Iranian Progressives in Translation

Translator’s Note: During the past few months, progressives inside Iran have taken advantage of the Iranian government’s anti-Wall Street rhetoric to hold several forums to discuss the significance of the Occupy Wall Street Movement. Below are excerpts from two presentations which also offer different views of the nature of the current economic crisis. The first by Mohsen Hakimi, labor activist, writer and translator, was presented to the Iranian Sociological Association in Tehran. The second by Mohammad Maljoo, economist, was presented at a “Workshop on the Socio-Economic Analysis of the Occupy Wall Street Movement” at Tehran University’s School of Social Sciences. These translations were first published by Tehran Bureau on January 3, 2012. (http://to.pbs.org/yashCX)
Continue reading Progressives Inside Iran Respond to Occupy Wall Street Movement

On September 3, Faranak Farid, an Azeri feminist, writer, poet, translator and secretary of the First Azerbaijan Women’s Congress was arrested in Tabriz. Since then, she has been interrogated for long hours and severely beaten by agents of the Tabriz Ministry of Intelligence. Her condition is deteriorating and she needs urgent medical attention. Below are excerpts from the translation of a speech which Farid had presented to a gathering of feminists in New York City in March 2010. I have taken the liberty of revising and editing the translation.
Continue reading Free Faranak Farid: Azeri Feminist Speaks of Plight of Azeri Women in Iran

Translator’s note: On May 24, a massive explosion and fire at a newly inaugurated oil refinery in Abadan led to the deaths and injuries of an unknown number of workers. The explosion, caused by technical problems, occurred during a facility inauguration ceremony that had prompted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to boast of Iran’s growing capacity to refine oil. According to Hamid Reza Katouzian, head of the Energy Commission of the Majles, Iran’s parliament, “experts had forewarned that the Abadan refinery was not ready to be inaugurated.”

The explosion underscored once again the lack of safe working conditions in Iran’s oil and petrochemical industry. In addition, recent labor strikes have challenged the industry’s reliance on temporary contracts for its labor force. In March, 1,800 contract workers at the Tabriz Petrochemical Complex demanded that they be hired directly in order to receive the benefits and job security provisions to which permanent employees are entitled. In April, 1,500 striking workers at the Imam Khomeini Port Petrochemical Complex located in Khuzestan near the Gulf made similar demands.
Continue reading The State of Labor in Iran’s Oil and Petrochemical Industry

Translator’s note: Last March, The Tehran-based Center for the Defense of Labor Rights held a roundtable at which various left-wing Iranian economists and labor activists commented on the Plan for Targeted Monetary Subsidies. Below are excerpts from comments made by Mohsen Hakimi, labor activist and translator of Georg Lukacs’s Young Hegel.
Continue reading Thoughts on the Plan for Targeted Monetary Subsidies

Translator’s note: The following call was issued by a group of Iranian intellectuals and activists on March 18, 2011.
Continue reading Iranian Intellectuals Censure Regime’s Nuclear Policy