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بیانیه جمعی از اعضای کمیته هماهنگی برای کمک به ایجاد تشکل‌های کارگری

کمیته هماهنگی برای کمک                                                                                   یکشنبه ٢٠ مرداد ۱۳۹٢

Communiqué from some members of “Coordinating Committee to Help Form Workers’ Organizations” In Iran
Workers, Organizations and Labor activists
We the undersigned are members of “Coordinating Committee to Help Form Workers’ Organizations” We have been targeted by security forces for the past year. Although the new rounds of attacks on our committee was initiated in May 2012 when our annual General Assembly in city of Karaj was massively and brutally disrupted. (1) But the attacks have continued since then. Our members in cities of Rasht, Sanandaj, Bokan, Mahabad, and Saghez…have been either, profiled, been formally asked to appear in court, or arrested. Many have been subject to physical violence, or verbally insulted by security agents. Many have been sentenced to prison while others are awaiting their verdict.

Our fellow workers!
As a group of workers who have been target of increased pressures and attacks in the past few months, we reiterate and declare once more that “Coordinating Committee to Help Form Workers’ Organizations” was created in 2005 as a response to lack of independent workers’ organizations.(2)
Our memberships are workers who seek to organizing workers into independent organizations, so workers will be enabled to defend their rights and their class interests, as defined in our charter. “Coordinating Committee to Help Form Workers’ Organizations” is an open, transparent and independent formation, active in fulfillment of workers demands and defending workers’ inalienable rights. Hence many of us have been accused of propagation against the state or having relations with opposition parties. We have strongly denied any such charges previously and continue to do so. We are workers, and like millions of other workers and wage earners, our only source of income is our labor power. We and our families experience many difficulties and obstacles in our daily life. We work in various industrial or service sectors.

Dear workers!
We are guilty of being workers. Our crime is that we have been organized in Coordinating Committee and declared that we as workers ought to have our own independent formations. Isn’t a fact that Capitalists enjoy an array of organizations to accumulate capital and preserve it? Then why workers cannot have our own independent organizations? Our message is that workers do not need paper organizations that act as a voice of the government, and vote against workers’ interests and benefits. We say the right to organize, right to strike, freedom of speech, assembly, thought…are all internationally recognized rights of all citizens. No one should be subjected to profiling, intimidation or incarcerations because they pursue such inalienable rights.
We are workers, and on many occasions we have declared that a delay in payment of workers’ wages is a crime. All those employers responsible for such crimes, and imposition of poverty on works and their families should be subject of legal action and brought to justice. We have called for abolition of all temporary work contracts. We also call for an end to expulsion of workers and mass layoffs. It is our belief that until there is a Capitalist order workers’ wages shall be adjusted according to the real rate of inflation. We believe that employment, housing, health care, and free education are all workers’ inalienable rights and should be enjoyed by them and their families. No toiling member of the society shall be excluded from such rights.
We are workers, and always on the side of struggling workers protesting for their rights, throughout Iran: from Bus drivers, to Kian Tire, from Mahshar Petrochemicals to Sugarcane workers…

Fellow workers!
We the undersigned protest the continued harassment, interrogation, and persecution of workers and labor activists, including our members who have been targeted by security and judiciary officials in cities of Sanandaj, Rasht, Mahabad and Bokan. We consider the judgments of all these courts unjust, and demand reconsideration and nullification of all charges.
We also would like to thank all the workers and workers’ organizations that have supported us during these attacks. We ask all of you to join ranks with us, and assist us in any capacity to put an end to these police tactics. We also protest to free political prisoners and incarcerated workers that have been jailed only because f their beliefs, only because they were demanding the right to strike, or create their own organizations.

Long live workers’ unity and solidarity.

Signatories:
1- Khaled Hossaini 2- Ghaleb Hossaini 3- Wafa Ghaderi 4- Hamed MahmoudiNejad 5- Ali Azadi 6- Behzad Farajollahi 7- Mohammad MOlanaie 8- Vahed Sayede 9- Yoosef Abkharabat 10- Ibrahim MostafaPoor 11- Jamal Minashiri 12- Hadi Tanoomand 13- Mohammad Karimi 14- Majid Hamidi 15- Faramarz FetratNejad 16- Sirus Fathi 17- Saaid Marzban Moghadam 18- Maziar Mehrpoor 19- Masoud SalimPoor 20- Mitra Humayoni 21- Pedram Nasrollahi.

9 August 2013

(1) For more information please refer to the following links;
* Free the members of the Coordinating Committee arrested in City of Karaj!
** Based on what charges were workers in Karaj attacked and beaten
(2) proclamation of “Coordinating Committee to Help Form Workers’ Organizations”