During last year, since May 2001 to MAY 2002, the Iranian working class was engaged in a most acute class struggle. In the past year, hardly a day could be found that workers of a factory or several factories and establishments did not resort to one of the forms of open and face to face struggle with capitalists and the government guarding their interests. One after the other strikes, sit-ins, rallies, marches, demonstrations, barricading streets and roads were some examples of various forms of struggle that the working class has resorted to. In the KAR publication alone, our organisation's organ, news of more than a hundred of the most important workers' protests and struggles has been reflected. This is merely a part of hundreds of workers' protests and struggles that have occurred last year. This wave of workers' struggle, due to its' scale and continuity, is unprecedented in the history of the Iranian working class movement.

This flow in the Iranian working class movement of course did not appear from nowhere, but is the result of the development process of a struggle that particularly since the second half of the past decade has taken shape on the grounds of an economic and political crisis. In fact, the material and economic motives for the widespread and spontaneous current movement of the Iranian workers is the existing economic crisis. As a result of intensification of this crisis, that has been accompanied with bankruptcy of a great number of production establishments, during the past several years, hundreds of thousands of workers have lost their jobs and or are in an uncertain position. The number of unemployed according to some official reports is more than 5 million. Thousands of workers of various factories are constantly faced with delay in payment of wages and allowances. In some production establishments workers wages have not been paid for several months and in some for more than a year. This mass of workers is living in poverty and hunger. The material and living condition of millions of workers who do not face unemployment and uncertainty has also rapidly deteriorated. In order to put the weight of the crisis onto the backs of the workers and earning greater profits the bourgeoisie has intensified exploitation of workers. Hours of worked have increased in practice and real wages of workers have decreased. The level of workers' wages is so meagre that does not cover the minimum living for at least the very great majority of workers. As the rate of inflation increases constantly the real wages of workers decreases year after year. While the government in the past year increased the minimum wage only by a tiny amount, the increase in the cost of commodities and services was 40 to 50 percent. The price of chicken has increased by 45%, eggs 35%, transport up to 30%, pulses by 25%, rice and cheese by 12%. As a result the more the working class has worked and been exploited the poorer it has become. It is on the foundation of this intensification of economic crisis and worsening material and living conditions of workers that during the recent several years, spontaneous struggles of workers has spread year after year and developed further. Although these struggles have taken shape due to economic demands and spontaneity is their obvious character, nevertheless on the ground of existing political crisis, they have found other meaning and content.

Workers struggle, even over economic demands alone are no longer confined to the four walls of the factory. Workers of many factories no longer suffice to strike to realise their demands, but march and demonstrate in the streets of large cities, particularly Tehran and Esfahan. They close the streets and roads in order to let all know what their demands are. Workers now compel government authorities to come to them and answer their demands. If necessary they occupy government buildings too. If necessary they pull out metal fencing around the parliament of reaction too. In most of these struggles we see workers and police confrontation. Workers who have brought their struggles to the streets, position themselves face to face with the government as the representative of the whole of the capitalist class. Therefore, here we do not just face economic struggles, these struggles have taken a political character. It is in such conditions, that workers in many cases have been able to compel the capitalists and their government to retreat and meet their demands. The struggle between workers and capitalists over closure of some factories is another example of the existing class balance of forces. Capitalists and the government guarding their interests, to advance their economic policies, want to close some factories and reduce the number of workers in some others. That means dismissing tens of thousands of workers who have worked for years in those factories. Rafsanjani advanced the same policy without facing serious protest movements in another situation. But today the situation is different. Workers stand against capitalists and their government and do not give them the chance to dismiss workers as they wish. Capitalists put workers under financial pressure, delay payment of wages so the workers give up resistance. But workers fight compel them to pay their wages albeit with delay. Workers in no way surrender to government and capitalists' unemployment policy. This is a certain level of workers' class struggle in a certain political situation that gives them such a possibility; otherwise in a country that open dictatorship is in force, capitalists would easily dismiss workers as they did a decade ago. It is on the grounds of this class struggle and existing political crisis that the element of awareness has been strengthened day after day within the spontaneous workers' struggle. Manifestation of this growth of daily increasing awareness can be well seen in the growth of unity and solidarity among the ranks of Iranian workers. The time has past when workers of factories and establishments were uninformed of one another's demands, struggles and or passed them by indifferently. In the past several years, particularly in the past year, workers movement has demonstrated significant examples of growth of unity and solidarity. Material and moral support provided by various factories' workers for the textile workers is the expression of that reality. The strike of workers of some textile factories as expression of solidarity with workers of another factory and or joint strike, march and demonstration carried out at the same time are higher examples of the growth of unity and solidarity in the ranks of workers and growth of their class consciousness. Daily increasing exaltation of workers' class movement that rapidly has broadened, wider sections of workers resorting to open and direct struggle, and together with that, growth of unity and solidarity in the ranks of workers, all indicate the reality that the Iranian working class is nearing a stage to organise in a mass scale. The conditions for this imperative are being facilitated objectively more than ever. The form that this organisation would take of course is not separate from the development of political situation in Iran, the future level of growth of class struggle, and the situation of the ruling class. The process of class struggle would solve this problem objectively. But up to this point also, this class struggle of workers has hastened the ruling capitalist class and the political regime guarding its interests. The total effort of capitalists and their political representatives, whether inside the Islamic state or outside of it, is to harness this struggle in one-way or another. They still utilise aggressive oppression and would in future too, but corresponding to the advancement level of class struggle, they adopt new tactics and change their slogans. Nevertheless, in all cases their objective is to con the workers and harness their struggle. Therefore it would not be surprising, should some bands even among the ruling group remember benefits for the unemployed, propound slogans for independent organisation and introduce themselves as defenders of making strikes legal.

