Updated and ended 15-8-2021
Contents
Analysis from internationalist sources
- Internationalist Voice, 27-6-2021
- AWW, 12-7-2021
- Communia, 15-7-2021
- ICT, 28-7-2021 and 10-8-2021
News updated 3-8-2021
Comments (‘Leave a reply’ end of page)
Analysis
from internationalist sources
A New Wave of Strikes and Workers’ Protests Long live the independent workers’ struggle!
From Internationalist Voice
E-mail: internationalist.voice@gmail.com
Homepage: www.internationalist.tk
Peripheral capitalism – in crisis – with its ugly face, has created a miserable situation for wage slaves and the lower strata of society. The corona pandemic, the escalation of sanctions, and the global crisis of capitalism have made economic and social conditions even more complicated than they were before for the working class. Under these circumstances, society’s working class and lower strata live below the poverty line and struggle to survive. In such circumstances, the presence of the working class on the battlefield where the struggle is enacted is of special importance, and the barbarity of capital will not go unanswered. It is glorious to see the protest by tens of thousands of workers against the inverted world of capitalism; the protest by thousands of wage slaves against wage slavery – instilling hope in the hearts of millions of workers; hope that the working class can protest against the barbaric system of capitalism, and the working class can challenge capitalism itself.
Last summer, for the first time since the defeat of the glorious workers’ protests in the autumn of 2018, we witnessed a new wave of strikes and workers’ protests, especially in the oil and petrochemical industries. Not only were the workers denied what they wanted, but the living conditions of the wage slaves became even more difficult, paving the way for a new wave of strikes and protests, especially in the oil and petrochemical industries. Since 20 June 2021, tens of thousands of oil contract workers have been on strike in refineries, petrochemical plants, and power plants. The wave of strikes and protests soon spread and took on a nationwide dimension, sweeping west to east and north to south. More than 50 refineries, oil corporations, oil rigs, oil terminals, petrochemical corporations, etc., have gone on strike.
The demands of strikers in the oil industry are, in fact, the same as last year’s. The main demands of the strikers are as follows:
- For wages to be increased to 12 million tomans:
Due to rampant inflation, the workers want a minimum wage of 12 million tomans per month to enjoy a decent standard of living. - Improved shift work (20/10):
Many contract workers now work 24 days a month in deplorable conditions, away from their families, with only six days off to visit their families. Workers are demanding a pattern of 20 days worked, followed by 10 days off. - Job security, with a cancellation of contracts with contractors:
The workers are demanding cancellation of existing contracts with contractors. For these to be replaced by more favorable contracts that give them more permanence. They are also protesting against inadequate health and safety precautions and the barracks of the oil industry. - Workplace safety and better working conditions:
Workers’ living and working conditions are on a very low standard, and improvements in toxic working environments, dormitories, and health and well-being in the workplace are part of the workers’ demands.
In the past few days, we have witnessed the spread of protests and strikes to non-oil industries. Workers at the Sepahan Cement Factory, Yazd Steel contract workers, workers at the Butia Kerman Steel Company and Ahvaz Thermal Power Plant, etc., have gone on strike. The spread of strikes to non-oil industries and strengthening the workers’ fighting spirit put striking workers in a better position and, most importantly, reduces the possibility of repression.
In recent decades, the Islamic bourgeoisie has pursued a policy of destroying the union [meaning: unity?] of workers in one of the key industries by handing over various oil industry sectors to contractors and creating multiple employers. The contracting of companies plays a significant role in concluding what effectively constitutes slave contracts with no job security and few benefits. Over the last decade, a large proportion of oil and gas workers have been contracted.
The first reaction of the bourgeoisie to the workers’ strikes was the mass dismissal of workers. Given the vast army of the unemployed, the bourgeoisie wants to use the unemployed as a weapon. On 22 June 2021, it fired 700 striking workers at the Tehran refinery. Other strikers are also at risk of being fired. A demand for strikers to return to work has been added to their other demands.
In recent years, the industrial proletariat has been involved in workers’ protests and strikes. Protests and strikes within the oil and petrochemical industry constitute the first widespread protest by workers in this sector, in such a large and nationwide form. The workers’ protests between 1978 and 1980, and this issue is of particular importance. It is glorious to see thousands of workers striking in this key industry and protesting against the brutality of capital. It is glorious to protest the order of capital. But just pointing to the glory and brilliance of the workers’ protests and strikes prevents us from seeing the weaknesses of these protests. Learning from these weaknesses will prevent the same weaknesses from being repeated in future battles. The fundamental question arises: why have the gains been so small after such widespread protests and labor strikes? The main weaknesses of the current strikes can be seen in the following factors:
- Although labor strikes have spread from north to south and west to east, the strikes lack internal class solidarity. The disintegration of workers’ protests and strikes, combined with the lack of coordination between workers’ protests, is one of the main weaknesses of these strikes. Strikes occur separately and have no connection with other strikes. The working class, therefore, does not appear as a social class.
- Legalism, directing workers’ protests and strikes to legal and governmental channels, and the venting of workers’ class anger are some of the dangers that threaten strikes. Some want to limit the strikes and protests of workers simply by forcing workers to leave their place of work and sending them home. A strike does not merely interrupt work; it curtails the production of added value. Striking workers must stay in their dormitories and play an active role in decision-making and in advancing the protests.
- Trade union and syndicalist illusions may be few and far between in Iran (and have been especially so in recent oil industry strikes), but they are a deadly poison – a poison injected into the political milieu by syndicalists, unionists, and the left of capital. Paper support for workers’ strikes on the part of trade unions and labor unions in Western countries is not only an illusion created by them but is also a slap in the face for the working class. These same unions themselves play an essential role in enforcing most anti-labor laws in Western countries, even blacklisting protesting workers. Paper solidarity prevents the working-class battalions of the world-class from realizing their real, factual class solidarity.
Chained workers!
Workers can maintain their solidarity through protests, relentless in their defense of the working class. We can only rely on our class power in our protests. Only by staying true to our class roots will we be able to repel the attacks of the bourgeoisie. Coordinating labor protests and linking labor strikes, in addition to showing class solidarity, will empower workers and pave the way for the evolution of the class struggle to a higher level. Because of their anti-capitalist nature, workers’ protests can not only spread to other capitalist countries and provoke class solidarity among the workers there but also challenge the capitalist state in so doing.
Workers’ protests and strikes will gain ground!
Long live the independent workers’ struggle!
Onwards, strike committees!
M. Jahangiry 27 June 2021
Source of the original in English. Using Grammarly adapted to US English. [Editorial comment added]
Source of the original in Farsi
Iman Ganji and Jose Rosales, 12-7-2021
Struggles in Iran – Another response
“…
Austerity, privatization and the reduction of public investments, cutbacks in public services, a retirement age that sees retirement itself recede into a future horizon, the precaritization of labor power, the commodification of education and health, continued reductions in large business taxes, and large-scale dispossession in favor of (corporate, governmental, mafialike) large property owners: these characterize the spirit of our times and has been implemented in many countries, including Iran.”
Source: Angry Workers of the World
Communia, 15-7-2021
Self-organized mass strike grows across Iran
“The new wave of struggles involves more workers in a single assembly movement than the mass strike which swept through Iran’s petrochemical sector, steel mills and power plants last August. Organized at first through Telegram groups, workers tended to centralize the struggles from the first moment, organizing themselves in general village and city assemblies and then in assemblies between centers and localities, permanently connected. To this day, the workers have defeated both the companies’ attempts to divide the workforces and the threats of repression.
…”
Source: Communia
The Internationalists (ICT), Damoon Saadati, 24 July 2021
Iranian Oil and Petrochemical Workers’ Strikes Go On
“…. This new wave of strikes is taking place mainly in the same sectors that witnessed some of the largest and widespread strikes in the past year. This time, both the scale and the manner in which it has been coordinated reflect the valuable experiences that workers have gained in recent years during the numerous protests and strikes that have taken place in almost every corner of the country. The formation of regular mass assemblies not only shows the strength of the strikes, it also indicates how excellently both clandestine and open work has been executed. The other strong aspect of these strikes is in attracting the support of other workers as well as the wider public, which has shown the maturity of the worker’s movement in Iran in this period, something we will come back to later in this article.
But despite all these admirable efforts, the failure of permanent staff to join the strike as was planned for 30 June, shows that the unity and integrity of the workers faces not only subjective obstacles but also objective ones too.
…”
Source: left-com.org
Damoon Saadati, 10-8-2021
Iranian Oil Workers Strike Update
“52 days have gone by since the start of the strike, which began when thousands of Iranian oil workers downed tools on 19 June and walked off oilfields across Iran. The Council for Organising Protests by Oil Contract Workers has issued 11 statements so far. In our previous article we published parts of their first 6 statements (see leftcom.org) as well as giving a short explanation of their full context. Here we have made complete translations of statements no. 7 and 11 and will follow this up shortly with new articles on recent developments in both the general workers’ movement (Haft Tappeh sugar workers have now been on strike again for almost a month) and the general political situation in Iran following the protests in Khuzestan and other provinces last month.”
Kollektiv aus Bremen, 28-7-2021
Das Schweigen brechen: Aufruf zur Solidarität mit den erneuten Massenprotesten in Khuzestan/Iran
“Largely ignored by the mainstream media but also by the left-wing public, large-scale demonstrations have been taking place in several cities in southwest Iran for more than 14 days. The trigger for the mass protests was an acute (drinking) water shortage as a result of the catastrophic dam-building policy of the Iranian government and rolling blackouts in the region. As always, the government’s response to popular protests is extremely brutal. In the meantime, the military has been rampaging across the region, and more than nine demonstrators have been killed by the security forces while many others have been arrested. ” (From the translation published by AWW)
News
from several sources, in chronological order
(recently news from past dates may have been added)
Updated: 3-8-2021
Worker-Communist Party of Iran, 1-8-2021
General Assembly of Oil Workers in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari
Oil News, Special on National Strikes: No. 31
Reports indicate that oil workers and other forms of protest are continuing to strike in the workplace. At the same time, once again, the official oil workers in different parts of the continent went on strike and pursued their demands. The workers in different oil centers insist that the strike continue until the demands are met.
A significant and important event was the formation of the Grand General Assembly of Oil Project Workers in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province today, the 10th of Mordad. The Council for Organizing Protests of Contract Oil Workers reports on this forum as follows: . The workers thus expressed their strong opposition to the Piping Management Group leaders’ call for an end to the strike, even though their demands had not been met.
In this general assembly, the participants, who were project workers of various centers, spoke about work problems and demands for their rights, and emphasized their demands. The holding of a general assembly by project workers in Hafshjan is a major step forward in the strike of contract oil workers and a model for these workers nationwide. The General Assembly of Workers is a place for collective decision-making, the election of real workers’ representatives, the consensus on demands and demands, and the unification around them. “The General Assembly of Contract Oil Workers living in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province shows the practicality of creating it everywhere.”
Another event in the strike of oil workers is the strike of the drivers of Sarvestan Oil Company and the workers of the repair department of Isfahan Refinery in protest of the low level of their salaries and dismissals. An emphasis of the striking contract workers in oil is that the wages of any worker should not be less than 12 million tomans, and at the same time wages and salaries should be increased according to different specialized categories, and now that under the pressure of the workers’ strike And they have accepted twenty days of work and ten days of leave, the striking workers nowhere else should be satisfied with less than this.
On the other hand, on Friday, August 29, a group of official operational staff of the Offshore Oil Company working in the Forouzan operating platform, personnel of the Bahregan offshore area, offshore personnel of the Offshore platform and Abuzar platform gathered to protest the restrictions and general increases in 1400. And called for the lifting of the salary cap for oil operations staff. This is a matter of protest for all the official employees working in the oil centers, and because of that, they have repeatedly staged a nationwide protest rally. At today’s rallies, oil officials issued another ultimatum that they would go on a nationwide strike if their demands were not met by the end of August. It is worth mentioning that under the pressure of these protests, on July 26, the Parliamentary Energy Commission approved in its session that the July salaries of official employees be amended according to their demands, but only the limit of 2 million and 500 thousand Tomans was removed and the salary ceiling and other items were restricted. A deduction in the salary of 1400 had remained in place. In addition, the imposition of heavy taxes and the insecurity of the workplace, which is being sacrificed every day, are other issues of protest by official oil workers. Informal oil workers have already expressed support for their official colleagues and their demands.
The demands and struggles of the oil workers must be widely supported and the voice of these protests must be globalized.
Worker-Communist Party of Iran
Source: cpiran, translated by Google
Updated: 27-7-2021 (after a two-week holiday break)
Note that many reports about the popular uprising in Khuzestan since July 15th, are silent about the oil workers’ strike
Statement of the Council for Organizing the Protests of the Conract Workers of the Oil Industry
The demands of the people of Khuzestan are our demands!
Khuzestan has not been calm for a week. People are thirsty. People are hungry and have no security. Many people have lost their water, agriculture and livestock as a result of this water crisis. The struggles of these people are right, and the Council for Organizing the Protests of the Oil Contract Workers declares its support for the struggles of these people.
