On Monday morning, October 10, comrades in Germany picketed the Iranian Embassy in Berlin and the Iranian General Consulate in Frankfurt. On both occasions, Iranian residents in Germany joined the pickets.
In Frankfurt, only a few moments after our arrival, as we opened our banner demanding an end to all violent assaults against Iranian workers, an employee came out of the front door and asked us to leave the premises immediately. He tried to snatch our banner twice – without any success. Then he threatened to call the police. We continued to distribute our leaflets to passers-by and Iranian nationals that walked into or left the building.
This brutal, harsh and uncultured behaviour towards peaceful demonstrators was very helpful in underlining the repressive nature of the regime in the eyes of those protestors who did not know very much about Iran but felt that our slogans had hit a sore point of the regime.
As the police came, they told us in a friendly way to stand on the other side of the busy road. So we did – and continued to inform people about the attacks on workers’ rights in Iran, the imprisonment and killing of activists and our campaign.
As I tried to get into the building to hand over an official letter of protest on behalf of my union branch to the Consul I was told to stop outside and that I was not welcome inside the building.
In the end, comrades left the place in high spirits. The Iranian workers present thanked us for our efforts and for demonstrating that they were not alone, and we agreed to keep in touch and continue protest activities as soon as possible.