PRISON, ANOTHER ARENA OF STRUGGLE

So in the end Ali Nejati, Head of Haft Tappeh sugar-cane factory’s Worker’s Union, friend and defender of all workers and those who live hand to mouth, has been imprisoned. Servants of capitalism have thrown him into jail for the crime of leading the workers of Haft Tappeh to organize and educate regarding their rights. Servants of capitalism have thrown him into jail so that the workers who’ve entered the arena and activists throughout Iran withdraw from the pursuit of their unpaid wages and those of their fellow workers.Indeed, Ali joined his four friends and colleagues, Fereidoon Nikoofard, Ghorban Alipoor, Jalil Ahmadi and Mohamad Heidari Mehr, in prison so that the Capitalists with less hassle can take the life out of these workers.

. Wishful thinking. We don’t doubt that Ali and his colleagues will continue the struggle against oppressive capitalists and expose the role of their servants from inside prison. They will continue their struggle from a prison full of victims of the capitalist system and once again join our ranks outside with more valuable experience, to continue the struggle against oppression. We workers together with our wives and children stand aside Ali’s wife and children and those of his four co-workers. In condemning this inhumane and anti-worker act, we seek their unconditional release and return to work.

Ali and his fellows are of the industrial proletariat fighters of Xusestan. They are of the same as the industrial oil heroes, the main force behind the fall of the Pahlavi regime and the apostles of those for whom tens of millions of people shouted slogans: “Our oil workers, our ardent leaders”. Since the day Ali and his colleagues formed their organization, they have been bombarded with employer conspiracies and pressure from intelligence and judicial agents so that the working classes of Iran aren’t afforded confidence to breathe let alone defend the trampled rights of Haft Tappeh’s workers. But these conspiracies did not bend their determination by any measure, instead they continued their pursuit for the absolute rights of their fellow working class with more determination than ever. Ali strived for the workers against the capitalists with pen and sword (the latter peacefully by marching) until the very last moments of his freedom.

At the heart of the conflict that exists in society, the capitalists are cooking up a salty soup for us workers and our families. They have withheld milk from millions of young, pe and paper from millions of children, healthcare from hundreds of thousands of our sick. They won’t even give us our hand to mouth wages. They now want to ensure our deprivation with the removal of subsidies, pay rises and bonuses. They know that we will tirelessly strive to hurl this soup down their guts. They take Ali and other Alis from us to weaken this forward moving struggle. But Alis are engaged in the struggle from inside the prisons and we outside will intensify our efforts to fill their places. The imprisonment of representative workers of Haft Tappeh not only cannot intimidate other Haft Tappeh workers, but will ensure that Haft Tappeh workers will return this service by fellow workers in prison and support them in every way possible.

Our duty as workers is to support the families of these dear prisoners and help them in any way we can.

We believe that workers in every part of the world, worker organizations and liberal individuals everywhere, will not leave the families of these prisoners alone but will support them materially and spiritually.

Najibeh Salehzadeh and Mahmoud Salehi