Many people have been arrested during the protests in Khuzestan. And again, we see that the demands for the rights of the people have been answered with bullets, and today the governor of this province threatened that they will deal decisively with any disturbance and insecurity. The Council for Organizing the Protests of the Oil Contract Workers condemns these repressions and calls for a swift response to the legitimate demands of these people. The immediate release of detainees in Khuzestan and an end to this environmental catastrophe in Khuzestan and everywhere are demands that have been added to our other demands today.
Here we emphasize that the demands of the people of Khuzestan are the demands of our oil workers who spend a large part of the year in Khuzestan and its neighboring provinces in southern Iran and work under the scorching summer sun. The profiteering policies of capitalism and the greed of those affiliated with government institutions have destroyed and destroyed the environment everywhere, and in the face of this catastrophe, the people have been left helpless, and the result of all this is the miserable situation in which today Khuzestan is in front of our eyes. In addition, all the people of Fagan are free from poverty, hunger, injustice and embezzlement. To the extent that even drinking water has been taken from them. This situation must change fundamentally. We also share in this pain. The deprived and suffering people of Khuzestan today are the voice of protest of all of us workers and people all over the country and we support them.
We support Khuzestan!
The Council for Organizing the Protests of the Contract Workers of the Oil Industry
Source: cpiran, translated by Google
Council for organizing protests by contracted oil workers
Voting to end the strike without meeting the demands is a strike-breaking practice!
More than a month has passed since our vigorous strike by contract oil workers, in which tens of thousands of our project partners have come to the fore in three provinces and three project centers. In addition to this nationwide strike, our striking colleagues have gathered in the cities where they live and have emphasized the need to continue the strike until their demands are met. And now, just when we are all ready to bear fruit in our united strike and to advance our demands from a position of strength in negotiations with the predatory contractors and to stand up to their coercion, the leaders of the piping management groups are practically losing to the protesting workers. They see that all of a sudden they have voted in their groups to end the strike. Without us strike workers meeting our demands or even setting preconditions for achieving our demands. In this way, they want to save themselves from the “predicament of the strike” and announce its end.
Partners! We have protested for our rights. We are safe from the predatory contractors and we are no longer willing to continue this barbarism and slavery. Our wages do not support our lives at all, and as prices rise, our living conditions become more deplorable every day. Hard work and long hours every day under the heat of scorching summers and among all kinds of environmental pollution have ruined our lives. We are no longer willing to live in such conditions and in poverty and insecurity and witness the deprivation of our children of having a decent human life. We are no longer willing to live in those camps full of humiliation which is a clear insult to the human dignity of our workers. We are no longer willing to sacrifice every day for lack of basic safety equipment. We are no longer willing to live like this in poverty, discrimination and insecurity in slavery and captivity. This is all the subject of our protest by the strike workers of a project in oil. Meanwhile, the leaders of the piping group, according to themselves, are putting our lives and livelihoods of the workers up for auction with the aim of committing and adhering to the system. Therefore, the essence of the plan to pursue the demands within the framework of the laws of the Islamic Republic and their representative, which we warned about earlier, has not yet dried up. They want to get rid of all this and have come to the square with a plan to end the strike. Thus, if they promised and delivered to us during last year’s strike. This year, they do not even claim the same and just want the strike to end. We should not allow it. Therefore, the essence of the plan to pursue the demands within the framework of the laws of the Islamic Republic and their representative, which we warned about earlier, has not yet dried up. They want to get rid of all this and have come to the square with a plan to end the strike. Thus, if they promised and delivered to us during last year’s strike. This year, they do not even claim the same and just want the strike to end. We should not allow it. Therefore, the essence of the plan to pursue the demands within the framework of the laws of the Islamic Republic and their representative, which we warned about earlier, has not yet dried up. They want to get rid of all this and have come to the square with a plan to end the strike. Thus, if they promised and delivered to us during last year’s strike. This year, they do not even claim the same and just want the strike to end. We should not allow it.
Friends! It is clear that every strike has a beginning and an end. But the end of the strike must be determined by us workers. Of course, in a place like the oil industry, where we are dealing with many companies in different oil centers, it is not easy to talk about a specific and global date for the end of the strike. Therefore, as we have already mentioned, the most important thing that gives our strike a global meaning and concept is the united and global demands, and our success is in imposing the same demands on the contractors. So in any number of companies we can impose our demands, our colleagues in other companies will undoubtedly be in a better position to impose their demands. In previous statements at this stage of the strike, the Council for Organizing Workers’ Protests has emphasized the following five immediate demands:
-1- Doubling wages at all wage levels so that the minimum wage of any worker is not less than 2 million tomans. So, as some of our colleagues came back with the proposal to double their wages, all the striking workers must demand double the wages.
In addition, in many places our colleagues demand a portion of their previous months’ wages, and their arrears must be paid immediately.
-2- The request of twenty working days and ten days of leave must be implemented from the first day.
-3- The situation of the camps should be seriously improved, proper canteens should be created for the workers and work environments should be safe. Therefore, contractors must clearly state what they are doing in this regard
-4- Agreements must be in writing and formal, and the agreements of any negotiation will be formalized when the workers of the part on whose behalf an agreement is made express their consent.
An important condition for pursuing these demands is the maximum involvement of our own workers. For example, as our colleagues are gathering in different places and emphasizing the continuation of the strike, these gatherings can be held regularly and in which they can decide and appoint representatives from among themselves to negotiate their demands and demands. At the same time, the social media tools and groups that we have in different oil sectors are a good place to advance these discourses, and there we can appoint people who are truly the spokespersons of our demands as our representatives, and whenever we deem appropriate, we are ready to negotiate. To be for our desires. Thus, it is necessary for people to step forward and volunteer, or to nominate those we know and want our real representative to be workers.
Partners! This is the path we must finally take, and today it is necessary and vital to take the first steps in this direction as soon as possible. Decide on a council and stay united.
Council for organizing protests by contracted oil workers, 23-7-2021
Source: cpiran, translated by Google
wpiran, 21-7-2021
Massive strike by contract oil workers goes on for a month
Oil News, Special on National Strikes: No. 29
On July 20, the contract workers of the 9th and 10th phases of Assaluyeh repairs stopped working and gathered due to a strike and protest against the incomplete implementation of the job classification plan and the very low quality of food. Following this protest movement, today, July 20, 5 of these workers were fired by the company’s contractor. Earlier, the repair workers of these two phases had protested against the use of expired food and the very low level of kitchen hygiene. One issue protested by tens of thousands of striking oil workers is the very poor health of the camps and the poor quality of food and its unsanitary standards.
While the nationwide strike by contract workers at the beginning of the second month continues on a larger scale, contractors are using all sorts of conspiracies, including layoffs, promises and promises, to pressure the striking workers while creating a rift in their ranks to strike. Push back. During this period, a number of day laborers have been fired due to strikes, and as we have previously reported, 2,000 workers have been fired in Assaluyeh alone. On the other hand, the contractors have called some workers to work with promises such as double wages, twenty working days and ten days off, and even in places equivalent to 160 hours of twenty-day work and ten days off. But with the trick that their contract is one month. We must be vigilant against this conspiracy. Now the striking workers say that just as the contractors in some places have promised to double the wages, twenty days of work and ten days of leave for some of them, this level of wages is a good basis for all the striking workers and they are not satisfied with less. At the same time, one of the issues protested today by the striking oil workers is the end of the dismissals, demanding that all the fired workers return to work and at the same time pay the workers’ arrears.
Another news is the continuation of the rallies that the workers have held in different cities with emphasis on the strike. Today, July 20, the workers of the oil contract project gathered in Kermanshah. Previously, such gatherings were held in Gehro in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, in Lordegan, Pian village in Izeh, Abadan, Khorramshahr, Isfahan, Sepidaneh, Choghakhor, Farsan, Fooladshahr, Alikuh, Haj Ali descendants in Tand Gandamkar, Izeh, in Mehran oil project in Jahanpars and Hafshjan were established. These gatherings can be expanded and turned into a place for collective decision-making.
As we have previously reported, the protests in oil cover all parts of it, and these protests, along with the popular uprising in the cities of Khuzestan, have become a point of hope for all people at the community level. So far, these protests have been accompanied by a lot of solidarity. This week, for example, a number of industrial workers gathered in Isfahan’s Fooladshahr to support a nationwide strike by oil and petrochemical workers. The demands of the oil workers must be widely supported.
Worker-Communist Party of Iran, 21-7-2021
Source: wpiran, translated by Google
Support and solidarity with the popular uprising in Khuzestan
Announcement No. 12 Khuzestan Committee
Despite the heavy security atmosphere in different cities of Khuzestan and despite the internet cut in Ahvaz, Susangard, Shousha, Shadegan, Hamidiyeh, Izeh, Mahshahr, Dezful, Andimeshk, Abadan, Khorramshahr and some other parts of Khuzestan province, we received news of the continuation of popular protests in some Points from Khuzestan report.
According to the report we received, a number of young people gathered in neighborhoods such as Shilangabad and Kemplo in Ahvaz. Also in the Revolution neighborhood of Ahvaz, people clashed with repressive forces. According to the same news, Alavi alley in Ahvaz is completely surrounded by security agents and all entrances and exits to this area are controlled, cars are inspected and people’s mobile phones are inspected.
According to another news item, the Ahwaz Intelligence Office pressured the family of Farzad Frisat, one of the victims of last night in Ahwaz, and refused to deliver the body to them, asking his father to appear on television and say that the demonstrators had killed his son. They were shot. They also asked Farzad to hand over his cell phone and say which of his friends had been with him at the last minute. Earlier, IRGC agents who were directly involved in the massacre killed the father of “Qassem Naseri” (Khediri), one of the other victims of the protests in Ahvaz, in a TV interview in exchange for the delivery of his son’s body. Counter-revolutionary agents responsible for the shooting And the death of his child.
In Shousha, despite the security situation, small rallies were held in all parts of the city, and people were waiting for the opportunity to hold rallies.
In Haft Tappeh market, Haft Tappeh sugarcane workers marched in continuation of their big strike. Haft Tappeh sugarcane workers in their rallies expressed their support for the popular protests in Khuzestan and in their march in solidarity with the people, chanted the slogan of poor Khuzestan not having a drop of water.
In Shadegan, popular protests reportedly continued despite the deployment of repressive forces from point to point in the city and the establishment of checkpoints. And a number of young people gathered in different neighborhoods. In Susa, rallies were also held in parts of the city.
In Masjed Soleyman, the protesting people were planning to gather, but the government repression forces were stationed in the Martyrs’ Sports Complex with cars and sprinklers, and prevented public rallies.
On the other hand, according to the reports received, a number of young people were arrested last night. It is also reported from Sarbandar that a large number of detainees in this city are minors and teenagers. And this is a matter of great concern to the families of the detainees. The number of detainees of the popular protests in Khuzestan is high, and government officials, who see themselves under the pressure of the popular protests and its further expansion to other areas, announce the release and amnesty of some of them. Stand by the families of the detainees and gather in front of government detention centers to demand their immediate release. All detainees must be released immediately and unconditionally.
According to reports, twelve protesting youths have been shot dead by government repressors in various cities of Shadegan, Kut Abdullah, Shush, Mahesh, Ahvaz, Aligudarz, Chamran and Izeh towns, and these repressions have created an atmosphere of anger and protest in the cities. Khuzestan has intensified and the people of Khuzestan will demand justice.
The Khuzestan branch, while expressing its sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims, emphasizes the support of the families of these loved ones. The Islamic Republic is afraid of the continuation and spread of popular protests in Khuzestan, and that is why the families of the victims have put such pressure on them. By supporting these families widely and condemning these pressures, we will stand by the families and not allow the repressors of the government to continue their pressures. Turn the commemoration of the victims into our protest scene and install photos of them everywhere and honor their memory.
The issue of water in Khuzestan is a matter of existence and life of these people. Now, apart from water, power outages are also reported. Popular protests in Khuzestan began on July 15 in protest of the outage and covered all cities in the province. The popular protests in Khuzestan go beyond the water and electricity cuts, and the people have lost their lives for more than 40 years of the criminal regime of the Islamic Republic, and in their demonstrations, they shouted this with the slogan of overthrowing the Islamic Republic. Therefore, the scope of these protests was extended to neighboring provinces, including Lordegan and Aligudarz, and in cities such as Tabriz, Sanandaj, Shahinshahr, Fooladshahr, Izadshahr and 5 people with the slogan of overthrowing the government declared their solidarity with the people of Khuzestan. . Today, a number of people took to the streets on Jomhuri Street in Tehran and chanted Khamenei, “Shame on you, leave the government.” These events, along with the nationwide strike of tens of thousands of oil workers and hotbeds of protests such as the Haft Tappeh sugarcane and the vibrant protests that have erupted among various sections of society, have accelerated society to end the hell of the Islamic Republic. Displays. The Islamic Republic must be destroyed.
