Support the just struggle of the workers in Iran
against the reactionary Islamic regime!
15 February 2006

On the 28th of January, the eve of a strike organised by the independent trade union of Vahed Bus Company, the security forces of the regime of Islamic republic launched widespread attacks against the workers' homes and arrested 1200 workers, their wives and children. The regime deployed the military to maintain the transport services in order to break the strike. The 17,000 strong independent trade union based in the capital, Tehran, had declared its intension to launch a one day strike on the 28th of January in order to demand the legal recognition of the union, the right to organise and the release of its leaders imprisoned by the regime since 22 December 2005, and the return of workers to their jobs without recrimination.

Since the January 28th crack down, repression against the union's activities has intensified and all 12 members of the union's leadership have been imprisoned. An estimated 500 of the workers are currently said to be on hunger strike in support of the demands of their co-workers and union.

This latest militant action of the union has attracted the solidarity of many other unions and workers organisations in Iran. The students, intellectuals and progressives have expressed their condemnation of the regime in its treatment of the union and its activists and have expressed support for the workers' struggle.

Many international labour organisations have also shown their concerns about the workers in prison and have expressed solidarity with workers struggles against the regime Iran. One such expression of solidarity comes from the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) that has declared February 15 as a day of solidarity with the Iranian workers and has called on its affiliates to hold protest demonstration in front of Iranian embassies across the world.

The reactionary Islamic regime that came to power in 1979 as an outcome of a counter-revolutionary move to subvert and crush the rising tide of revolutionary peoples' movement against the US-backed regime of the shah, has ruled Iran by resorting to savage violence and despotism during the past 27 years. The regime has attacked all sections of the Iranian society and imposed its feudal and regressive rule by applying terror and oppression against all manifestations of the just, democratic and anti-imperialist aspirations of the millions of the toiling masses of Iran.

From the very first day of coming to power the regime has faced ceaseless struggles and growing resistance by the workers and other oppressed peoples of Iran. The flagrant abuse of human rights and the denial of any freedoms, mass imprisonment, torture, execution and extermination of political prisoners (such as the mass murder of thousands of political prisoners in the summer of 1988) and other forms of terror and intimidation have not deterred resistance and the democratic and just struggle of the people. Instead it has aroused widespread resistance from all sections of society including workers, women, students and national minorities against the medieval and criminal regime of Islamic republic.

The oppressive rule of this theocratic regime throughout this period has further brought about the extreme exploitation of the workers and other toiling masses of Iran at the hands of foreign and domestic capitalism. With 90% dependency on oil exports the regime of Islamic republic is an instrument of world imperialism that maintains a crisis-ridden and highly dependent economy. Rampant corruption, pilfering and ransacking of national assets have caused nothing but devastation and ruin to the lives of the millions of the toiling masses of Iran. Moreover, in order to prolong its tyrannical rule by resorting to reactionary and adventurist policies, this theocratic regime has exposed Iran to an attack by US imperialism which aims to advance its expansionist objective in the region.

The ILPS extends it most heartfelt solidarity to the militant workers of the Vahed Bus Company in their struggle for the right to organise, free all imprisoned workers and their leaders and to oppose the anti-worker Islamic regime. We call on all ILPS participating organisations to extend their solidarity with all just and democratic struggles of the people of Iran and condemn the anti-worker, anti-women, anti-youth, anti-democratic and reactionary regime of Islamic republic.

General Secretariat
International League of Peoples' Struggle
info@ilps2001.com