Mr. Guy Ryder, Secretary-General of the International Labor Organization

Transcript: Labor Unions and Participants in the Annual Meeting of ILO

Are you aware of the fact that exactly on the verge of the annual Conference of ILO of one of the courts of the Islamic Republic of Iran whipped 17 workers of the Aqh Darreh gold mine of Tekab in Western Ian based on the complaint by the employer and Harasat (an organ of repression inside factories and workplaces) and with the charge of protest against expulsion, and that each worker received between 30 to 100 lashes?

This is not the first time that workers are subjected to lashing in Iran. Seddiqh Amjadi, Fares Gavilian,  and Habib Kalakani were whipped on January of 2007 for participating in the rally On February of 2013 Peyman Nodinian was summoned from classroom in Sanandaj and received 20 lashes. The sentence of 37 lashes for Siavash Islami was implemented on July of 2011 in the Islamic Court of Sary. You were informed of all these instances. Victims of whipping are not limited to workers. Women have been whipped for not observing Islamic Hijab again and again, and yesterday, 26^th of May, 35 graduate boys and girls were subjected to 99 lashes each for the charge of mixed graduation celebrations and for drinking alcohol.

You are all aware of the history of systematic repression of working class movement and of arrest of workers’ leaders because of their attempt and effort to build organizations that are independent of the government and because of organizing strikes and protests against poverty and lack of rights. You know that at this very moment a number of worker and teacher leaders are in jail because of protest against wages that are four times under the official poverty line, and heavy sentences have passed against them. A number of worker activists have received prison sentences but not jailed yet, and every once in while some of them are arrested and sent to jail.

The issue here is not cruel exploitation of workers in Iran and deprivation from the right to organize and protest, which are harsh realities of workers’ lives in Iran. Our emphasis here is the fact that the state which its representatives are participating in this Conference have taken insolence to such degrees that subjects workers, teachers, and young graduates to lash in order to humiliate them and break their dignity, and especially, to prevent the formation of organizations independent of government. This very case of whipping workers and teachers and young graduates shows that those who participate in ILO under the name of “workers’ representatives”, while any effort and attempt to organize workers is faced with violent repression,  are indeed hand-made agents and organizations by the government to implement its anti-worker policies, and thus are the “government’s organizations”. Our question to you, Mr. Guy Ryder, is this: is it not hard for you to side with and stand with the representatives of such a government in this summit? Do you really differentiate between this government and ISIS? Shouldn’t this government authorities be tried for repressing the workers and the people on a daily basis, instead of participating in ILO summit?

This year, more than any other year, workers and teachers in Iran are watching to see what your reaction is against “security charges” by the regime to every protest by workers and to the arrest and imprisonment of workers’ leaders in Iran. Watching to see what your reaction will be to the death of Shahrokh Zamani and to long prison terms for workers and teachers, including Behnam Ebrahimzadeh, Esmail Abdi, Mohammad Jarrahi, and Jafar Azimzadeh. Watching to see what your reaction to the medieval behaviour of Islamic Republic against the workers and the people will be.

You have already received many letters from worker activists from jail, including letters from Jafar Azimzadeh, Esmail Abdi, and Behnam Ebrahimzadeh, and from the spouses of workers and from worker organizations. We expect your annual summit to give a firm answer to the Islamic Republic. We expect of the representatives of the participating labor organizations to decisively defend the basic rights and demands of the working class in Iran and to ask for the expulsion of such a barbaric government from the International Labor Organization.

Regards

Asqar Karimi

On Behalf of the Worker-communist Party of Iran

27 May 2016