Iran, scioperi
Iranian Solidarity?
Roya Hakakian, scrittore iraniano democratico, su WSJ
critica media occidentali perché si concentrano sul nucleare
iraniano
trascurando lo sciopero dei bus di Tehran.
-
Regime ayatollah ha vietato sindacati
indipendenti, -
istituito in loro luogo corporazioni (gilde)
islamiche, dirette da governo. -
Sindacato autisti bus Tehran fondato 1968, sciolto
1979, ricostituito 2004 col nome Sherkat-e Vahed. - Prima riunione Comitato Esecutivo [data?]: aggrediti da
banda con bastoni, sede incendiata, membri picchiati, al capo Mansour
Ossanloo è stata rasata la lingua (ora ha difetto di pronuncia) con la
promessa di tagliargliela se continua attività, poi è stato incarcerato. - Richieste iniziali: due uniformi estive e invernali,
due paia di scarpe, cancelleria per tenere i registri, aumento salariale di
meno di un dollaro al giorno, un assistente (controllore?) per ogni autista. - Proclamato sciopero per il 28 gennaio, per liberare
Ossanloo: - giorni prima numerosi dirigenti convocati da Tribunale
Rivoluzionario, gli venne ingiunto di revocare lo sciopero. Al loro
rifiuto: arrestati e imprigionati. - Nei giorni seguenti arresti di massa di iscritti al
sindacato: totale circa 1.000 arresti ultima settimana gennaio. - Il giorno dello sciopero picchetti aggrediti da forze
sicurezza, che si misero alla guida degli autobus. - Alcune centinaia di arrestati rilasciati dietro
promessa di non partecipare più a scioperi, ma azienda ha rifiutato di
riprenderli al lavoro: disoccupati. - Sei capi sindacali restano in prigione, in isolamento.
- Gran parte degli intellettuali iraniani, anche
marxisti, discutevano delle caricature danesi, le telecamere di tutto il
mondo riprendevano le bande di teppisti prezzolati dal governo che lanciavano
sassi all’ambasciata danese, - mentre mogli e figli degli attivisti venivano cacciati
in prigione per costringere i capi del movimento a consegnarsi, - “mentre il PC indiano minacciava di uscire dal gov. se
India avesse votato per deferire Iran al CdS ONU”. -
Fu lo sciopero dei lavoratori del petrolio nel 1978,
che diede il via al movimento di scioperi che fermarono il paese, a cacciare lo
shah, -
“se la stampa libera non guarisce dal feticcio cronico
dell’uranio, il movimento per la democrazia in Iran potrà mai sperare di
acquistare forza?”
Nota: WSJ pronto a utilizzare lotte operaie per fini
politica estera USA,
Ma cosa
dicono i sinistri schierati con Iran?
Bisogna
proprio scegliere tra Amerikani e Ayatollah?
o non è
meglio fare una scelta di classe?…
By ROYA HAKAKIAN
March 2, 2006; Page A14
The bomb that Tehran’s mullahs are allegedly
building has already done its damage. For two years now, it has decimated the
headlines. In the mushroom cloud of its anticipation, some of the most critical
stories in Iran have vanished. "The bomb" is an ingenious design by
which to divert any global interest in the country’s domestic matters, giving
the ruling clerics free rein to devastate opposition with all the brutality
they can muster. Among the ruins is an event unprecedented in 27 years: A major
strike by the workers of Sherkat-e Vahed, the Union of Workers of the
United Bus Company of Tehran.
The union issued a call for a strike to be
held on Jan. 28 to demand the release of their leader, Mansour Ossanloo, who
has been in prison since December 2005, and to call for legal recognition of
the union and a pay increase. The historic significance of the strikers’
intentions becomes clear only in light of history: After the 1979
revolution, the regime banned the formation of all independent labor unions, and
instead established Islamic guilds, run by the government itself. The guilds
failed at gaining the workers’ trust, and, therefore, never grew in membership.
The bus union, conceived in 1968, disbanded in 1979 and reestablished in 2004,
is one of Iran’s truly labor-driven entities.
The executive committee’s first meeting
came under fire. Baton-wielding thugs shouting "The bus syndicate, the
monarchs’ hideout!" charged in, set their office on fire, beat everyone in
attendance, and promised to cut off the tongue of Mr. Ossanloo if he
continued his activities. As a sign of their seriousness, they ran a blade over
his tongue, shaving a layer off. He has spoken with a lisp ever since.
In every flier and in every interview, the
workers emphasized that they were apolitical and did not wish to topple the
government, asking only to have some very basic demands met. And their
initial demands, as posted on their spartan Web site, moves even the most
casual browser: the delivery of two sets of winter and summer uniforms, plus
two pairs of shoes, basic stationary for record keeping, a less than a dollar a
day raise to subsidize lunches and an assistant for every driver. "In
the name of He who created justice," write the organizers, "we hope
for the people of the world to hear our plea: Death or Syndicate!"
Days before the strike, several members of
the executive committee were summoned to appear before the Revolutionary Court,
where they were ordered to call off the strike. When they refused, they were
arrested and taken to prison. The officials had declared the strike illegal and
threatened to fire all participants. In the days that followed, security forces
launched mass arrests of the union members. Those who showed up on the day of
the strike were beaten while watching members of the security forces cross
their picket line to take their places behind the wheels. In the last week of
January, an estimated 1,000 workers were arrested and taken into prison. Though hundreds were released upon signing guarantees that they
would not participate in any strikes again, and received permission from the
Revolutionary Court to return to work, the company itself refuses to let them
back. On the eve of the Iranian New Year, hundreds of these workers have
become unemployed. The six union leaders remain in prison incommunicado.
President Ahmadinejad, who fashioned himself
in the image of an Islamic Robin Hood during last year’s presidential campaign,
has profoundly betrayed the poor who rallied behind him in the hopes of better
living standards. In the process, he has proved to have no regard for any
convention, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
to which Iran is a signatory, or even Iran’s own constitution, whose Article 26
allows "the formation of parties, societies, political or professional
associations." This is the man who, some pundits would have us believe,
will honor an agreement over the purpose of Iran’s nuclear activities.
What did enlightened people do to support the
strikers? Very little. Most Iranian intellectuals, former Marxist activists
included, were consumed by polite electronic debates over the Dutch cartoons.
Hundreds of striking drivers were arrested, as the cameras of the world’s
biggest news agencies shot images of the couple of dozen government-paid
hoodlums throwing rocks at the Danish embassy in Tehran. Wives and children,
even distant relatives of the activists, were hauled off into detention to
force the union leaders to turn themselves in, as India’s Communist Party
threatened to leave the ruling coalition in New Delhi if India voted to refer
Iran to the Security Council. Clearly, workers of the world ought to postpone
uniting until other scores are settled.
The war against terror is, above all, a war
of ideas. But if the terrorists’ ideas, be they in the form of the 1979 hostage
crisis, the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, the nuclear issue or the fury over
the depiction of Muhammad, so intensely occupy us — our headlines and our
airwaves — doesn’t geographical territory become irrelevant? Can we still say
that the terrorists have not conquered us? Historians agree that the most
significant blow to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was delivered by the 1978 strike
of the oil workers, which sparked other unions to join, and ultimately brought
Iran’s economy to a halt. But when the current regime systematically
suppresses information, and the free press of the free world cannot be cured
of its chronic fetish for uranium, will Iran’s movement for democracy have any
hope of gathering momentum?
Ms. Hakakian is the author, most recently, of
"Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary
Iran" (Crown, 2004).