2009-06-21

strike!

To those in the Bay Area, there is a silent candlelight vigil at Civic Center in San Francisco, tonight (Sunday, June 21st) from 7:30 to 9pm. Bring candles

Mousavi has been calling for general strikes in Iran. His Facebook called for anyone with organizational experience to contact him. This is terrific news since strikes will empower the working class and can lead to a popular revolution. The Autobus Workers Union of Iran has joined the resistance.

Add the bus workers to the auto workers and the industrial union sector that creates the means of transportation has emerged as the vanguard in what - thus speaks The Field - will soon become a coalition of industrial workers with the power to spark a general strike in Iran.

[...]

The regime can take out Mousavi. It can take out every operative in his orbit. But it cannot force an educated and organized workforce - with long memories of 56 years of struggle against Western and Eastern regimes alike - to show up on the job.


The Autobus Workers Union released the following statement:

In recent days we have witnessed the passionate presence of millions of women and men, the old and the young, and ethnic and religious minorities in Iran, people who want their government to recognize their most basic right, the right to freely, independently, and transparently elect, a right that in most societies around the world is not only recognized officially but for whose protection no effort is neglected.

In the current situation, we witness threats, arrests, killings, and naked persecution, which threaten to grow in dimension and lead to the shedding of innocent people's blood thus bringing a rise in popular protests and not in their decline.


Iranian society is facing a deep political and economic crisis. Million-strong protests, which have manifested themselves with a silence that is replete with meaning, have become a pattern that is growing in area and dimension, a growth that demands a response from any responsible person and organization.


The Autobus Workers Union in an announcement issued before the elections declared, "in the absence of the freedom for political parties, our organization is naturally deprived of a social institution that can protect it."

"Workers of the Autobus Workers Union consider their social involvement and political activity to be the certain right of each member of society and furthermore believe that workers across Iran as long as they submit the platforms of presidential candidates and a practical guarantee about campaign slogans can choose to participate or not participate in elections."

The fact that the demands of the vast majority of Iranian society go far beyond those of unions is obvious to all, and in the previous years we have emphasized that until the principle of the freedom to organize and to elect is not materialized, any talk of social freedom and labor union rights will be a farce.

Given these facts, the Autobus Workers Union places itself alongside all those who are offering themselves in the struggle to build a free and independent civic society. The union condemns any kind of suppression and threats.

To recognize labor-union and social rights in Iran, the international labor organizations have declared the Fifth of Tir (June 26) the international day of support for imprisoned Iranian workers as well as for the institution of unions in Iran. We want that this day be viewed as more than a day for the demands of labor unions to make it a day for human rights in Iran and to ask all our fellow workers to struggle for the trampled rights of the majority of the people of Iran.

With hope for the spread of justice and freedom,

Autobus Workers Union

violence on the streets of tehran

it was a nightmare, I can barely breath & my face is burning, Masood got shot in the arm & Shayan's brother is missing

I don't know where to start with, first they attack our peacful memorial gathering in front of the university with water gun

the university's doors were close, we couldn't run everywhere! & then they start shooting tear gas at us

they were so many! riot police, normal police, intel, IRG, Basij! I managed to scape, but they captured so many people

all routes to Azady square were blocked & if anyone stopped walking or walking slow they hit him/her brutally

there was no safe path, people were walking in cycles between all variety of security forces

I think they made fun of people, don't go here, go this way, not that way & for no apparent reason suddenly attacking random people

we tried our best using all known shortcuts for reaching Azady SQ were mousavi was, but ended up in face to face with IRG

they weren't just the ordinary police or motorcycle riot guard, they were soldiers holding MP5 supported by reinforced military cars

we didn't realize for a moment they started shooting at people, the gun's sound was like a toy gun, not loud & the soliders were smiling

I was going to tell masood they are using fake guns for scaring people! until people started screaming in agony

we were at Nosrat st, and that part of that damned street had no were for covering

we ran as fast as we could in the opposite direction, at the same time basiji bastards started to hit fleeing people

I think I saw 2 or 3 people lying on the ground in blood & IRG started to move them, probably hide them.

I lost masood in the crowd in upper streets of Nosrat the irony was everything was calm there & people overthere shocked by the looks of us

it was the biggest disadvantage for us today, police & basij managed to cut off people and prevent them from gathering

they also attacked & arrested anyone with any green symbols or mousavi's pictures

damned government also armed street thugs & Afghan workers with anti riot shields & wooden or electric batons

most of them wearing in house clothings & I think they were really enjoying attacking people

apprently when I was wandering in Laleh Park searching for water Shayan managed to take Masood to a local Doctor

The site from the Fark poster I previously linked has been updated with more info about the Iranian government structure.

sound!

picture i took last weekend. really like how it turned out. my flickr