 to sell all public hospitals located in seven cities. The government argued that this was necessary in order to pay its debts. In public hospitals, patients who are not able to pay the fees are detained in prisons, located inside the hospitals. There is in average 24 detainees each month. The hospital director at Sina Hospital in Teheran claims that they need money to pay wages and spend money on equipment.

Working women in Iran are facing terror due to religious decrees, and are overexploited mostly by weaving rugs, sewing, farming and etc. Working women in Iran can be described as a whole a population of slave labor. Slavery is also legalised by the laws on marriage. Article 1041 reads "marriage before puberty is illegal," and the first attachment to article 1210 of civil law indicates " puberty age is 15 complete lunar year for boys and nine for girls". Attachment to article 1041 explains "marriage before puberty is permitted only by the permission of the one who has custody, he should consider what is right." This article of Islamic Republic allows the owner of girls to have them married at tender ages but doesn't allow those children to undo these sales when they become of legal age. This is obviously nothing but violating the law of abolishment of slavery charted by United Nations. Application of "J"section of this article allows the parents to make final marriage decisions for their girls has made slavery, particularly child slavery an ordinary legal act.

Child labor effects nearly nine million children in Iran, in spite of the law banning this practice for children under 15 years old. However this legislation does not apply to small workplaces.

1999 UNICEF figures states that in Iran about 400 000 children live on the streets as beggars, distributors of drugs, sex objects etc., but the real number exceeds this figures. Report also states : "Iran is one of those countries that drafts children under 15 years of age for military actions such as securing minefields" .

There are no independent trade unions in Iran. The government has, since the Islamic revolution created organisations at the workplaces in the name of the working class from the outset of revolution there was a far-reaching movement by the workers who meant to establish their own organisations.The workers were very active in this regard. In order to neutralize this movement, in 1984 the government created Islamic Councils in almost every workplace. The Ministry of Labor have established the Workers House, which yearly arranges the Congress of Islamic Councils where they select representatives to attend, for example, at the International Labor Organisation.

In 1999 the government proposed to exempt factories employing less than 10 workers, from the labor laws. To reject this legislation the workers marched on the streets and repeated their protests, from the Islamic parliament building to the chamber of commerce. After these protests the government proposed another law excluding workplaces with up to three workers, but since pressure from workers intensified this new legislation was also suspended, pending new parliamentary election on February 2000. According to Iranian regime's own accounts, the workers in more than 1,800 000 such small work places are going to be excluded from all labor law protection.

Having in mind that Islamic labor codes in Iran prohibits workers to strike, the first paragraph of the labor law bans "Any imperfection in performance or any action or inaction that undermines the order, disturbs the common routines, leads to reduction of quantity or quality of products or services, reduction of profit or disregard for Islamic teachings". This means that there exists no freedom of speech at work or any legal right to strike in Iran.

In 1989 Rafsanjani government launched a plan for economic expansion containing -free market mechanism -attracting multinational companies -receiving loans from World Bank and IMF

Oil is the most important and actually the single element that sustains regime's economy. Oil being its milking cow, the government has used, or rather, has abused it. Oil exportation and taxation had been two major sources of income. So oil fields have been expanded while industry and technological expansion have been down right neglected. Not only there is no activity in these latter fields, it is safe to say that they have been destroyed.

In October 1999, according to the third economic plan of Khatami, sitting president, Majlis made it legal for the private sector to get involved in oil related activities such as discovering, drilling and refining Iranian oil." Later, in November 1999, Majlis permitted private capital to take over the communication network in the country.

The Iranian government on behalf of the international capital has a task to provide all the communities natural resources, mostly oil and gas, to the multinational firms. Many other industries, for example textile, are either partially or totally closed according to advices from the World Bank and the IMF. Free Trade Zones have been created in regions rich of oil, gas and other vital industrial mineral resources.

