Thursday, May 2, 2024
HomeNEWSIRAN NEWSIran’s workers continue strikes as new gas attacks target more schools
NEWSIRAN NEWS

Iran’s workers continue strikes as new gas attacks target more schools

By Mahmoud Hakamian
iran - workers - strike - campaign - oil - petrochemical - steel - copper - jask, southeast Iran - April 24, 2023
Industrial workers on strike across Iran - April 2023

Workers of oil, petrochemical, steel, copper and other industrial sites across Iran are continuing their strike and delivering a significant blow to the mullahs’ regime. At least 97 sites in 32 cities of 12 provinces are reporting that their workers are on strike and Tuesday marks the fifth consecutive day of this latest campaign.

These are parallel to the regime’s relaunching its horrific chemical gas attacks targeting innocent schoolgirls as the nationwide uprising enters its 222nd day today.

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 Mahabad, a restive city in northwest Iran, attacked the local state police headquarters early Monday morning in response to the regime’s attacks against kolbars (border porters). Multiple explosions were reported as a result of this attacks. The state police headquarters in Mahabad is missioned to quell all protests and uprisings in this city.

The state police border units in the city of Baneh, northwest Iran, used a vehicle to run over Mohammad Latif Ahmadpour, one of the kolbars working in the area. He died four days later in a hospital.

The regime’s governor in Baneh contacted Ahmadpour’s family and warned them to bury his body during midnight hours and without making any public arrangements.

Brave youths attacked a regime judiciary office in the town of Abbas Abad in northern Iran on Saturday night, April 22, in response to the regime’s security forces and judiciary agents attacking local farmers, killing two people and injuring another five. The regime’s forces and agents were attempting to confiscate the local farmers’ lands based on forged documents. Multiple explosions were reported in this area as a result of this attack.

In the city of Yazd, central Iran, MEK Resistance Units portrayed a large image of Iranian Resistance Leader Massoud Rajavi on Javad-ol-Aemeh Street.

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. Locals gathered in protest to this crime and security forces opened fire on their ranks. Protesters are reportedly surrounding the city police station. Incoming reports indicate protesters using Molotov cocktails were able to set ablaze this regime police station.

At least one local is reportedly killed and the number of those injured as a result of the regime’s forces opening fire is rising. The IRGC has cut-off electricity and is imposing an internet blackout across the city, according to local activists. Authorities have 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, have also joined the nationwide campaign. Workers from other sites joining the nationwide campaign on Tuesday include:

  • 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

Reports from different regions of Iran showed that workers of various industrial sites across the country were continuing their strike on Monday. These industrial sites include oil, petrochemical, steel, and copper plants and mines where workers are complaining about being denied their paychecks and basic rights. The protests are reported today from the following sites, among many others:

  • Contract workers of a steel plant in Shadegan, southwest Iran
  • Contract workers involved at a copper plant in Rafsanjan, central Iran
  • Contract workers involved in an LPG site in Asaluyeh, southern Iran
  • Contract workers involved in a local petrochemical site in Gachsaran, southwest Iran
  • Contract workers involved in safety procedures in an industrial site in Kangan, eastern Iran
  • Contract workers at the Der Alo Copper Mine in Kerman, south-central Iran
  • Contract workers of various industrial sites near Isfahan, central Iran
  • Contract workers at the Madkush steel company in Bandar Abbas, southern Iran
  • Contract workers of a local industrial company in Jask, southeast Iran
  • Contract workers of the Rezhin Sanat Company in Chabahar, southeast Iran
  • Contract workers of the Gostaresh Steel Company in Shadegan, southwest Iran
  • Contract workers of the Sarcheshmeh Janpars Copper Company in Kerman, south-central Iran
  • Contract workers of the Fraptrosazan Company in Jask, southeast 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 are 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 today’s chemical attacks include:

  • 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.

Regime operatives had relaunched their chemical gas attacks targeting the country’s schools and mostly innocent schoolgirls on Monday. The all-girls Me’raj and Esmat schools in the Hassan Abad district of Sanandaj in Kurdistan Province, western Iran, was targeted, according to the Hengaw Human Rights Organization. At least 20 students were poisoned and transferred to a hospital to receive medical care, according to reports.

Further reports indicate the all-girls Ma’edeh and Mastureh high schools, both located in Sanandaj, were targeted on Monday in deliberate and organized chemical gas attacks targeting innocent children, especially girls. Similar gas attacks were reported in the cities of Tehran, Hamadan in western Iran and Karaj, a large city located west of Tehran.

Locals in the capital’s Sardar-e Jangal district began chanting anti-regime slogans, 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, which have been found, be returned. It has been 11 months since the stolen savings and property of these individuals have been found. However, regime authorities have refused 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, are in the streets blocking their roads and protesting the regime’s measures aimed at confiscating their lands. Footage posted on social media indicates that the protesting locals are 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 indicate that municipality agents and units of the regime’s anti-riot forces are attacking local street vendors and rounding up their goods. Those working as street workers 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 protesting their unjust working conditions and violations of their rights.

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

The protesting workers were chanting anti-regime slogans, including:

“Neither the Majlis (parliament) nor the government care about the people!”
“High prices and inflation are killing the people!”
“Enough with pledges and promises! We have nothing to eat!”

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.

Nurses and medical staff of various medical centers in Sanandaj, the provincial capital of Kurdistan, western Iran, rallied outside the Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences on Monday protesting their economic woes and demanding answers.

Dump truck drivers were on strike and gathering outside the Kazerun municipality office in Fars Province seeking answers and officials to address their demands.

Employees and retirees of the Kurdistan Communications Department were protesting outside this office building in Sanandaj on Monday demanding regime officials address their issues and dilemmas. Similar protests are being reported from Tehran, Khorramabad, Mashhad, Anvaz, Ardabil, Sanandaj, Isfahan, Rasht, Karaj, Shiraz, and Shahrekord.

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
Strikes at sensitive industrial sites continue across Iran
Next article
Iran sees more workers join nationwide strike, major unrest in Baluchestan
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