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IRANIAN unions have called on the government to cease its oppression yesterday after 42 workers at the Azarab Industries manufacturing plant were jailed earlier this month for a year and sentenced to 74 lashes for protesting against unpaid wages.
Arak criminal court also sentenced the trade unionists to a month of forced labour after they were found guilty of public disorder and insulting public officials following demonstrations that called for the return of the plant to the public sector.
With the Iranian economy in turmoil, a situation worsened by the global Covid-19 pandemic, the company failed to pay workers for May and June. Twenty-one workers were detained during similar protests in October at the plant in central Iran.
MOHAMMAD OMIDVAR, a senior figure in the Tudeh Party of Iran, tells the Morning Star that mass protests are rooted in poverty, corruption and neoliberal rule and warns against monarchist revival and US-engineered regime change
The Committee for the Defence of Iranian People’s Rights (Codir) welcomes demonstrations across Iran, which have put pressure upon the theocratic dictatorship, but warns against intervention by the United States to force Iran in a particular direction
The Islamic Republic is attempting to deflect from its own failures with a scapegoating campaign against vulnerable and impoverished migrants, writes JAMSHID AHMADI