Students question Moussavi about his role in 1988 massacre !

On Tuesday, students of Qazvin University protested against Moussavi, chanting slogans of "'88, '88," and demanding Moussavi to provide explanations in regards to his role during the political prisoners' massacre.

Some of the placards held by students read: "Mirhossein, '88!," "Free university students," and "Evin now accepts university students," in a reference to the increasing number of students being held at the notorious Evin prison in Tehran.

Mirhossein Moussavi, Islamic Republic’ former Prime Minister in 1980s, was one of the high ranking officials of the regime during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war. He was responsible for the death of a million Iranian youth in the war and played a key role in export of terrorism and execution of political prisoners including the massacre of 30,000 prisoners in summer of 1988.

On Monday students at the University of Zanjan (northwest Iran) disrupted a speech by Mirhossein Moussavi and demanded explanations about his role during the 1988 massacre of political prisoners.
"Where were you in 1988, and how many people did you kill?" some students asked Moussavi. One placard read "Khavaran's soil is still red," referring to the Khavaran cemetery, where thousands of political prisoners have been buried.

Boycott of Khamenei's speech in Sanandaj despite pressures !

People in the western city of Sanandaj, capital of Kurdistan province, boycotted speech by Ali Khamenei, regime’s Supreme Leader, eyewitnesses reported. Iranian regime resorted to force to keep shops closed during the speech. City had been turned into a virtual war zone due to large presence of security forces.

According to telephone reports broadcast by NCTV, Iranian opposition satellite television, at 10:00 on Saturday all the communication lines to the city were cut off. “The state security forces rushed into streets threatening shopkeepers to keep their shops closed.”

“Members of Bassij Paramilitary Force have been dispatched to the city from other parts of the country. They put on local Kurdish costumes to attend Khamenei’s speech,” the reporter said.

Another caller said: “Close to eleven thousand security forces were dispatched to Sanandaj to reinforce Khamenei’s protection.”

Prior to khamenei’s trip extraordinary security measures had been implemented. The suppressive measures were adopted under various pretexts such as searching for smuggled goods, seizing banned satellite dishes. A number of youth were arrested during the raids.

On Friday May 8, the SSF raided a house and arrested a young man. They searched his house, seizing his personal belongings including his books and computer. There is no information on his whereabouts.

On the same day, the repressive forces searched houses and harassed people in Saeen-Qaleh City under the pretext of seizing satellite dishes.

“On May 10, the regime’s agents in Paveh, raided the Bazaar and searched the shops under the pretext of looking for smuggled materials causing public discontent. Sanadaj looks like a military base rather than a city, and there are five helicopters covering the air simultaneously,” a report said on May 10.

Islamic Republic had told the retired civil servants, Martyrs Foundation, welfare organizations, and Imam Relief Committee, that if they do not attend on time in the traverse from the airport and their surrounding streets they will not get their salaries paid, the report added.

The intelligence agents arrested Saman Mansouri, 23, inhabitant of Salavat village in suburb of Sanadaj and his properties were confiscated, Chipa Rahimi was arrested by the same agents and there is no information on them yet, said a report by an Iranian Kurdish Radio on May 11.

According to one report, over 15,000 Bassiji militia forces were stationed in Shahoo Mountain under the pretext of mountain climbing, they were mostly settled there with their families making the crowd of over 50,000.

Free all Laour Activists NOW!

Students grill Mir Hosayn Moussavi about the 1988 massacre of political prisoners !

Students from the University of Babolsar (northern Iran) raised questions about the role of the Iranian regime’s former prime minister, Mirhossein Moussavi, in the 1988 massacre of political prisoners during his visit to the university on Monday, May 4, 2009.

When Moussavi dodged their questions, students quickly retorted by chants of “Mirhossein, give us an answer about 1988.”

Moussavi, who acted as the Islamic Republic’ prime minister when Ruhollah Khomeini reigned as the regime’s Supreme Leader, has announced his candidacy for the Islamic Republic’ upcoming sham presidential elections.

On Monday, one of the students asked Moussavi about kangaroo trials that issued judgments in the span of a few minutes and led to the execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988. The student added: At the time, you were the prime minister. You were the third most powerful person in the country. What do you have to say now about your silence back then when all this was taking place? Was your silence a sign of endorsement? We want to stress again that you should explicitly respond to this question.