Organizing Committee of the Worker-Communist Party, Khuzestan Branch, 26 July 2021
Source: wpiran, translated by Google
wpiran, 8-7-2021
Third Pillar Workers Rally in Assaluyeh – List of Solidarity with Strike Oil Workers
Oil News, Special Global Strikes: Issue 20
At 7 o’clock in the morning on Wednesday, July 7, sections of workers and employees of third parties and contractors working in the operation, maintenance and maintenance departments in various centers of South Pars in Assaluyeh Cactus Square staged a one-hour rally demanding the removal of contractors. While cutting the hands of contractors and increasing salaries and ending the security situation in oil and the like are the immediate demands of all workers in the oil industry, in these protests, people tried to raise pictures of Qassem Soleimani and Khamenei on their banners. To give the color of government to the rightful protests of the workers.
For some time now, whispers of protest have been circulating among third-party workers. The workers ‘protest against the slave contracts is labor, and at this day’s rally, the workers raised their voices in protest against the looting and tyranny of the contractors, with the words “Removal of the contractors’ handwriting” written on it. Third-party workers have stated that they will go on strike if they do not respond. There are also whispers of going on strike among temporary contract workers. A general demand of the oil workers and an important clause of the declared demands of the contract workers who are on strike is the shortening of the contractors’ hands.
Tens of thousands of contract workers are currently on strike, with contractors urging workers to negotiate wages. The workers have stated that any agreement must be formal, public and in writing to be the universal basis for all parties to the negotiations. The workers have announced that the wages of any worker should not be less than 12 million and the wages of different specialized categories, which are mainly above 15 million Tomans, should be increased according to the workers’ agreement. In addition, they emphasize the timely payment of their wages each month. The other immediate demand of the workers is the return of the fired workers and the cessation of the dismissals and twenty days of work, ten days of leave.
On the other hand, there is support for a strong strike by contract workers in oil. The latest example is the 5 Confederations of Trade Unions in France, named after the French Confederation of Democratic Workers (CFDT), the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), the Federation of Trade Unions (FSU), the Solidaires Union and the National Union of Autonomous or Independent Trade Unions (UNSA). France has declared its support for the workers’ struggle in Iran. The Worker-Communist Party declares its full support for the striking oil workers and their demands, and strives to be the voice of the oil workers around the world.
Worker-Communist Party of Iran
16 July 1400, 7 July ٢٠٢١
Source wpiran, translated by Google Translate
CPi, 6-7-2021
“Transition Management Council”
The transition of workers to capitalism with non-Islamic management
The strike of contract workers in the oil, gas and petrochemical industries, which began on June 20, continues, and so far more than eighty refineries, petrochemical companies, power plants and production centers have joined the nationwide strike. The most central demands of the contract workers of the oil and petrochemical industries are the increase of wages to 12 million Tomans per month, the benefit of 10 days of leave for twenty days of work and the dismantling of contractors and the reduction of contractors from the oil industry. In addition to these demands, the timely payment of wages, the abolition of anti-labor laws in free zones, compliance with health standards, the environment and safety of the workplace, raising the health standards of dormitories and health services, Recognition of workers’ right to organize and hold rallies and protests is their demand from others.
While the general workers’ strike and the wave of declarations of support and solidarity of other sections of the wage-workers’ movement against the striking workers and their demands continue, sections of the bourgeois opposition that have recognized the direction of the wind are also defending the workers’ strike and demands. زنند. They are intended to remind workers that social justice is also being addressed in their programs. The fact is that the developments of the past few years and the rise of the urban poor in January 1996 and November 1998, as the achievements, lessons and experiences for the labor movement and the liberation movement, the bourgeois opposition forces have learned lessons from these developments. It is true that the uprising of January 1996 ended more than two decades of domination of the reformist discourse of the government over the Iranian political space, and the subsequent uprising of November 1998 dealt a blow to the strategy of peaceful transition from the Islamic Republic. But these uprisings also made the weakness of the labor and socialist movements more apparent. During these nationwide uprisings, the working class was not in a position to ground the repressive machine of the Islamic Republic with its nationwide strikes and to ensure the continuation and advancement of these uprisings due to its organizational weakness and political leadership.
The pro-Western Iranian bourgeois opposition, including the forces in the Transitional Management Council, saw these weaknesses as an opportunity to rise again to become a government alternative. This section of the Iranian bourgeois opposition turned the strengths and potential potential of the continuation of this kind of revolutionary uprising to overthrow the ruling political and class system into a new impetus to form a government alternative to save Iranian capitalism. At the same time, this section of the opposition invested in the weaknesses of the Iranian labor and socialist movement to advance their projects. The main pillar of the strategy of the “Transitional Management Council” and other forces of the Iranian bourgeois opposition is to save the Iranian capitalist system from the danger of revolutionary uprisings and social revolution in Iran. It is not unreasonable that the Transitional Management Council, in a recent statement in support of the oil, gas and petrochemical workers’ movement, emphasizes: “The miserable situation of workers and wage earners in Iranian society is the direct result of 42 years of inefficiency and managerial corruption.” It is an Islamic government. “The rent-seeking economy and the corporations and the insatiable theft of the agents of this government have destroyed the macro-economy of society.” These emphases clearly show that the “Transitional Management Council” has no problem with the capitalist system and the model of economic neoliberalism that has plunged the Iranian working class into poverty and economic misery, but with the inefficiency of capitalism under Islamic rule and the weakness and inefficiency Privatization management has a problem with characterization.
Although the Transitional Governing Council has defined its common goal as “achieving freedom, democracy, social justice, welfare and security through the strengthening of civil struggles and non-violent violence”, by silencing its economic plans, it seeks to reach out to Democrat propaganda openly supports strikes and labor protests. The “Transitional Management Council” economic program is in fact a continuation of the same neoliberal economic programs and privatizations with better management. With this economic program, the Transitional Management Council demonstrates the instability of its welfare programs and its claim to social justice. Over the past three decades, while the rule of capitalism and the devastating consequences of the neoliberal policies that have been established since Rafsanjani and have continued until now, the lives of workers and the lower classes have become increasingly apparent and the lives of millions of working families and working people The current members of the Transitional Management Council have been advocates of these economic policies. During these years, the elements and forces that have gathered in the “Transitional Management Council” today have been propagandizing that this is not the nature of the capitalist system, this is not neoliberal programs and privatizations, but the inefficiency and mismanagement of these programs in the republican system. It is Islam that has brought the work here. The plan and strategy of the “Transitional Management Council” is the peaceful transition from the regime of the Islamic Republic with the help and assistance of a part of the body of this criminal regime in order to preserve the oppressive capitalist relations against the “danger” of the revolution.
Source: cpiran.org, translated by Google Translate
cpIran, 3-7-2021
Statement No. 4 of the Council for Organizing the Protests of Oil Contract Workers
Saturday 3 July 2021
The formation of the Islamic Council is not our wish!
The salary of any worker should not be less than 12 million
People from the 10-20 campaign met with a number of officials in the government of Ibrahim Ra’isi, including Saeed Jalili, and apparently discussed our issues and problems as workers who have raised their voices in protest of the deplorable living conditions we have.
According to one of the participants in this meeting, another meeting on this issue is scheduled to be held at the beginning of the work of Ibrahim Ra’isi’s government with the presence of his cabinet ministers, and it is possible that the Assaluyeh Labor Office will leave South Pars under major changes. And act as an Islamic work council. Then the refineries must follow the rules of this “labor” organization. With the justification that the so-called Islamic Council that is formed can support the workers against the employer and the contractor. So far, it has become clear what happened behind the scenes in this meeting.
We declare from now on that the formation of the Islamic Council and the assembling of any kind of organization under the name of “independent” workers’ organization in the cabinet is an action against us workers and our answer is not the workers. The record of Islamic councils and similar handicraft organizations is clear to the workers. These have always been and will continue to be our tools of controlling workers and serving employers. The 40,000 security forces stationed in the oil industry are not enough, to which you also want to add the Islamic Council.
We, the oil workers, like our colleagues in the Haft Tappeh and Ahvaz Steel Sugarcane and other labor centers, firmly declare that we will not accept the establishment of the Islamic Council in Oil. The protest organizing council is our real and independent organization, the workers, and any worker who is in charge of the organization and the trade union must strengthen this organization and organizations of this kind. Not the tail of the Islamic Council.
The protest organizing council is the voice of our oil workers and a symbol of the unity and solidarity of the workers. The Council for Organizing Protests of Oil Contract Workers has so far been well received by workers. The demands of the council have been made public and the workers want a response. Our council explicitly states its demands and demands and demands an answer. Here we declare these demands once again. Workers are calling for the strike to continue until wages rise immediately.
Council for organizing the protests of the contracted oil workers
Source: cpiran, translated by Google Translate
Communist Workers-Party of Iran, 3-7-2021
Contractors struggle to divide striking workers – List of solidarity with striking oil workers
Oil News, Special on National Strikes: No. 19
According to the news received today, July 3, between 9 and 12 noon, the contractors of 6 Mapna, Tanavob, Payndan, Axil Sanat, Jahanpars and S-Tim companies contacted some of the striking workers and told them that they agreed with a large part of their demands. And they can go back to work. These contacts have been made with a certain number of workers and not all of the striking workers, and the aim is to divide the workers. With this divisive policy and trying to convince some of the striking workers to end the strike, the contractors are trying to get some of the workers back to work in any way possible so that the united workers’ strike can be defeated. It is necessary to stand united against these efforts and struggles and emphasize the implementation of the demands of all workers.
The Assaluyeh project contract workers’ strike has affected various parts of the chain work, and during the strike, 2,000 workers in Assaluyeh were reportedly sent home without pay by contractors and promised that if completed, The strike and the normalization of the situation will return to work. In addition, nearly 400 industrial workers have been laid off due to the strike. One of the demands of the striking workers is now to return to work their fired colleagues, and the statements of the “Organizing Council of Protests” of these workers have emphasized this demand.
In other news, food and water were prepared and distributed by the people’s forces for the oil striking workers in 5 Assaluyeh camps who did not leave the dormitories on July 29 and today, July 12. Thus, the oil strike continues vigorously, and the workers stand up to the conspiracies and ventures of the contractors, and the popular solidarity grows larger every day.
It is worth mentioning that today, July 3, the workers of the transportation unit of the South Zagros Oil and Gas Exploitation Company in Shiraz also went on strike and gathered in front of the headquarters building of the South Zagros Oil and Gas Company.
On the other hand, as a result of the widespread oil strike, many fuel stations have been closed. According to the news, the officials have issued an ultimatum to protest against the fact that their wages remain the same and the daily increase in the price of consumable parts, periodic services and standardization costs, which will lead to a protest rally.
The oil strike has been going on for two weeks and its dimensions are expanding. As the scope of the oil strike expands, so does the support. He widely supported the demands and struggles of the striking oil workers
Worker-Communist Party of Iran
12 July 1400, 3 July ٢٠٢١
List of solidarity with striking oil workers:
Announcing the solidarity of oil tanker drivers in Tehran
- Solidarity of transport workers with oil workers and declaration of readiness to join the strike if the demands of the workers are not met
- Solidarity of Dehloran truck drivers and oil tanker drivers in Isfahan and Yazd truck drivers
- Statements of support for Ahwaz steel workers and Haft Tappeh sugarcane
- Independent or collective statements of support for various labor organizations, including the Free Trade Union of Iran, Kermanshah Electricity and Metal Association, Vahed Company Syndicate, Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Syndicate, Retirees Union, Coordinating Committee for Trade Unions and Follow-up Committee for Trade Unions, Syndicate of Metalworking Mechanics, Syndicate of Alborz Painters, Construction Workers and Masters of Marivan and Sarvabad and و
- Independent or collective statements and organizations and groups of teachers, retirees, women’s rights activists, child rights activists and students, including the Iranian Retirement Council, Farhangian Islamshahr Guild Center, Tehran Teachers Guild Center, Teachers Guilds Aligudarz, Gilan, Saqez and Zivieh), Marivan, the Voice of Iranian Women, and the leading students of Isfahan, the union, have expressed solidarity with the protests of the oil workers.
- Solidarity of mothers and families of Dadkhah, including Gohar Eshghi, mother of Sattar Beheshti, who was killed by Islamic criminals, and mothers of Abanmeh, including mother of Navid Behboodi, Mehrzad Rezaei and mother of Reza Moazami Goodarzi
There were also protest petitions by workers’ activists in Sanandaj and in West Azerbaijan
- Statements and messages of support for labor activists such as Ismail Bakhshi, Jafar Azimzadeh, Javanmir Moradi and Fawzia Khalesi
Groups and groups of people from among the collaborators, unemployed workers, child rights activists, women rights activists and students.
Australian Trade Union Council (ACTU)
- General Union of Iraqi Oil and Gas Workers,
- Letter from the Secretary of the Union of Uniform Canada to Hassan Rouhani
- UK Network of Workplace Representatives (NSSN)
- International Federation of Industrial Petrochemicals
- International Network of Solidarity and Struggle consisting of dozens of unions and organizations and subdivisions from different countries of the United States. Europe, Africa and Iraq. Turkey and ..
