02.05.2013
Iran May Day: Defying the regime
Yassamine Mather reports on the growing politicisation of the Iranian workers' movement
In a week where news from Iran is dominated by speculation about who will or will not stand as a candidate in the country’s forthcoming presidential elections and whether the Guardian Council will allow Mohammad Khatami (the last ‘reformist’ president) or Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei (president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s anointed successor) to participate; in a week where Iran’s press and media are consumed by speculation about ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani after he announced he is not ruling himself out as a candidate in the June 14 poll; in a week when a group of pro-US regime change supporters, the newly formed Iran National Council, elected Reza Pahlavi, the son of the former shah, as their spokesperson, the more astute sections of the bourgeois press were drawing attention to a serious player in Iran’s economic and political scene: the working class.
The US journal Foreign Policy writes: “As Iran’s economy continues to deteriorate, the labour movement is a key player to watch because of its ability to pressure the Islamic Republic through protests and strikes … And thus far, Iranian labourers have not joined the opposition green movement en masse. But the economic pains caused by the Iranian regime’s mismanagement, corruption and international sanctions have dealt serious blows to worker wages, benefits and job security - enough reason for Iranian labourers to organise and oppose the regime ...”1
The journal refers to the role of Ahmadinejad’s massive privatisation programme and the ending of subsidies as policies that have “greatly hurt the average Iranian labourer ... The economic decline has resulted in small but widespread strikes and sit-ins. Underground labour groups, ranging from bus drivers to sugar cane workers, have also become more outspoken, staging protests reminiscent of the revolution.”
In the same week The Economist published an article with the strap: “Though watched and muzzled, independent labour unions are stirring”.2 The journal refers to the fact that Iran does not recognise independent unions and that “Islamic Labour Councils, which must be approved by employers and the security services, ... are in cahoots with the government”. Referring to the plight of imprisoned trade unionists, the article points out that leaders like Ali Nejati of the sugarcane workers and Reza Shahabi of the bus drivers’ union have been in and out of prison in the last few months and have been accused of “endangering national security”.
Of course, Hands Off the People of Iran has been drawing attention to the plight of Iran’s workers from the start and very little of what is published in Foreign Policy or The Economist is news to us. However, it is interesting to note that the Iranian working class, the most persistent and courageous opponent of the Islamic regime, is now recognised as a serious force.
On May Day Iranian workers took part in illegal gatherings and protests throughout the country despite the repression and the presence of military and security forces, once again proving the tenacity of our class. In Tehran and other major cities there were slogans against low pay, unemployment and the non-payment of wages. The largest demonstration was actually outside the Islamic parliament, the Majles.
In such circumstances it is first of all important to congratulate the Iranian working class, who, despite all the odds, at a time of severe economic hardship and in circumstances where religious and political dictatorship leave little room for manoeuvre, managed to organise such actions on May 1.
The Iranian working class is the main victim of sanctions. The oil industry and parts of the manufacturing sector are on the verge of a complete shutdown and as a result tens of thousands of workers have lost their jobs. Others have not been paid any wages for up to two years, yet they continue going to work so that they can keep their jobs. Workers make ends meet by taking up extra part-time work - anything from driving taxis to selling goods on the pavement.
The currency continues to lose value, and the country’s oil revenues are dwindling - India and China have stopped purchasing Iranian oil, fearful of secondary sanctions. In mid-April, Iran’s National Oil Company announced that in order to “make sanctions ineffective” it had decided that “bartering oil sales for goods and equipment” would be introduced to ensure oil payments were collected.3 Yet a few days later the UK government blocked Royal Dutch Shell’s attempt to settle a $2.3 billion debt to Iran through payments in grains or pharmaceuticals.4
Our pride in reporting continued workers’ militancy should be accompanied by caution. These struggles remain mainly defensive and are often to win payment of wages owing for many months, or against factory closures. They are partially politicised, mainly because the state is incarcerating labour activists. However, the working class has not been able to organise itself as a political force and here lies the danger. Nevertheless, regime change forces of the right - both green ‘reformists’ within the religious state and the US-sponsored ‘republican and royalist’ champions of regime change from above - have now come to the conclusion that this is a force to be reckoned with.
The danger is that rightwing international union groupings, such as the International Transport Workers Federation, will masquerade as supporters of the Iranian working class while pursuing international capital’s agenda within the bureaucracy in the Iranian labour movement - trying to reduce working class struggles to an appendage of human rights issues or limiting them to economic demands. So far they have had little success. However, it is incumbent on the international workers’ movement as a whole to support the struggle of Iran’s workers.
Long live May Day
Statement released by the Free Union of Iranian Workers
This year, we Iranian workers are looking forward to May Day, the international workers’ day, when in the last days of the previous year, at a time when the basic cost of living for a family of four was declared to be 1,800,000 tomans, the government fixed the minimum wage at 487,000 toman, showing once more that they do not value workers as human beings worthy of a normal life ... Since last year, the cost of living has gone up every month, at times prices increasing several fold.
For us workers, however, there is no expediency higher than sustaining our lives, our honour. Last year we managed to collect signatures for a petition protesting at the current situation and this was supported throughout the country. We showed that we can no longer tolerate the current situation and that our patience has run out.
Without any doubt, the current situation is one of the harshest times we Iranian workers have faced in the past 30 years. The administration and state authorities should know that we no longer have a single iota of patience to endure the current dire situation any further.
Workers and co-workers across the country, now May Day is with us. This is an important and fateful day for us workers. This is the day to come out onto the streets and protest across the world against injustice and inequality. In Iran too we should have the right to go into the streets like the workers across the world and protest against our dire situation, but this is not allowed.
It is not possible to accept daily increases in the cost of living at a time when the minimum wage is three to four times below the poverty line, forcing us to endure hunger. We will not remain silent. We broke this silence last year with a 30,000-signature petition and by holding protests and rallies, and we are capable of holding widespread protests now to safeguard our lives and honour. May Day this year will be one such day for us Iranian workers, a day to protest against inflation, high costs and a day of protest against the ratified minimum wage and demand for its immediate revision.
Long live May Day!
Long live the solidarity and unity of Iranian workers across the country!
Notes
1. http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/ 2013/04/22/labor_and_opposition_in_iran.
2. www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21576408-though-watched-and-muzzled-independent-labour-unions-are-stirring-aya-toiling.
3. http://iranpulse.al-monitor.com/index.php/ 2013/04/1857/iranian-officials-say-food-for-oil-programs-have-expanded.
4. www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/22/shell-iran-debt-idUSL6N0D903E20130422.