Author: Frieda Afary

Police stations, banks, some public buildings,  a few religious seminaries and  many posters of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have been set on fire.  Demonstrators have blocked roads.  Slogans include:  “Gasoline is becoming more expensive and the poor are becoming poorer.”   “Khamenei is a murderer.  His rule has expired.”   “Death to the Dictator.”   “Death to this Demagogic Government.”  Even some members of the parliament have resigned in protest.

In all the ongoing struggles in the region,  the most progressive demands have been raised by women participants who oppose patriarchy and do not separate social justice from women’s emancipation.  In order for the 2019 uprisings to move forward,  the struggle for women’s emancipation and its inseparability from the struggle against capitalist exploitation and alienation needs to become much more explicit and act as a guiding light for the movement.    What can socialist feminists in the region and around the world  do to help in this effort?

Dear General Secretary Burrow,   all of these acts of repression against Iranian workers are committed because the Iranian government considers any union activity by workers, teachers and all wage earners to be a security threat.  It uses false security accusations to repress, arrest and imprison workers, teachers, the retirees and even the supporters of the Iranian working class. This type of brutal repression of workers by the government takes place while the government sends so-called “representatives”  of  workers to international gatherings  and presents a false picture of the situation of workers in Iran.   This government aims to prevent our voices from reaching you and other international labor and human rights organizations.

International working class solidarity calls on workers of all countries,  especially countries in which workers still have the basic rights of free speech, protest and association,  to support the struggles of their fellow working class members, condemn the anti-labor and anti-democratic policies of the Islamic Republic.

Continue reading Open Letter from Iranian Workers and Labor Activists to International Workers, Labor Organizations, Syndicates, and All People of Conscience

The aim of this campaign is to demand the immediate and unconditional release of a diverse set of women political prisoners who oppose patriarchy and religious fundamentalism,  defend women’s rights, human rights, labor rights and the rights of oppressed minorities.

Continue reading Campaign in Solidarity with Feminist Political Prisoners in the Middle East and North Africa