- Writing slogans in different cities in support of oil workers and installing posters in the streets of Ardabil in
Source: wpiran, translated by Google Translate
Komalah, 3-7-2021
Truckers join oil company workers’ strike
While the strike of contract workers of Iran’s oil industry continues in various cities, a number of truck drivers and drivers of oil tankers also joined the strike.
The Union of Truck Owners and Drivers Across Iran said in a statement on Thursday that truck drivers would join the strike if the demands of oil workers were not met and “their legitimate demands were not met.” Oil industry contract workers have been on a nationwide strike since July 1. However, Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh called the workers’ demands “illegal” and the parliament promised that only the salaries of the ministry’s “official staff” would be increased. It should be noted that on Saturday, July 3, fuel officials also gathered in front of the Ministry of Oil to protest against the reduction of their salaries.
Source: komalah, translated with Google Translate.
komalah, 3-7-2021
Young job seekers protest in front of Khuzestan Steel Industries Company
A group of young job seekers gathered in the village of Qaleh Chenan on Saturday, July 3, in front of the door of the Khuzestan Steel Industries Company and demanded employment.
The protest of the youth of Qaleh Chenan village against unfavorable working conditions and the spread of unemployment is taking place while they hoped that with the expansion of oil and gas and petrochemical industries in Khuzestan province, at least in terms of providing jobs, the local residents will be given priority. These gatherings in other cities of Khuzestan are also unprecedented. Earlier, young job seekers in the village of Shahroui in Behbahan, gathered in front of the willow refinery in the city and demanded employment.
Source: komalah, translated with Google Translate
3-7-2021
Statement by the Committee for the Defense of Striking Workers
Teachers, retirees, students, women seeking equality, youth and the freedom-loving people of Iran!
We, like the vast majority of you, can no longer bear this difficult and humiliating life. Like you, we are fed up with inequality, discrimination and repression. We are human beings first and foremost, and we consider this miserable and humiliating situation imposed on us by the capitalists and their government to be a clear violation of our human dignity. We, like you, know that this situation will not change unless we help each other and work together to change it.
With each passing day, the economic, political and cultural situation of the society is deteriorating. The standard of living of the majority of people, especially the working class, is constantly falling. The more work and effort and overtime and more individual running, the better Tangible does not result in our lives. As we all see, especially in recent years, social anomalies such as addiction, prostitution, theft, suicide, and the breakdown of families and social ties have increased dramatically. The scale of unemployment is appalling. The vast majority of young people and even university graduates do not see any hope of finding work and the horizon of a humane and prosperous life. Systematic discrimination against women, both in employment and at the community level, has become an integral part of governance. Sadness does not allow teachers to educate our children with peace of mind, and their every effort to improve their lives and the level of education is met with repression, arrest and imprisonment, and expulsion and imprisonment. Retirees, after a lifetime of work and effort, do not receive the minimum wage they receive, and see no right but a mass protest against them. Coronary heart disease every day It takes hundreds of people, and the irresponsibility, incompetence and incompetence of the government in controlling this disease and protecting the lives of the people has been revealed to everyone. Our lives are the cheapest and most insignificant commodity for the ruling class. These are the corners of life that the oppressive ruling class, immersed in corruption, theft, and embezzlement, has figured out for us, and expects us to accept as inevitable.
It is in this situation that the workers of the contract companies operating in Assaluyeh have gone on strike to increase wage levels, increase holidays to ten days a month, and improve the deplorable conditions of the camps and workers’ accommodation. In these unsanitary camps and without basic facilities, 9 workers in each room are forced to sleep together. In many rooms, the area is less than one meter per person. A few days after the strike of contract workers in Assaluyeh; Workers of other contract companies in similar conditions also joined the strike, which has become widespread. On the other hand, the employers and the government not only did not respond positively to the demands of the workers, but in the 60-degree heat of Assaluyeh, by emptying the water tanks of the camps and eliminating the rations of the workers, they tried to keep the workers in the camps. Make it impossible. Employers have shamelessly told workers that: Either go back to work with the previous conditions or calculate and leave. Such a level of freedom of action for employers and contract companies backed by the government and laws and directives can be seen in few places in the world. کرد. Organized employers, with government support, intend to continue to impose slavery conditions on striking workers and millions of other workers on temporary or unpaid work in any way possible. Here, profit and capital come first and last, and what does not matter to the capitalist class and their government is the lives and livelihoods of millions of working-class families.
The protest and strike of the workers of the contract companies is part of the struggle of all of us to get rid of this unbearable situation of misery. This strike has so far been properly supported by many sections of the people. But this support needs to be expanded and put into practice. We urge all of you to support the striking workers in any way you can, from setting up strike support committees to holding rallies or any other practical action. Do not leave the striking workers alone.
Workers ! Partners!
Only with our organized force can we stand against the barbarism of capital. Establishment of an independent workers’ organization in workshops, factories, huge oil and gas fields, and so on. And at the global level it is more necessary than ever. We, the Committee for the Defense of Striking Workers, while supporting the legitimate demands of the workers of contract companies operating in Assaluyeh and other parts of Iran, ask you, colleagues, to organize yourself at any level you can at this critical time. Our power lies in our organization. We need to act collectively and organized to help our striking colleagues. The victory of this glorious and all-encompassing strike is the victory of us all. We especially call on the workers of the oil company, refineries and petrochemicals to join the strike. Let’s step forward, come to the stage and decide our own destiny with the force of tens of millions.
Committee for the Defense of Striking Workers
12 July 1400
Contact address of the Defense Committee:
cdk.etesab@gmil.com
Source: komalah, translated with Google Translate
Worker-Communist Party of Iran, 1-7-2021
Government Withdrawal, Reform of 1400 Official Oil Workers
‘Wage Increases – Oil Workers’ Strike Extend
Following the recent protests by official oil workers over the wage increases of 1400 and the real decline in their salaries and the ultimatum they gave for mass rallies, and given the scale of the oil strikes, which number in the tens of thousands of workers, the government withdrew. As we have previously reported, according to a parliamentary resolution, the ceiling for increasing the basic wage of official workers was set at two and a half million. In addition, some of their wage items are grouped in row 48, which does not include wage increases. The workers are protesting against this resolution and want to repeal it. According to news and meetings held by the government, including the Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly and the President and the Energy Commission of the Assembly and security agencies, a two-emergency plan was made to increase the salaries of official oil workers, which is effective from the beginning of July . According to this amendment, the limit of two and a half million for the increase of salaries and the accumulation of some wage items and their reduction was abolished. As a result, the salary increase ceiling will be the same as in 1997 with the definition of the employment order, and this increase ceiling will not include discontinuous items. There are also reports that the salary cap will be changed from twenty times to fifteen times, and the salary cap will be twenty-one times the same as last year.
The repeal of the parliament’s resolution on the increases in the Islamic Consultative Assembly was a major demand of the official oil workers, and it is clear that this retreat took place under the pressure of the workers’ struggles. Fearing further escalation of the oil protests, the government sought to calm down the official workers, who number more than 64,000, to prevent the strikes from becoming integrated throughout the oil industry. But the success has had a direct impact on the protests of contract workers on a project that spans ten provinces and more than 75 oil hubs, and workers are talking about why they are not being addressed and expanding their strike with more confidence. .
In the announcement, before other oil sectors joined the nationwide strike, we announced a contractual project, including the preparation of a strike among third-party workers (106,000) and temporary contract workers (36,000). On the 9th of this month, fixed-term contract workers of the Gulf Holding companies in Mahshahr port gathered in front of the entrance of a petrochemical special economic zone site to protest against the policies of the holding managers and the non-implementation of the approved laws to improve their livelihood. According to the workers, it has been almost 10 years since the transfer of petrochemical companies to the holding company, and despite approvals such as matching and job classification plan that were imposed under the pressure of the workers’ own protests, none of these approvals and promises have been made so far. It has not been done and there is no news of their implementation.
While the Minister of Oil and Rouhani handed over the oil workers ‘strike project to the contractors, under the pressure of the workers’ protests, the contractors were forced to react. In a letter addressed to the Minister of Petroleum and the relevant authorities, the Association of Employers of Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Engineering and Contracting Companies in Assaluyeh, while implicitly acknowledging the widespread losses of contractors and the entire oil industry due to the workers’ general strike, to enter and have a meeting to solve the problems of the workers’ strike.
This is the powerful voice of the oil contract workers’ strike, which has both upset the government and forced the contractors themselves to put pressure on the government to solve the problems that have arisen. It is with this power, and with the spread of strikes nationwide, that the workers of the oil contract project can force the proud contractors and the government to meet important parts of their demands.
Contractors at some oil centers are also embracing the policy of firing striking contract workers and putting pressure on striking workers by announcing the hiring of new workers. In some other oil centers, workers have been asked to negotiate locally. But workers have stated that verbal promises are not acceptable. Promises must be made public, formal and in writing through the media so that workers can make decisions. The strike is nationwide and the workers do not allow them to be promised and dispersed sporadically and to be divided in their protest line.
The strikes in oil are beyond the scope of contract workers and include other sectors of oil. For example, workers in Assaluyeh and the Isfahan refinery are currently on strike, and a large number of refineries, petrochemicals and oil-related centers are on strike.
The oil strikes have become a point of hope for all workers and society as a whole. The strikes have been met with a wave of solidarity from workers and various sections of society. Road transport drivers also said in a statement in support of the oil struggle that if these workers’ legitimate demands were not met, they would join the strike across the country.
The demands announced by the “Council for Organizing Protests of Oil Contract Workers” are: immediate increase in the level of wages and its addition in proportion to the increase in commodity prices, the wages of any oil worker should not be less than 12 million and wages should increase immediately. In addition, other workers’ wage levels must be agreed upon with the elected representatives of the workers, timely payment of wages in any case, 20 working days and 10 days of rest for workers who can have enough time to visit their families, have job security and become permanent Contracts and shortening of contractors, prohibition of dismissal of workers, repeal of special economic laws, safe working environments, raising environmental standards and equipping work centers with the required cooling and heating facilities and air conditioners to the required extent, raising the standard Sanitation in dormitories and public places such as toilets and baths.
The Worker-Communist Party, while declaring its strong support for the struggles of the oil workers and expressing its satisfaction with the solidarity of the road transport drivers from the general strike of these workers, calls on all sections of the workers to actively support the oil workers’ strikes and join them.
Forward to the nationwide strikes!
Worker-Communist Party of Iran
July 10, 1400, July 1 ٢٠٢١
Source: wpiranfa.com, translated with Google Translate.
For the program of this ‘Worker-Communist Party of Iran’, see When Political Power in in Our Hands. For a relentless denounciation of Iranian ‘worker-communism’ see Internationalist Voice, under “Left of capital’.
Alireza Khabaz, 1-7-2020
The struggles of oil and petrochemical workers: support, transfer of experiences, and practical solutions
Behrooz Khabaz’s explanation:
The author, has many years of project work experience among oil and gas workers in his work record. Therefore he understands their living and working conditions and the fuel of their struggle. Accordingly he presents his solutions, as part of the working class to optimise the current struggle.
How to be supported:
Every worker can be the only media to convey the news of workers’ struggles. Explain and express the movement of these struggles through virtual networks and face-to-face explanations for fellow workers and others.
Announcing individual, group support, forming support committees in the workplace.
Declare a strike in support of striking workers if they meet the strike conditions in the workplace.
Establish a close relationship with each of the striking workers and hear the workers’ condition and pass it on to others.
Establishment of mutual funds between colleagues and friends and family and delivery of financial aid in any way to the workers and their families. The best way to reach out to striking colleagues is to set up labor committees for both financial aid and support and communication.
Transfer the experiences of other workers’ struggles in different work environments. The publication of reports and news of workers’ struggles, especially the struggles of Haft Tappeh and steelworkers and the current struggles of oil and petrochemical workers, results from years of effort, thought, and experience.
Workers who have worked in such environments know how difficult and exhausting it is to organize this type of struggle. It requires new thinking in the field of organization. This power of thought, analysis, and application must be written and reported in the field of struggle. What is done and what is learned.
The most important thing in the current situation is stability and taking the helm of the initiative in the hands of the workers. Creating innovative solutions to prevent the dismissal and arrest of workers. Maintaining, strengthening, and enforcing the organization of the “Workers’ Organizing Council” in any situation, even after going through this stage of the struggle.
Establish covert or semi-covert organizing committees in smaller sections and workplaces and expand and consolidate them for pre- and post-strike conditions. Training striking workers in the current situation in any way possible and preparing them for the difficult days ahead.
Launching public campaigns in cities and workers’ neighborhoods in any way possible to convey the news and build confidence in the striking workers.
Taking care of the achievements of the strike, however small, has been tantamount to preserving the conquered strongholds.
Involve working families in helping and advance the strike.
