To: Trade unions and labour organisation Your support will boost the moral of Jamko and Shadanpur workers in Iran On Sunday, July 15, 2000, hundreds of protesting men and women workers from Jamko clothes and Shadanpur shoe factories were savagely attacked at the gates of the Islamic Majlis in Tehran. Security forces, fired warning shots and used tear gas, sprays etc., against the protesting workers who were demanding their unpaid due wages. 8 workers needed hospital treatment. The workers had previously staged several protest actions in front of the government buildings. The Islamic Republic and its Khatami?s government have been responding to the workers, protesting for the payment of their due wages, with bullets and tear gas in the past few months. Hundreds of thousands of workers have been facing the threat of redundancies and late or non-payment of their wages. The employers and their Islamic government have not only refused to recognise the internationally recognised rights of workers, but are also holding back the payment of their wages, when there is no welfare provisions for the thousands of unpaid workers and millions of unemployed. Having been subjected to years of meagre wages, the entire working class in Iran is suffering from poverty, while their efforts for building their true organisations are met with sackings, arrests and imprisonment. The Islamic Republic is only able to continue its shameful rule by harsh suppression, enforcement of sexual apartheid and constant attacks on women (only last week a woman was stoned to death in Tehran, and the eighteenth woman was killed in the city of Mashad), and police intervention in the most private aspects of personal life (in this week again someone was flogged for drinking alcohol). The Islamic Republic can only rule in such an state, and of course with the aid of the Western governments and media and charlatans who portray a reactionary mullah such as Khatami as "reformist", "philosopher", etc. The anti-worker, anti-woman, anti-humane Islamic Republic must be confronted with determined response from workers? organisations and trade unions internationally. The Worker-communist Party of Iran urges you to: -protest against the Islamic Republic for such attacks as that of 15 July; -support workers? demands for immediate payment of their due wages, pay rises, and provision of unemployment benefits; -support the right of workers in Iran to strike and organisation - provide financial and moral assistance to workers in Iran in their efforts for organisation; express your direct support for workers? protests, namely the brave action of workers of Jamko and Shadanpur - our Party will ensure that workers in Iran learn of your support. Long live workers international solidarity Asqar Karimi On behalf of Worker-communist Party of Iran. Organisation Abroad 18 July 2001 _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
