In our previous report on the situation facing the Saghez activists in Iran, Mobilise to stop the Saghez activists’ trial! we explained that the four workers who had been arrested in May, Mahmood Salehi, Mohammad Abadipoor, Borhan Divangar and Jalal Hosseini (and later released on bail) were due to appear in court on August 23 and 24.
Although they were originally arrested and charged for taking part in an “illegal gathering” they are now being tried for membership of Komala, a banned Kurdish organisation. If the courts rule that they are guilty of such a “crime” they could be facing very severe sentences. Their trial was postponed and is now expected to take place on September 23, that is next week.
These new trumped-up charges make it clear to everyone that the regime was stung by being forced to release the activists. It obviously does not want the May Day victory to set a precedent for the Iranian labour movement and is determined to break the workers’ renewed self-confidence.
In May the Iranian Workers’ Solidarity Network (IWSN) called for the immediate and unconditional release of the Saghez detainees and received a big international response. The protest letters and emails sent to the Iranian authorities were decisive in securing their release.
The IWSN is now calling on trade unionists throughout the world to help them organise pickets outside the Iranian Embassies or Consulates on Monday, September, 20th; to stop the sham ‘trial’, to make the Iranian authorities drop all charges against the accused and also work towards sending an international workers’ delegation to Iran to oversee the working and living conditions of Iranian workers and the hostile political and legal framework they have for voicing their just demands.
So far the activity that has been organised is the following:
A picket will be held outside the Iranian Embassy (in Paseo de la Reforma 2350, Col. Lomas Altas, 11950 México, D.F.) at 11am on Monday September 20th.
A picket will be held at 12.00 noon outside the Iranian Embassy and a list of important trade union leaders’ signatures protesting at the treatment of the Saghez workers will be handed in.
A delegation will go to visit the Consul (at the Iranian Consulate in Piazza Diaz, Milan) and hand in a list of Italian trade unionists’ signatures in protest.
There will be a picket of the Iranian Embassy (in Jauresgasse 9, 1030 Wien/Vienna) between 12 noon and 2pm on Monday, September 20th. Prior to that the supporters of the campaign have been raising the issue inside the Austrian labour movement and also inside the Austrian Socialist Party and Young Socialists.
A delegation will be going to the Iranian Embassy in Athens on Monday between 1 and 2pm to hand in a protest letter signed by leading Greek trade unionists.
There will be a picket outside the Embassy in Madrid on Monday at 7pm, and a leaflet on the Saghez workers will be distributed at the Spanish Communist Party festival this weekend.
In Pakistan trade unionists, YFIS-Pakistan supporters and supporters of The Struggle journal will be organising pickets outside the Iranian Embassy and Consular offices in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad on Monday, September 20th.
Tomorrow, Friday, September 17th, there will be a picket of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Caracas to hand in a letter for Chavez personally asking him to take up the case with the Iranian authorities.
A delegation representing trade unionists is going to the Iranian Embassy to hand in a petition on Monday morning.
September 16, 2004
See also:
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