July 14th 2020
Dear Friends
It has been more than a month since the Haft Tapeh workers went on strike aginst the privatization and the arrears wages. The workers are also demanding of the return to work of their fired colleagues and representatives. On July 14th after the workers ‘protests in city of Susa , Mohammad Khanifar, Yousef Bahmani, Ebrahim Abbasi and Muslim Cheshmkhavar, were also arrested by security forces.
Today’s protests by Haft Tappeh workers are the continuation of a decade of protests and strikes against the privatization of this huge Argo- Industry complex with more than 5,000 workers and hundreds of workers in its ancillary industries. Timely payment of monthly wages and recognition of the Haft Tappeh Sugar Cane Mill Labour Syndicate also have been one of the main demands of the labour strikes in the past years.
The Haft Tappeh is one of the main centres of Iranian’s working class struggle against the privatization of manufacturing industries, which has resulted in nothing but more poverty and misery for the working class. On the other hand, the employers and their government are determined to carry out their destructive economic policies by arresting and dismissing labour activists such as Ali Nejati and Ismail Bakhshi and other leaders of the Haft Tappeh Workers’ Union. The Haft Tappeh Workers’ protests in Khuzestan province where it is the one of the main centres involved with Corona virus epidemic and living conditions across the country is in need of special support.
Simultaneously with the Iranian working class support of the Haft Tappeh’s workers strike, the trade unions around the world are expected to provide effective and practical support to Haft Tappeh workers away from the usual circumstances. The workers’ protests in Haft Tappeh are a good example of the global working class struggle against privatization and austerity. Effective support for these protests, away from the political considerations of governments and bureaucratic process, is particularly importance. Lack of serious support of EU’s labour organizations and activists for the global working class struggle, can lower the living conditions of workers in France, Britain and Germany to the living conditions of workers in Iran, Turkey, China and India.
Simultaneously with the issuance of the death penalty to protesters participating in the November 2019 demonstrations against austerity policies by the Iranian judiciary, the Campaign to Support Iranian Workers calls on you to support the striking and arrested workers in Haft Tappeh and Iranian protesters at risk of execution.
Long live international workers’ solidarity
Campaign to support Iranian workers(CSIW)
