Monday, May 20, 2024
HomeNEWSIRAN NEWSProtests expand in Iran prior to International Workers' Day
NEWSIRAN NEWS

Protests expand in Iran prior to International Workers’ Day

By Mahmoud Hakamian
iran - laborers - international workers' day - 2023
Protesting workers in Iran - [File Photo]

Iran’s nationwide uprising is witnessing its 227th day on Sunday as various protests expand across the country and regime officials are threatening to lay off thousands of industrial workers who have been on strike for over a week now. The protesting workers of oil, gas, petrochemical, steel, copper, and other industrial workers are seeking their rights to be acknowledged and better pay as the country’s economy is nosediving while inflation and prices of ordinary goods are skyrocketing.

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.

MEK Resistance Units and brave youths have launched a new campaign of different anti-regime measures in different cities checkered across Iran on the brink of International Workers’ Day in response to the Khamenei’s remarks about the country’s workers “establishing red lines against the enemy” during their protests and Iran’s uprising.

  • Brave youths attacked IRGC paramilitary Basij bases in the cities of Mashhad, Karaj, and Dezful
  • Brave youths attacked the office of the regime’s Friday prayers imam in Junaqan
  • Brave youths attacked the regime’s seminary in Arak. These seminaries are used by the mullahs to promote their ideology of hatred, misogyny, and fundamentalism.
  • MEK Resistance Units torched a poster of the regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) in Karaj
  • MEK Resistance Units torched images of Khamenei, regime founder Ruhollah Khomeini, and former IRGC Quds Force chief Qassem Soleimani in Tehran, Isfahan, Sabzevar, Yazd, Sari, and Borazjan
  • Workers in Asaluyeh wrote in graffiti: “Workers are aware and hate the mullahs and the Shah! Down with Khamenei! Down with the Shah!”

Workers of the Razi petrochemical complex in Bandar Mahshahr, southwest Iran, are on strike on Sunday, joining the nationwide campaign of industrial workers going on strike. They are demanding their officials to raise their salaries.

In other reports, workers of the Yazd Tire Industrial Complex are holding a gathering in the city of Yazd, central Iran, and protesting for their on Sunday. In the capital Tehran, employees of the city Traffic Control are holding a protest gathering outside the City Council demanding their rights.

Pensioners and retirees of the regime’s Social Security Organization in the cities of Tehran, Isfahan, Rasht, Arak, Ahvaz, Rasht, Babol, and Kermanshah held rallies on Sunday 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.

Interestingly, the regime’s own media reported that The Social Security Investment Company (SHASTA), the financial institution that is supposed to fund retirees, has seen a significant increase in its profits in the past years. However, these profits have yet to materialize in the lives of pensioners and retirees.

Workers of the Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Company in the city of Shush, southwest Iran, are on strike today, protesting the fact that a senior company official has recently insulted them. These workers insist no one has the right to insult them and they are refusing to continue their tasks, demanding the company official who has insulted them take back his remarks and apologize.

Nurses in Shiraz, south-central Iran, held a gathering on Sunday protesting the regime’s unjust policies that are depriving them of their deserved paychecks and pensions. Similar gathering were held by nurses in Ahvaz on April 27th, and the medical staffs of Rajaie Hospital of Qazvin in northwest Iran on April 20th and Mashhad’s Qaem Hospital on April 5th.

Workers of various industrial projects near the Jafir area in Khuzestan Province, southwest Iran, went on strike on Sunday, joining the nationwide strikes campaign of Iranian workers demanding higher salaries. These workers join those of at least 110 other such industrial sites in 38 cities across 13 provinces throughout Iran who are continuing their strike and standing their ground regarding their just demands.

A group of season and daily workers of a local petrochemical complex in Qeshm, southern Iran, held a gathering on Sunday to mark International Workers Day.

Regime operatives launched a chemical gas attack on Sunday targeting the all-girls Dr. Spervarin High School in Karaj, west of Tehran, leaving many students poisoned and in need medical care.

A group of disabled locals in the city of Torbat-e Jam in northeast Iran held a gathering outside the regime’s Welfare Organization on Sunday protesting the violation of their rights.

Farmers from across Isfahan Province rallied in the provincial capital on Sunday to protest for their fair share of water for their lands and other grievances that have gone unanswered by regime officials.

Locals in the Ekbatan district of the Iranian capital, Tehran, were chanting anti-regime slogans on Saturday night, including:

“Down with Khamenei, the murderer!”

A group of teachers held a rally outside the regime’s Education Ministry in Tehran on Saturday protesting their low paychecks and poor living conditions.

In other reports from the Iranian capital, at least two all-girls schools have been the target of the regime’s latest organized and deliberate chemical gas attacks. Many of the students are reportedly feeling extremely ill after being poisoned as a result of these latest attacks.

The regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) issued a statement completely denying any chemical substance being used against schoolkids across the country that have left thousands poisoned. The MOIS statement claims there is no network behind these deliberate and organized chemical gas attacks, while adding there is a network behind the spread of rumors and accusations against the mullahs’ regime.

Employees of the Montazeri power plant in the city of Isfahan, central Iran, were on strike on Saturday protesting their officials’ refusal to increase their paychecks despite the country’s skyrocketing inflation and devastating economic circumstances. They are the latest site to join over 110 other industrial centers throughout the country who are on strike in 38 cities checkered across 13 provinces.

From Thursday, April 28, four thousand new workers will be replacing those workers who are on strike, according to Sekhavat Assadi, chief executive officer of the Pars Special Region Organization.

“In eight petrochemical projects of this special region a number of the seasonal workers have been on strike due to problems regarding their living conditions. At the end of their legal period, four thousand of these workers will be replaced with new workers,” Assadi on Saturday, according to the semi-official Entekhab news agency.

“[Khamenei] has named this year as the year of growth and prosperity in production. All the efforts of officials at the Pars Special Region is focused on all the projects to quickly be finalized and reach the production stage in order to realize maximum production,” he added, acknowledging that Khamenei himself is behind this plan to replace the workers who are on strike instead of agreeing to their rightful demands. This is completely against the interests of Iranian workers.

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.

Previous article
Iran’s protests continue with brave Baluchis renewing major anti-regime rallies
Next article
Our struggle continues: Messages of hope and determination from political prisoners in Iran
Mahmoud Hakamian
RELATED ARTICLES

Selected

fd88217f-1f1b-4525-92f8-1ec00c750fc9_330
PMOI-MEk1-1

Latest News and Articles

No feed found with the ID 1. Go to the All Feeds page and select an ID from an existing feed.

ABOUT PMOI/MEK

MARYAM RAJAVI

NEWS

Publication of website articles and contents are permitted with citation of source © 2022- People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran