September 25, 2020
” Navid Afkari’s execution is to intimidate and quell the anger of workers and protesters”
In the days before he was seven, he would go to Azadi Park to sell chewing gum and kites. Until the age of eighteen, he clung to wrestling with all his might, always first in the province he lived, and won medals in national competitions. Because he had to drop out of school as a teenager, he could not compete in international wrestling and was forced to enlist in the compulsory army services. When his military service ended, financial problems took him away from wrestling, his favorite sport. With three years of labor, he raised little money. He was now is 23 years old and it was a big risk to continue his wrestling career. His joining in the wrestling national team had become almost an impossible dream. At the age of 25, he was forced to work as a laborer again to support his family, and was arrested later in September 2018.This is a brief description and parts of Navid Afkari’s life, quoted by him, who, with a broken body from the pressure and torture of security agents, on September 12, was hung with rope, without even being allowed to visit his family for the last time. In the opinion of the authorities and the organs supporting capitalism, it would be a lesson for the workers and people who do not live under the class oppression and injustice and protest in various ways.
Navid Afkari himself was one of the protesters. He was one of thousands of young workers and deprived people who became acquainted with street labor as a child and experienced the bitter taste of poverty and inequality. He is forced to work as a plasterer in order to cover part of his family expenses, leaving compulsory schooling and not achieving his interests and aspirations, including “membership in the national wrestling team.” This situation, of course, acquainted Navid with the bitter realities of life and the inequalities in society, and made him a strong, courageous protester. To the extent that he participated in the street protests of the people against the poverty, inflation and unbridled tyranny in the society, and for his part he played an active and prominent role in those protests and demonstrations.
The capitalist government of Iran filed a lawsuit case against Navid, a well-known figure for participating in the street protests of 2018, and sentenced him to death following a fabricated confession under duress and torture, to intimidate the workers and the people of Iran and prevent them from protesting in the future. Unaware that what drives the deprived workers and masses of society to protest and struggle is the miserable conditions and circumstances that have made life difficult and unbearable for more than 90% of the members of society. In fact, Navid Afkari is the product of these conditions and arise from the unfavorable social conditions and the protests and struggles of the people in Iran.
It is clear that the institutions that issue a verdict by confessing under pressure and torture, in order to take the life of a innocent worker, are really scared and very worried about their future situation in the days and months ahead.
Contrary to the beliefs of the defenders of capitalism government in Iran, the execution of Navid not only did not cause fear and panic in the hearts of the people, but also provoked a strong and widespread reaction of the workers and the masses to this repressive and inhumane act. They exposed it as the murder of the state and the reprehensible by the judgment of the society. The execution of Navid once again raised the sensitivity of the society towards this issue and reminded the workers and the masses of the people that there should be a strong, organized and widespread struggle against the execution and deprivation of liberty.As part of the Iranian working class, we send our deep condolences to the people and the family of Afkari and consider any threat, torture and execution as a sign of terror and despair of the capitalist government of Iran. We also consider the right to participate in workers’ protests and strikes as part of the rights of workers and the deprived masses.
We believe that no one should be threatened or intimidated for protesting against the sufferings of the workers and the people, and more importantly, arrested, imprisoned, tortured and executed.
The abolition of the death penalty is a defense of the right to life.
Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Workers Syndicate
Workers’ Union of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company
Islamshahr Teachers’ Trade Association
Coordinating Committee to Help Form Workers’ Organizations
Iranian Retirement Council
Follow-up Committee to Set-up Free Labour Organizations
Retirees Union
Retirees Union Group