In presence of representative of multinational firms the supervisor of these Free Trade Zones in Iran, as advisor of the Iranian President, in one of his speeches in December 1999 said that the increase in capital investment in Iran is a cornerstone for the development of the entire Middle East area through Iran". He added that multinational investment firms will have access to about 300 million people. A chief Iranian Trade representative at Vienna meeting in December 1999 promises that these multinational firms investing in Iran would be able to transfer all of their profits obtained trough their investment in Iran, including their capital. The Iranian government has in principle agreed on the regulation laid down by Multi lateral Agreement on Investment (MAI).

According to an Iranian expert "the multinational investors have arrived on the southern part of the world to gain massive profits, at no bigger expense at all." However he warns for their political and strategic goals. The war in Chechnya and Afghanistan, the presence of the USA military in the Persian Gulf is the prerequisite for the multilateral capital in the central Asia and Middle East. The global capital in these areas as well as Balkans has created a situation were western military powers such as NATO's presence is being justified.

The international capital is impatient to reach its main goal of consolidating one oil protectorate all the way from Persian Gulf to the Caspian sea and so control the main part of the world biggest oil reserve. The following is a list of names of firms that are involved in this project: AMOCO, EXXON, UNICAL, MOBILE, TEXACOÉ(USA), BP, RAMCO, British Gas, Royal Dutch Sell, STATE OIL (Norway), TOTAL (France) AJIP (Italy), LOOK OIL (Russia), Trans Naft (Russia), Saudian Oil Co. Turkish Oil Co., and Azary Oil Co. Iran, Pakistan, China and Korea Oil Co were invited. All these companies are presently active in Iran.

A number of Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) such as The Greens, Child Protections, Women Networks (which has been organised by Rafsanjani's daughters) have been created. These organisations led people to believe that they are ant-statism organisations with no ties to the government, but the main function of such organisations is to abort any movement by workers and destitute sectors of society.

The consequences of the debt to IMF and the World Bank for ordinary people are privatisations, high income taxes, high prices on basic commodities and social services, freezing of agriculture and building industries.

Workers resistance against the regime is growing and has become more organised. Workers have resisted all the tricks from the government and demand independent trade unions and other independent labor organisations. Last year many work places have been occupied by workers and some managers were taken hostage during these occupations.

In the last three years, there hasn't been a day that labor did not stage some kind of demonstration or strike in either major factories or other key service sectors. The working class, with ever increasing rates, has shown its displeasure against present situation, by street demonstrations; clashes with security forces; setting road blocks; sit-ins at workplaces or ministerial buildings and government centers; massively signature campaign; taking employers as hostages and so on.

Strikes in garment industries, oil industries, and others were staged to show the labor opposition towards firings, wage payment delays, private capital take over of state owned industries, management corruption, lack of safety at workplace, and finally in order to demand higher wages. The two strikes that took place in the second week of January 2000, one by workers working in Abadan's Oil Refinery and the other by employees working for Farming and Industry of Lorestan were in line with these very goals.

Since any kind of criticism or strike is illegal in Iran and government is quick to brand them as war against God almighty and his representatives on earth, most strikes and demonstrations are organised secretly by groups of workers who remain anonymous.

Analyzing reports on strikes, demonstrations, and demands of the working class in past three years, one can conclude that the labor movement has been of a defensive nature not an offensive one. The working class' scariest nightmares are unemployment and job security. Shut downs of factories, layoffs and refusal to pay the wages for long periods are some of the plots to get rid of the workers. As these actions spreads their crushing effects are felt more and more by the working class. What the workers of Nakh-Kar factory (a textile industry) shouted in their demonstration on January 2000, reflects the feelings of millions of workers all over Iran: "Two of my co-workers committed suicide during these non-payment periods. That happens to people who have pride but no penny. As we are talking another friend, Zabih Mortezaee, has been committed to Tajrish Hospital for mental disorders ." Said one of the workers.

In June 1999, six days which shook Iran more than 100,000 student, workers and other oppressed people staged an uprising against the guardians of the global capital in Iran. In Tehran and Tabriz (two main cities of Iran) , governmental forces killed and wounded hundreds of people. These forces raped female students and stabbed their breasts at Tabriz university dormitary, accusing them of being the rebels against God!