Dear colleagues,
This protest and strike are specific to the conditions and characteristics of your work environment. For this reason, you know better how and in what way to proceed and what decisions to make in critical situations. Read suggestions and solutions outside your work environment. And use according to the conditions of the strike.
Your priority is to take care of your organization and to continue the struggle step by step.
Your movement, protest, and achievement are urgent needs of the Iranian labor movement to gain power, gain self-confidence, and integrate their struggles.
This strike and this movement, regardless of its results, is the most outstanding achievement and victory of the Iranian workers.
Stay steady.
Source: cpiran. Translation from Farsi by Google Translate
Also see below at 29-06-2021: Long live the oil workers strike! (Our oil worker, our stubborn leader!)
30-6-2021 [Declaration by Komala, quoting independant trade unions “National Steel Workers”, “Tehran Teachers’ Union” and “Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane workers”
Expand support for striking workers in the oil, petrochemical and power plants
June 30, 2021
Strikes by companies affiliated with the oil and petrochemical industries and power plants continue unabated. The strikes spread across the country to refineries, petrochemicals, oil depots and oil rigs in Tehran, Kangan, Mahshahr, Arak, Qeshm, Khark, Behbahan, Gachsaran, Bushehr, Abadan and Isfahan, and several other areas. Is. In total, the strike has so far affected more than 70 work units with 30,000 workers. Along with the spread of the historic strike of the contract workers, support has also spread inside and outside these militant workers.
The National Steel Workers, whose past strikes have been instrumental in gaining combat experience, have warmly supported the striking leaders of key oil, petrochemical and power plants in a statement. The statement reads in part:
We are in a special historical period in which the labor movement has been at the forefront of all social protests, and industrial workers and wage workers have emerged as “classes” for the first time in the history of Iran. The global movement formed by the workers of the oil industry, together with the training of the collective struggle, is also a beacon for the future of the rest of the workers and the wage and unemployed forces. “Pain is one and the cure is the same.”
At the end of the statement, it is emphasized that “only by joining this mass campaign and the general strike with the common demands and demands of the working class can we achieve a better life and a humane society.”
The Tehran Teachers’ Union has also announced its solidarity with the striking workers. More than 100 labor activists and leading workers in Sanandaj have supported the striking workers in a statement stating their names and signatures. They wrote in part of their statement:
“Yesterday, the hardline leaders broke down the wall of separation with other workers in the various sectors and appeared as the leading and militant section of the working class, and with their solidarity and unity called for the generalization of strikes and workers’ struggles.”
Workers in various sectors of the Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Company have issued a statement expressing their full support for the striking workers. These workers, who themselves have waged complex and tumultuous struggles in this company, have given a friendly warning to the striking workers based on their struggle experiences, which is worthy of deep attention. They wrote:
“Dear colleagues, you are very experienced and have always been a role model for Iranian workers in industries such as oil and gas. Your workers’ councils are still alive in the memories of our fathers during the revolution. With respect to this history and to you dear ones, we must know that the enemy does not sit idle. Inside us there are always tendencies whose eyes are more up and less down. Our point is that this should be the opposite.
The most important point is the elements that, under the name of “other opinion”, destroy the workers’ strike or lead it astray in order to create division and defeat it. This is our living experience in Haft Tappeh. The Islamic Labor Council, the flatterers of the employer and the anti-worker management, the security elements who defend the continuation of privatization and the oppression of the employer to the workers, the elements who speak the language of the employers and the proud owners of the industry, کرد. The policy that wants to end the strike without any success, the policy that keeps the workers away from the workplace and is afraid of the workers’ gathering and calls it “securing the strike”, these are everyone who is in favor of Zanganeh and the employers and managers And they are the tops. “These are not dear workers of the oil and gas industry.”
Organizations in solidarity with the labor movement in Iran-abroad also stressed the historical importance of the strike in a statement while supporting the striking workers. The statement reads in part:
“The emergence of oil, gas and petrochemical workers, one of the most important industries in Iran, which was on strike. The Pahlavi monarchy was sent to the dustbin of history. “The sections of the labor movement have helped and played the greatest role in the realization and formation of the working class around the workers’ alternative and in shifting the balance of power in favor of the labor movement and other social movements.”
At the global level, the attention of trade unions and the mass media has been drawn to the strike of contract oil and petrochemical workers and power plants. World news agencies have published detailed reports of this widespread labor movement in Iran.
The International Labour Network of Solidarity and Struggles, a global labor organization, has supported the Iranian workers’ strike. In its statement, the network appreciated the support of the Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Workers ‘Union, the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company Workers’ Union, and Iranian retirees ‘and teachers’ organizations for the strike of industrial, oil, and gas workers.
The statement added: “Iranian authorities do not recognize independent trade unions and labor activists have always been the target of judicial and security crackdowns. “Corruption in the privatization of industrial units, temporary contracts, lack of job security, fatal accidents at work and disproportionate wages to high prices are among the issues protested by the labor movement in Iran.” Finally, the statement called for solidarity to protest the dismissal of 700 protesting workers.
Along with this wave of local and global solidarity, the support of official workers working in state-owned oil and petrochemical companies to contract workers should be mentioned. Various groups of workers have expressed support for the striking contract workers in various ways, including through social media. They have also threatened to stage a paralyzed strike if the demands of the contract workers are not heeded. Will be in all fields of oil and petrochemical industry.
Source: fa.komala.org. Translated from Farsi by Google.
Anibal 30/6/2021, 09:16
Trade unions and trade unionists are already active:
https://correspondenciadeprensa.com/?p=19142
On the hardness of the government, renewed with a tough new president (in elections with high abstention): we will see if they loosen up and allow some capacity of movement to independent trade unionism, or continue with dismissals and repression (I read from anarcho-syndicalists of the Spanish CGT that there are more than 700 dismissals).
Michael Shraibman, 29-6-2021
… Strikes in Iran. Why are union supporters the enemies of the working class?
A powerful wave of strikes is sweeping Iran. These riots, caused by the dire situation of the economy and the bad situation of the social grassroots and the working population, come and go. But this time they affected the oil industry. And disruptions in this industry can affect the entire Iranian economy and act as a snowball effect. But there is another factor. There is no strong trade union movement in Iran because of mass repression (although small unions, sometimes illegal, do exist there). Up to a point, this reduces the opportunity for workers to go on strike. However, the factory working class is characterized by the emergence of a spontaneous strike movement in a worsening economic situation. It forms around informal leaders and the most active workers, sometimes forming a system of workers’ assemblies, which put forward a number of demands during the strikes. Sometimes such meetings elect workers’ committees/councils for operational management of the strike and other protests. Such movements are much more dangerous for the owners of factories and plants (in Iran, the state and related structures own almost all large enterprises). The fact is that workers’ movements of this type are not controlled by fattened trade union leaders and the trade union apparatuses, which are used to good official salaries. Such leaders and apparatus are not interested in radicalization. The Iranian regime, like the Chinese regime, is taking a big risk by restricting or banning trade unions. This could, at some point, lead to the rapid radicalization of the labor movement. In the United States and Western Europe, business and government use different strategies. They allow unions to form. Although the influence of unions in the U.S. and Europe is gradually declining, unions still create a protective cushion for business and the state. Unions allow capital to integrate, to colonize labor protest, bringing it into the familiar bureaucratic mainstream and leaving workers bogged down in litigation and reconciliation commissions. Perhaps this difference is due to the fact that, Capital in Iran or the PRC simply does not have the reserves to meet even soft demands and relies on low working-class wages attractive to investors. […] Something similar happened in Czarist Russia in the early 20th century. The Russian tsar, with few exceptions, banned trade unions based on the same considerations (half of Russian capitalist industry was owned by foreign investors attracted by low wage costs). That is why the Russian labor movement took the form of revolutionary councils. In any case, the supporters of trade unions are the enemies of the workers’ revolution.
John Hoyt 29/6/2021, 20:21
Is it not the moment to unleash the proletarian insurrection against the Iranian bourgeoisie? It is necessary to take up again the road of 1979 and settle the accounts pending with democracy. The proletarian insurrection is the only possibility of producing an international rupture against capitalist domination. The proletariat in Iran could indicate the correct road towards the emancipation of the workers on a world scale.
Translated with Deepl.com
Reply by Anibal Inter-rev
To develop a proletarian insurrection and to have possibilities to win through it , the exploited class and those who support it have to generate conditions and characteristics of struggle, organization and consciousness that today are not yet gathered. These struggles provide elements ( positive and negative) to continue resisting ( repression has been and is hard, very hard) and fighting in the future with more strength and better consciousness of what is at stake and what is necessary to win. In addition there is the issue of the so-called independent trade unionism, which is postulated to fulfill the pro capitalist system functions of trade unionism…which needs democracy to move as they need.if the political system of Iran is shielded and does not give it a chance, this trade unionism will appear as a martyr and it will be more difficult with time to learn in the proletarian class that its role is to favor wage labor, and not to end it, for the sake of it. This is at the heart of the problems in Iran and in other parts of the planet that still do not have a developed democratic trade union system.
Translated with Deepl.com
29-06-2021 [about 15 pages, many recent events, lessons from the oil strike that ended the regime of the Shah and brought the Aytollas into power]
Long live the oil workers strike! (Our oil worker, our stubborn leader!)
[Note that indicated years are according to the Iranian calendar, ad 621 years, or convert to Gregorian Calendar]
Bahram Rahmani
Working time for man to become a pleasure to be in full Karl Marx himself in what he created . We have the opportunity to give us your creativity to good aspect by which we can adopt to showcase this aspect will be our humanity or our intelligence or skill .
But if we have a torturous job that does not engage our emotions, we will be depressed and frustrated . Karl Marx also explains in ” The Civil War in France ” how we experienced for the first time in the Paris Commune a society in which the workers came to power . “The change the commune made in Paris was astonishing, ” he writes . And it was really amazing ! The Paris Commune brought about change at the heart of the women’s uprising, “the real women of Paris – heroes, proud and selfless .”
Karl Marx begins with the analysis of the capitalist system of commodities, and whatever is produced and produced for exchange is considered a commodity . The product must first meet one of the needs . These needs, whether material or spiritual ( books, poems, paintings, loaves of bread, or a handful of clothes ) make no difference in the matter itself .
Capital is the materialized labor of the worker who becomes alienated from his owner and condenses with the capitalist . What enslaves and exploits the worker is slavery, this material element, the materialized labor of the working class, which is concentrated in the capitalist . Capital, like any other commodity, is a commodity, whether it is the means of production or financial capital, such as guaranteed contract values such as banknotes, checks, promissory notes, securities, financial credit, and so on .
The working class is born of the capitalist mode of production, and its class antagonism has been with the capitalist system as a whole since its inception . Understanding the class struggle between the working class and the capitalist was not the initiative of Karl Marx, but was realized by bourgeois economists before Marx . What distinguishes Marx from bourgeois economists is the discovery of surplus value in the second process of the production process, the surplus and unpaid labor of the working class . On this basis, the worker in the capitalist system is considered on the basis of the production of surplus value, and the nature of labor is not in question . These surplus value producers can be skilled or non-skilled workers; Whether they are doctors or engineers, teachers, carpenters, cooks, singers, dancers and so on . What matters is the production of surplus value and that’s it. Marx Kargar has examined the capitalist system on the basis of the production of surplus value .
In the capitalist system, the two classes are facing each other and in constant conflict; The working class and the capitalist class . The class and economic struggle of the working class is the material basis of its political struggle . The role of the conscious elements of the working class, that is, the socialists who adhere to Marx’s scientific socialism, is very important in this struggle . Without cohesion and unity and organization that can give the working class political awareness and leadership, these miseries, crises and deadlocks cannot be freed .
Now that our oil workers’ strike has become wider and relatively longer, we must emphasize that our society needs class solidarity as well as the solidarity of other movements, such as the women’s movement, the student movement, the youth movement, and the environmental movement of oppressed people, to overthrow capitalism and the capitalist government. Different parts of Iran and of course the families are with the labor movement and the strikers . It is a big mistake to be a spectator and wait for the events now, because there is an opportunity that we should not miss . It is right now to start popular uprisings, especially with the initiative of young men and women, such as December 1996 and November 1998 . It is only now that we can take over the streets and squares of cities and large industries such as oil and gas and petrochemicals, etc., and not return to our homes until the day we settle accounts with this murderous and mafia capitalist government .
Freedom, equality and social justice can only be brought to us by the science of human liberation, ie socialism, men and women, old and young, Kurds, Turks, Persians, Arabs, Baluchis, Gilakis, Turkmen, Lors, etc. Let ‘s fight against the Islamic Republic and not divide the sectarian and nationalist currents and chauvinism, as working men and women have fought throughout history .
The current state of the world’s workers, especially the plight of workers in peripheral countries such as Iran, the intensification of exploitation and forms of colonialism, the fragmentation of the working class, and the loss of the achievements of the world working class during centuries of struggle. It forces us to analyze the current situation and the causes of all these disorders of the working class .
