Workers show muscle
A fresh breeze in the labour
movement in Iran
Fariborz Pooya
April 5, 2005
iranian.com
Interview with UK-based civil rights activist
Bahram Soroush which was broadcast on International
TV. Fariborz Pooya is hosting in place of Maryam
Namazie until further notice.
Fariborz Pooya: What's the news in the labour movement
in Iran?
Bahram Soroush: There are many strikes that are taking place. They follow the
recent successful textile workers' strike in the city of Sanandaj, western
Iran, which we have talked about on the TV previously.
Fariborz Pooya: What were the demands of the strikers?
Bahram Soroush: They had a series of demands: reinstatement of six sacked workers;
payment of overdue wages, improvement of health and safety, an end to contract
work, and the revoking of the disciplinary rules. Those were the main issues
around which the strike took place. An important point to bear in mind is that
this was a long-running strike; it went on for 17 days. It received a lot of
support from the people in the city and from around the country, from workers
in other industries, as well as from the labour movement internationally. The
workers remained very united, despite the fact that the management and the
government tried to intimidate the workers back to work.
Fariborz Pooya: Effectively, it turned into a national dispute. Everybody
was focusing on it and there was daily reporting of the strike on TV International.
Bahram Soroush: On New Channel TV (which TV International is broadcast on)
we had two live programmes about the strike in Farsi. As you know, the New
Channel TV runs 24 hours a day. The textile workers and their families could
follow the programmes live, and they were very happy that the strike was being
covered on the TV. A lot of people from around the world called in to offer
their support. The Iranian regime was saying this is a political strike because
the Worker-communist Party of Iran (WPI) is involved. They said the WPI is
showing it on its TV and is supporting it. The workers responded by saying,
'meet our demands, so nobody will be involved'!
Fariborz Pooya: Absolutely.
Bahram Soroush: The radicalisation of the workers' movement was very evident.
That just shows the new developments in the labour movement in Iran.
Fariborz Pooya: That's quite significant, because everybody in the
city of Sanandaj could follow the strike as it unfolded. So it wasn't as
if the workers were facing the management and the oppressive forces of the
Islamic government on their own. The government had to face not only the
workers, but the people of Sanandaj and, to some extent, the whole of the
people of Iran. Also, international opinion was constantly putting pressure
on the Islamic government. Many trade unions from around the world in fact
responded to the request and put their support behind the textile workers.
Bahram Soroush: Exactly. 51 Union Locals in the USA wrote solidarity letters.
Oil workers in Norway supported the strike. The ICFTU (International Confederation
of Free Trade Unions) actively supported the strike, just as they had done
previously. The Hospital Employees' Union (HEU) in British Columbia, Canada,
supported the workers, writing protest letters to the president of the Islamic
Republic, Mohammad Khatami. There was support from the public sector workers
in Canada as well. These are just examples of the support we saw. So, as you
rightly say, it became a national issue and the government sensed that as well.
For them the victory or defeat of the strike was going to be decisive because
the outcome of other strikes would depend on that.
The other point is that although the strike was
successful, what you are now witnessing is that the Information
Ministry (the regime's secret police) has started to intimidate
workers' representatives. The workers kept a united rank and voice
by holding general assemblies. So whenever their representatives,
who were elected by the general assembly, were threatened, they
asked the management to come and face the assembly. That's because
they had the backing of the assembly. So holding general assemblies
became like a tradition, and that's something the Worker-communist
Party of Iran and its predecessor organisations have been advocating
for about 25 years.
Workers' general assemblies could be the precursors
of a workers' council movement in Iran. They allow the workers
to exercise their will, directly, and increase their power and
unity. So that was very significant. What's happening now is that
the Information Ministry is summoning the strikers' representatives,
in particular Mr Farshid Beheshtizad and Mr Sheis Amani, to the
Information Ministry and making threats on a daily basis. That's
why the campaign in their defence is continuing.
