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What does ILO have to say? The International Labour Organisation (ILO) is preparing to hold its one hundred and third annual conference in Geneva in early June. Once again despite protestation from labour activists and organisations and international institutions the representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran under the guise of “Labour House” and the “Islamic Labour Councils” will be welcomed by the ILO. The ILO leadership are fully aware that workers in Iran are denied the right to strike and to set up their own independent organisations. Furthermore the ILO leadership also are aware that a large number of workers are incarcerated accused of asking for their rightful demands and in many instances handed long jail terms. In today’s Iran any attempts to demand unpaid wages is a crime punishable by jail sentences. Numerous strikes are taking place, lasting for many months, and ending in the arrest of the workers. Over 80% of workers in Iran are offered “Zero Hour” contracts and are left at the mercy of the employers without any protection whatsoever. Popular demand to repel such contracts of employment has been met by suppression and assaults on workers. The ILO is well aware of these facts. The reluctance of the ILO’s leadership to address the concerns of the workers in Iran runs against the very principles that an international institutions like ILO has been set up for. The ILO’s conference is meant to be the gathering of the representatives of workers and not an assembly of the representatives of capitalists and their government. Don’t the ILO officials realise that the “House of Labour” and the “Islamic Labour Councils” do not represent the interests of the workers in Iran? Doesn’t the ILO know that the true representatives of workers in Iran such as the leaders of the “Bus Drivers Syndicate” and “Haft Tapeh Sugar Plantation” are constantly prosecuted, sacked, arrested and incarcerated? Do we, every year, need to remind the ILO of these facts? The ILO’s leadership disregard for the condition of workers in Iran and its inaction in the face continued protestation against ILO’s decision to accept the Iranian Government’s delegate as the representative of the Workers in Iran has seriously undermined its credibility and relevance before the workers in Iran. Workers in Iran and their true representatives are justified in proclaiming that the ILO does not represent their interests. Workers in Iran, labour leaders and activists call on all delegates to this year’s annual conference to speak out against the presence of the Iranian government in the conference and demand their expulsion from the ILO. We, members of the Abroad Organisation of “Worker-communist Party of Iran-Hekmatist”, while support and participates in the forthcoming protest action schedulle for 6th June, to be held in front of the United Nations headquarter in Geneva, once again condemn the presence of the Iranian government’s delegation in the ILO annual conference and consider this move an attempt to undermine the interests of the workers in Iran.
Worker-communist Party of Iran-Hekmatist(the official line) - Abroad Committee May 30, 2014
Worker-community Party of Iran-Hekmatist 11 April 2014
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