***
A reporter for ILNA article about the strike, strike oil, petrochemical and power plants, Iran, wrote : ” These days, words and phrases are new to the discourse of protest Pymankaryhay oil found its way ,” managers the capital ” , ” Nftyhay Thrannshyn ” ; ” Kerosene for them, kerosene for us !” و … »
He adds: “The root of all problems, however, lies in the legal and functional discrimination institutionalized in the same oil; “When the rules governing the occupational groups involved in black oil are different, different wage systems prevail, and eventually, some ride on the shoulders of others and ride the mufti .”
If you have been browsing social networks and news sites these days, you have probably come across news, reports, pictures and videos of numerous protests and strikes by the country’s oil industry workers . The overwhelming majority of workers are contract or temporary basis, from Monday 31 June 1400 protests and their livelihoods strike began sporadically in some refineries .
The protests Tuesday from the first shot was far more pervasive and many oil facilities, refineries across the country pulled together Ptrvshymyhay and Tuesday 8 July, continued .
The main goal of the protests and strikes Treaty of farmers and their workers targeted under the contract . According to images and reports published in the media and social networks, the strike has spread across the country to refineries, petrochemicals, oil tanks and oil rigs in Tehran, Kangan, Mahshahr, Arak, Qeshm, Khark, Behbahan, Gachsaran, Bushehr. , بAbadan and Isfahan … are also drawn .
Strikes and labor protests in past decades less than the record, since 1399 once grew only include contract workers, project and temporary contract under private employers, but the protests in recent months to formal workers In particular, the operational department of the Ministry of Oil was expanded . The severity and extent of the protests from the beginning of 1400 until now, much more than the size of last year’s protests .
Now, however, workers in the country’s oil, gas and petrochemical industries have joined the wider protests . Looking at the pictures and videos published of these protests in different parts of the country, the common denominator of the demands of the protesting workers can be considered as a protest against low wages and unsuitable working conditions . The oil workers’ strikes and protests to campaign for access to livelihood demands of other segments of society has become . In fact, the protesting workers are demanding an increase in their normal wages and have launched these protests under the name ” Campaign 1400 ” . Project and contract workers in the oil industry of Iran, in his account of the protests by the Treaty Karan treaty oil companiesKnow what manpower . The workers and professional engineers, strong and defiant that the main burden on the shoulders of their Iranian oil industry, said that by signing the Treaty of farmers has been no such thing as job security and work permanently deprived of the contract and the other with severe wage discrimination Faced .
Council organized protests contract workers Oil, announced the addition of workers on strike held on 9 July as ” official partners ” in the Oil Ministry on strike and ” If by the end of August to demand ” the workers was not answered, the strikes It becomes wider .
In this regard, the Council for Organizing Protests of Contract Oil Workers, in its statement on July 26 , referring to the beginning of the strikes on June 20 , announced that ” tens of thousands of our colleagues are on strike and our official colleagues will gather on July 29 . “They will strike, and if our demands are not met by the end of August, we will prepare for a wider continuation of our protests .”
According to reports, a large number of striking workers have left the workplace and returned to their hometowns . However, the council asked them to return to their dormitories to prevent new recruits to the Treaty firms do not .
Contract workers refineries, petrochemical plants and power plants called ” wage increase to 12 million USD per month ,” and ” Change turn off the 20 -day and 10 -day leave ” , gone on strike . Currently, they have six days off for 24 working days .
The strikes continued as 700 striking workers at the Tehran oil refinery were fired last Tuesday . This issue has caused a lot of criticism on social networks .
In parallel with the decline in purchasing power in recent years, there have been reports of many rallies and strikes by workers and wage earners over difficult living conditions .
So far, sections of workers at refineries in Tehran, Qeshm, Abadan, Bidboland, Behbahan, Gachsaran Petrochemical, and Bushehr have held protest rallies to demand that their demands be addressed, and more than 61 companies and labor units have joined the wave .
At least eight provinces, Khuzestan, Bushehr, Hormozgan, Tehran, Isfahan, West Azerbaijan, Kerman and Ilam, have recently joined the strike of oil, gas and petrochemical workers .
As the Iranian oil, gas and petrochemical workers ‘strike continued and spread, the left, civil and human rights forces inside and outside the country also issued statements in support of the workers’ strikes .
Domestic and international support for the oil workers’ strike continues . The strike by Iranian oil workers in seven provinces is supported by teachers, retirees, students and unions . The parliament’s energy commission has arranged a meeting with the oil minister and representatives of the IRGC and the security services .
Meanwhile, the Federation of World Industrial Unions, which represents more than 50 million industrial workers in the automotive, steel, oil, petrochemical and textile industries around the world, said in a statement that it would stand by the striking workers until their demands were met .
‘ International network of trade » Monday 28 June – 7 Jul statement in support of the striking workers’ demands release of Iran’s oil industry . Dozens of trade unions from around the world are organized in this international network .
“The Iranian oil industry is under the control of several contractors, ” the statement said of the plight of Iranian oil workers . The working rule of these companies is temporary contracts or even without employment contracts . “Workers are exploited .”
The statement added that a large-scale strike had been launched since June 19 and that workers from 70 companies had joined the strike .
In its statement on the workers’ demands, the International Trade Union Network mentions three demands :
Remove all workers employed by contractors and workers with similar agreements ” official ” ;
Increase wages so that they are not less than 400 euros per month;
Review working time based on 20 working days then 10 days rest . Many workers in the south of the country work in temperatures of 50 degrees or on offshore platforms away from home .
Statements referring to concerns by hiring unemployed workers that employers can break the strike, adds that on 30 June the workers ” official ” also will join this movement .
In the statement , ‘ member organization of the International Network of Solidarity trade union and anti-workers organized protests turn-out and the oil contract workers movement co-ordinates, supports . “
Eight trade union body and the Union of Iran issued a statement on Monday, 28 June – 7 bar called ” The Great Strike of workers due to very bad condition work environments in the oil and gas industry as well as meager salary that the conditions for workers project and “Oil and petrochemical contracting across the country has become very unbearable .”
The statement referred to the workers’ demands and said : “The demands of the striking workers are the common demand of all workers across the country, such as that the minimum wage should not be less than 12 million tomans, the right to form independent labor organizations, the ban on dismissal, the right to protest and strike. “In terms of wages, improving working conditions and the work environment, establishing the necessary standards of health, safety, etc. “
These eight trade unions “have called on all workers, retirees, teachers, students, intellectuals, artists, journalists ” to support this labor movement .
The union signatories of the statement are : Hafta Tappeh Sugarcane Workers ‘Union, Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company Workers’ Union, Retirees ‘Union Group, Coordination Committee to help establish trade unions, Islamshahr Cultural Guilds Association, Retirees’ Union, Farhangian Guilds Association Kurdistan – Saqez and Zivieh .
The Iranian Human Rights Defenders Association has also published a statement on the association’s website expressing its support and solidarity with the striking workers .
Meanwhile, the General Union of Iraqi Oil and Gas Workers said in a statement that it ” eagerly supports the demand for wage increases and other demands of Iranian workers .”
The General Union of Iraqi Oil and Gas Workers also wrote in a statement that the union ” eagerly supported the demand for wage increases and other demands of Iranian workers who have been on strike for several days and condemned the dismissal of 750 striking workers, contrary to the ILO Convention and the Convention.” 87 ( right to strike ) of 1947 and Convention 98 ( right to organize ) year 1948 knows . “
In this edition also states that ” the General Union of workers of oil and gas sector of Iraq declares that : We will support the efforts of workers for their rights anywhere .”
The decades-long economic and security pressures on the various strata of the Iranian people, which were reflected in the two uprisings of January 1996 and November 1998, are now reflected in the strike by the contract workers of the oil industry . These pressures will soon lead to protests in universities and schools, which are not far from the connection with the oil workers ‘strike, especially since the announcement of support for the oil workers’ strike is spreading from all sides . Neither the news of the strike nor the social echoes and the support given to the workers are reflected in the state media, but this censorship and blocking of the news has never, in any country of the world, led to ignorance and anger in the people, especially in the world. Today that world is cyberspace .
At the same time oil workers continue strike, a 345 students from Tehran University to protest the expulsion of a student called ” fractional light ” of the University was published . In their letter to the president of the university, they demanded the revocation of the dismissal order of Kasra Nouri, a Gonabadi dervishes . They called the dismissal of Kasra Noori a ” deletion, police and absolutely illegal ” act .
” Kasra Nouri ” has been imprisoned since March 22, 1996 , and is practically unable to go to university . The students who signed the letter have strongly demanded that the illegal expulsion order from Kasra Nouri be revoked immediately .
Meanwhile, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, Iran’s oil minister Sheikh Hassan Rouhani’s government, the Ministry of Oil Workers problems related to labor law and requests them as ” illegal ” calls .
As the Iranian oil industry workers continued their strikes, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh rejected the demands of contract workers, saying only that he was trying to solve problems related to the salaries and benefits of official employees .
The oil minister said that ” the problem of contract workers and labor law is a project of the Ministry of Oil ,” calls them ” illegal ” calls .
Simultaneously with Bijan Zanganeh’s sarcastic and anti-labor claims, Mustafa Nakhaei, the spokesman of the Parliamentary Energy Commission, announced that he was trying to investigate and solve the problems of the Ministry of Oil employees, but neither of them promised to solve the problems of contract workers and projects .
Among the statements of the injured workers seen a few key points such as the lack of regulation increase the annual fee by the Treaty of workers that in some cases have been heard with suggestions at 5 percent annual wage increase would have been workers who have no job security, and if not admission fees imposed by the Treaty conservatives, might easily lose their jobs . It , too, such as the holidays and the number of days of employment in a protest and demanded to such counterparts are under contract Treaty conservatives are a maximum of 20 days a month as a day to be served . The problem of unfavorable conditions and accommodation of workers, camps and barracks where there are no workers and employees of the oil industry that provide the entire economy of Iranian society . It is another demand of the workers of the oil industry, which, especially during the outbreak of the disease, has threatened the health of all workers and employees and, consequently, their families . In such circumstances the workers about two weeks to build the hashtag ” No to the Treaty conservatives ” want to delete intermediary companies in the country’s oil and gas industry . It appears encounters some treaty conservatives against the peaceful protesters threatened to fire workers has been settled and lay out the form .In a situation where the living conditions and job security of workers in the most important industry of the country, the situation is such that they have no choice but to protest and strike and directly present their demands and economic and job issues, it seems you must think of a basic solution for their situation . Workers who in their slogans only want justice for themselves and their classmates, and in the absence of representatives and universal organizations that can represent these industrialists with basic issues, need to expand the relations of labor activists in different sectors of labor and suffering. Lead a joint delegation that includes all sections of the workers and moves towards a general strike .
The problems of workers and employees in the oil industry, however, are not limited to the macro issues of rent-seeking economies and the oil market . In four decades, Iran’s oil industry has experienced a process of economic liberalization resulting in a host of problems for the workers of the industry’s jobs and livelihoods and severe exploitation .
The current oil workers’ strike brings back memories of the Revolution of 1957 for all the months in which we actively participated . The experiences of the Revolution of 1957 raise the enthusiasm of our class struggle and give us more hope for change and better society .
It should be noted that in October 1357, after the coordination between strikers in different countries, which are subject to the implementation of the above provisions, began the hunger strike, including : the dissolution of SAVAK, the abolition of martial law, release of political prisoners , And ended the authoritarian rule of the Pahlavi government .
A lot of research is expensive, and analysts believe that politics and economics are economic problems in the movement of liberation and freedom of the important factors is a revolution . Rule -based system of authoritarian monarchy and Velayat-e faqih run without a natural source of financial strength and stability will not be possible because experience has shown that this model of government in our society allows freedom and equality and allow political movements – social and political organizations and parties and democratic institutions, public companies and institutions are not independent, of course, the crisis of the economy in the whole of governmentWitnessed a crisis of political and social culture in the form of riots, protests and strikes show, see .
Although Pahlavi regime in the ’40s to control inflation and curb rising prices , especially in commodities, managed to survive and prevent public protests, but conditions changed in the’ 50s . In the course with incredible rise in oil prices, which are affected by the Arabs and Israel, great wealth, but this wealth flowed into the country’s military spending generally and Rykh and spraying the side of the court and it was close .
While the costs are staggering Apr court, including the celebration of 2500 years of this decade . In addition to the internal situation is not very good king by his longtime friend America and Britain came under pressure and instead manage costs and reduce state spending unnecessary court and around it, put pressure on the shoulders of the people and the force Work wanted to accept work and tolerate conditions and austerity .
Until the beginning of the initial period of protests by the middle class and academics in early 1977 and continued until June 1978, a new phase of protests against the Pahlavi government was introduced, which was launched by staff of various governmental and non-governmental organizations. The protests became wider and wider . In this process, when it was mentioned, only seven major strikes were carried out by the industrial sector, but from June 1978 onwards, both the number and scope of strikes increased .
