Reporting by PMOI/MEK
Iran, April 8, 2020—As all across the world, people huddle in their homes to protect their families against the spread of the novel coronavirus, why must we go out to work?
This is the question that Iran’s workers have for regime president Hassan Rouhani, who amid high death COVID-19 deaths in Iran, has ordered to reopen the economy and send many workers to their deaths.
This decision is yet another manifestation of the Iranian regime’s dismal management of the coronavirus crisis and its enmity toward the working class.
The Iranian regime is committing mass murder
Hassan Rouhani ironically announced on his April 4 cabinet meeting that the southern parts of Iran are white zones. His remarks included some important facts:
- The Iranian regime has no firm decisions or a reliable position to confront the coronavirus crisis. Therefore, every day a new crisis is imposed on society. Earlier, Rouhani had said: “It is not clear until when the virus will remain. Maybe it stays for the whole year.” And then on April 4, he said: “Our southern provinces are white zones and we have no problem.”
- The lives of the Iranian people have no value for the Iranian regime. The regime risks the lives of Iranian workers to maintain its economic benefits.
- While in the past 40 days, coronavirus has spread due to connections between cities and it is still present as a sleeper cell in towns and districts, Rouhani deceitfully claims that southern provinces have no threat and dismisses the threat.
- The decision to send workers back to factories is a clear violation of The World Health Organization’s (WHO) resolutions and guidelines. Since the decision will both infect workers and their families and spread the virus across the country, it is the equivalent of committing mass murder.
- While no Iranian city, including Qom as the epicenter, was quarantined, reopening factories, schools, and universities is equal to sending workers, teachers and students to minefields.
On Monday, after weeks of dithering, regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei finally approved to spend $1bn from the national sovereign wealth fund for the fight against COVID-19. Ironically, after the killing of Qassem Suleimani, the regime’s chief terrorist, it took no more than a few days for the regime to ratify a $200mn budget for the Quds Force, the foreign arm of the terrorist Revolutionary Guards.
Moreover, the supreme leader has yet to spend a dime from his huge financial assets, collectively worth over $200bn, to help support the livelihoods of Iran’s labor force. Instead, his regime continues to support terrorism and the development of weapons of mass destruction at full speed while workers continue to wither and die.
While coronavirus has spread in over 240 Iranian cities, the regime’s negligence and instability in making decisions show that the people, especially the workers, are struggling against two enemies: the coronavirus and the inhumane regime and its corrupt structure. First, they need to get rid of the main problem which is the regime and as long as it is in power no crisis can be solved.
