/MAY DAY/ IRAN: Workers Protest Ban on Demonstrations

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Ramim Mostaghim

TEHERAN, May 1 2003 (IPS) - Workers around Teheran who had planned to demonstrate May Day against low minimum wages, now plan to protest because they were not allowed to demonstrate.
Riot police turned up at Khane Karegar (House of Labour), which houses several union offices in Teheran to order union leaders to postpone their rallies to May 6.

Workers around Teheran who had planned to demonstrate May Day against low minimum wages, now plan to protest because they were not allowed to demonstrate.

Riot police turned up at Khane Karegar (House of Labour), which houses several union offices in Teheran to order union leaders to postpone their rallies to May 6.

The police action drew instant protest. “This is the first time since the triumph of the Islamic revolution that workers leaders have had to cancel a rally on International Labour Day,” Alireza Mahjoub, member of parliament and secretary-general of Khane Karegar wrote to government authorities. “This is the most bitter decision ever made by workers unions.”

The unions had planned demonstrations to demand higher wages to keep up with the cost of living, and early retirement options for workers doing hazardous jobs. The rallies were cancelled apparently under pressure from the Interior Ministry.

“We could not risk having our workers get beaten up and arrested,” Mahjoub told IPS. “But sooner or later we will protest.”

“Security officers owe us the right to hold rallies on International Labour Day,” said Hassan Sadeghi, head of the Islamic Supreme Council of Labour. “We will gather in a few days and vent our anger.”

Officials at the Interior Ministry say the demonstrations were cancelled due to tension over the presence of U.S. forces inside Iraq. Demonstrations close to border towns could have been particularly destabilising, they say.

Deputy Interior Minister for Law and Security Ali Taali said earlier that many officials in Teheran were opposed to the May Day demonstrations due to “global and regional circumstances.”

Omid Rastegar, 26, a technician at Neka port on the Caspian Sea says the pro-U.S. slogans raised in Behshahr, an industrial city close to Neka, worried officials.

“Some of the workers were shouting slogans asking President George Bush to leave Iraq and come and save Iranians,” he said. “The authorities are very worried about such sentiments, and what might happen if these rallies go out of control.”

A member of the Communist Labour party which works underground says the situation inside Iraq was only an excuse to cancel the demonstrations. “The regime is misusing the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq to crack down on workers and other protesting groups in Iran,” he said. “Instead they should be encouraging workers to come together in these conditions.”

Mohammed Vali from the daily Karo Karegar (Labour and Labourer) said the government was manipulating and intimidating union leaders. “Independent and viable trade unions cannot survive in the face of this repressive government,” he said.

“The presence of American forces near our borders is a good excuse to stop workers from protesting,” said Prof Shapour Ravasani, a strong opponent of globalisation. “But I am certain that even these state-sponsored workers leaders will have to fight for the rights of Iranian workers, though we should not expect too much from quasi trade unions.”

Mohammad Hydari, manager of the workers website parspejvak.com says the coming months will see an upsurge of protests whether officials like it or not. “The roots of dissatisfaction run deep and they cannot be ignored on the pretext of the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq,” he says.