After the killing frost in Tehran on 17 September 1357, the first major strike by the universities and schools took place and then circle the strike to all oil industry, market, many public and private companies, banks and , Ports and even government offices were built . Pahlavi things worse than the PBO as the core of the central government also went on strike . 1
The summer of 1978 was one of the most difficult economic times for the Iranian working class . Peak reduction of wages in the same period, the number of unemployed began to take on a figure of about 400 thousand . Both the net salary earners, particularly in the construction sector for more than 30 percent fell . These issues led to an about equal number of strikes and the much larger number of institutions, enterprises and the private sector to also learn .
It is important that the Shah before this talk of ” welfare state ” raised and argued that the workers’ state with ” wool soft ” cover, in a speech threatening and violent and explicit addressing workers and wage earners, said : ” this is intolerable, it is that we do not work your tail off and take a mouse . Anyone who does not do his job properly, not only the conscience but also betrayed their patriotic duty … I remember a few years ago so that it is now so demanding that people should not flatter him ready for a meal He works all day and never gets enough work .Today, at this stage of transition, which need more workers have to beg them . ” .۲
The speech threatening the king appealed to the workers and wage earners for hard work and effort over more despite the fact that any what Iran’s oil and other resources were spent on court costs and good fun was his . In adopting this policy hard -emptive strike by the Pahlavi regime caused several large industrial areas and other parts were . In June 1357, employees of power in Tehran and some southern cities cloud network to add Sunny Tehran and several major industrial factories in the capital on strike to cancel bonusesThey went on a large-scale annual strike, in which electricity company workers in some major cities, although initially for economic reasons, gradually took on a political dimension and emerged as a new wave of protests against their government . .3
Power outages in some major cities were the first result of a strike by workers and employees in the sector . Naturally, this issue led to popular protests against the Pahlavi government . Present conditions for political opponents of the government provided a great opportunity to advertise in the absence of a comprehensive government took their profits through television and radio, with leaflets and Shbnamhhay as the only weapon to fight at that point, big impact the more alert than people have .
Power company workers strike major cities for a nationwide wave was sweeping the extent that in December and January 57 many other cities, including Isfahan, Kerman, Sari, Mazandaran also went on strike . Given the importance of electricity in other industries, the government and the most important normal life, society was faced with an internal disintegration . For example, many marketers and shopkeepers quit . Both the Justice some cities, including Surrey went on strike for a few days and literally shut down the country for half of revenue . .۴
Together with the proliferation of strike tavanir in different cities of Iran, a series of strikes another of the many staff of more than metropolises of Iran that could be pointed to the following : strike, more than 600 employees Department of Health Abadan, factory workers strike looms large city that practically closed the plant was large, two-week strike by more than 200 thousand employees Machine Sazi Tabriz as one of the factories in the West country, as well as employees of factories Fars Paper Manufacturing, Tehran Automobile Manufacturing and Ahwaz Water and Machine Manufacturing Facilities . .۵
But the oil company workers’ strike facilitated the revolution and accelerated it . Simultaneously with the strikes in many industrial and non-industrial centers of Iran, which were formed due to the reduction of salaries, benefits and bad economic conditions, many employees of the oil company also started various strikes in many cities in early September 1978 . This was while from 1353 onwards, with the huge increase in oil prices, a huge fortune flowed into the treasury of the court, which practically a very small percentage of this huge income went to the people, followed by the personnel of the oil company .
However, the protests seemed to be taken by the personnel of oil companies in the form of strikes, compared to other sectors of society, from the early days of the political aspect too much, since the strikes began on 18 September 57 just one day After Black Friday, which coincided with the martyrdom of many Iranians, it was carried out by government forces . On this day, about 700 workers at the Tehran Oil Refinery went on strike in protest of wage cuts and the announcement of martial law by the central government . After this, and on September 11, the personnel of the Tehran, Tabriz, Isfahan and Abadan refineries joined the large number of strikers . .۶
The period of time that coincided with the start of negotiations for a new contract Oilfield Services osco Consortium and the National Iranian Oil Company, due to rising oil prices, personnel, the company expects an increase in their wages and the provision of better working conditions from the government If the oil company in its negotiations with the consortium to sign a new contract, did not pay any attention to the demands of personnel .
In such a process and after the strike took place in Tehran, Isfahan, Abadan, Ahvaz oilfield workers at that time as great most of the country’s oil fields, went on strike . At this time, the strike of the oil company employees in different cities was not particularly organized . For this reason, in some cases, some strikes were thwarted by pressure from the central government . The same activists and prominent figures of this section of the Iranian labor movement formed the Petroleum Council, and conditions were created for the workers of different sectors of the oil industry to communicate with each other and act in unity .
As a result, on October 57 and then to the coordination between the strikers in a different country, about 30 thousand employees of oil companies with bank staff of more than 100 thousand employees and workers in other parts and their economic demands with political demands, both sides said .
It was clear that the incidence of widespread strikes in the oil industry as an important source of income for the country, the Pahlavi regime with a very serious crisis turned . For example, Iran’s oil revenues in 1956 exceeded $ 20 billion, but the lack of exports in the second half of 1957 due to widespread strikes by the company’s staff and workers, sounded the alarm for the fall of the Shah . Needless to say, the strikes were part of the country, especially the workers and employees of oil companies Besides the maneuverability government protesters in front of a very reduced structural weakness and frailty Pahlavi regime’s foundations more than ever before that The result was the fall of the regime after a series of five months of protests and strikes .
When the workers and employees of the oil industry closed their oil valves in a calculated action and in the midst of public protests in the society, by cutting off oil exports abroad, they disappointed the Pahlavi government to remain so that the workers of the Iranian oil industry could once again respect human dignity. And protect his freedoms .
Oil matters most coherent and most organized protest of Ahvaz and Abadan oil refinery workers strike her in the middle of autumn 1357 had formed .
At the strike of thousands of workers and employees of the oil industry, sector of the oil industry had learned, strategic error committed by the imperial government . This means that the conditions of the oil workers were not serious negotiations to inevitable oil workers, are less hope of negotiating panel of the National Iranian Oil Company and to investigate the political situation in the country, a serious response more To shake hands; As the field Ahvaz oil – as large as the field of oil – the first stage of protest and dissent became employees . All the sounds were in the form of public protest, workers and employees of the oil industry, the idea of creating a policy reference transition and lead the industry in the mind of thought and a little less for the negotiations dispersed employees the center for organizing strikes, serious tone than was; While in this oil well was discovered that strikes it and to what extent the Welcome to the Pahlavi regime can sleep causing a stir .
In this way, the strike of the oil industry workers gradually took on a new atmosphere and color, and the union protests became a nationwide uproar . Oil refinery workers strike in 1357 than double the government put pressure on the declining side of that .
The first, close the bottleneck of oil production in order to cut the government’s economic artery , and another, the workers and employees of the oil industry of Iran’s oil industry in the Shah’s regime protesters, strikers can was . Key economic position and continued existence of oil in the side of a hand, and according to the oil, it is the strategic status in the minds of the public .
Oil workers seek to organize a protest of their own and therefore step in the initial formation of an executive committee to control political behavior and the way the opposition would have written .
So, after the design and delivery of multiple tasks, the workers, the strike participants with elections, to introduce people to join ” Organizing Committee of oil industry employees ” acted .
To assess the need for domestic oil, the committee reviews are conducted to ascertain the level of domestic demand for crude oil, the answer to the question ” how much crude oil production must be stopped? ” Obtained and in the end turned out for winter fuels by refineries in the country, the daily 350 thousand barrels of crude oil is required to order some refineries in the country were responsible for the supply of fuel for the winter .
It was in the middle of the fall of 1957 that the government took a strange step to quell the strike by inviting retirees and recruiting the military to resume crude oil production, but this tactic of the Labor government did not work and was the only result. it was part of the military installations due to lack of familiarity with how it would be injuries and disability .
These attempts by the Imperial government officials on notice that turn the wheels of a massive oil industry workers and skilled staff only at the hands of the powerful oil industry is possible . That’s why the king by force heads the military tried to strike of workers and employees of the presence in the operating enter the result of not only oil workers strike continues .
The strike was so strong that it was impossible to break it, so not resuming oil production, in addition to withstanding the military pressures of the Shah’s government, required many consequences, including the propaganda implications of government speakers against workers and revolutionary workers in the oil industry . In such circumstances, pressure from the government to break the oil strike of more breakable, though not only strikes but also measures next government, especially military force, the strike would also be strengthened .
Oil shock plunged the world market Abadan oil refinery site and the area in the early hours of Day 16 Dioxide of the 1357 full of oil workers who cry freedom cry out : ” oil ever produced only for domestic consumption ” ; It was then that the government was forced to import to supply gasoline, thus reducing the export of crude oil and finally cutting it off in mid-January, plunging the world market into an oil shock .
Undoubtedly, the driving force behind a large part of the protests against the government of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi during the revolution, especially the historic strikes of workers in the Iranian oil industry . One of the pillars of change and effort to establish a better world in Iran in the fourteenth century, were the oil industry workers who, according to the documents of the labor movement for the first time in 1325 , raised the issue of nationalization of the oil industry through their strikes and relatively politicians. The independence of that period, such as the appointment of the then Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, was pursued until it eventually led to the nationalization of Iran’s most important industry .
During the general protests that intensified in 1978 , various groups in the streets, workplaces and factories were resisting the Shah’s government, but all hopes were pinned on the oil workers .
17 Tir of 57 the number of oil workers wrote a letter to officials of the oil company time and spoke of the pressing problems of their housing . In the letter, they threatened to pitch a tent in front of the oil company for another two months if their demands were not met .
According to the document released by the Museum and Documentation Center of the oil industry, the report ” very confidential ” SAVAK, the CEO of the National Oil On 4 October 57 written, 21 strikes within days 26 September until 4 October in oil and gas have been reported, in which 10 thousand 131 workers involved in the revolutionary strike Kharg, Ahvaz, Abadan, Aghajari, Tehran, Masjed Soleiman and had Mahshahr . It was during these days that the strike spread to one of the world’s largest oil refineries, the Abadan refinery, which had a daily refining capacity of 600,000 barrels .The formation of the Oil Workers’ Council and the spread of promising strikes in the oil industry put the repressive machine of the Pahlavi government on the verge of collapse .
Since the culmination of the strikes in October and November 1978 , the scale and intensity of the strikes have become so widespread that the Iranian oil industry has been completely shut down for almost four months, and the Pahlavi government opposes the power of the Iranian oil workers and their will to overthrow the Shah. He was completely desperate .
In a word, we can emphasize that the workers and employees of Iran’s oil industry in the past century were able to prove their class commitment to revolutionary values and build a better world by playing prominent roles in the victory of the 1978 revolution .
In such circumstances, a great problem for the citizens of Iran, especially the workers of the epidemic, is that the leaders and officials of the Islamic Republic, like all other fields, always deliver a handful of false and unrealistic promises to the people .
The Islamic Republic of Iran has not cared about the place and life of its citizens for 42 years now . The leaders and officials of this government do not pay the slightest attention, except for hoarding wealth and maintaining sovereignty, even at the cost of massacring tens of thousands of people and destroying the environment and all the infrastructure of society .
The Crown Crisis has now been added to the pain of the people . So far, more than 300,000 people in Iran have died of coronary heart disease .
MR Mhbvbfr experts in the Arman newspaper printing Tehran ( Monday 7 July, 1400 ) wrote : While top officials of the Islamic Republic claims to export vaccines, which the country is still the first wave of Corona that since February 1398 the country started Is, precise control . The first wave of the disease is not well managed and so far five peaks of coronary heart disease have been observed in the country and for more than 18 months the death rate of coronary heart disease in the country is over 100 and three digits .
The crisis over vaccine supply has now reached a point where vaccination travel tours have flourished in Iran . By announcing free and non-stop vaccination to tourists in countries such as the UAE and Armenia, sections of the population are leaving Iran for their neighbors with the motive of safe vaccination with approved vaccines . Reports have even described vaccination so slow that travel to Afghanistan for vaccination has intensified in recent days .
But the vaccination process in the country does not end here, but the speed of corona vaccination is so slow that people have to wait in line for hours . This wait sometimes reaches 12 hours and some have to sleep in line at night . Meanwhile, long queues for Corona vaccine injection have created new jobs in the country, and there are people who stand in line for the elderly and their families and receive at least 100,000 tomans an hour to stand in line for the vaccine .
On the other hand reports from people stating Pfizer vaccine in a number of private hospitals in the capital and major cities such as Isfahan and Mashhad, Shiraz and … the price of two doses of vaccine to at least 16 million USD . The slow pace of vaccination in the country and the spread of the coronavirus as a result of overcrowding in vaccination centers have raised concerns about the long gap between two doses of the Quid 19 vaccine and reduced efficacy .
While the corona is being eradicated in many countries and the transmission chain has been cut, in our country the next peaks are coming . So far, more than 300,000 people in the country have died of coronary heart disease, but a variety of Iranian vaccines are being unveiled one by one, and the corona is still on the rise .
