Retirees are part of the working class who have continuous struggles and protests in Iran. Every week, several days in Iran, we see large gatherings of retirees and their chanting and marching.
For example, this week large numbers of retirees gathered and protested. On Sunday social security retirees, on Monday telecommunications, and on Tuesday public sector retirees gathered in different cities. The cities where pensioners’ gatherings were held in these three days were: Tehran, Rasht, Ahvaz, Shush, Karkhe, Haft Tappeh, Kermanshah, Sanandaj, Rasht, Sari, Urmia, Mashhad, Qazvin, Isfahan, Hamedan, Karaj, Shiraz and Yazd.
These protests have repercussions on the political atmosphere of society and have attracted everyone’s attention. People widely support and sympathize with the retirees.
These retirees belong to different sections and services: Social security retirees, whose salaries are paid through the social security fund, Telecommunication pensioners who are contract with Telecommunication Company, retirees of the public sector, which includes teachers and parts of employees and office staff who has been recruited by the government. Besides, some of the retirees are former employees of the armed forces, who are called military retirees, other sectors of retired workers are steel retirees, whose conditions are different.
Despite these differences, the conditions and issues of the all retirees are common and similar, and for this reason their protests are becoming more and more connected and closer.
In general, retirees are the most deprived part of society. Various institutions of the Islamic regime are constantly stealing from pensioners’ funds, and this causes pensioners’ salaries to face serious problems and dilemmas. The authorities recently announced that 17 out of 18 pension funds have gone bankrupt! It means their savings been stolen by the state run organisations and authorities. This is a catastrophe for pensioners whose livelihood is dependent on these funds. In addition, inflation and everyday rising prices are constantly reducing their purchasing power. And they do not have any salary increases in proportion to inflation.
Another point is that retirees need health care services more than all other sections of the society and the Islamic regime has denied these services to these workers, teachers, and employees, and they must fight for it. A common demand of pensioners is “free healthcare for all”.
Equalization of salaries together with raising all salaries above the poverty line which is 300 million Rials/month (nearly $600) and free treatment, are two urgent demands of all retirees.
The demands of pensioners and their protest against poverty and insecurity are the same as all people in Iran. The widespread protests of retirees are an important political development in the context of turbulent political atmosphere in the society. These struggles should be widely supported.