Who Is Responsible For Increasing Intimidation Against Protesting Workers, Teachers And Their Families?
This year, we celebrate International Workers' Day and Teachers' Day, while on the one hand, we are delighted with the release of Ebrahim Madadi, and Mansour Asanlou, directing board members of the Vahed Bus Workers Union of Tehran; Pedram Nasrolahi and Farzad Ahmadi, union organizer; and Hashem Khastar, member of the Teachers' Union of Mashhad and on the other hand, are extremely upset with the approved execution sentences, including that of Abdolreza Ghanbari, a high school teacher in Pakdasht.
There are also prison sentences for some workers and workers' and
teachers' right activists, including Reza Shahabi, directing board
member of The Vahed Bus Workers Union of Tehran and Rasoul Badaghi,
directing board member of The Teachers' Union of Iran, each sentenced to
six years imprisonment and five years banning of public activity. There
are many others behind bars, including workers Shahrokh Zamani, Ali
Akhavan, Ali Nejati, Sasan Vahebi Vash, Mohammad Housaini, Mehdi Farahi
Shandiz, Mehrdad Amir Vaziri, and teachers Abdulah Momeni, Ali Pour
Suleiman, Rasoul Badaghi and Mohammad Davari.... and Nabiolah Bastan, a
hard working teacher has been sentenced to five years exile in
Boroujerd.
This year, we celebrate Workers' Day and Teachers' Day, while thousands of workers and teachers have lost their jobs and each day, more join the ranks of the unemployed, due to firings, factory and schools shut downs or the down sizing of the work force. According to the head of the House of the Workers, last year alone, one hundred thousand workers have been fired.
Each year, we witness more economical, political and social hardships, more workers and teachers being sentenced to long term prisons for slightest protests which causes their families to suffer great financial and psychological difficulties.
Beside all these, we are deeply concerned with the news of the appointment of Saeid Mortazavi, the one responsible for the crimes of Kahrizak, to head the Social Security Department, one of the most important organizations closely related to the work force. This appointment is a great disrespect towards the families who have lost their children to torture and execution at Kahrizak prison and are seeking those involve, especially this person, to be put on trial. In this line, there are more disturbing news about an increase in the executions and heavy prison sentences against dissident workers and teachers who are held in jails.
Day by day increasing financial stress denies people a humane and honorable life. We are not talking about the reasons for the crisis, inflation and the high cost of living, class discrimination and unemployment here, but we are talking about human rights abuse, injustice and disregard for basic rights.What we say is that all people, young, old, male and or female should have the right to chose the way they want to live, to organize, to protest, have job safety, work and education. They should have the right to chose to whom they want to befriend, to travel, to elect and get elected,... a free life, without discrimination. We want to know:
- Why can't workers and teachers organize and defend their rights?
- Why do they get fired or jailed for a simple act of protest?
- Why there is no official organization responsible to protect them, after they lose their job?
- Whey are their families suffer injustice and discrimination?
- Why the majority of employers and and the state deny worker and teachers job security ?
This year, we celebrate Workers' Day and Teachers' Day, while thousands of workers and teachers have lost their jobs and each day, more join the ranks of the unemployed, due to firings, factory and schools shut downs or the down sizing of the work force. According to the head of the House of the Workers, last year alone, one hundred thousand workers have been fired.
Each year, we witness more economical, political and social hardships, more workers and teachers being sentenced to long term prisons for slightest protests which causes their families to suffer great financial and psychological difficulties.
Beside all these, we are deeply concerned with the news of the appointment of Saeid Mortazavi, the one responsible for the crimes of Kahrizak, to head the Social Security Department, one of the most important organizations closely related to the work force. This appointment is a great disrespect towards the families who have lost their children to torture and execution at Kahrizak prison and are seeking those involve, especially this person, to be put on trial. In this line, there are more disturbing news about an increase in the executions and heavy prison sentences against dissident workers and teachers who are held in jails.
Day by day increasing financial stress denies people a humane and honorable life. We are not talking about the reasons for the crisis, inflation and the high cost of living, class discrimination and unemployment here, but we are talking about human rights abuse, injustice and disregard for basic rights.What we say is that all people, young, old, male and or female should have the right to chose the way they want to live, to organize, to protest, have job safety, work and education. They should have the right to chose to whom they want to befriend, to travel, to elect and get elected,... a free life, without discrimination. We want to know:
- Why can't workers and teachers organize and defend their rights?