Khatami, the so called reformist president of Iran, ordered special military troops to attack demonstrators from the air and ground. These troops killed, arrested and tortured mor than 1000 of students, workers, intellectuals and freedom fighters. As pictures and facts have been displayed here in this Open World Conference. Iran, capitalists enjoy the support of the religious authorities and they have been able to used faith as a leverage to avoid paying the minimum wage, or as Marx puts it, to rescue a church God may sometimes asks for the devil's help.

Iranian oppressed masses need international solidarity for freedom of political detainees who are facing death penalties and long-term imprisonment. We belong to world workers front. Iranian workers as a part of the global working class continue their struggle to fight back the assault against the global capitalism. We shall overcome,

Long Live Workers Solidarity!

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2) Document No. 1: "The New Assault Made By Islamic Republic Of Iran On The Livelihood of Millions of Iranian Workers," (document sent to the OWC Continuations Committee by the Labour Council of Iran)

On February 27th, 2000 after the latest results of parliamentary elections in Iran was announced, the Islamic Republic regime celebrated the ending of the elections by robbing the workers out of the last minimum human rights and occupational security that was left. On that day, parliament (Majlis) - the legislative arm of the capitalists - revived an old plan of earlier months and rushed it through its assembly of deputies approved by the regime and hated by their constituents. No wonder they voted that places hiring five or fewer workers were exempt from the Labor Law.

This brutal declaration deprived those workers from having any social security or any protection under the Labor Law. Of course, this was anticipated and was reported beforehand on Feb. 12 in front of 560 representatives from 56 countries attending the Open World Conference (OWC).

Approving this plan which had started on June 7th 1999, robbed millions of workers from their most basic occupational and human rights. Those very rights that they had earned through many years of struggle was snatched away from them in such a heartless way by those how don't care neither about the workers nor the workers' families.

The savage act of the regime in June was responded on May 1st when over 10,000 workers poured into Tehran streets and marched from parliament (Majlis) to the Chamber of Commerce waving their angry fists towards these two organs the act symbolic of the workers' anger and mistrust for the whole system. At that time, due to ever increasing actions of the Labor, government took a step back and waited for its chance which came about after the elections when the president, so beloved by the World Bank Organization and International Monetary Found, was celebrating.

This outrageous act takes place at a time when more than two million workers have not received their wages for periods ranging from four to twenty-four months. These facts plus the running inflation rate and the rampant government corruption have driven the workers and toiling factions of the society to commit total-family suicides in an ever increasing rate in recent years.

The government officials admit that because of the passage of this law:

- more than 1,600,000 workplaces
- more than 90% of occupations covered by Labor Law and social Security
- and more than 40% of total employed work force have been thrown out of any protective legislation and left like shackled slaves to the mercy of the capitalists.

Employers are free to cancel any legal agreement to allow themselves to squeeze workers and their families as hard as they want using the following tools:

- Increasing the working hours for the same wages.
- Taking advantage of child labor.
- Forcing the pregnant workers to work up to delivery time.
- Depriving the mothers of newly born infants from maternity leave by dragging them back to work right after giving birth.
- Doing away with paid vacations and holidays.
- Imposing overtime and overnight hours at will.
- Creating an atmosphere in which workers feel mentally, socially, physically and professionally insecure.
- Neglecting the safety rules at workplace.
- Using intimidation, insult and beating as means to create subjugated silent workers providing cheap labor without objections.
- Throwing out of the window all the international rules and regulations related to the workers or places of work.
 

The passage of this legislation indeed was to encourage the multinational capital, which has been waiting for guarantees of high returns in order to invest in Iran. So this was a green light signal which was delivered just after the elections from the ruling regime of Iran with its supposedly "reformist" government to those capitalists.

Iranian working class, without a doubt, won't take this blow by the regime silently. They will come back to the streets well aware of the support of others suffering from similar chains, the workers from all over the world, the liberals, those who have brains to think and hearts to feel and hands to lend in support and solidarity.

Labor Council is hoping that anyone receiving this emergency report show support for the Iranian workers and denounce the recent doings of the Iranian regime by any means possible.

Labour Council Feb. 28th, 2000