However, Moussavi refused to address the question directly, and as he was leaving the arena, students chanted, “Mirhossein, give us an answer about 1988.” Students also shouted slogans against other regime officials, in addition to Moussavi.

Some of their chants included, “Students die, but will never surrender,” “Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: The source of discrimination and corruption,” and “Detained students must be released.”

Babolsar University students also carried placards reading, “Detained students must be released,” and “Freedom of the press is our inalienable right.”

photo from archive...

Iran news in brief : Workers Protests!

Kermanshah, western Iran:
Workers from the Bus Drivers Union staged a protest gathering on Tuesday across from the Iranian regime’s office of Labour Organization in Kermanshah. They protested against lay offs and demanded continued employment in addition to receiving deferred salaries.

Khorramshahr, southern Iran:
More than 50 former employees of Khorramshahr’s municipal government gathered in front of the city hall on Tuesday, in protest to lay-offs and to demand their deferred pay.

Abbasabad Tonkabon, northern Iran:
Close to 400 people from the city of Abbasabad held a protest gathering on Monday to demand the status of a township for Abbasabad. Protesters blocked off the main street. On April 15, the residents had staged another protest gathering in front of the regime’s city hall to convey the same demands. Abbasabad is currently part of the township of Tonkabon.

Security agents attack teachers!

Security and law-enforcement agents, some dressed as plain-clothesmen on Sunday beat ‎up about 200 teachers who had gathered in front of the Ministry of Education to declare ‎their work-related demands, dispersing meeting. The meeting is a culmination of protests ‎organized and held by teachers across Iran, which also included a refusal to teach in the ‎classrooms.‎

Last Sunday, a group of about 200 teachers gathered in front of the ministry building to ‎air their demands. As their numbers grew, they asked for a meeting with ministry ‎officials, particularly the Minister of Education Ali Ahmadi. But plain-clothesmen and ‎other law-enforcement agents who had also gathered from earlier hours in the vicinity ‎intervened and asked the protestors to break up and leave the area. The teachers ‎continued with their requests, which led to threats and finally violence.‎

As clashes began, 30 minutes into the gathering, teachers began a march as the whole ‎event was being filmed by different individuals. The police followed them in pursuit. ‎Eventually, this led to physical clashes between the two groups in which many teachers ‎were hurt. Among them was Mahmud Beheshti Langaroodi and Baghani, the leaders of ‎the group called Center for Teachers Guild. The police arrested some of the protestors ‎and led them away, only to release them at a later time, except for “Bedaghi”, a member ‎of the guild.‎

Despite the violence and the dispersion of the protesting teachers, the law enforcement ‎forces remained in the area for hours later, until about 3pm. These forces were flanked by ‎plain-clothes agents who carried communication radios.‎

Speaking about the protests and the clashes that ensued, one guild member said, “We will ‎certainly respond to this, the specifics of which we will know once we speak to others in ‎the provinces.”‎

Reports indicate that similar protests and gatherings were held in front of provincial ‎ministry of education buildings, which also led to clashes with the police.‎

Iranian Workers’ May Day Resolution!

The present financial crisis and its destructive consequences for the working class around the world is yet to spread its ominous specter on the everyday life of the Iranian workers; But the injustices they suffer is nothing but the outcome of the rule of the Iranian capitalist class.

Injustices such as: Wages that keep workers under the poverty line, Widespread layoffs, Withholding of workers’ wages for months, Imposition of temporary and blank contracts on workers by companies, Imprisonment and flogging of workers in order to inhibit disobedience and resistance, The absence of fair and legal contracts, are not problems which have emerged in Iran with the new wave of economic crisis. Such injustices have existed in Iran for many years and the crisis is increasingly deepening every year.

May first is the international day of solidarity among the working class and a day of workers’ struggle around the world against the oppressive rule of capitalism and the expression of their desire for a world free of oppression and exploitation.

This year the working class is celebrating May Day while the world capitalist system is mired in an increasingly destructive economic crisis and is struggling to free itself from this quagmire by any means possible.

