[The following is the translation of a call for a campaign issued jointly by a large number of workers’ organisations and collectives in Iran for the release of some 100 workers still in jail following a brutal attack by the Islamic Republic’s security forces on their rally at Tehran’s Laleh Park on May Day 2009. List of signatories is growing. Last updated 15^th May]:

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Call for a campaign for the release of May Day detainees

To workers and labour organisations in Iran and around the world!

On May Day, workers and their families who had gathered at Tehran’s Laleh Park, following a call by the May Day Organising Committee (made up of Iran’s independent labour organisations), to voice their demands and to commemorate this day, were attacked by the police and security forces and plain clothes officers.  A number of people who were in the park were also attacked.  Using various brutal means and instruments, the security forces seriously injured a large number of people and arrested and put in jail over 150. Of these, around 100 are still in prison.

These people had not committed any crime to be attacked and detained in such an inhuman way.  Today they are in jail, in appalling conditions, for [commemorating May Day] together with billions of workers around the world; for voicing the demands of millions of people in Iran who are humiliated everyday, not paid for months and suppressed for setting up independent organisations; for raising their voice of protest.  Their families have been contacting the courts and other judicial authorities every day to seek their release, but are being met by abuse and conflicting responses.

We millions of working people who yearn for equality have a responsibility towards the imprisoned workers and their families and must not leave them alone.  By declaring this campaign, we call on all labour and human rights organisations in Iran and internationally to condemn the arrest of these loved ones and to call for their unconditional release.  We call on them to do all within their power and to use all possible means to support these workers and their families and insist on their demands as set out in their May Day Resolution.

Long live the class solidarity of workers of the world!

Please send your statements of support and reports of actions taken to the following email address: campain1may@gmail.com

• Union of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Vahed Bus Company
• Union of Workers of Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Workers
• Free Union of Iranian Workers
• Committee for the Re-opening of the Union of Building Painting and Decoration Workers
• Co-operating Council of Workers’ Organisations and Activists, comprised of:

-          Follow-up Committee to Form Free Workers’ Organisations

-          Co-ordinating Committee to Aid Formation of Workers’ Organisations

-          A Group of Worker Activists

-          Women’s Council

-          Association for Support of Worker Rights

Supported by:

Kermanshah Electricity and Metal Society; Society to Defend Sacked Workers of Saqez; Committee to Defend Haft Tape Workers; Workers of Sanandaj Par-Ris Factory; Sanandaj Shin-Baaft Textile Factory; Workers of Shahoo Companies; Kurdistan Textile; Gharb-Baaft [Textile Company]; Sheel Brick; Pak Ara Milk; Sama Gunnysack Makers; Fajr Flour; Niroo Raksh [Power Company]; Service workers of Sanandaj Tohid Hospital; A group of Sanandaj retirees; Workers of West Kermanshah Carpet Company; Dena Tyre Company; Ghaiee Cement; A group of workers of Asalouye [Petrochemical Complex]; A group of Iran Khodro [Car Company]; New since 15^th May: A group of Kian Tyre (Alborz) workers; Khameneh Textile workers; Ahvaz Pipe-Making Company

Translation:

International Labour Solidarity Committee of the Worker-communist Party of Iran

(ILSC-WPI). For info:  Bahram.soroush@gmail.com    Shahla_daneshfar@yahoo.com

The following are among around 100 still in jail:

1- Jafar Azim Zadeh

2- Shapour Ehsani Rad

3- Bahram (Isa) Abedini

4- Saeed Yuzi

5- Behrooz Khabbaz

6- Yunes Arzhang

7- Maryam Mohseni

8- Mohammad Ashrafi

9- Laleh Mohammadi

10- Sharif Mohammadi

11- Afsaneh Azimzadeh

12- Fatemeh Eghdami

13- Fatemeh Shah Nazari

14- Mohammad Lotfi

15- Masoud Loghman

16- Ghloamreza Khani

17- Mansoor Hayat Gheibi

18- Behnaz Farmanbar

19- Parvaneh Ghasemian

20- Meysam Jafar Nejad

21- Amir Yaghoub Ali

22- Kaveh Mozaffari

23- Jelveh Javaheri

24- Alireza Saghafi

25- Mohsen Saghafi

26- Asadollah Poorfarhad

27- Alireza Firouzi

28- Pourya Pishtazeh

29- Taha Valizadeh

30- Homa Azhdarnia

31- Hamid Khademi

32- Einollah Basiri

33- Omid Shafiee

34- Navid Yazdi

35- Nasrin Alizadeh

36- Sajjad Sabz Alipour

37- Aysan Zarfam

38- Khoshbakht

39- Ahmad Davoudi

40- Mohammadi Salimi

41- Mohammad Ehsani

42- Saleh Kia Abadi

43- Hamid Yaghoub Ali

44- Sirous Fathi

45- Sharifeh Fathi

46- Maryam Mirbahari

47- Maryam Yaminifar

48- Mahmoud Hosseini

49- Homayoun Jaberi

50- Behnam Ebrahim Zadeh

51- Hamid Malak Zadeh

52- Sadegh Keyvan

53- Azhan Pour Sharifi

54- Zanyar Ahmadi

55- Behzad Khabbaz

56- Hamid Yaghoub Ali

57- Mehdi Shandiz Farahani

58- Farajollah Sa’di

59- Najme Ranjbaran

60- Ali Moa’zzab

61- Saeed Sajoodi

62- Hamid Ghorbani

63- Yekzad Zangeh

64- Asghar Yavari

65- Gholamreza Rajabi 

…

[12 May 2009]