03.05.2006
Against war, for workers' rights
Yassamine Mather reports on Iranian workers taking to the streets on May Day
On May 1, while diplomats from the five permanent members of the UN security council were preparing to meet in Paris to discuss the consequences of the International Atomic Energy Agency report regarding Iran's nuclear programme, Iranian workers used a number of official and unofficial gatherings to express not only their opposition to war and the threat of sanctions, but also their distrust of the islamic government of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his labour minister, Mohammad Jahromi.
Vahed bus workers, whose strike paralysed Tehran on December 25 2005, organised May Day gatherings independent of the state and called for freedom for workers' organisations, the right to strike, an end to temporary contracts and the release of fellow workers held in prison for trade union activities. Workers also disrupted the state-organised May Day event, where the leaders of islamic work councils (the regime's yellow trade union) were heckled and shouted down. In this demonstration workers' slogans were: "Incompetent minister [referring to Jahromi], resign, resign!"; "Ahmadinejad, leave Palestine alone. Do something about our problems"; "Ministry of labour only divides workers. Our response: unity, solidarity!"; "Today is a day of mourning. Poor workers mourn their fate". Other workers were shouting, "Nuclear power will not solve our problems!" A group told reporters they have not been paid for 26 months. When the security forces approached the demonstrators to force them to disperse, the crowd shouted, "Shame, shame on you!"
For those of us who have always been against capitalism's aggression in our region, for those of us who believe there is a serious threat of sanctions (be it 'limited' or 'targeted') against Iran, the events of May Day 2006 proved once more that as far as Iran is concerned to be anti-war, to be anti-imperialist means not only opposing US-European aggression against Iran, but also continuing the struggle against the super-rich capitalists who rule over an increasingly impoverished population under the banner of islam. To be anti-imperialist regarding Iran one must show solidarity with workers' struggles. Twenty-seven years after coming to power, shia clerics preside over a country where the rich are getting richer by the hour and the poor are getting poorer, where hunger, prostitution, child labour and homelessness are on the increase.
Ahmadinejad's presidency has been marked by an all-encompassing crisis. Not only have promises to improve the living conditions of the majority failed to materialise, but unemployment is rising, ministries and public sector offices are riddled with corruption, factory closures happen daily, and any protest can be brutally suppressed. No wonder Ahmadinejad's government is taking such an intransigent position over nuclear power - he needs an external enemy to divert attention from internal problems.
Of course, attempts by the United States and the European Union to halt Iran's nuclear programme are hypocritical. However, the current crisis has little to do with Iran's nuclear programme. The US administration's main concern is Iran's current strength in the region - itself a direct consequence of the US-UK invasion of Iraq and the coming to power of a shia, pro-Iran government in Baghdad. Both the USA and UK are more concerned about Iran's close relations with factions of the occupation government in Iraq and the long-term consequences of such influence. Both the Council for Islamic Revolution and Hezb al-Daawa were set up in Tehran.
Although the Iranian people and the opposition seem united in opposing war, some rightwing forces are in favour of limited military strikes against Iran; and sections of the Iranian opposition - Kurdish, royalist, religious, some even supposedly left groups - defend sanctions against the regime (ie, those who support Bush's policy of regime change from above and who have benefited from generous donations from the USA). These forces and their collaboration with US-UK should be exposed. The main victim of any sanctions/war will be ordinary people in Iran, most of whom are opposed to the current regime and many of whom have been involved in social and political movements against it. Sanctions against Iran will make the rich clerics even richer, while the poor will be deprived of food, medicine and other necessities.
However, the anti-war movement cannot become a platform for apologists for Iran's islamic regime and that is why we need to build an alternative alliance against war and against sanctions "¦ but also in solidarity with Iranian workers.
In late April, Workers Left Unity Iran called for such an alliance amongst Iranian and international forces. So far many political parties, groups and individuals, including the Communist Party of Great Britain, have supported this campaign. We call on all other anti-capitalist forces, political groups and organisations to join the activists of the Iran left in supporting Iranian social movements against war and strengthening solidarity with the workers' movement of that country by joining the Alliance Against War in Support of Iranian Workers.
For the text of Workers Left Unity Iran's call for an anti-war workers' solidarity campaign, see Weekly Worker April 27 or www.etehadchap.org/antiwar.htm