It was only several days ago that the Islamic Labour party and House of Worker, with propaganda and much noise, propounded to the parliament of reaction the bill for payment of unemployment benefit to the unemployed. O f course the other 2nd of Khordadies quietly rejected it and filed it away. Here the objective of the Islamic Labour party and House of Worker was not to defend the demands and interests of workers. The nature of these government organisations is not hidden anyone any longer. Their objective in the first place was to create an illusion among workers about these organisations and secondly- make an effort to find away to block workers' struggle and save the existing regime. It is some time that, now and then, the 2nd of Khordadi wing also propounds the slogan for independent organisations, but in fact, they are trying to use this demand of workers to strengthen their own position in the regime and establish organisations attached to themselves. They are trying to spread illusions amongst workers and pretend to be defenders of independent organisations and in the name of independent organisation, establish organisations attached to their wing. Proposing to make strikes legal by some of the groups in this wing is not from the angle of recognising the rights of working class. They see that Iranian workers strike and to hold these strikes they do not ask anyone's permission nor do they pay attention to restrictions and regime's threats. Now some groups of 2nd of Khordadies and House of Worker say lets make these strikes legal. Their intention for making them legal is to no longer allow workers strike whenever they will. So to strike workers must get permission from House of Worker and police and judicial apparatuses. Thus they are attempting to harness workers' struggle. It is a clear reality that freedom is a generality and cannot be divided. How could political freedoms and democratic rights of people not be recognised in a country, but for example the right to strike and workers' organisations be recognised! All wings and bands of the ruling group are opposed to political freedoms for the mass of Iranian people. Therefore their claim to recognition of independent organisation and strike are nothing but public deception and an attempt to harness workers' movement. But the very fact that they are compelled to speak of these demands of workers, is the expression of nothing other than the development and spread of workers' class struggle.

Iranian workers today, do not only suffice to strike at factories. With marches, demonstrations and rallies in the streets they have broken the legal boundaries set by the regime. Here the Iranian working class no longer merely struggles for realisation of its trade demands, but in practice has shown its vanguard role in the struggle for breaking the atmosphere of repression and gaining political freedoms.

With this level of advancement of workers' class struggle, new perspectives are opening not only in the struggle against the Islamic republic regime but against the ruling capitalist economic-social system.