- Why do they get fired or jailed for a simple act of protest?
- Why there is no official organization responsible to protect them, after they lose their job?
- Whey are their families suffer injustice and discrimination?
- Why the majority of employers and and the state deny worker and teachers job security ?
- Does justice means to appoint people like Saied Mortazavi and killing people like Farzad Kamangarha?
These and thousand others are legitimate questions that the workers and
teachers have been asking the employers and the state for years, but no
authority has ever responded.
The firing and imprisonment of the workers and the teachers are only part of the problem, the other part is the difficulties that their families have to face afterwards. Difficulties of unemployment, lack of job security that cause losing ones home and homelessness and suicide.
Only a few instances are enough to demonstrate the depth of this terrible injustice. Unfortunately, we hear more and more of workers committing suicide, due to being fired and poverty:
1- On Sunday morning, October 16, Mohsen Ahmadian, a worker at Shiran Diary Production in Shahr Kord, committed suicide. He threw himself off the administrative building and died instantly because of extreme poverty and not receiving his wages.
2 - Mostafa Alizadeh, a worker at the paint division of Bahman (Mazda) Group, committed suicide and died in the afternoon of January 1, 2011, in the factory area, after he found his name on the list of those to be fired at the end of the year.
3- Mansour Zarei was a fired worker of a textile factory in Kurdistan, who was 42 and had worked more than 15 years under harmful conditions at the spinning division. On Monday, March 6, 2011, he committed suicide and ended his difficult life, because of the extreme poverty after his unemployment.
4- Hassan Vakili, working as a stone cutter in Sanandaj, about 40 year old, with a wife and two children, committed suicide and ended his difficult life on the first day of 2012, at home in Abbas Abad area, due to unbearable pressures.
We, The Mothers of Laleh Park, while as always stress on our three basic demands, defend workers' and teachers' rights and demand immediate cancellation of execution sentences and unconditional release of all workers and teachers. We strongly condemn any intimidation against workers, teachers, students, lawyers, human rights activists, minorities, women, children and The Mothers of Laleh Park and their supporters who are fighting for their most basic rights. We also condemn the unlawful arrest of Narges Mohammadi, vice chair of The Society to Defend Human Rights, who has two small children and is severely sick. We demand her immediate release and all other men and women of our country who fight for freedom.
The Mothers of Laleh Park in Iran
The firing and imprisonment of the workers and the teachers are only part of the problem, the other part is the difficulties that their families have to face afterwards. Difficulties of unemployment, lack of job security that cause losing ones home and homelessness and suicide.
Only a few instances are enough to demonstrate the depth of this terrible injustice. Unfortunately, we hear more and more of workers committing suicide, due to being fired and poverty:
1- On Sunday morning, October 16, Mohsen Ahmadian, a worker at Shiran Diary Production in Shahr Kord, committed suicide. He threw himself off the administrative building and died instantly because of extreme poverty and not receiving his wages.
2 - Mostafa Alizadeh, a worker at the paint division of Bahman (Mazda) Group, committed suicide and died in the afternoon of January 1, 2011, in the factory area, after he found his name on the list of those to be fired at the end of the year.
3- Mansour Zarei was a fired worker of a textile factory in Kurdistan, who was 42 and had worked more than 15 years under harmful conditions at the spinning division. On Monday, March 6, 2011, he committed suicide and ended his difficult life, because of the extreme poverty after his unemployment.
4- Hassan Vakili, working as a stone cutter in Sanandaj, about 40 year old, with a wife and two children, committed suicide and ended his difficult life on the first day of 2012, at home in Abbas Abad area, due to unbearable pressures.
We, The Mothers of Laleh Park, while as always stress on our three basic demands, defend workers' and teachers' rights and demand immediate cancellation of execution sentences and unconditional release of all workers and teachers. We strongly condemn any intimidation against workers, teachers, students, lawyers, human rights activists, minorities, women, children and The Mothers of Laleh Park and their supporters who are fighting for their most basic rights. We also condemn the unlawful arrest of Narges Mohammadi, vice chair of The Society to Defend Human Rights, who has two small children and is severely sick. We demand her immediate release and all other men and women of our country who fight for freedom.
The Mothers of Laleh Park in Iran
and The International Solidarity with Mothers of Laleh Park
May 2012
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