HomeNEWSIRAN NEWSIran sees more workers join nationwide strike, major unrest in Baluchestan
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Iran sees more workers join nationwide strike, major unrest in Baluchestan

By Mahmoud Hakamian
iran - protests - oil - gas - petrochemical - steel - copper - industry - administrative - uprising - April 2023
Protests by people from all walks of life are escalating across Iran - April 2023

Iran’s nationwide uprising is witnessing its 223rd day on Wednesday as vast strike of the country’s industrial workers continues on its sixth day, expanding to at least 104 sites in 37 cities across 13 provinces. Workers in the oil, gas, petrochemical, steel, copper, and other industrial sites are walking off and refusing to show up for work until they receive higher salaries, and their rights are acknowledged.

On Tuesday night the regime’s oppressive security forces in the city of Fanuj in Sistan & Baluchestan Province of southeast Iran ran over two motorcycles with their vehicle, leaving four locals injured. People in this city began to gather at the site and authorities, focused on preventing anti-regime protests, began to open fire on the crowd, leaving even more people injured.

People throughout Iran continue to specifically hold the mullahs’ Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei responsible for their miseries, while also condemning the oppressive the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and paramilitary Basij units, alongside other security units that are on the ground suppressing the peaceful demonstrators.

Protests in Iran have to this day expanded to at least 282 cities. Over 750 people have been killed and more than 30,000 are arrested by the regime’s forces, according to sources of Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). The names of 675 killed protesters have been published by the PMOI/MEK.

Brave youths and protesters in the town of Robat Karim, located south of Tehran, attacked the command headquarters of the local IRGC paramilitary Basij force in the early morning hours of Tuesday. This attack, which resulted in at least one major explosion, was in response to the regime’s ongoing organized and deliberate chemical gas attacks targeting mostly innocent schoolgirls throughout Iran.

The units stationed in this Basij command headquarters of Robat Karim have been directly involved in arresting and torturing protesters from this area during the nationwide uprisings of January 2018, November 2019, and the most recent uprising that began in September 2022. They have also played a major role in the regime’s crackdown and harassment of women and schoolgirls.

Iran - protests - uprising - revolution - April 2023
Protesters inside Iran are attacking sites associated to the mullahs’ regime, the IRGC, and Basij paramilitary units – April 2023

MEK Resistance Units portrayed a large image of Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian opposition coalition NCRI, on Khorramshahr Boulevard in the city of Astara, northern Iran, on Monday night at 11 pm local time.

Regime operatives deliberately targeted the all-girls Hassan Abad School in a chemical gas attack on Wednesday. A number of the students were poisoned in this organized attack. Reports indicate that the all-girls Taghizadeh Elementary School and the Reyhaneh High School in the city of Chabahar, southeast Iran, were also the target of the regime’s ongoing chemical gas attacks. Other schools targeted in today’s attacks include:

 

Administrative employees of the ODCC Company in Isfahan, central Iran, are joining the nationwide strike on Wednesday and protesting their officials’ refusal to increase their paychecks.

Workers of a well services company in Ahvaz, southwest Iran, held a gathering on Wednesday to protest and demand their delayed paychecks. Workers of an industrial site in Sirjan, south-central Iran, were also on strike today, protesting their officials’ refusal to increase their paychecks and acknowledge their violated rights.

Nurses in Shiraz are holding a gathering and protesting the regime’s payment methods that are depriving them of their basic rights. These protests have continued for some time now and regime officials are refusing to address their issues in utter neglect.

A group of engineers in Tabriz, northwest Iran, rallied outside the provincial governor’s office on Wednesday demanding officials address their outstanding dilemmas.

Locals in the Shahrak-e Bagheri district of Tehran were chanting anti-regime slogans on Wednesday night, including:
“Down with Khamenei!”

Pensioners and retirees of the regime’s Social Security Organization in the city of Ahvaz, the capital of Khuzestan Province, southwest Iran, began holding a rally and marching on Wednesday, protesting high prices, poverty, corruption, inflation, poor living conditions and officials’ refusal to address their demands.

Pensioners and retirees are among the worst-hit segments of Iran’s society. They depend on government stipends to make ends meet, but the regime has refused to increase their pensions in correspondence with growing inflation and the depreciation of the national currency.

The government has long provided many hollow promises of increasing pensions. It was also supposed to settle unpaid pensions remaining from previous years. So far, it has yet to deliver on both demands.