In such conditions it is the duty of us the communists to consistently defend the class independence of workers and fight against spread of any kind of bourgeois and petty-bourgeoisie illusion wanting to restrict workers' class struggle to existing circle of relations. We must reiterate the truth that, until the workers' class struggle has not reached that level of development that it creates its own mass organisations independently, the necessity for secret committees or whatever other name workers may call them remains. It is only through smaller and secret organisations that the vanguards of workers, at the same time of remaining hidden to the regime's eyes, play their role in the leadership of struggles in the current situation; and when favourable conditions to openly establish mass organisation appear, quickly form those organisations. It is only workers' class struggle that would form those organisations.

After some time and following several days of arguments in the "Supreme Council of Labour", on the level and method of increasing the minimum workers wage, the mentioned organ finally announced its decision in the early days of March. Following the decision the labour and social affairs ministry too issued a memorandum for its implementation.

According to the memorandum the minimum daily workers' wage, for workers subject to the labour law, is increased by 4.5% plus 3500 Rials a day. The memorandum explains the 4.5% only covers the fixed part of the wage and does not cover that group of workers who do not have a fixed wage. The bourgeoisie executives and the regime's Supreme Council of Labour have complicated the method of increasing the wages to the extent that, as far as possible, workers could not figure it out so the capitalists and employers could do whatever they want in practice. Nevertheless ignoring the existing ambiguities of the method of calculating the wage increase and ignoring the conscious effort of bourgeoisie executives to create division among workers, the daily wage of workers is determined to be 23,282 Rials (the total of 4.5% increase of fixed daily wage plus 3500 Rials) and 698,400 Rials a month respectively. This means the minimum monthly workers wage has increased from 570,000 Rials in 2001 to 700,000 Rials in the current year. That is close to 23%. This is when the prices leaped in last March. At present too the prices are climbing up and the unbridled growth of rate of inflation and the direct effects of making the rate of exchange uniform on the reduction of value of Rial and as a result acute reduction of workers buying power, has made the living condition of workers families unimaginably hard. Economic and living pressures are so hard and dense on the workers and their families that it has occupied the minds of the leaders of the workers organisations attached to the regime too. They have regularly warned the knock on effects of this unbearable situation and the danger of explosion of the bottled up pressures. With the objective and motive of preventing the explosion they have asked that the wages are determined in a way to at least reduce the pressures a little. It was with that intention that even the defenders and implementers of the government policies had proposed 40,000 Rials to 65,000 Rials as the minimum wage to the "Supreme Council of Labour". In mid March and on the grounds of current workers protest struggles to increase wages, when Atardian, secretary of the employers association, announced 27,000 Rials as the daily wage proposed by the employers. Since the figure was totally out of line with the price increases and securing the minimum living of workers, not only it caused a wave of workers protests, but also protest and dissatisfaction of the above mentioned defenders and implementers of government policies. Nevertheless the "Supreme Council of Labour" finally announced figure does not satisfy workers demand and opinion, does not secure the cost of living of a workers family, it does not in any way correspond with the rate of growth of inflation and it is less than the proposed level by the organisations attached to the regime. It is even less than the figure announced by the secretary of the employers association.

The decision of the "Supreme Council of Labour" that could not even satisfy the closest workers organisations to the regime, once again demonstrated to the workers the reality that the "Supreme Council of Labour" is an organ attached to the bourgeoisie and has no relevance to labour and workers. According to the statistics published in the regime's official newspapers, currently the line of poverty is 1,800,000 Rials a month. Determining 700,000 Rials as the monthly workers wage means that the view of capitalists and the government defending their interest is that the workers must still remain under the line of poverty. It means barbaric exploitation of workers and exertion of greater pressures and living difficulties on workers and their families and greater poverty for them. It must be noted that with making the exchange rate uniform, some of non-cash benefits that were allowed to workers due to cheap Dollar and used to help workers a little, in practice would loose their effect and workers would be coming under pressure from this angle too. Following the policy of cutting and or reducing allowances would add to those pressures and the hard living conditions for workers. With fixing the monthly salary at 700,000 Rials every worker knows that his/her real wages has been reduced. Current social realities indicate a very deep gap between workers wages and the cost of living of a workers family. Daily increasing economic and living pressures are so heavy and back breaking that truly they have surpassed patience and endurance. It must be considered that this meagre increase of nominal wages only covers workers who are subject to the labour law. There are millions of employed workers who are not subject to the labour law. Their economic and living conditions are even more acute and more unbearable. Apart from that there are millions of other workers who are unemployed and have no source of income at all to survive daily!

