The protest action in front of the ILO conference was successfully held
On June 5, at the call of Free Them Now (FTN) the Campaign to free jailed workers in Iran, on the first day of the annual conference of the ILO in Geneva, a protest action was held demanding the expulsion of the Islamic regime of Iran from the ILO. At 11:30am this day, the rally and protest started. This action was supported by the campaign to free political prisoners in Iran (CFPPI), International Committee Against Executions(ICAE ), the Worker-communist Party of Iran (WPI), the president of Swiss Trade Union Federation, and groups of Iranians living in Geneva.
Kazem Nikkhah head of Internaional relations of Free Them Now was managing the protest gathering. He first welcomed the participants and expressed his appreciation for the support given to the call of Free Them Now. He then declared: “The people of Iran want the leaders of the Islamic regime to be tried for crimes against humanity. The people of Iran want this government to be isolated and boycotted at the global level and to be expelled from the International Labor Organization and from this conference. It’s been eight months that people have continued the “woman life freedom” revolution to get rid of this regime. What else should happen, before the International Labor Organization to hear the voice of the Iranian people?”
Shahla Daneshfar, the spokesperson of the FTN, announced in her speech that the expulsion of the Islamic government form ILO is a long-standing campaign of Free Them Now, and that FTN has tried to be the voice of the protest of the workers and the people of Iran every year with its presence in front of the ILO summit. She emphasized that our campaign, especially this year on the context of the woman life freedom revolution, goes beyond the expulsion of the Islamic regime. Our target is a global boycott of this anti-human regime. She pointed to the call given by Free Them Now to labour unions worldwide. She further mentioned the progress in this campaign, including the support of the labor union federation in Myanmar, the Swiss Federation of Trade Unions, and trade unions with 400,000 to 600,000 members in different countries, such as the British Columbia Labor Federation, the National Union of Public Employees in Canada and so on.
Soheila Dalvand and Parisa Pooyandeh from CFPPI, Arash Waseli one of the former political prisoners living in Switzerland, Jamshid Puranpour from the Swiss Public Service Union, Payam Azar from the Worker-communist Party, were among the other speakers of this protest meeting and all of them emphasized the expulsion of the hated Islamic regime from the ILO and the trial of the leaders of this government.
During the speeches, the crowd shouted slogans against the Islamic Republic and against the presence of this government in the International Labor Organization and in solidarity with the workers and political prisoners,
In the continuation of today’s rally, the letter of Free Them Now with endorsement signatures of labor unions emphasising the expulsion of the Islamic regime from “ILO”, together with the letter of eight labor organizations from Iran with the same request and Reza Shahabi’s letter from inside the prison addressed to the representatives of the unions was handed over to the International Labor Organization.
In this regard, on June 7, a delegation of Free Them Now is due to have a meeting with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Shahla Daneshfar announced in her speech that in the next step, we are going to form a global coalition of trade unions that have supported this campaign.
Free Them Now