In a powerful open letter marking International Workers’ Day, a group of political prisoners supporting the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) from Ghezel Hesar Prison expressed solidarity with Iranian workers and condemned the regime’s oppression and economic plunder.
The letter honors the sacrifices of workers across Iran, from miners buried alive to those killed in explosions caused by the regime’s negligence. “Let us pause on this May Day to remember the oppressed, murdered, and buried workers in the mines, the workers burned in the flames of IRGC warehouse explosions in Bandar Abbas, and the families trapped in poverty, disease, and slow death,” the prisoners wrote.
They described the regime’s systematic impoverishment of workers and wage earners under both the Shah and the clerical dictatorship, emphasizing that “except for a handful of thieves, profiteers, and embezzlers, the majority of society lives below the poverty line.”
The letter directly blamed regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for the worsening conditions, accusing them of deliberate exploitation. The prisoners denounced the regime’s schemes to seize citizens’ savings, calling it “shameless and brazen.”
“The only path forward for our people – from workers and teachers to nurses and retirees – is to rise up against oppression and uproot this criminal regime,” the statement declared, underscoring the growing resistance across Iran.
The letter concluded with a slogan uniting workers in their demand for freedom: “The cry of every worker: death to the oppressor, whether Shah or supreme leader.”
Below is the full translation of the letter:
Open Letter from PMOI-Supporting Political Prisoners in Ghezel Hesar Prison on International Workers’ Day
With respect for May 1, International Workers’ Day, let us pause to remember the oppressed, murdered, and buried workers in the mines; the workers burned in the flames of IRGC warehouse explosions in Bandar Abbas; and the workers who fell victim to safety failures; as well as the working families trapped in poverty, disease, and a slow death.
For years under both the Shah’s and the mullahs’ dictatorships, protesting workers have been suppressed and gunned down. In our afflicted homeland, the purchasing power of wage earners has been continuously declining for over forty years, regardless of whether the wage earner is a factory worker, day laborer, teacher, nurse, employee, university professor, or a doctor employed in a public hospital.
Except for a handful of thieves, profiteers, cronies, embezzlers, and middlemen, the majority of society lives below the poverty line.
It is now clear to all that the regime’s institutions – especially the IRGC, the foundations of looting and plunder, and the monopolistic import, export, and smuggling cartels – are responsible for this situation. At the head of them all, Khamenei the criminal and his subordinate government conspire every night over new ways to rob the public. Recently, they have set their sights on the modest savings of families, scheming: “Let us invest your savings under government supervision for you!” Such shamelessness and brazenness! We haven’t forgotten the stock market scandal either.
This deceitful regime has no affinity or connection with labor, workers, or the rightful demands of the people; rather, it is their enemy. It deliberately promotes unemployment. In this country, the cheapest and most undervalued commodity is labor. (For example, of the total cost of building a house, only 15% goes to the wages of workers, masons, and technicians; the rest goes toward land, materials, and infrastructure. Where else in the world is this the case?!)
The only path forward for the various sectors of our people – from workers and teachers to nurses and retirees, whose cries now echo daily through every street and alleyway – is an uprising against oppression and the uprooting of this criminal regime.
The cry of every worker: Death to the oppressor, whether Shah or leader.
A group of PMOI-supporting political prisoners – Ghezel Hesar Prison
April 30, 2025