Islamic regime of Iran out of ILO
On the June7, a large protest action and demonstration held against the presence of the delegation of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the ILO conference in the Nations Square in Geneva.
19 unions from Denmark, Sweden, England, France, Italy and Switzerland, representing millions of workers had announced their support for the June 7th demonstration organized by the “National Committee for the June 7th Protest Rally in Geneva”. In this protest meeting, a number of different political parties and organisations and labour institutions and activists also participated. Free Them Now, the campaign to free jailed workers in Iran, was one of the participants in this protest action. Free Them Now activists carried posters of imprisoned workers and teachers as well as protesters who are on the execution list, with a poster of the list of 84 institutions supporting those sentenced to death for narcotic drugs charges, and a large poster with the text “Islamic Republic should be expelled from ILO”.
At the beginning of this protest meeting, the international anthem played, and in the first part of it, representatives from labour unions of different countries such as France, Switzerland, Denmark, England and Sweden gave messages in solidarity with Iranian workers and against the presence of representatives of the Islamic Republic in ILO conference. Various political parties and forces, labor institutions and activists also participated in this protest action, and supported this protest movement, representatives from some other labour unions who had participated in the ILO conference, including from Senegal and Nigeria, joined the meeting and expressed solidarity with the workers and people of Iran.
Shahla Daneshfar, the spokesperson of Free Them, Abbas Mandegar, a member of Free Them Now who had come from Canada, and Hashem Fazeli, another member of Free Them Now in Switzerland, spoke in the meeting. Also Nasser Kashkooli as a representative of the Worker-communist Party of Iran and representatives of some other political parties gave a speech in this protest action.
Supporting popular uprisings to overthrow the Islamic Republic and condemning the executions and repressions of this government against the people and protesting the presence of the delegation of the Islamic Republic in ILO were the focus of the speeches.
In between, of the speeches, the crowd shouted protest slogans, among others, slogans like “down with the Islamic regime of Iran” and “imprisoned workers, imprisoned teachers, and political prisoners should be released,” chanted.
Free Them Now has been protesting the membership of the Islamic Government in the ILO for two decades and has organised protesting actions in front of its annual confrences. The expulsion of the Islamic regime from the ILO is an important campaign of Free Them Now. So far, many trade unions from Canada, Switzerland, and Australia and well-known political campaigners in the world have announced their support for this campaign.
Free Them Now