Call for a campaign for the release of May Day detainees

To workers and labour organisations in Iran and around the world!

On May Day, workers and their families who had gathered at Tehran’s Laleh Park, following a call by the May Day Organising Committee (made up of Iran’s independent labour organisations), to voice their demands and to commemorate this day, were attacked by the police and security forces and plain clothes officers. A number of people who were in the park were also attacked. Using various brutal means and instruments, the security forces seriously injured a large number of people and arrested and put in jail over 150. Of these, around 100 are still in prison.

These people had not committed any crime to be attacked and detained in such an inhuman way. Today they are in jail, in appalling conditions, for [commemorating May Day] together with billions of workers around the world; for voicing the demands of millions of people in Iran who are humiliated everyday, not paid for months and suppressed for setting up independent organisations; for raising their voice of protest. Their families have been contacting the courts and other judicial authorities every day to seek their release, but are being met by abuse and conflicting responses.

We millions of working people who yearn for equality have a responsibility towards the imprisoned workers and their families and must not leave them alone. By declaring this campaign, we call on all labour and human rights organisations in Iran and internationally to condemn the arrest of these loved ones and to call for their unconditional release. We call on them to do all within their power and to use all possible means to support these workers and their families and insist on their demands as set out in their May Day Resolution.

Long live the class solidarity of workers of the world.

Please send your statements of support and reports of actions taken to the this email address.

Union of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Vahed Bus Company
Union of Workers of Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Workers
Free Union of Iranian Workers
Committee for the Re-opening of the Union of Building Painting and Decoration Workers
Co-operating Council of Workers’ Organisations and Activists comprised of:
- Follow-up Committee to Form Free Workers’ Organisations
- Co-ordinating Committee to Aid Formation of Workers’ Organisations
- A Group of Worker Activists
- Women’s Council
- Association for Support of Worker Rights

This campaign is supported by:

Kermanshah Electricity and Metal Society
Society to Defend Sacked Workers of Saqez
Committee to Defend Haft Tape Workers
Workers of Sanandaj Par-Ris Factory
Sanandaj Shin-Baaft Textile Factory
Workers of Shahoo Companies
Kurdistan Textile
Gharb-Baaft [Textile Company]
Sheel Brick
Pak Ara Milk
Sama Gunnysack Makers
Fajr Flour
Niroo Raksh [Power Company]
Service workers of Sanandaj Tohid Hospital
A group of Sanandaj retirees
Workers of West Kermanshah Carpet Company
Dena Tyre Company
Ghaiee Cement
A group of workers of Asalouye [Petrochemical Complex]
A group of Iran Khodro [Car Company]

Translation: International Labour Solidarity Committee of the Worker-communist Party of Iran (ILSC-WPI). For info: Bahram.soroush@gmail.com Shahla_daneshfar@yahoo.com

The following are among around 100 still in jail:

1- Jafar Azim Zadeh
2- Shapour Ehsani Rad
3- Bahram (Isa) Abedini
4- Saeed Yuzi
5- Behrooz Khabbaz
6- Yunes Arzhang
7- Maryam Mohseni
8- Mohammad Ashrafi
9- Laleh Mohammadi
10- Sharif Mohammadi
11- Afsaneh Azimzadeh
12- Fatemeh Eghdami
13- Fatemeh Shah Nazari
14- Mohammad Lotfi
15- Masoud Loghman
16- Ghloamreza Khani
17- Mansoor Hayat Gheibi
18- Behnaz Farmanbar
19- Parvaneh Ghasemian
20- Meysam Jafar Nejad
21- Amir Yaghoub Ali
22- Kaveh Mozaffari
23- Jelveh Javaheri
24- Alireza Saghafi
25- Mohsen Saghafi
26- Asadollah Poorfarhad
27- Alireza Firouzi
28- Pourya Pishtazeh
29- Taha Valizadeh
30- Homa Azhdarnia
31- Hamid Khademi
32- Einollah Basiri
33- Omid Shafiee
34- Navid Yazdi
35- Nasrin Alizadeh
36- Sajjad Sabz Alipour
37- Aysan Zarfam
38- Khoshbakht
39- Ahmad Davoudi
40- Mohammadi Salimi
41- Mohammad Ehsani
42- Saleh Kia Abadi
43- Hamid Yaghoub Ali
44- Sirous Fathi
45- Sharifeh Fathi
46- Maryam Mirbahari
47- Maryam Yaminifar
48- Mahmoud Hosseini
49- Homayoun Jaberi
50- Behnam Ebrahim Zadeh
51- Hamid Malak Zadeh
52- Sadegh Keyvan
53- Azhan Pour Sharifi
54- Zanyar Ahmadi
55- Behzad Khabbaz
56- Hamid Yaghoub Ali
57- Mehdi Shandiz Farahani
58- Farajollah Sa’di
59- Najme Ranjbaran
60- Ali Moa’zzab
61- Saeed Sajoodi
62- Hamid Ghorbani
63- Yekzad Zangeh
64- Asghar Yavari
65- Gholamreza Rajabi
…

[12 May 2009]