From eradicating poverty to controlling inflation, making public services free, or introducing consecutive development plans, Iran’s regime has been relentlessly making bogus claims to improve the economy while refraining from any action to address the Iranian people’s problems.
While Iranians from all walks of life suffer from the country’s financial calamity, the plight of workers is far more deplorable and the true form of modern slavery.
In recent days, regime president Ebrahim Raisi introduce his so-called “seventh development plan” with much fanfare about its “benefits for workers.” However, a closer look at this program and the recent admissions by the state-run media debunk Raisi’s lies.
In its June 7 article, “Workers’ lost dreams,” the state-run Sharq newspaper warned that the new bill will “endanger workers’ lives.”
On May 22, the state-run Etemad daily described Raisi’s development plan as the most “uncooperative program within the last 80 years of plans to reconstruct the country. This bill, created in the dark chambers of government’s highly trusted document-makers, is not supported and verified by civil society, academia, and even the parliament and other institutions of the consolidated system.”
The state-run Jamaran website also considered Raisi’s Seventh Development Plan as “The largest attack on workers’ interests and rights since the system’s foundation.”
In an article on May 31, the state-run Tasnim News Agency acknowledged that the plan’s 15th article alone “is like modern slavery.” “The salary of workers, which amounts to 80 million rials, fails to cover basic living expenses. Consequently, individuals are compelled to forgo traditional expenditures. Meanwhile, the objective of this article is to address the reduction in productivity and the subsequent rise in inflation.”
In a May 29 article in this regard, the state-run ILNA News Agency wrote, “The government is implementing a plan outlined in Article 15 of the 7th Development Bill, which promotes the outdated master-apprenticeship system. Additionally, Article 16 entails the employment of workers under the oversight of the relief and welfare committee, as well as prisoners. These measures aim to weaken and exploit workers, ultimately benefiting capitalists and employers.”
The fact that the IRGC dominates Iran’s economy and is the largest entrepreneur and “capitalist” is common knowledge. Under Article 15 of the proposed development plan, the IRGC has the authority to pay workers a monthly salary that is only half of the approved minimum annual wage during the first three years of their employment. This provision further emphasizes the potential exploitation of workers. As the state-run Khabar-online wrote on May 24, this article “allows employers the freedom to treat workers however they want.”
The relentless slavery and severe exploitation of workers continue unabated. Their purchasing power diminishes with each passing day, resulting in an increasing number of individuals falling ill, facing unemployment, and even arrests. Meanwhile, the regime’s oppressive machinery, engaged in repression, warmongering, and terrorism, witnesses a daily increase in both official and unofficial budgets. The IRGC, along with the looting foundations affiliated with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, shamelessly snatch away the meager sustenance from the workers’ already empty pockets. Despite the media and certain government officials attempting to portray support for workers, the reality is that the brutal exploitation of workers has reached an unprecedented level today, debunking the grotesque propaganda propagated by Raisi and Khamenei.
In a June 7 article, Sharq daily quoted a so-called “labor activist,” Dehghani Nia, as saying that the regime’s “unethical and illegal practices are causing irreparable damage to the assets of the workers. If this continues, we, like other national and military pension funds, will be left without any capital or a secure future. However, we are willing to go to great lengths, even if it means not receiving a single rial from the government, on the condition that they cease their interference with the funds of the Social Security Organization. They must refrain from plundering the resources intended to provide social security to the workers.”
Iranian workers view the regime as the primary cause of the ongoing crisis. Consequently, they are actively participating in social protests, sit-ins, strikes, and demonstrations, emphasizing that the only viable resolution lies in a change of regime.