It is obvious workers would not remain silent in the face of such a hard situation and so much bullying and extortion. Protest mood among workers and workers environments is speedily spreading. Capitalists and their government made faces at and gave a negative answer to tens of thousands of workers who in March rallied and protested in hundreds of factories in various states and demanded a wage rise and then waited for the decision of the "Supreme Council of Labour". Continuing their struggle to raise wages workers will reply to such face making and negative response. Workers discover the anti-worker nature of the "Supreme Council of Labour". Workers have realised through experience that this saint too cannot make miracles. It is only with organised and continuous workers struggle that employers and their government would be compelled to accept wage rises. The current year is not only a year of spreading the struggle to get the unpaid salaries but also a year that puts spread of struggle for increasing wages in the perspective.

The slogan "political development" which Khatami used to get elected as president of the Islamic republic and on the grounds of deep mass discontent over existing economic and political pressures provided an important place in the political atmosphere of the society has almost been forgotten. Although Khatami used that slogan as a means to gain greater advantage, but in creating illusion and using it to harness and divert the spreading struggle of the masses of the people had the support of the whole of the bourgeois class. Nonetheless it was not long that the shelf life of that slogan ended. The bourgeois class more than needing "political development" was thinking of "economic development"! and was intending to continue, as soon as possible, the past economic policies that had been halted in the process of implementation. Those were policies that are fundamentally based on the principals of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and had been implemented in the cast of economic policies of the first and second term of Rafsanjani's Presidency.

When the dust of "political development" settled completely, Khatami's wing that had never presented an independent economic policy and principally had no policy independent of previous policies, accepted the positions of the Construction Executives completely. The main trust of the "third economic development plan" that Khatami's government is busy implementing since two years ago, is to hand over industries and production centres to the private sector and leave open the hands of internal and foreign capitalists in looting and exploiting workers and wage earners. Regime's actions in this respect, although are the continuation of the same economic policies of the era of Rafsanjani, but from the point of view of breadth of its dimensions and speed of implementation, are not comparable to that. Lets not forget that it is in the very same period the government and parliament of "reforms", apart from providing numerous facilities for internal and foreign capitalists, including facilities and financial assistance, designs and acts such as reform of the taxes law, bill relating to absorbing foreign capitals in the interest of capitalists, are ratified by the parliament. And the act for renewal and reconstruction of industry facilitates the grounds to dismiss hundreds of thousands of workers. And lets not forget that it is in the very same period that the bill to exempt workshops with less than 5 workers from the labour law is ratified, temporary employment contracts are legalised, economic and living pressures are intensified from every direction.

It is in this direction that today the scale of privatisation and transferring government industries and companies to the private sector capitalists and their foreign partners have spread to amazing dimensions. The government without any covering up has put the social wealth on sale. Recently Khatami's government passed the timing plan and method of selling 189 government companies to the privatisation organisation. From that number, 40 companies to the end of the current year and 149 in 2002 will be transferred to private sector. Gorgi Biscuietes, Diana Tyres, Bakhtar Cables, Navard, Steel Parts Production are among the companies that are planned to be transferred to the private sector by the end of this year. According to the reporter of "Iran" In the first six months of 2002 from 2 to 99 percent of the shares of 50 companies will be floated on stock market as a way of passing them on to the private sector. Ardel, Offset, Iran Vehicles, Dizel, Buttan, Pars Products, Pars Electric, Behshahr Cotton Textiles, Tehran Cement, Dena Industries, Kemidaro Medicines, Bahman Group, Motozhen, Navard Aluminium are among those companies. The supreme group for transfer of shares also ratified the transfer of 14 companies attached to Oil Industry that after government confirmation will be transferred to private sector during early 2002. According to that decision, 100 percent shares of Tabriz Petrochemicals, Bandar-e-Immam Petrochemicals, Khorasun Petrochemicals, Razi Petrochemicals, Shiraz Petrochemicals and also 40.6% of the shares of Arak Petrochemicals, 49.7% of the shares of Isfahun Petrochemicals, 33.33% of the shares of Khark Petrochemicals would be floated on the stock market. Also 100% of the shares of Non-Industrial Operations Company and Petrochemical Services, Commodity transportation, Helicopter Services Organisation, Internal Road Transport Company, Petrochemicals, Iran Oil Engineering and Construction Company and Iran Technical Inspectors Company would be transferred to private sector by tendering process. This volume of transferring social wealth is only for the first half of 2002 and this process would also continue in the second half of the year. According to the same Iran reporter, in the second half of 2002 also 99 state companies would be handed over to private sector. Jumco, Dezfool Sugar, Mobliran and Nakhkar are among those companies.

