May 2025
On the eve of International Workers’ Day, the greed of employers and the disregard for workers’ lives by managers and government officials once again claimed the lives of dozens of workers in Bandar Abbas. Due to the failure to comply with workplace safety regulations and the negligence of the managers at Rajaei Port, a chemical explosion and subsequent fire killed dozens of dockworkers and administrative staff. This is not the first time in recent months that the insatiable appetite of employers for greater profits and the inability of state regulatory bodies to enforce the most basic safety measures have left working-class families mourning their loved ones.
Last September, an explosion in the Tabas coal mine killed more than 50 workers. According to published statistics, last year, an average of 200 workers lost their lives monthly due to workplace accidents. The slaughter of workers has become an inseparable part of the production process in Iran. But it is not only in the workplace that workers’ lives are at risk—living conditions, livelihoods, and unbearable work pressures drive many to suicide or fatal work-related illnesses.
However, the danger that continuously threatens the lives of millions of workers and their families more than workplace killings is the small amount of wages and the shocking rise in prices. Over the past years, the skyrocketing cost of essential goods for working-class families in Iran and worldwide has deepened class inequality, turning the struggle to cover daily living expenses into a daily nightmare for millions of workers globally. The ruling capitalists and their governments have directly funded their military and economic competitions by draining workers’ pockets. But in recent months, the economic and military rivalries among global and regional powers have reached alarming levels. These policies, in addition to the threat of war and the mass slaughter of defenceless civilians, bring the risk of deeper poverty, misery, and widespread unemployment on national and international levels.
In such conditions, the issue of wages and the fight for pay that matches living costs has become the central focus of workers’ global protests. Since workers’ wages directly impact not only working-class families but also millions of others, this struggle has the potential to unite broad sections of society with workers’ social and economic battles.
Given the current divide and competition among the world’s economic powers and the regional conflicts between rival governments, the working class once again has the opportunity to emerge as a key force in the struggle for a better life and to change the current horrific conditions.
The essential requirement for workers’ serious engagement in this battle is the existence of social organizations and labor unions to organize protests and pursue social demands. In Iran, despite the current restrictions imposed by capitalist rule on one hand and the advances made by society due to widespread social protests in recent years on the other, labor activists now have a better opportunity to establish workplace organizations and various forms of social associations. Understanding the objective conditions and striving to find the most suitable forms of worker organization in each specific field are essential requirements for intervening to changing conditions benefits all social groups.
To end the slaughter of workers in workplaces, to end spreading poverty and misery, to end the suffering of ongoing wars and genocides, and to end repression, torture, and executions, the working class has no choice but organized struggle to overthrow the capitalists and their governments.
Long Live May Day
Solidarity Institutions with the Labor Movement in Iran
Campaign in Support of Iranian Workers