Members of the regime’s state police in the city of Fanuj in Sistan & Baluchestan Province, southeast Iran, ran over two motorcycles and severely injured four people on Tuesday night. Locals gathered in protest to this crime and security forces opened fire on their ranks. Protesters thus began surrounding the city police station and, according to reports, began using Molotov cocktails to set the site ablaze.

At least one local was reportedly killed and the number of those injured as a result of the regime’s forces opening fire was rising. The IRGC cut-off electricity and began imposing an internet blackout across the city, according to local activists. Authorities also responded by dispatching a large number of IRGC units in military vehicles from the city of Iranshahr to Fanuj, according to further reports.

Workers at a local refinery in the city of Bidboland in Khuzestan Province, southwest Iran, steel workers in Neyshabur, northeast Iran, and workers of another steel plant near Sirjan, south-central Iran, joined the nationwide campaign on Tuesday. Workers from other sites also launching their strike on Tuesday included:

  • Workers of the Nasb Niroo Company in Ramileh of Khuzestan Province, southwest Iran
  • Workers at a local copper plant in Sarcheshmeh, south-central Iran
  • Workers of the Samin Sanat Pardazan Company at the Salman Farsi Petrochemical site in Bandar-e Khomini, southwest Iran
  • Daily workers of the Olefin Petrochemical Plant in Ilam, western Iran
  • Workers of the Pars Petrochemical Company in southern Iran

Iranian opposition coalition NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi praised the country’s brave workers who are continuing their strike in the face of Khamenei and IRGC despite all odds.

“I commend the workers and laborers who are currently on strike fighting for their rights. As long as the clerical regime remains in power, poverty, unemployment, and inflation will continue to rise, and the conditions for workers and laborers will deteriorate. The sole concern of this regime is to maintain its shameful rule under its supreme leader. Khamenei and the IRGC have exhausted the country’s resources in this pursuit. The ultimate solution lies in overthrowing the religious dictatorship and establishing a free, democratic republic and the people’s sovereignty,” explained the NCRI President-elect.

Regime operatives were behind a new chemical gas attack on Tuesday, targeting the all-girls Avini School in Tehran. A number of the students were poisoned and in immediate need of medical care. Other schools targeted in Tuesday’s chemical attacks included:

  • The all-girls Niayesh and Mastureh Ardalan high schools in Sanandaj, western Iran
  • The all-girls Qudoosi School and the all-boys Mohammadian High School in Kermanshah, western Iran. A number of the students in Mohammadian High School are reportedly in critical condition.

Locals in the capital’s Sardar-e Jangal district began chanting anti-regime slogans on Tuesday night, including:
“Down with the dictator!”
“Protests will not end!”
“Political prisoners must be released!”

Robbed owners of safety deposit boxes in the regime’s Bank Melli rallied outside the Central Bank in Tehran on Tuesday protesting and demanding their savings be returned. It has been 11 months since the stolen savings and property of these individuals have been found. However, regime authorities are refusing to return them to their rightful owners. Reports indicate a number of the participants in this peaceful gathering were arrested by the regime’s oppressive security forces.

Locals in the city of Kian, near Shahrekord, central Iran, were in the streets on Tuesday blocking their roads and protesting the regime’s measures aimed at confiscating their lands. Footage posted on social media indicated that the protesting locals were also starting fires to take control of their streets and prevent the regime from dispatching their oppressive security forces to the area.

In Urmia, northwest Iran, reports indicated that municipality agents and units of the regime’s anti-riot forces were attacking local street vendors and rounding up their goods on Tuesday. Those working as street workers across Iran are forced into this line of work as the economy continues to nosedive thanks to the regime’s destructive policies.

Metro employees in the Iranian capital Tehran were rallying outside the city municipality building on Tuesday protesting their unjust working conditions and violations of their rights.

The protests in Iran began following the death of Mahsa Amini. Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old woman from the city of Saqqez in Kurdistan Province, western Iran, who traveled to Tehran with her family, was arrested on Tuesday, September 13, at the entry of Haqqani Highway by the regime’s so-called “Guidance Patrol” and transferred to the “Moral Security” agency.

She was brutally beaten by the morality police and died of her wounds in a Tehran hospital on September 16. The event triggered protests that quickly spread across Iran and rekindled the people’s desire to overthrow the regime.

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