Fariborz Pooya: So this is the campaign in support
of the textile workers. Interestingly, the other sections of
the workers' movement in Iran came out openly in support. The
workers of a plant in Sanandaj (Shaho) in fact dedicated a
piece of music ('Life is Life') to them and solidarity messages
were sent from different factories and workplaces in support
of the workers. The strike was successful not only in the way
the workers conducted the strike - holding general assemblies,
electing representatives, successfully confronting the government
- but also in igniting a wave of solidarity acts and networks
in Iran.
Bahram Soroush: If you cast your mind back to a few years ago in Iran, it was
very rare, because of the repression and the brutal suppression of the workers'
movement in Iran, for workers to come out openly in support of each other.
But during the past six months to a year we are witnessing that workers more
openly and publicly are supporting each other. So we had groups of workers
from different industries sending solidarity messages -- for example, from
the huge Iran Khodro car manufacturing company, as well as from Mashinsazi-e
Tabriz, a large engineering tools manufacturer.
Let me also mention another point about the strike
which I believe made it significant. One of the demands of the
strike was the payment of the wages for the strike period. This
is very interesting and refreshing. And that demand was won too.
The workers really fought against all the odds. You see, during
the previous episodes of the strike, the factory had been surrounded
by the security forces, by the military, and workers even managed
to break that. The strike received tremendous support, which was
crucial.
Fariborz Pooya: So a combination
of very clear demands, knowing what to do, TV International constantly
broadcasting the news of the strike on live programmes, and solidarity
from the international labour movement and by various sections of the
workers in Iran actually led to the success of the strike. Recently,
another group of workers near the Caspian Sea, the workers at Foomenat
factory -- who are textile workers as well - have been on strike. What
has been happening there?
Bahram Soroush: Probably the reason we are hearing a lot from the textile workers'
strikes -- and there have been a number of them -- is because of the privatisation
and the contracting out that is taking place in that industry. Actually, that
is one of the issues uniting a lot of the sectors in Iran. The workers are
afraid that the government and the employers are turning all contracts into
temporary, often three-monthly, contracts, which is leading to a tremendous
deterioration of the conditions in terms of job security, pay, benefits and
protections. So the workers are taking a lot of strike actions around that
issue and also on the issue of non-payment of wages, or overdue wages, which
is an acute issue.
If you bear in mind how low the level of workers'
pay in Iran already is, which even with overtime work is not enough
to eke out a living for many workers' families, you can imagine
the disastrous consequences of that. The workers of Foomenat Spinning
and Weaving Company in northern Iran have not been paid for 11
months! The workers were holding a protest assembly in front of
the factory when riot police savagely attacked them, resulting
in a number of injuries, with some workers ending up in hospital
with broken limbs.
We know that the Iranian regime has done that previously,
and its record is one of killing, torture, imprisonment of workers
and workers' leaders, the smashing of labour organisations, etc.,
in its 25-year existence. The difference is that now the regime
finds itself on the defensive. So the security forces quickly denied
that they had attacked the workers and said that in fact they cared
for workers! Of course, they talked rubbish, because the evidence
was there, but what's important is that now they have to go on
denial from the next day. The workers are continuing with that
fight. That incident has received widespread coverage in Iran and
led to outrage among the people. The Foomenat workers have said
they intend to sue those responsible for the attack.
As in the Foomenat strike, the issues around which workers are organising are
more and more general issues, common to all workers, such as non-payment of
wages, threats of redundancies, contracting out, and the dramatic rise in temporary
and even so-called 'blank' (with no terms and conditions specified) contracts,
which is creating, as the workers have called it, slave labour. The difference
with six months ago, a year ago, is that the mood in the labour movement has
changed. The demands are not just defensive, but increasingly offensive, with
workers calling for improvement in conditions, pay increases, etc. Of course,
it is still early days, but we are seeing a fresh breeze in the labour movement.
That is what is interesting.
Fariborz Pooya: So the demands of Foomenat textile workers are still outstanding.
They are calling on various solidarity organisations to express support for
their struggle, first of all condemning the fact that they have been brutally
suppressed, and also putting pressure on the Iranian government and demanding
that they meet the workers' demands.
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