The first reports on an important May Day gathering in Tehran. May Day celebrations in Iran have been closely tied to the status of the independent workers' organizations. With the demise of the workers' council movement in 1983, May Day celebrations declined in their numbers and deteriorated in their content. This year, there were a number of small but important independent gatherings of workers to celebrate May Day. We report on one of them here.

The second article is by two of the Canadian organizers of a series of solidarity events with the Iranian labor movement. These activities show the potential for a grass root labor support for the Iranian workers as they increasingly take up the fight for their own working class organizations.

The third article sheds light on aspects of discrimination faced by women workers in Iran mostly reflecting personal experiences.

During the solidarity activities in Canada, Iranian labor solidarity activists distributed Labor Links to workers and union representatives who attended the labor conferences in Toronto and Vancouver. We have received reports of how Labor Links was useful in such reach-out efforts. We hope readers will make copies of Labor Links for their co-workers and others interested in learning about the Iranian workers' movement.

Labor Links articles are written to inform on topics that remain ever current. They are also available in Spanish. We would appreciate it if you would contact us with your experiences distributing Labor Links or any ideas or questions that can lead to improvements of this reach-out effort.

May Day Celebration in Tehran The following article is based on a report published in issue number 24 of the bi-monthly magazine Andisheh Jamehe (Social Thought). Edited and published by Mohammad Reza Ashouri in Tehran, Iran, the magazine devotes a significant number of its pages to an open discussion of working class and socialist history, theory, and politics. To subscribe to Andisheh Jamehe write to [email protected].

* * *

On the afternoon of May 1 some 500 workers, including children, youth and retirees, responded to an invitation By current or former leaders of a number of crafts to participate in a program to celebrate the International Workers' Day. Some industrial workers also participated. This meeting was the first time since the 1982-1983 period--when the independent movement of workers, in particular factory councils (Shoras), were suppressed--that an open gathering of workers not aligned with the pro-government Workers' House was ever held in Iran to celebrate May Day. The meeting comes in the context of increased resistance of workers to attacks by the employers and their government and mass disillusionment with forces aligned with the Workers' House. The organizers applied for and received permission from the Ministry of Interior to hold the meeting. However, the permit specifically denied the organizers the right to hold any public meeting outside of the convention center. The workers and leaders present who have participated in the struggle to create and develop trade unions in Iran were recognized at the beginning of the meeting. The chairperson offered a brief history of the international fight for an eight-hour day. Currently, Iranian workers face forced overtime and working multiple jobs, just to make ends meet. A worker recounted a brief history of May Day in Iran. In the discussion period, the audience underscored the value of trade unions as the form of labor organization currently most suitable for Iranian workers. During the struggle against the monarchy, the Iranian workers' movement opposed yellow trade unions installed by the Shah's regime and went on to build factory councils (Shoras) on the basis of strike committees forged during the revolution of 1978-79. The demise of the factory council movement and its replacement by the pro-government Islamic Workers' Shoras of Labor has focused the attention of militant workers on the need to build trade unions that are independent of the government and run by workers in the interest of workers themselves. The meeting ended with the reading of a 15-point resolution that was endorsed by the audience's applause point-by-point. The first three points in the resolution demand the lifting of the ban on formation of trade unions, recognition of all trade union rights granted by the International Labor Organization (ILO), of which the Islamic Republic is a signatory and removal of the limitation imposed on independent craft associations as stipulated in the labor law. Point four condemns "unjustified firings" and point five demands replacement of temporary work contracts that has become widespread in recent years with permanent jobs, annulment of the law that has removed 3 million workers and their families who work in firms with 5 or fewer employees from the protection of labor law and social security, and annulment of a similar law for workers in the world-famous hand woven carpet industry. Point six demands workers' representation in the governing bodies of the Social Security Organization to stop the progressive decline in its services. Points seven, eight, and nine demand that the minimum wage to be based on and linked to the actual inflation rate as wages increasingly lag behind living expenses. They also press for job security in the face of waves of privatization, and payment of back wages of workers in firms that face financial ruin. Point 10 addresses the discrimination faced by women workers and demands corrective action. Point 11 supports the demands of the recent teachers' protests (see Labor Links, Number 2). Point 12 supports workers' demand for collective agreements, recalling that they require "true representatives of workers." Point 13 asks for prohibition of child labor and free education for the children of low-income families. Point 14 expresses solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people in the face of US-backed Israeli occupation and war. The Workers' House and capitalist politicians have argued that Afghani immigrants are responsible for mass unemployment in Iran. Point 15 condemns this anti-immigrant propaganda, condemns the Workers' House's anti-Afghani position and demands equal rights for all immigrant workers.