The coronavirus vaccine at issue, global competition is based on a variety of vaccines and new vaccines like Sputnik Iranian daily Iran, BC, Nvravks, Pastvkvvk, Kvvbrkt, Kvvpars, Fkhravak and Aspaykvzhn, Svbrana 1, 2, … announced it . In Iran, less than 3 % of the population has received the vaccine, and the first vaccination of Corona has been stopped, and the existing vaccines are sufficient for the second vaccination .
In neighboring countries, Qatar has 52 percent , Bahrain 66 percent , the UAE 68 percent , Turkey 26 percent and Saudi Arabia 25 percent . The share of Iran and its neighbors in the corona vaccine and the catastrophic statistics of the corona vaccine compared to neighboring countries, while four months ago the Minister of Health promised that in late May Iran will be the center of vaccine production .
Of course, the statistics about the victims and the victims of Corona announced by the health authorities of the Islamic Republic are several times lower than the real statistics .
Finally, we can emphasize that Iran has the fourth proven reserves of crude oil and the second proven reserves of natural gas in the world . Iran’s economy is monopoly and oil-dependent, and whenever oil production and exports are disrupted as they were in the mid- 1960s , Iran’s economy is in deep crisis . Fossil energy resources and reserves provide a large part of the government budget, and any related developments affect macroeconomic policies .
Iran is still experiencing unfavorable economic conditions, so that inflation in the 12 months leading up to June this year, compared to the same period last year, reached 43 %, which is the highest rate in the last quarter of a century .
This is the first time since the revolution 57 that oil workers working in such a massive scale brought .
With the cessation of oil exports, the Shah’s government lost its only instrument of power, and finally, with its inability to suppress the protesters’ anger, the Shah’s escape was the only solution on January 17 , 1979 , which dealt a fatal blow to the weak body of the Pahlavi court . Thus, with Khomeini’s arrival in Iran on February 3 , the society was so preoccupied with the revolution that the nature of this Ayatollah was not belligerent, violent, and murderous . Especially the biggest and oldest party of that period, the Tudeh Party, became a story with this monster . A party that held an important place among the workers and employees of the oil industry, as well as politicians and intellectuals .
If the oil workers created an independent political and social institution and presented it as a class alternative to the working class and other movements and society as a whole, and did not accept the role of Ayatollah Khomeini and the oil workers’ strike coordination committee, perhaps the fate of our society would be different. Eats !
In fact, the oil workers, so that we saw earlier, showed a remarkable capacity for collective action and thus, leading position and competent in the strike movement in the autumn of 1357 won . Even according to historical reports and documents, one week before the fall of the monarchy, the striking workers began holding meetings with the aim of strengthening organization, increasing solidarity, and raising workers’ awareness of their class interests . More than one hundred representatives of the electric, automobile, and oil unions gathered in the Kandriz Syndicate in Tehran on February 5, 1979 , condemning the dismissal of factory workers and demanding the presence of a workers ‘representative in the Revolutionary Council, and the idea of forming a workers’ solidarity council. Discussed .
But the Revolutionary Council and Khomeini did not accept the oil workers’ request, and the workers did not react appropriately .
While in those days oil workers were in a good position to play a more independent and radical role in the workers’ struggle and the wider revolutionary movement, the question is why this did not happen in the end . All the evidence shows that the oil workers were in a good position to set up, lead and influence the district committees . But was it the role of religion and mass thinking or the lack of experience and class ignorance that left the oil workers open to the political arena of society to advance Khomeini and his religious tendencies ?
This bitter experience must now teach us that socio – political movements, and above all the labor movement, should not leave their field of struggle to individuals and parties, but should directly elect the representatives of their councils in a free, equal and democratic atmosphere, and directly manage all Take over the labor sections . The same goes for other movements as well as neighborhoods. Finally, at the head of all urban, rural, provincial and national councils, they form a national coordination council that determines and promotes all macro-policies of the country, from economy, politics, culture and education to diplomacy and security, military and defense fields.
In the final months leading up to the revolution, the slogan ” Our oil worker, our staunch leader ” became one of the most important revolutionary slogans, entwining the 2,500- year-old monarchy forever .
Experienced oil workers’ strike in 1357 will be the same day strike by workers of oil, gas and petrochemical industry used and deadly blows to the body of the Islamic Republic are rotten . However, while the Islamic Republic of Iran in the region and the world crisis, numerous grappling and severely weakened the stability and strength and Mbarzanh united oilmen can bring a different fate for the future of society .
The Council for Organizing Protests for Oil Contract Workers has stated that the strike for contract workers and projects is ” a warning strike … and we will join the ranks of our official colleagues who have announced the protest on 9 July .”
Maybe tomorrow, July 29, 1400 is a fateful day, let’s participate in this movement widely !
Sources:
1 – Ervand Abrahamian, the history of modern Iran, translated by Mohammad Ibrahim fattahi, Tehran, Reed Publishing, Tenth Edition, 1393, p. 285,
2 – Ervand Abrahamian, Iran Between Two Revolutions, Tehran, Reed Publishing, 1387, p. 631,
3 – Ibid., Pp. 631 and 649,
4 – Mehdi Kayhan, the role of the Iranian working class in the great anti-imperialist revolution and our patriotic people, World Magazine, No. 5 . سال 1358 . P. 73,
5 – Ervand Abrahamian, Iran Between Two Revolutions, p. 632,
6- The same. P. 638.
Tuesday, July 8, 1400 – June 29, 2021
Source: cpiran. Translation from Farsi by Google Translate
Anibal 26/6/2021, 12:16 pm (source)
Widespread strike by Iranian workers!
…Now, after protests and strikes by truck drivers, teachers, nurses and pensioners, it is the turn of oil company workers to react to the situation. The strike comes after dozens of Iranian Oil Company employees and workers in at least five cities and towns in Assaluyeh, Lavan and Bahregan and on an oil rig in the Persian Gulf protested against their working conditions and low incomes in late May.
In the following days, the strike expanded and many cities joined in. In Kerman – Butia Steel Workers / In Urmia – Combined Cycle Power Plant Workers / In Qeshm – Workers of Sazeh Farafan Company and Behsh Electricity and Precision Tools of Qeshm Refinery / In Mahshahr – Workers of the Qeshm Refinery / In Mahshahr – Fajr Petrochemicals workers / In Assaluyeh – Polymer Company project workers / In Mahshahr – Bid Boland refinery project workers / In Bandar Abbas – Damavand Star Oil Holding / In Jask – Damavand Star Oil Holding / In Ilam – Jahan Pars and ECO workers, active in the Sarvak oil project, located in the Azar oil field / in Behbahan – Bead Boland Refinery / in Abadan – Refinery staff / in Isfahan – Workers of Absan Refinery Company / Permanent workers of phases 9 and 10 of South Pars / Workers of Bushehr refineries and petrochemical centres / Arak Machine Sazi / Workers of Exir Sanat and Satrap Sanat and Sina Refining and of the construction of Qeshm oil depots and contract workers of phase 13 of Kangan and South Adish refinery, spherical and cylindrical tanks, and Rajan company, as well as AJC workers working in Abadan refinery and Lidoma company workers joined the strikers.
Given that the oil industry is the most important and influential industry in Iran and that any disruption in the production and distribution of oil products has crippling effects on all industries and service sectors and on society, the strike of the oil company workers is totally different from the strike of other unions. This strike may very well act as a spark in the powder keg and explode the anger of the Iranian society in the current situation and kick-start another decisive uprising like the one in November 2019 in a very short time.
Of course, Khamenei and other leaders of the Iranian regime are well aware of this and live in constant fear, but since they cannot solve any of the problems of the society and cannot meet the demands of the workers, they resort to dictatorial methods, i.e. they first resort to threatening and then arresting and sacking the workers. They dismissed 700 workers of the Tehran refinery in an act to force other workers to return to work and break their strike.
But despite all the threats of the Iranian regime, the general strike of the oil and petrochemical workers has spread and entered its second week and so far, this strike has affected more than 60 refineries, petrochemical centres and power plants in Tehran, Arak, Isfahan, Ahvaz, Abadan, Mahshahr, Jask, Assaluyeh, Gachsaran, Damavand, Behbahan, Bushehr, Kangan, Qeshm, Khark, Urmia, Kerman, Bandar Abbas and Ilam.
Khamenei knows that, if he meets the demands of these workers, he must respond to the demands of other sectors of society who want better living conditions, but since the Iranian regime is drowning in corruption and all its leaders are only concerned with their own interests and the survival of their regime, they have failed to meet the legitimate demands of the people. In some cases in the past, the regime was forced to meet the people’s demand only when it sensed the danger of a public uprising.
This time, the regime faced determined workers who have nothing to lose and, given that these are the last days of Hassan Rohani’s term in office, decision-making to resolve these issues has become more difficult.
It is possible that if the regime does not meet the demands of the workers and these strikes spread further, the whole regime will be in serious danger of collapse and overthrow.
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https://atalayar.com/blog/%C2%A1huelga-generalizada-de-los-trabajadores-iran%C3%ADes
Anibal 26/6/2021, 11:06 am (source)
Strike extension in the oil sector
“Strikes in this sector seem to be the most important in forty years, if we put them in the wake of the struggles of August 2020. “
https://alencontre.org/…/iran-dossier-les-travailleurs…
Iran, 25 June 2021 – Massive strikes by oil sector workers, which began on June 19, entered their seventh day on Friday. The strike, which affects one of the vital sectors of the Iranian economy, has spread in recent days, with more workers from different companies joining the movement every day.
In a statement, the strikers said: “We, the contract workers of refineries, petrochemical companies and power plants, will resume our strike to protest against low wages, declining purchasing power and unfulfilled promises [by the authorities]. We will demand our rights by holding rallies in front of our workplaces. “
https://english.mojahedin.org/…/iranian-regime-protests…
Iranian petrochemicals workers go on strike
24 June, 2021Workers in oil and gas fields and petrochemical plants went on strike in South Pars, Tehran and throughout Iran. The move is part of a coordinated action called the “1400 Strike Campaign”, referring to the current year in the Iranian calendar.
Because the government does not recognise independent trade unions, which are systematically restricted, this wildcat strike is being coordinated by workers’ strike committees. The immediate demands of the strike are better wages, adequate social security and better living conditions. The strike committees issued a clear set of wage demands for each job category and stated that work will resume when the employers comply.
This demonstration mirrors a month-long strike wave that took place in the South Pars oil and gas fields in August last year, involving 10,000 workers. The 2020 strike forced employers to improve wages and living conditions.
The Union of Metalworkers and Mechanics of Iran (UMMI), an affiliate of IndustriALL Global Union, reported that the current strike wave began on 19 June, when workers ceased their activities and left their workplaces at several sites in southern Iran.
These workers are employed through contracting companies that provide labour for oil and gas field development projects. The contractors act as a buffer between the workers and the companies in this sector, and try to control the demands of the workers by employing them on short-term renewable contracts. The shift cycle is 20 days on and 10 days off. During the active 20-day period, workers are housed in communal dormitories near the workplace. Most of them are technicians and skilled workers, such as scaffolders, fitters, welders and electricians.
The dormitory conditions are poor and unhygienic, the food in the canteens is mediocre, and wages are low. Because workers are hired through intermediaries, they cannot negotiate better conditions directly with the oil and gas companies. The contractors set the wages and conditions.
In addition, these companies also often underpay social security contributions by misclassifying workers, which affects their pensions, unemployment and health insurance.
The strike has spread across the country. Currently, thousands of workers at 22 refineries and projects in the oil and gas hubs, including Jahan Pars, Gachsaran Petrochemicals, Tehran Refinery and Abadan Refinery, are on strike, forcing several projects to suspend operations.
The strike is expected to extend as the workers’ 20-day shift cycles end and they receive their pay. Direct employees of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) will join the strike and organise nationwide demonstrations on 30 June.
In a statement posted on its website, the UMMI addressed workers in the sector:
“Our hands tighten the screws and the pipes are welded with our sweat. No project can proceed without our assembly, welding or scaffolding work. Trust in your power and stay at home, let’s see if the scaffolding builds itself!”
US sanctions have halted most of Iran’s oil and gas exports. The national currency has depreciated and food inflation is extremely high. Before the strike began, workers protested outside parliament in Tehran and in Ahvaz, the capital of the oil-producing province of Khuzestan, to demand that Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh respond to their demands.
IndustriALL deputy general secretary Kemal Özkan said:
“Once again, our Iranian comrades have shown tremendous courage and determination in the face of oppression. They are taking collective action to defend themselves, improve their conditions and demand that their homeland be built with the needs of the majority in mind. We salute them and stand in solidarity with their struggle and their just demands”.
http://www.industriall-union.org/es/trabajadores-iranies-del-sector-petroquimico-se-declaran-en-huelga
Backgrounds
The wave of struggles in 2018
- Internationalist Voice, Lessons from strikes, labour struggles and internationalist tasks (28 December 2018). Farsi version.
- Fredo Corvo, Iran: What after the repression of the Haft Tapeh workers and the steelworkers in Ahvaz? (24 December 2018)
Left wing communism 
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