Condemn the ILO’s stance against workers in Iran

Despite continuous protests, representatives of the Islamic Republic are once again listed as the workers’ representatives at the annual conference of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). These state organisations that participate under the guise of workers’ representatives at the ILO conferences are well known, and so is their role in the suppression of the works’ struggle in Iran. The organisers of the annual ILO conference are also well aware of how such organisations as the Centre of the Islamic Councils or The Labour House, have, alongside the security forces, ensured that workers in Iran are denied freedom of association, the right to strike, and the right to collective bargaining, which are ironically said to be the very basic pillars of the ILO.

This year in particular, the whole world witnessed the mass protests that took place in Iran during early January, against the poverty, destitution and corruption and oppression, and the lack of rights in Iran. They showed most vividly, the depth of disgust across the country against that the Islamic Republic and all its institutions, including those attending the ILO conference, for the conditions that they have enforced in Iran during the nearly last four decades.

Undoubtedly, the ILO is itself a United Nations agency, and not an international workers’ institution, with the interest of workers at its heart. Nonetheless, by recognising the Islamic Republic’s institutions as workers’ organisations in Iran, the ILO is clearly promoting the legitimacy of such organisations. This is an action that places ILO alongside the oppressive Islamic Republic, by providing the seal of approval on its institutions as workers’ representatives, and is directly in contradiction of even the ILO’s stated aims and mission.

Indeed, it is such a clear siding against the workers’ struggles in Iran, that has outraged and drawn the protests of trade unions and worker’s organisations across the world.

We solute the solidarity that is expressed by the workers’ organisations participating at this year’s conference in the forthcoming protest action in support of the rights of the workers in Iran in Geneva, on 29 May. We also, once again, condemn the presence of the Iranian government’s delegation in the ILO annual conference and consider their recognition as workers’ representatives, as a clear attempt to undermine the interests of the workers in Iran; and call upon all delegates to this year’s annual conference to speak out against the presence of the Islamic Republic representatives in the conference and demand their expulsion from the ILO.

 Long live international solidarity!

 28 May 2018

 The Abroad Organisation of the Worker-communist Party of Iran – Hekmatist (official line)