It must be noted that all these activities of the capitalists' government are done with the excuse of creating employment, reduction of unemployment, removing economic problems and so on. They are done with the full agreement of all the heads of state and state organs. If in the not so distant past, only the Rafsanjani manufactured current of Construction Executives were the consistent defenders of neo-liberal policies, World Bank and International Monetary Fund, today all wings of the state have turned serious supporters of those policies. They openly state the wishes of their class. But who doesn't know that implementation of those policies- as far as they have been implemented in Iran, not only they have not reduced the level of unemployment and not created employment, but on the contrary they have resulted in very broad dismissals. As a result, tens of thousands of workers have been dismissed and job guarantee of hundreds of thousands of other workers has come under threat. No worker would believe the nonsense uttered by the government in that respect. On the other hand is it not the case that inflation and high prices have increased continually? Is it not the case that buying power and living standard of workers has been declining tragically? And is not the case that none of the economic problems of workers and other toiling strata and wage earners are solved, but day after day the problems and difficulties have been compounded? Since almost 30 years ago that neo-liberal policies were put on the agenda in capitalist countries and following that the principals of world bank and International Monetary Fund were implemented in some countries, Implementation of those principals and policies, every where has been accompanied with taking back working class gains, reduction of social expenditure, cutting workers wages and allowances, increased unemployment, job insecurity and intensification of economic pressures and intensified exploitation of working class. In Iran too it has been and will not be anything other than that. "Economic development" too in the thought apparatus of rulers, of course is nothing other than securing the maximum interests of capitalists. In the culture of the ruling class, hand-over of social wealth and product of workers labour to priests' kin, freeloaders and their foreign pals for nothing, and capitalists comprehensive support for intensification of exploitation and pressure on workers are what is meant by "economic development" and are the method of solving economic problems.

That, whatever it is, is the bourgeois class' solution. The bourgeois method for solving economic problems has not been nor would be other than intensification of and deepening those problems. Solution of existing economic problems requires a radical and revolutionary method. A method that guarantees going further than the framework of existing system and making fundamental transformations. This method that the working class is its banner bearer, is completely the opposite of bourgeois methods and is a proletarian method. Its first step is to drag the Islamic republic regime down.

Whilst the Islamic republic and its judicial and police apparatus during the last two weeks, like before, were busy cutting off the condemned's hand and foot, stoning and executions in the streets and exertion of physical and mental torture on political prisoners; the regime's media and Persian speaking radios of other countries organised a very wide spread propaganda, in the interest of the regime, about the bill for " Prohibition of Torture".

The bill was ratified by the Islamic Council parliament on 8 May 2002 and includes 12 clauses. The first clause, which is the most important one of the act, says: Any kind of physical abuse or torment to extract confession, solitary confinement, blindfolding the prisoner in jail or place of detention, interrogation at night, prevention of sleep for prisoner, actions that are considered as exertion of mental pressure on prisoner, insult and verbal abuse during interrogation, use of mind altering drugs, keeping prisoner in places with hurting noise levels, keeping the prisoner hungry or thirsty and……. are considered as torture and are prohibited. But the clause is easily nullified with a note and the same note exposes the nature of the act. The note says: in necessary cases and to quickly discover immanent crimes, investigators, judges and information ministry can employ measures that in the first clause of the act are listed as acts of torture. And this "necessity" to use torture includes any kind of armed action, membership of groups fighting the regime, spying on behalf of foreigners, activity in drug smuggling networks, hostage taking and kidnap.

