At 10 a.m. today, December 28th, a large number of retired teachers gathered to pursue their demands and demand the equalization of salaries and increase it above the 12 million/month poverty line, according to a previously announced call. Teachers in Tehran and Alborz province gathered in front of the Islamic parliament and in other cities in front of the pension fun.The Coordinating Council of cultural trade centres also had supported the call and called on all employed and retired teachers to participate in the rallies. On this day, many teachers from Tehran and Alborz gathered in front of the Islamic parliament and chanted and had speech and stressed on their demands and problesm and strongly condemned the regimes’ policies against the teachers and their salaries. According to the reports so far, teachers have gathered in cities such as Tehran, Qazvin, Hamedan, Sanandaj, Qorveh, Zanjan, Ardabil, Qom, Sari, Shiraz, Shahrekord, Kermanshah and Isfahan and have insisted on their demands.
In Tehran, a large crowd of teachers chanted and sang the anthem of “school friend” which is a protest antehm, and one of the retired women announced her indictment against the government, saying, “If we want to take revenge on you, we will take it from the first day of the revolution until now. Now it is your turn to be destroyed” And then he shouted, “Shame on Qalibaf (the conservative parliament speaker), leave the parliament,” and the crowd accompanied her with applause and a loud chanting. In Sanandaj too, a large number of teachers participated in the rally and emphasized on the immediate release of imprisoned teachers with the slogan “imprisoned teacher must be releases”..
On this day, along with the gathering of retired and employed teachers, rural telecommunication workers and employees also gathered to protest the low level of salaries and discrimination in payments between employees in Tehran and rural areas.
The protest slogans of the teachers on this day were: “indecent authorities! Resign! Resign!”, “Teacher stand up, to eliminate discrimination”, “Teacher must be released from prison”, “Implementation of equalization is our inalienable right”, “Promises are enough “Our table is empty”, “One embezzlement less, our difficulties will be solved”, Our hands are empty, Your situation is excellent “,” equalisation, no cheating “,” Shame on Ghalibaf! leave the parliament “,” Teacher is awake, and hates discrimination, ” ” Retirees!, shout, shout, ” ” We have heard a lot of promises, we have not seen any justice” and ” price rise, inflation, the misery of the people .”
In a resolution on the occasion of their rallies on this day, the retirees protested against the policies of the government and the parliament regarding their situation and emphasized their immediate demands. For example, in this resolution, retired teachers, while protesting against the government’s propaganda that increasing the salaries of retirees and teachers is inflationary, declared their support for increasing the salaries of all sections of society and all working people above the poverty line.
Another important part of the resolution emphasizes the unconditional release of imprisoned teachers and workers. Other demands of retired teachers in this resolution include: full implementation of the law of equalization, full implementation of the ranking bill for cultural staff in accordance with the law, elimination of any discrimination in payments and injustices once and for all, implementation of the payments with the university teachers.
In the end, the teachers in their resolution emphasized the unity between the retired and employed teachers and no partisanship with the ruling factions, and gave an ultimatum that if their demands are not met, they consider the continuation of the protests as their inalienable right. In their protest rallies, retirees have repeatedly called for higher wages above the 12 million Toman a month which is poverty line, free medical care and education for all, the right to housing, and an end to the securitizing of struggles, embezzlements and thefts.