The Islamic Republic of Iran must be expelled from the International Labor Organization and the international community
To Mr Guy Ryder, the director-general of ILO, Geneva, Switzerland
19 May 2021
I am writing this letter to you as the spokesperson of the Campaign to free jailed workers in Iran (Free Them Now!), to emphasize the demand of the workers and the people of Iran that the murderous, anti-workers anti-human Islamic regime of Iran must be expelled from ILO and be boycotted globally. I have no doubt that you are aware of the anti-labor and criminal policies of the Islamic regime towards the workers and the people of Iran, because our organization and the workers in Iran and other independent organizations have sent you many letters and reports in this regard over the past few years. But unfortunately, appeasement with this regime has continued.
You have announced that you did not hold the previous meeting due to the Corona pandemic, and this year’s meeting will be held online. And here I want to remind the indictment of the workers and people of Iran against the crimes of the Islamic government, especially in the last two years, and ask you silence for how long and till when? How long appeasement with this regime? Enough is enough!
The Islamic government, as a member of your organization, even violates the international conventions of the ILO including arresting and imprisoning workers for protesting their dismissal, attending International Workers’ Day, or getting organised for their just causes, even has flogged the workers for protesting. An example is the flogging of Davood Rafiei, a protesting worker at Pars Khodro Company last year for protesting his dismissal. Isn’t this heinous anti-human action alone enough to expel this regime from ILO?
This government killed Shahrokh Zamani, a prominent labor figure, in prison, it kept Mohammad Jarahi another well-known worker activist in prison despite suffering from cancer and deprived him of his medicines so long that when he was released after five years in prison, he died very quickly of an advanced cancer.
Under this regime, child labor is officially accepted and children do work with municipal uniforms as garbage collectors. The number of working children in Iran is estimated at between three and eight million, children who are at daily risks of physical and sexual abuse by human trafficking and drug trafficking gangs. This regime systematically violates the most basic rights of workers, children, youth, women and the people of this society, and women are among the most vulnerable in the workplace, and the government’s anti-woman laws make the workplace and life unsafe and dangerous for them. This regime killed 1,500 people during a popular protest in November 2019. Some aspects of this crime were reflected in a September 2020 Amnesty International report entitled “Iran:Trampling humanity- mass arrests, disappearances and torture since Iran’s 2019 November protests”. This regime as you know even intentionally and for its criminal political purposes shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane with miissile and killed 176 innocent passengers and crew.
The regime stepped up executions and repression to repel popular struggles that took to the streets in November 2019, and a shocking example was the execution of the young wrestling champion Navid Afkari that shocked the world. The Islamic Republic killed him despite global plea to overturn his death sentence. His two brothers, Vahid and Habib, are still in prison under severe torture.
On the other hand, at the height of Covid-19 pandemic, thousands of prisoners are currently being held in inhumane conditions in the regime’s very crowded prisons. Ismail Abdi, the head of the Teachers’ Union, has been in prison for several years for defending teachers’ rights and demanding free education for all children, and has now been sentenced to another ten years in prison with a new case. In addition, well-known labor activists, teachers, and women’s rights defenders are currently under increasing pressure in prisons, including Mahmoud Salehi, Osman Ismaili, Shapoor Ehsani Rad, Arash Johari, Mehran Raouf, Nahid Fath’alian, and Zeinab Hamrang. Hashem Khastar, Mohammad Hossein Sepehri, Abolfazl Ghasali, Sajjad Shokri, Athena Daemi, Sepideh Qolyan, and Saba Kurd Afshari.
The Islamic Republic, even with its dirty political goals, has used the Corona pandemic as a weapon against the people and it was the cause of pandemic’s quick spread from the beginning. It has not provided any equipment for prevention of the pandemic in the workplaces and at the society in general. Worse, it has refused to buy the standard Corona vaccines and has publicly stated that he will not buy it from western countries, and an important popular campaign is going on, demanding the standard vaccine to be bought and free and universal vaccination.
Each of these cases is enough to bring the leaders of such a government to justice, and our first question is why are ILO and international organizations silent on such dimensions of crimes and savagery? Appeasement of such a murderous regime will increase its repression and other crimes, and the Iranian people want an answer from you. This indifference and these appeasements are condemned and unforgivable by the Iranian people.
The Islamic Republic must be expelled from the International Labor Organization and all international organizations, because of all its crimes against workers and humanity. The Islamic Republic does not represent the Iranian people at all, but it is their enemy and murderer. This government should be boycotted and isolated worldwide like the apartheid regime in South Africa. .
As a voice of protest from the workers and the people of Iran, I am writing this letter to ILO and I expect it to be among other documents in your conference.
Campaign to free jailed workers in Iran (Free Them Now)!