Canadian Labor Unions Back Iranian Workers, Mehdi Kouhestaninejad and Farid C. Partovi.

During the months of May and June 2002, the International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran (IASWI, http://www.workers-iran.org, email [email protected]) in Canada organized several activities in solidarity with Iranian workers. An important component of these activities was a tour for three independent labor activists and researchers from Iran who participated in a number of labor meetings and conventions. These were Parviz Babbaei, a veteran labor activist, Mohammad Reza Ashouri, editor of Andisheh Jamehe (Social Thought), a monthly journal published in Tehran, and Ali Reza Saghafi, a labor researcher. This tour was sponsored and financed by the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) and Canadian Auto Workers (CAW). These guests from Iran together with Yadullah Khosroshahi, the last secretary and representative of the former national Oil Workers Council before it was suppressed by the Islamic Republic in 1983, and Behroz Daneshvar, an Iranian labor activist who now resides in Germany, attended the CUPE Ontario Convention from May 23 to 25 in Windsor, Ontario. They also attended the CLC Convention in Vancouver, BC, June 10 to 14. Parviz Babbaei addressed the CUPE Ontario convention on May 25. Drawing on common experiences of workers around the world facing global capitalism, he talked about privatization of public services and the lack of labour rights in Iran. He urged CUPE Ontario to participate in a special delegation from the International Labor Organization (ILO) and International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) to visit Iran to see first hand the situation of workers.

The IASWI organized a two-day seminar entitled "The Iranian Labor Movement, Obstacles and Perspectives" on June 1-2 at Toronto Metro Hall. Some 120 individuals from 12 cities of 6 different countries (Canada, US, Germany, UK, Sweden and Iran) participated in this seminar. Guest speakers included Hassan Yussuff, Executive Vice-President of the Canadian Labour Congress, Sid Ryan, President of CUPE Ontario and Edgar Godoy of CUPE Ontario's International Solidarity Committee. Speakers in Farsi included Parviz Babbaei (who spoke on "Historical methods of labor organizing and activities of workers' syndicates in Iran"), Yadullah Khosroshahi ("The Iranian labor movement and obstacles to organizing"), Habib Ladjevardi ("Trade unions and politics in Iran"), Behroz Daneshvar ("On theoretical challenges of facing the working class in Iran"), Iraj Azarin ("Workers' organizations, strategy and politics"), Mohammad Reza Ashouri ("The labor law, temporary contract work and the poor people's movement in Iran"), Nasser Saeidi ("Workers' independent organizations"), Houri Sabba, ("Gender and organizing Iranian female workers"), Ali Reza Saghafi ("The impact of globalization on workers in Iran"), and Mehdi Kouhestaninejad, President, CUPE Toronto District Council, ("International labor solidarity, requirements and options"). Iranian labor solidarity activists in Vancouver organized a similar seminar with a smaller scope on June 8.

One objective of these seminars was to provide an opportunity for Iranian labor activists across North America and Europe to exchange views and discuss issues confronting the labor movement in Iran. Another objective was to raise awareness and international solidarity with the Iranian workers within the Canadian labor movement. The 23rd CLC Convention in June 2002 adopted a resolution proposed by the IASWI, and adopted by a number of national and local unions, that included a call to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions to dispatch a fact-finding delegation to Iran to investigate labor rights and to demand the right for Iranian workers to freely organize their own independent organizations with both effective collective bargaining and the right to strike. Discrimination against Woman Workers in Iran By Houri Sahba1In 1996, some 13.6% of workers in industry in Iran were women. Yet, they are seldom present in labor struggles, even though there is a considerable presence of women from the more well- to-do sections of society in the press. In this brief comment, I share with you aspects of the double oppression of women workers that make it difficult for them to be presented in these struggles. 1Houri Sahba worked in the Piltex Textile Factory where she was the liaison between the factory's workers council and the women workers in the period after the 1979 revolution. Later, she worked in the Melli Shoe Factory and was very active in establishing the workers council there. In 1992, she was forced to quit her job and move to Canada. This article was extracted from a longer version entitled "Reflections on the Problem of Organization of Iranian Women Workers" presented at the labor seminar "Iranian Workers' Movement: Perspectives and Obstacles" in Toronto, June 1-2, 2002.
 

