Update on Iran - May 4, 2010

The Beginning of the End of the Clerical Rule in Iran
No.589

Labor associations banned in Iran
May 1, 2010 - Majid Mohammadi (sociologist)
The main prohibition that Iranian workers have is being deprived of independent labor associations… Many of the problems workers face in Iran has increased in Ahmadinejad's government.
The difference between democratic governments and undemocratic governments is that in democratic regimes, because of the intermediary figure of the government, workers can assemble and convey their voice to others or in some instances get their rights in part by way of strikes or other forms of protests. But workers in undemocratic governments are denied such an instrument and voice. What is the current state of labor associations in Iran?

Syndicates
Syndicates have been and are the most independent of labor unions in Iran and therefore are under the most pressure. All labor syndicates were banned after the rulers of the Islamic Republic consolidated their power in 1981 and were eliminated from the official political and social scene. Members of the syndicates who wanted to continue their activities were prosecuted and some of the most active members like Mansour Osalu, Ibrahim Madadi and Ali Nejati are jailed. Organizations like the Syndicate of the Drivers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, the Syndicate of Workers of the Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Factory and the Iran Free Labor Union are some of these organizations.

Islamic Labor Councils and Labor House
At the same that syndicates were banned, the Islamic Republic and its supporters created a state-made rival in the labor environment named Islamic Labor Organizations and Labor Houses were tasked with coordinating their activities. The ILNA (Iran Labor News Agency) is the official news agency of these organizations and the only thing it does not do is report and cover the violation of workers' rights by government institutions. The Labor House has branches in provincial capitals and Islamic Labor Organizations are active in provinces. From the very start, the main function of the Islamic Labor Councils was to rob labor organizations of their labor identity and instead give them a religious and ideological identity. 
According to article d and e of law 2 of the creation of Islamic Labor Councils, only those who believe in and are obligated to Islam and the theory of the leadership (Khamenei) and those who have no tendency towards illegal parties, organizations and groups and/or dissident groups of the Islamic Republic will become members of this council. Also, according to a footnote in this law, the determining of the qualification of membership candidates in the Islamic Labor Councils in the framework of the noted conditions in the aforementioned law lies with a group made up of the representative of the Labor Ministry, the representative of the respective ministry and the elected representative of the Employees Assembly. With these two articles and the footnote only (regime) elements can become members of these councils…
Islamic Labor Councils have no direct links to workers' issues and only play the part of a controller in working environments.
The Islamic Republic has created fake instances of (independent) organizations to front independent institutions.
Other than the Islamic Labor Councils made to counter syndicates, there is a long list of such fake state-made institutions created to counter independent institutions: The Islamic Student Society or Islamic Student Associations (with appointed central councils) to counter Islamic Associations or independent student organizations (with elected central councils), the Association of the Moviemakers of the Holy Defense to counter the Cinema House, the Muslim Journalists Association to counter the Journalists Association, the Muslim Publicists Union to counter the Publicists Union and the Pen Association as opposed to the Writers' Center. In many cases the fake institutions have been created with the same name as the independent association or institution to decrease the popularity of the independent association. (Like the Office for Consolidating Unity or the Journalists' Association which have been made by the state to marginalize the independent associations of the same name). In some cases, internationally used names without the Islamic provisions are used to give the state-made institution the appearance of a popular association (such as the Pen Association). 

Labor Bassij
In the past two decades, even the Labor House was not always trusted by the leadership and the Ahamdinejad government because of some of its reformist tendencies and the leadership and government started empowering the Labor Bassij. The Labor Bassij has militarized the atmosphere much more than Islamic Labor Councils and only accepts militia and fascist groups as representatives of laborers. The purpose of such organizations is not to demand labor rights for workers (main duty of syndicates) and not even to carry out Islamic rules in working environments (main purpose of the Islamic Labor Councils) but to carry out the demands of the leader. 

The government is the main employer
The reason the government's interference in labor unions is affective is because the Iranian government is actually the biggest employer in Iran. The government in Iran does not stand between the employer and the laborer as a mediator and impartial judge with specific principles which represents the people, but as an employer and wherever it is faced with opposition, it uses its forces to suppress and quell protests.
Iranian factories are directly run by the government (Quds Institutions run by the leader and state-run companies) or are given to semi-government elements that are indirectly under the control of people with close ties to the government (mainly military and security institutions). In such a state, the chances of the growth and fertility of independent labor organizations are very low.

Divine official confronts demands
Khomeini dissolved independent labor organizations with only one sentence: "God is also a worker". The government has given workers the status of God, teachers the status of the prophet and has told women that heaven is under their feet so that they would ignore their rights and not make any demands enabling their rulers to divide the country's resources among themselves and those loyal to them.
The representatives of God on earth play the part of employers and capitalists and rob the people of their wealth and resources while 'peasantry' have to be happy that they have Godly status given to them by the representative of God. If they receive barely enough bread to survive by, it is out of the kindness of their rulers and not because it is their right.



Iran arrests lawyer and defender of death row minors for the second time
May 1, 2010 - Mohammad Oliyayi Fard, jurist and lawyer was arrested in the morning.
According to reports, this lawyer who had gone to the Revolutionary Court in the morning was introduced to the Implementing Sentences Department and was then transferred to prison by the head of the office of the 26th branch of the Tehran Revolutionary Court.
In the past three months, this is the second time that this lawyer was arrested for serving his one year prison term on charges of spreading propaganda against the government by giving interviews (to foreign media).
Oliyayi Fard is the lawyer of a number of minors who have been sentenced to death and political, civil rights and student activists.

Iran arrests May Day protesters
May 2, 2010 - On Saturday May 1, a number of people and those who had participated in May Day protests in different parts of Tehran were arrested and taken to unknown locations. These arrests were made by State Security Forces. There is still no information on how many people were arrested.

Iran arrests teachers on Teacher Day
May 2, 2010 - According to reports, a number of teachers who intended to commemorate Teacher Day were arrested by security and intelligence agents in Babvieh at the gravesite of Dr. Abolhassan Khanali. It is not clear how many people were arrested.

Two protesters sentenced to four years of prison
May 2, 2010 - Two protesters who were arrested in the post-election protests were sentenced to 8 years of prison put together.
According to reports, Saied Hadri and Morteza Layaqi were sentenced to four years of prison each by the 15th branch of the Revolutionary Court headed by Salavati. They were transferred to court in the morning and were deprived of lawyers in the whole legal process.


Students Committee in Iran (Supporters of PMOI)