On October 7 around 35 members of Swedish and Iranian workers’ organisations met to protest against the Iranian dictatorship and hand over the petition “The Iranian Workers are not alone” to the embassy.
“Every time I see this embassy I see all the comrades that have been killed, tortured and raped”, said one of the Iranian activists in his speech at the meeting.
He went on to explain how the situation in Iran has developed under the present regime: “They have started to arrest, torture and infiltrate the labour movement. The Iranian security police has been reorganised and will terrorize the workers who are active in the political or trade union field. No free trade unions exist, but there are groups which are trying to fight back and we must relate to them and give them our attention.”
“Solidarity, unity and common struggle is the basis for trade union activity both on the local and international level,” said Lena Ericson Höijer, who represented the 9000 members in her local branch (no 28) of the Municipal Workers’ Union in Stockholm, which had put its signature to the petition.
“‘Workers of the world’ are not empty words,” she continued, “now the eyes of the world are directed towards Iran, and the oppression there.”
The promoters of the picket were three local branches of the Socialdemocratic youth (SSU) in Stockholm. They had not just signed the appeal themselves, but also during the previous two weeks had contacted labour organisations and trade unions in Stockholm to get their support. The result was that the Shopworkers’ Union as a whole (about 170,000 members) signed the appeal, as well as a local branch of the Transport Workers’ Union and the above mentioned branch of the Municipal Workers’ Union. They also got the signatures of several activists in other trade union branches. In total, seven local SSU-branches and one SSU-district gave their support to the appeal.
Present at the picket were representatives of the Committee for Solidarity with the Iranian Workers and the Iranian Workers’ Solidarity Network, which also organized other public meetings during the week.
After a few more speeches and the reading out aloud of the petition - both in Swedish and Persian - the Internationale was sung. Then three of the SSU-organisers accompanied by two policemen went to the iron gates of the embassy with the petition. However, only one of them, Linus Höjdén, was allowed in.
After the meeting with one of the embassy secretaries Linus reported to the picket outside: “I went in and told them that we demand trade union and human rights in Iran. The embassy secretary thought we should be open to ‘dialogue’. He said that the ILO has visited Iran and seen how well off everyone is! He meant that there are the same rights in Iran as in Sweden. I let him do his talking and then I left.”
The fact that the embassy deemed it even necessary to devote time in trying to defend the brutal Iranian regime proves that they took the protest seriously. And so they should. The Iranian workers are not alone!