In Iran, when a women sells her labor power she also enters a "gender contract," which is requires of her to act "like a woman." The process begins not only in the employment office but also in the "office of selection." This latter authority requires from women who seek employment proof of financial need, approval by the neighborhood's Islamic council (an ideological watchdog), proof that there is no male head of household or evidence of addiction of the male head of household. Of course, women, too, have to pass the "ideological test,"2but everything else being equal, the man will get the job. Nepotism and connection to the authorities are always helpful and men, having a much wider social network, stand a much better chance of getting the job. In the early years after the revolution, after they segregated the sexes on the job, no women worker was allowed to remain in the technical department where men were the overwhelming majority. I remember a European woman who was married to an Iranian was able to keep her job as a mechanic on the condition of wearing an exceptionally non-sparing hejjab (Islamic garb).

She lasted only three weeks, after which she "volunteered" to work in the swing department, where other women worked. The chauvinist pressure from her male co-workers contributed in no small degree to this decision. Once hired, a woman worker has little chance of advancement. First, because 2"Ideological Tests" by employers are anti-labor screening mechanisms that were originally devised to exclude socialist workers. Soon, they became a tool of management and the state to attack militant workers of any background. her employment options. The opportunity for advancement comes when production line is rearranged or if, being literate she is moved to a clerical task in the office or transferred to the quality control department or childcare duties. These "advances" often accompany no increase in wages. In the Melli Shoe factory, women were in the forefront of the struggle for reclassification of jobs. They believed this would result in equal pay for equal work. After a 4-day strike, only a small one-time bonus was granted to them. After the consolidation of the Islamic Republic, the trend throughout industry was to lay off women workers and to reduce their rights in the workplace. Whenever a woman worker was laid off or fired, an attempt was made to hire a man in her place. When the economy was in recession, the "privilege" of working overtime was granted only to men. In the boom times, however, women were forced to work overtime at hard and unhealthy jobs. During the Iran-Iraq war, bosses forced women workers to work second and third shifts, even in industries that had no immediate connection to the war effort such as textiles.

In the Melli Shoe Factory, forced overtime remained in effect after the war ended-only women with children were exempt because the childcare facility was closed. Women workers did not much protest the imposition of Islamic garb after the establishment of the Islamic Republic because they were still allowed to wear colorful scarves. But as the pressures mounted on them to wear darker and more limiting attire, protests mounted though in a sporadic form. The fact that  male workers adopted a confirming silence towards this imposition of Islamic garb on their female coworkers contributed to the lack of success of these protests. Other factors that undermined women workers' protests included the religious mentality of many and the repression that followed the start of the Iran-Iraq war. Segregation of men and women workers under the guise of religiosity was one of the blows delivered to the workers' movement in this period. It was aimed not just at women workers but at all workers who wanted to stand up to the bosses and the government. Unfortunately, women workers were left to fight this battle alone and their attempts to reach out to their male co-workers did not get more than a cold silence or even vile sarcasm. The men did not understand that suppression of the women is only a step towards their own suppression. Job segregation of women resulted in reducing the scope of work available to them. For instance, in textile factories women cutters, weavers and pressers lost their jobs and were demoted. This resulted in considerable dissatisfaction.

 Wages and benefits such as productivity or new-year annual bonuses, and household goods assistance paid to women workers are lower than those given to men. Wages increase faster for male workers because raises are based on skill and the difficulty and hazardous nature of tasks performed. Male workers do not object to division of labor along these lines; hence they also do not oppose the disadvantageous position of women workers. The principle of the "family wage," which is based on a family of 5 with the husband as its head, explicitly places women in a secondary position and perpetuates their financial dependence on men. It justifies less desirable and lower paid jobs for women because women's livelihoods are alleged to basically come from men (husbands, fathers, brothers). Women's preferences for employment mean nothing. Similarly, women workers are rarely offered medical services and health insurance for their elder parents or children if their husbands are employed and have health care coverage. During periods of illness or pregnancy or giving birth, women workers are limited to 66% of their wages minus wages for the first three days of the month. For male workers, the rate is 75%.

As a New Labor Publication, We would like to welcome the inaugural issue of Avvay-e Kar (Voice of Labor) published in Farsi by a group of workers in Tehran, in June. This issue contains reports on May Day activities, participants' reports on labor struggles over working conditions, including one about potato farm workers, articles on labor law, the recent wave of layoffs, and the struggle for the eight-hour day and a living wage, news items on international labor struggles, and a book review section. To subscribe to Avvay-e Kar, write to [email protected].

Labor Links is published four times a year. While the editors are responsible for accuracy of the information provided, only unsigned articles reflecting policy are the expressed views of the editors. Questions, comments, news, articles or requests to get on Labor Links' mailing list to receive notification of new issues should be sent to:  [email protected].  issues of Labor Links are posted at: http://www.bonyadekar.com/labor.htm.