Following the ratification of the bill in parliament, currently, the whole talk of the open and covert supporters of the Islamic state is whether the Guardian Council would confirm the ratification or not? As though rejection or confirmation of the ratification would change anything. The problem is not merely that torture and slaughter are inseparable part of the Islamic state, but the bill that claims prohibition of torture officially, permits torture officially and announces that its use against political opponents is permissible. To hide its track adds actions such as drug smuggling networks to the bill. But separate from the differences and quarrels of the parliament and Guardian Council, what is the purpose of submitting the bill and its ratification? Before anything the bill follows a political- propaganda objective. The 2nd of Khordad groups that entered the parliament with promises of "reforms" and quickly showed their claims to be false to all, currently and every so often, get a bill ratified by the parliament that apparently shows them as being different to the whole of establishment. And if no action is taken in the interest of people and their demands, the guilty party is the rival wing that apparently veto the " reformist" ratifications of the parliament and prevent their implementation. Such, they always try to play their role in hoodwinking the mass of ignorant people and guard the existing reactionary system. At the same time they try to consolidate their position in the quarrels of the two wings and neutralise the rival wing's restricting measures. Therefore if they speak of political freedom, they do not mean political freedoms for the whole of Iranian people would be recognised, but mean their rival wing, recognises such a freedom for them totally. If they speak of freedom of press, in no way they mean that any opponent could freely express themselves in the media and publish publication. Freedom of press from their standpoint means the judicial apparatus of the regime should not sequestrate their publications. If they speak of freedom of independent organisation, they do not mean that the masses of Iranian people, workers and toilers and women could establish their own organisations. Thus if they speak of prohibiting torture, as is completely apparent in the recent ratified bill, they do not mean that torture, as a barbaric and anti-human act, must be completely and without any exception be abolished; they mean the members of the groups supporting 2nd of Khordad wing, the likes of national-religious groups be exempt from any kind of pressure and torture. Apart from that as is clear from the clauses of the bill, they have no problem with torture of opponents of Islamic republic who are called fighting groups and or people who resort to armed action against the regime. As pointed out, one of the aims of 2nd of Khordad groups in submitting such bills is propaganda. Should one day they grab the whole political power, this very note and exception would become the general rule of their actions. Is it not the case that these very representatives of the Islamic reaction's parliament themselves have been members of the intelligence ministry, interrogators and torturers, guards, Basiji and Hezbolahis, is it not the case that they had a hand in torture, slaughter and massacre of hundreds of thousands of Iranian people? Do they not consider themselves supporters of the Islamic republic? Is it not the case that their pride is being Moslems? Is not the case that their codes of belief permits cutting off hands and feet of human beings, chopping the head of human beings off with swords, torturing to death human beings by stoning and at its least whipping? And how can anyone not condemn such barbaric acts that are considered among the most merciless acts of torture, but speak of preventing torture?

Religious state does not distinguish among left and right, conservative and reformist. All those who defend the Islamic state, without exception are covert and open defenders of torture and slaughter. Torture is an inseparable part of the religious state. A religious government is not possible without torture and slaughter, repression and suppression. This fact is demonstrated openly to all throughout human history and the whole period of existence of the Islamic republic of Iran. Without destruction of religious government there can be no talk of prohibiting torture. Therefore the first word in negating torture is negation of Islamic republic and it's overthrow.

Workers of Iran Transfo in City of Zandjan, gathered at the factory and stopped the work in protest against not consideration of their work-related demands on 29th April. This action lasted for few days. There is no news on the result of action taken by the workers.

A group of dismissed workers of the Municipal who redeemed or dismissed by force for some years ago gathered, on 1st May, in front of the Municipal Office in Tehran. These workers have not received their wages and subsidiaries for the last two years and during this time have arranged many protest actions. This time they also blocked Behesht Street and demanded to get back to work and receive payments for their wages.

ISNA wrote on behalf of one of the workers that for 21 years of service, the Municipal has paid him only one million of Toomans. Police units discharged the gathering.

Recently, one of the heads of the Governmental organisation Worker's House announced that during the last year one hundred thousands of workers have been dismissed and more than 90 thousands of other workers have not received any wages for 15 days - 9 months.

A group of weaving workers of city of Ghaemshahr gathered in front of the General-Governor Office and demanded payment of their retroactive wages and subsidiaries. These workers have not received any payment for the last four months.

