Iran: Picket against the presence of Hassan Sadeghi and Parviz Ahmadi Panjaki at the ILO annual conference on June 14

A group of exiled Iranian workers in Switzerland and the International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran branch in Switzerland are organising a picket outside the International Labour Organization annual conference in Geneva. We call on all trade unionists, labour and socialist activists throughout the world to make their protest known to their local ILO office on 14 June. Please hand a copy of this letter to the office and ask them to pass it on to ILO Headquarters.

Comrades!
Supporters of labour rights throughout the world!

A group of exiled Iranian workers in Switzerland and the International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran (IASWI) branch in Switzerland are organising a picket outside the International Labour Organization (ILO) annual conference in Geneva. They will be protesting against the presence of Hassan Sadeghi and Parviz Ahmadi Panjaki.

Sadeghi and Ahmadi Panjaki, both of whom were involved in the attack on members of the Founding Board of Tehran Public Bus Transportation Company Workers' Union, are attending the conference as workers' representatives! On 14 June, the conference is to review the labour situation in Iran with these two individuals, who were never freely elected by any workers and have been physically attacking the activists of the budding genuine unions recently, acting as 'experts' on the subject!

The workers' main demands, which have been set out in numerous struggles during the past few years, are to set up truly independent workers' organisations, to have the right to strike and to elect genuine representatives.

Iranian Workers' Solidarity Network (IWSN) fully supports the picket by the exiled Iranian workers and the IASWI branch in Switzerland on 14 June to protest against Sadeghi and Ahmadi Panjaki being accepted ILO delegates and calls on all other exiled Iranian labour and socialist activists and organisations to help this action and the campaign for the genuine representatives of Iranian workers to attend such conferences. Whereas once the ILO could say that it did not know of any Iranian labour organisations other than the Labour House and the Islamic Labour Councils this cannot be maintained any longer. There is now no excuse for the ILO’s indifference or acquiescence! There are a number of independent labour organisations in Iran and four of them have written a protest letter to Mr Juan Somavia, the Director-General of the ILO.

We therefore call on all trade unionists, labour and socialist activists throughout the world to make their protest known to their local ILO office on 14 June. Please hand a copy of the letter by the four independent labour organisations to the office and ask them to pass it on to ILO Headquarters.