Support the Campaign for Cancellation of the Trial of 9 Miners of Bafqh in Iran

To Worker and Humanist Organizations All Over the World

 

 

9 miners of Bafqh of Yazd province, which had gone on strike in the summer of the previous year, were summoned to court on 17th of January and were tried. The judiciary system of Islamic Republic couldn’t reach a decision in this trial, for the fear of protest by 5000 workers of this mine, and set another trial date on February 16, 2016. We have announced a campaign in this regard and seek to stop this trial.

 

As a reminder, 5000 miners of Bafqh of Yazd went on strike in two stages in the summer of the last year for 39 days and 15 days. Their protest was related to the sale of the shares of the company and layoffs that would follow, along with 16 immediate demands including increase in wages, raising the safety of work environment, cancellation of temporary contracts, and official employment.

 

Following the first stage of protests, government and employers set to work by arresting 6 worker activists and intimidation and summoning of more, in order to prevent the continuation of these struggles. In response for these arrests, and also to follow up on their demands, the second stage of struggle started on 19 of August and continued till 3rd of September of 2014. As a result, workers succeeded in freeing their jailed coworkers. And, with the stop of selling shares of the company and with the promise of meeting and execution of the rest of their demands, these workers went back to work. The families of the workers were with them in these protests, and as result, the whole city, which is mostly composed of families and relatives of these workers, set into motion.

 

A month after the second stage of protests, not only their demands were not met, but also 9 of worker activists were summoned and interrogated. It is after this history of struggle that Islamic courts have tried workers in 17th of January of this year, and have set another date for trial and sentencing of these workers.

 

With this brief explanation, you see that the trial of 9 miners of Bafqh is indeed the trial of 5000 protesters of this mine which are struggling for their righteous demands. Specifically, the issue is the economic crises in this mine and the danger of closure and more layoffs; and the trial of 9 workers is an introduction to set the stage for this attack on workers.

 

We remind that following the nuclear agreement and effort by Islamic Republic to attract domestic and foreign capital, the austerity measures and pressure on worker leaders are two components of state policy; and, as of now, a number of worker activists, including Jafar Azimzadeh, Behnam Ebrahimzadeh, Mohammad Jarahi, Rasoul Bodaghi, Esmail Abdi, Alireza Hashemi, Mahmood Beheshti, Aliakbar Baghani, and many others political prisoners  are in jail. Jafar Azimzadeh, a well known worker’s leader, has recently been arrested, imprisoned, and sentenced for 6 years in jail. This is happening at a time when thousands of workers are involved in protest and struggle in any given week.

 

We expect of all worker organizations all over the world to condemn the harassment of striking workers and to demand an end to any form of file engineering against workers of Bafqh of Yazd, and other workers and people. We expect of you to demand the immediate and unconditional freedom of jailed workers, jailed teachers, and all other political and ideological prisoners.

 

Campaign to free jailed workers in Iran (Free Them Now(

22 January 2016

 

Shahla. Daneshfar2@gmail.com

http://free-them-now.com

 

Translated by: Habib Biktash

 

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