Iran: Workers and Other Deprived Groups Continue to Protest and Strike

In Abadan, the workers of the municipality gathered for the second day in a row against the non-payment of their salaries of previous months

Iran Uprising - No. 70

On Friday and Saturday, February 2 and 3, 2018, protest movements of youths, workers and other deprived classes continued.

On Saturday, February 3:

1. The Qazvin bazaar businessmen went on strike in protest of tax extortion and pressure from the regime.

2. A group of Tondgouyan petrochemical workers in Bandar Mahshahr gathered in front of the governorate in protest to non-payment of part of their claims. In the days before, the workers had been on strike at their workplaces.

3. The contract staff of the National Iranian Drilling Company gathered again. They object to the status of salaries and wage discrimination between them and the permanent staff.

4. A group of Moghan sugar beet growers gathered in Moghan Agro-Industrial Company's Office of Management and Finance to protest non-payment of their claims.

5. In Abadan, the workers of the municipality gathered for the second day in a row against the non-payment of their salaries of previous months.

6. The families of MPS patients gathered in front of the Ministry of Health in Tehran to protest the scarcity and cost of the drugs for the disease.

7. The unemployed youth of Agda in Ardakan (Yazd province) gathered in front of the pelletizing complex.

8. A number of graduate engineers gathered in front of the Ministry of Science in Tehran to protest the devaluation of their degrees. They have come to Tehran from different provinces such as Ilam, Ardabil, Hamedan, Alborz, Mazandaran and Markazi.
9. Workers of the coop housing company of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company protested against five-year delay in delivering their homes.

Confession of the Director of the Regime's Prisons Organization on the Arrest of More Than 5,000 People, During the Uprising

an Uprising - No. 69

The anti-human clerical regime launched a show visit to Evin prison on January 30, by a number of the regime’s members of Parliament, to cover the disgrace of the crimes against humanity regarding the uprising prisoners, which is increasing each and every day. This show took place while with the killing of Khaled Qaisari under torture in Kermanshah Prison, the number of those who were martyred under torture reaches to at least 12.

Eleven members of the Parliament, after three weeks of design, preparation and postponement, were eventually taken to Evin Prison on January 30. Although this handpicked delegation had been banned from talking freely about its observations, some of them have revealed new corners of the regime's crimes about the detainees of the January uprising.

Alireza Rahimi, member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the regime, on Friday, February 2, quoted the criminal director of the Prisons Organization, Asghar Jahangir, as saying: "The total number of prisoners in January events was 4972,.73.94% of whom were men and 27.5% were women. 438 people are still in detention. In addition, 55 people are detained in the Ministry of Intelligence (Ilna News Agency – February 2).

There is no need to explain that the actual figure of the arrested and the detainees is much higher; on the one hand, the head of the Prisons Organization is trying to portray the number of arrests much less than reality; on the other hand, many prisons, detention centers, secret and safe houses belonging to the Ministry of Intelligence, the Revolutionary Guard Corps the IRGC's intelligence and other repressive forces are not under the control of the Prisons Organization, and Jahangir does not mention them.

One of the goals of the regime in organizing this visit was to cover up the killing of brave young Sina Ghanbari under torture and to record the ridiculous lie of the regime about his suicide. But Mohammad Kazemi, one of the visiting MPs, said: "There is not much information about Sina Ghanbari's method and causes of suicide, and until now, the visit of the representatives has not revealed the mystery of his death."

Iran: Women protest against children’s lack of medication

Families of patients suffering from metabolic diseases gathered in protest in front of the Food and Drugs Organization on Saturday, November 11, 2017.

Mothers of ill children protested against the organization’s failure to provide their children’s needed drugs and accused the officials of being irresponsible.

“We are 230 families whose children suffer from MPS (). Our children need enzymatic drugs in the absence of which, they will have liver, lung and heart disorders. We have been following up (these drugs) for a year but they have not yet given us any drugs,” a woman said.

Another mother said, “The drug has been imported and stacked them up in their storehouse, while my child has not received any medication for two months. The Food and Drugs Organization has not approved distribution of the drug.”

Lord Carlile: Designation of IRGC is a welcome step, but Iran policy should focus on Tehran's human rights abuses

I welcome the decision by the U.S. Treasury last week to designate the entire Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation pursuant to the global terrorism Executive Order (E.O.) 13224.

The UK, as well as the EU, should now join this effort and designate the IRGC in support of a coherent Western strategy to push back against the Iranian regime’s malign activities in the Middle East and domestic repression. This is particularly justified in light of a reported cyberattack by Iran on the UK Parliament that hit f MPs this summer.

This designation is an important step in denying financial and material support for the IRGC, a brutal paramilitary force tasked with crushing popular dissent at home and exporting terrorism and fundamentalism abroad.

For the last three decades, the IRGC has grown threateningly in the Iranian economy, controlling the lion’s share of vital sectors of the country’s economy to the detriment of the private sector.

My colleagues and I have always maintained that the decision to decouple Tehran’s egregious human rights record from the nuclear talks was a mistake.

It is encouraging that the new U.S. policy on Iran corrects this mistake and seizes this missed opportunity to consider the nuclear deal as a part of the many major threats posed by the regime in Tehran.

The UK, and the EU, should now work with the USA to implement a coherent policy on Iran that places human rights at centre stage and recognises the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people.

Such policy should begin by addressing one of the worst crimes in Iran’s modern history, the 1988 massacre of thousands of political prisoners, following the latest report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran transmitted to the General Assembly for further consideration, which documents the prison massacre of 1988 in detail.