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Urgent call: Condemn the death penalty for protesters against poverty and misery!

Statement by four independent labour organizations in Iran

Silence over death sentences for the arrestees of the November 2019 uprising, would result in more victims among these arrested protesters.

In a nationwide uprising in November 2019, hundreds of protesters were shot to death by targeted firing on the streets, just for protesting the growing poverty and high prices and misery.

More than 8,000 protesters mostly from working class and poor neighborhoods were arrested and imprisoned.

The response of the government to the protests was maximum brutality and no small measures were taken to change the deplorable conditions for workers, wage earners and the poor people in the country.

It was crystal clear that the authorities were trying to create an atmosphere of public intimidation by stifling any protests since its inception, to protect the interests of capitalists and the wealthy and robber barons, and they had no economic plans to improve the miserable living conditions of workers, toilers and the underprivileged.

We hereby express our solidarity with Amir Hossein Moradi, Saeed Tamjidi, and Mohammad Rajabi, the three protesters who are facing the death penalty, as well as other imprisoned participants in the November 2019 protests. We denounce the shooting, imprisoning, and pressure of all kinds, social, political and security threats on the protestors, and demand the immediate release of all detainees and closure of all similar cases, going back as well to 2018-2019 nationwide protests with the same demands.

Under the pretext of sanctions, all economic pressure cannot be directed at workers, wage earners and underprivileged, and at the same time these sanctions are an opportunity for capitalists and officials and “nobles” to make even more money.

The methods of governing the country, laws and regulations must change immediately in a way that decreases the pressure on the working class, and conversely, the pressure of the crisis should be shifted to the affluent, the state and private sector capitalists and the government officials who are responsible for the current situation.

Vast corruption in the upper rank and the pressure of subsistence on the working class and marginalized are also the mainstay of the ruling system that created unemployment, high prices, speculation and embezzlement.

The real change is only possible by workers and toilers.

Syndicate of Workers of Haft-Tapeh Sugarcane Company
Teachers’ Trade Association of Eslamshahr
Teachers’ Trade Association of Kurdistan-Marivan
Syndicate of the Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company

Workers have no choice but unity and organization!
July 2, 2020

Updates by International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran, dated July 14, 2020:
Since this statement was issued by the above workers’ organizations in Iran, the death sentences of Amir Hossein Moradi, Saeed Tamjidi and Mohammad Rajabi have been upheld by the Supreme Court of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Their trial was totally sham and absolutely unfair. Their lawyers had been denied access to them. They had been tortured and forced to make unfounded confessions. Sources inside Iran and also Amnesty International have reported that these prisoners were subjected to torture through beatings, electric shocks and being hung upside down. Only mass protests and global condemnations might be able to stop their execution.

PLEASE SEND protest letters to the electronic addresses below: Please also send them via the Iranian diplomatic representatives accredited to your country, if there is an Iranian diplomatic mission in your country. Although Iranian embassies’ addresses change frequently, please see the link below which might help: https://www.embassypages.com/iran

· Leader of the Islamic Republic
Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei
Twitter: @khamenei_ir (English) or @Khamenei_fa (Persian)
Email: [email protected] or [email protected]

· President of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Hassan Rouhani
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @HassanRouhani (English) and
@Rouhani_ir (Persian)

· The Judiciary of the Islamic Republic of Iran – High Council of Human Rights
[email protected];

· Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations
Email: [email protected]

Cc: [email protected];