Open letter by imprisoned labor activist on hunger strike in Iran

 NCRI- Imprisoned union activist Jafar Azimzadeh, who has been on hunger strike for nearly two months in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison, has released an open letter addressed to the regime’s deputy minister of labor, exposing the oppressive policies of Hassan Rouhani’s administration towards Iran’s laborers.

In parts of his open letter addressed to Hassan Hefdahtan, the Iranian regime’s Deputy Labor Minister, Mr. Azimzadeh wrote:

“…I saw it necessary as a labor activist and informed human being to reiterate a few issues and place the measures adopted by various governments and the Rouhani government’s approach towards the protests by laborers and teachers before the judgment of public opinion. I am also making these remarks as a coordinator of a protest petition signed by 40,000 workers demanding an increase in pay….

It is not clear how a government whose Minister of Labor is amongst the most senior security officials of the country, and his deputy, Mr. Hassan Hefdahtan, is a member of the security-military entities who also took part in the negotiations with us, as the coordinators of the 40,000-signature petition in early 2014, as deputy minister of labor, and in the same post on Labor Day in 2014 commanded the arrest of workers outside the Ministry of Labor, cannot actually claim of not adopting a full political-security approach towards labor protests?

During the past 15 years when workers and teachers have been staging public protests, all governments have adopted more oppressive approaches on a wide-scale basis. During the past three years, specifically, according to news published in the country’s official media, in most of the significant protests across the country workers were arrested and later faced with bogus security cases. … It is worth noting that to make it clear for public opinion, I have to emphasize that any approach adopted to engage important labor protests across the country parallel to interfering and basic measures by the security forces are decided in governorates and provincial administrations. The Ministry of Intelligence and city and provincial councils are considered entities under the command of the government.

In addition to expanding the oppressive measures with labor protests during the past three years, the Rouhani government in a measure unprecedented in at least the past one or two decades allowed the judiciary to last year ban all labor protests in Khuzestan Province (southwest Iran). In this regard I see it necessary to emphasize that the official ban on labor protests in their workplaces in Khuzestan Province by the judiciary was announced to labor entities. However, as I said in the 2nd article, such decisions regarding labor protests are not a duty of the judiciary. In fact any decision in this regard are measures that must be made in security organs, governor’s offices, provincial administrations, city and provincial councils as the entities under the government’s command. After such a process these decisions become executive orders.

Three years into the Rouhani government, most of the effective activists of independent labor entities and teachers’ union have faced long-term security sentences issued against them. The vast majority of these activists have been arrested by the Ministry of Intelligence, as a government entity, and unprecedentedly all of them have faced the charges of ‘assembly and collusion against national security’ against them. Furthermore, the harshest of all punishments have been requested for them by the judiciary. In this regard the record placed by the Rouhani government during the past three years has been unparalleled and seen only in this government, meaning that all effective independent labor and teacher activists who have been arrested and had cases forged against them have faced heavy sentences based on charges of ‘assembly and collusion against national security’ raised against them, and that these sentences have been raised for even the slightest measures, such as gathering signatures for labor demands, supporting and providing advice for workers, independent labor activists staging meetings with each other, limited labor gatherings outside the Ministry of Labor and other such activities.

Regarding the abovementioned claims, we can allow the public to judge the truth by informing them about the dossiers of independent labor activists and teachers’ unions of the past three years, or hear the truth of these issues from their own words. However, as far as it is concerned to me and the Iran Free Workers Union, I must say my colleagues and I, as the coordinators of the 40,000-signature labor petition, began gathering signatures as the most simple and peaceful measure of protest. Through such a practice we protested the violation of Article 41 of the Labor Law regarding the lack of increase in our wages, and on many occasions we staged rallies involving only 40 or 50 workers, or even less, to protest the lack of attention and follow-ups to the demands mentioned in this petition. These gatherings were held outside the Labor Ministry (mostly during the previous government). The last such measure was in early 2014 when we issued a letter to the Minister of Labor requesting a reevaluation of the insulting wages announced for 2014, and our protest was based on Article 41 of the Labor Law. We announced if such legitimate demands are neglected we will hold gatherings protesting law violations by the Labor Ministry outside its offices on Labor Day. However, the reaction seen from the Rouhani government’s Labor Ministry to our demands was a request issued to the Ministry of Intelligence to take action against us (specifics are available in my dossier) and dispatching a large number of security forces on the midnight of April 30, 2014 to the homes of myself and my colleagues. This led to my arrest and furthermore allegations such as ‘assembly and collusion against national security’ and other security accusations were raised against me, and a kangaroo hearing was held in a ‘revolutionary’ court that had me sentenced to six years behind bars. This is a trend that I have been protesting through a hunger strike lasting for 49 days now in Evin Prison, demanding an end to security measures against labor and teacher protests, and lifting all ‘assembly and collusion against national security’ charges, along with other security allegations, from the cases of labor and teacher activists. …

Today’s world is a world of vast information, the expansion of communications technology and increasing knowledge amongst all human beings, from the most advanced to the most primitive of all countries across the globe. Rest assured that despite all this, those governments and countries that neglect the power of knowledge amongst workers and all the people, and continue their measures of lies and deception aimed at relieving themselves of their responsibilities in imposing harsh conditions for the people, will never have even the slightest chance to survive.”