In protest against the lack of management in Plant &Industry in province of Lourestan and duly shut down of the complex, 400 workers of this production unit organised a strike. This unit is owned by the National Bank and the directors have planned to dismiss all the workers. The workers' strike lasted for few days.

Thousands of workers of Melli Industrial Group stopped work on 25th May and gathered in front of the factory located in Old Karadj Road and demanded payment of their retroactive wages. The workers protested as well against, changes in work scheme, shut down of some production units owned by Melli Shoe, taking away some privileges and dismiss of a large group of workers.

On 26th May, more than 200 workers of Jahan Chit in Karadj once again gathered and blocked the main street of Karadj City. In this gathering, the workers demanded payment of their retroactive wages and consideration of their problems.

On 24th May, thousands of residents of Ghaen demonstrated. They protested against dividing up of Khorasan Province. Later on a large group of them gathered in front of the General- governor Office and broke glasses and windows of the office by throwing stones.

Hundreds of workers engaged in production unit Baft Azadi continue their protest actions that was started by the end of May. The factory is located in Tehran. The workers demand payment of their retroactive wages and that the dismissed workers of this factory should be re-employed. It is noticeable that a number of the workers have been dismissed during these protest actions charged by the management for organising the protests.

Hundreds of workers of Jamco garment factory, once again, gathered in front of the Ministry for Industry & Mines, on 26th May, demanding payment of their retroactive wages and consideration of their work-related problems. The workers, the day after, gathered in front of Jamco Co. And then demonstrated towards the President Office. The workers have not received any payment for the last 16 months!

On 3rd June, workers of Gastran Steel stopped the work and demanded payment of their retroactive wages and subsidiaries. These workers have not received any payment for the last 4 months.

Once again on 29th May, the workers of Lourestan Garment gathered in front of the General-governor Office and protested against not payment of their wages. Two years ago, du to the protest action by the workers, the officials accepted to re-open this production unit and if not so, to pay unemployed fees to the workers then retire them. But nothing has happened since then. Now the workers are in an uncertain situation and no one wants to take responsibility for the measurements. The workers have gathered in front of the office on several occasions and now they announced that if no one take responsibility they would march towards Tehran and they would continue their protests over there.

On 2nd June, tens of workers of Melli Shoe Industrial Group gathered in front of the regime's Labour Office and protested against dismisses of the workers. These workers have worked for 20-30 years for this factory and by the end of May, all of them have been dismissed. They demanded consideration of their problems and that they immediately being employed.

On 15th June, about 150 dismissed workers of Municipal along with their families gathered in front the building that the Municipal directors held a meeting and demanded to be re-employed. While the Office for Labour and Social Affairs in Khorasan Province, by an order, announced the dismissal as an illegal act but the directors of Mashhad City Municipal ignore the order and are not willing to take back the workers.

Police forces involved in transporting the workers to another place in order to make it possible for the City Director to talk to them but he said nothing to satisfy the workers and faced only protest by them.

On 24th June, when the workers reached the factory to start their work, they noticed that a Bulldozer is engaged to demolish the walls. They very fast reacted and stopped the Bulldozer and then marched towards the Semnan City Municipal Office.

It is noticeable that this factory was sold to the Municipal one year ago and by that time one hundred of workers of this factory was dismissed. The Municipal promised these workers to pay them Unemployment Fees for one year and then to re-employ them but nothing has happened since then. At present there are 200 workers engaged in this factory but they have not received any payment for the last 6 months. The workers gathered in front of the Municipal Office and demanded some consideration. By the end, the officials promised them to arrange a meeting between the representative of the workers and some of the directors in order to consider the matter.

On 16th June, dismissed and redeemed workers of Iran Tele-communication Company gathered from different part of Iran in front of the Majles in Tehran and demanded to be re-employed.

The workers engaged at Electronic Industry Company in City of Damavand demanded payment of their retroactive wages and execution of the Labour Category Draft in a letter to the Iranian press. 400 workers of this company protested that the management do not want to execute the Labour Category Draft, have not payment the wages regularly for the last 2-3 years and at since three months ago no worker has received any payment of wage and over time.