To all international workers’ and human rights organisations:
On 20th January 2019, Esmaeil Bakhshi, the popular leader of sugar cane workers of Haft Tapeh, and Sepideh Gholiyan, student activist and citizen journalist who was arrested for reporting the strike of the sugar cane workers, were arrested again.
The Campaign to Free Jailed Workers strongly condemns the arrests and demands the immediate and unconditional release of these activists. We call on all international workers’ and human rights organisations to condemn these arrests. In view of their re-arrest, these activists are now in grave danger.
The powerful strike and protests of the sugar cane workers of Haft Tapeh along with the steelworkers of the National Steel Group of Ahvaz that mobilised society has put the Islamic Republic of Iran under immense pressure. The regime tried to take control of the situation by arresting Esmaeil Bakhshi and a number of other sugar cane workers, as well as more than 40 workers of the National Steel Group.
A month after his release on 12 December 2018, having spent 25 days in jail, Esmaeil Bakhshi published an open letter detailing the severe tortures he received in prison, and challenged the Minister of Intelligence to a live television debate to answer for these tortures.
Esmaeil Bakhshi’s open letter of indictment against torture and imprisonment generated a widespread movement, with grassroots organisations, political parties, workers, teachers, students, retirees and others declaring their support and demanding answers. Campaigns such as “I Have Been Tortured Too” and “We Are All Bakhshi” were launched, and many workers’ and social activists, who had themselves been tortured as political prisoners, wrote letters and joined the movement. Sepideh Gholiyan and Asal Mohammadi, another activist who was detained during the sugar cane workers’ strike, said they would testify in a public court, as they had witnessed the torture of Esmaeil Bakhshi. Many also published open letters and spoke about their torture in the prisons of the regime.
Under the pressure of this vast social protest movement, the Islamic Republic desperately struggled to find a way out. The Security Commission of the Islamic Assembly, the Judiciary and the Government, without any investigation, all denied that Esmaeil Bakhshi had been tortured. They said Esmaeil Bakhshi himself had confessed to being a member of the Worker-communist Party of Iran, and that this party’s aims were to “create disorder” and “widen” the protests. Bakhshi was declared guilty.
This was followed by the Ministry of Intelligence’s broadcasting of a programme on the state TV on Saturday 19th January titled “A Burnt Plot” in which the regime renewed its attack on Esmaeil Bakhshi, Sepideh Gholiyan and Ali Nejati, from the Management Board of Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Workers’ Union, who has been in custody since 29 November 2018.
In this so-called reportage, the Islamic Republic used some clips of parts of the “confessions” of the activists, who were under torture by the intelligence services of the regime at the time. The reportage tried to discredit the powerful strike and protest of the sugar cane workers and the steelworkers, that mobilised the entire society, by portraying them as a conspiracy of the USA, “the big enemy”, and by playing on the links with communists towards creating “disorder” in the workplaces. This charade more than anything else portrayed a desperate regime of torture and prison under siege by a society that is challenging the whole system of capitalist poverty and slavery.
In response to this hateful attempt by the Islamic Republic, Esmaeil Bakhshi has called for a public and transparent hearing and an opportunity to respond to the accusations from the same state TV network that broadcast the reportage. Ms Farzaneh Zilabi, the solicitor of Haft Tapeh workers who delivered Esmaeil Bakhshi’s response to the accusations, says that knowing the truth is people’s right and deceiving the public opinion is a betrayal of the public. She said this grotesque charade would not go without an appropriate response; her client, Mr Bakhshi, has the right to sue the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRIB) and the Minister of Intelligence. Ms Zilabi said the intelligence services broke the Islamic Republic’s own laws by providing footage of the interrogations to the IRIB. She reiterated Bakhshi’s call for a public and transparent hearing about the case.
Our campaign calls on all workers’ and human rights organisations around the world for wholehearted support for Mr Esmaeil Bakhshi and Ms Sepideh Gholiyan. Support for these activists is support for all the jailed workers and political prisoners in Iran. It is support for all workers in Iran and their right to organisation, strike, assembly and protest. It is support for the struggle of all the people of Iran against this savage capitalist regime.
Free Them Now, Campaign to Free Jailed Workers, has also written an open letter to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), calling for the expulsion the Islamic Republic from that organisation for its oppression of workers in Iran. We trust that you will also join us in the call for the expulsion of the regime from the ILO.
Free Them Now, Campaign to Free Jailed Workers
Shahla Daneshfar
21 January 2019