The present economic crisis has demonstrated the inability of the capitalist system to deal with its problems, having found no alternative but to transfer the brunt of the crisis onto the shoulders of the working class around the world. This bears witness to the fact that in the post Eastern Block era and the declaration of the end of history by the decadent capitalist world, there remains no other alternative for the working class and the civilized world but to free itself from the inhumane capitalist relations of production.

The present financial crisis and its destructive consequences for the working class around the world is yet to spread its ominous specter on the everyday life of the Iranian workers; But the injustices they suffer is nothing but the outcome of the rule of the Iranian capitalist class.

The injustices imposed on the Iranian working class, such as:
Wages that keep workers under the poverty line, Widespread layoffs, Withholding of workers’ wages for months, Imposition of temporary and blank contracts on workers by companies, Imprisonment and flogging of workers in order to inhibit disobedience and resistance, The absence of fair and legal contracts, are not problems which have emerged in Iran with the new wave of economic crisis. Such injustices have existed in Iran for many years and the crisis is increasingly deepening every year. We shall not keep quiet in the face of such abhorring and inhumane practices, and will not allow them to infringe upon our rights any more than they already have. We are the principal producers of wealth in the society, and we deem it our lawful right to live according to the highest standards of living.

We deserve a decent lifestyle and we will make sure we alleviate these problems by forming unions, which are independent of Government and company influence, and by our ongoing solidarity.

Therefore, our workers demand the following as their minimum program to take effect immediately:

1-Job security for all workers and the abolition of temporary, blank and newly-formulated contracts.

2-We consider the minimum wage set by the high council of labour as the imposition of gradual death on millions of working class families, and we insist on the immediate increase of the minimum wage on the basis of workers’ legitimate demands, conveyed by workers’ real representatives and their independent unions.

3-Formation of independent workers’ unions, the right to strike, protest, free gatherings and free speech are our legitimate rights, and these demands must be granted unconditionally and as the inalienable rights of all workers.

4-Workers’ unpaid wages must be reimbursed immediately and from now on, this exercise must be deemed a criminal act, prosecutable in the courts of law and the consequences enforced.

5-Firing of workers by using various excuses must stop and all of those sacked, or newly entering the job market, should benefit from employment insurance suitable to a decent living standard.

6-We demand equal rights for men and women in all aspects of economic and social life and we demand the abolition of all existing discriminatory laws.

7-We demand a decent pension plan for all retirees and we condemn any discriminatory practices in the payment of these pensions.

8-We firmly support all the demands put forth by teachers, nurses and all other hard-working white collar workers, and we consider ourselves their ally in their struggle. We also demand revocation of Farzad Kamangar’s death sentence.

9-As seasonal and construction workers are deprived of the necessary social insurance rights, we support their struggle to achieve their humanitarian rights and a decent living.

10-Capitalism is the driving force behind child labour. We demand that all children, irrespective of their gender, ethnicity and religion, be able to benefit from equal educational and health and hygiene opportunities.

11-We demand the release of all incarcerated workers from prison, including Mansour Osanloo and Ebrahim Madadi, and the revocation of all judgments rendered against them, and put a stop to the arrests and harassments of workers.

12-We hereby pronounce our support for all freedom-loving and equity seeking movements, such as the student movement and women’s movement, and we strongly condemn the arrest and imprisonment of their activists.

13-We are part of the international working class movement, and as such, we condemn the random sacking and the double exploitation and harassment of Afghan and other migrant workers in Iran.

14-While we are grateful for the international working class support for our struggles in Iran, we are their allies in solidarity with their struggles against the hardships imposed by the capitalist system.

15-May first must be declared a civic holiday in the Iranian calendar and any ban on May Day celebrations must be revoked and prohibited.

Long live May Day!

Long live the international solidarity of the working class!

May 1, 2009

The May first committee

The Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Vahed Bus Company

The Syndicate of Workers of the Haft Tapeh Sugar Plantations

The Free Union of Workers in Iran

The Founding Committee of the Syndicate of Building 's Painters and Decoration's Workers

The Collaborative Council of Labour Organizations and Activists

The Coordinating Committee to Form Workers’ Organizations

The Committee to Pursue the Establishment of Free Workers’ Organizations

The Women’s Council

The Center for Workers’ Rights in Iran