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Letter from the Free Union of Iranian Workers to trade unions around the world
Monday May 4th, 2009
To:
International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) Education International (EI) International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Association (IUF)
Colleagues!
International Workers’ Day 2009 in Iran, as is customary every year, was violently attacked by the police, and hundreds were beaten, verbally abused and detained. In Tehran over 170 people and in Sanandaj 6 people were arrested. In Tehran the police savagely attacked the participants in the May Day rally at Laleh Park, using batons, tear gas and pepper gas spray. As a result, many people were poisoned. Suffering from burning eyes, throat and nose and unable to defend themselves, these people were severely beaten with clubs and batons, sustaining serious injuries to the head, face and arm. The only crime of these decent, liberty-seeking working people was commemorating international workers’ day, which is among their most basic human rights. May Day is recognised in many civilised countries of the world as workers’ certain right, and these people were treated in the most inhuman way just for this.
Class brothers and sisters!
In our ongoing struggles for our rights, we have always enjoyed your unreserved support outside Iran’s geographical borders. This has been heart-warming and has made us feel that we have a strong support to rely on. There is no doubt that the courage of workers who, under attack by the police, continued to stress their demand to celebrate May Day has only been possible thanks to the international power of the working class. So just as this year the workers in Iran have come out on a larger scale and with greater courage, your support too needs to be stronger and greater, making all efforts to make the Islamic Republic release our imprisoned colleagues as soon as possible. Currently, the following are among those detained*:
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- Nvid Yazdi 35- Gholamreza Rajabi 36- Sajjad Sabz Alipour 37- Aysan Zarfam 38- Khoshbakht 39- Ahmad Davoudi 40- Mohammad 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- Nasrin Alizadeh …
These people are being held in very poor conditions, and, according to those released on 2nd May, even without food just for defending their human right. Meanwhile, the Islamic Revolutionary Court has set heavy bails for the release of each one of those detained. For years the judicial authorities have been using heavy bails as a deliberate policy to exonerate and protect themselves in the face of protests at their harassment, while keeping the activists in jail. This policy should be defeated.
With warm regards
The Free Union of Iranian Workers
Translation: International Labour Solidarity Committee of the Worker-communist Party of Iran
* Some workers have been released since the publication of the above letter. As at 7th May, 68 workers continue to be detained – ILSC-WPI |