Greetings to workers of French syndicates
From: Shahrokh Zamani
To: syndicates of French workers
Subject: status report and request for help
Greetings to workers of French syndicates
I,Shahrokh Zamani, am writing this letter for you,my friends of trade union, from Tabriz’s central prison.I’m a member of founding board of house painters and building decorators in Tehran.
I was arrested by information ministry officials in 8.6.2011 in Tabriz.for four months I was under a lot of pressure threatened and tortured and for 32 days I went on hunger strike as a complaint to my uncertain situation. The court charged me for 11 years in jail because of trying to form a house painters and building decorators’ syndicates with the help of other painters.
Now I have to spend 11 years in Financial section of Tabriz’s Central prison.
Friends,French workers,you have succeeded in forming your syndicates with work and dedication and today you can approximately defend your rights, but in Iran all our activities toward forming syndicates and associations are nipped in the bud.
Although Islamic Republic of Iran has signed concord number 87 and 98, it arrests and imprisons all the workers and labor activists who are trying to achieve their rights by forming syndicates,etc. By threatening them and accusing them of FALSE charges.
In this matter, I can name many imprisoned and suppressed workers such as hundreds of workers of syndicates of Tehran’s bus companyand also arrest and imprisoning 700 of them for forming their syndicate and declaring their strike for receiving their rights.
Many of them such as Mansour Osanloo, Ebrahim Madadi, Reza Shahabi, SaeedTorabian, Davood Razavi, Gholamreza Gholamhoseini, Homayoon Jaberi,Gholamreza Khani, Morteza Komsari, Ali Akbari, Salimi,Gohari,etc. Have been arrested and been in prison for long periods of time.
Right now Ebrahim Madadi and Reza Shahabi, members of Tehran’s bus company syndicates, are in jail.
Manu members of “Neyshekar-e-Haft tepe” syndicate such as Reza Derakhshan,Fereydoon Nikoofar, Ghorban Alipoor, Jalil Ahmadi, Mohammad Heydari, Alinejati,etc. Have been arrested and imprisoned many times since four years ago.
Ali Nejati has been imprisoned for the third time.
Also the members of “Komite-ye-Peigiri-ye-Ijad-e-Tashakolha-ye-Karegari” such as Ayat Niafar, Saeed Yuzi, Mohammad Ashrafi, Reza Aghdasi, Zahra Khazaee, Mohammad Jarahi, Mehdi Farahi Shandiz, Behnam Ebrahimzadeh,Farhadpoor,etc. Have been arrested and imprisoned many times since seven years ago.
Behnam Ebrahimzadeh is now imprisoned in Evin and Mohammad Jarahi is in Tabriz’s prison.
Members of “Komite-ye-Hamahangi” such as Ghaleb Hoseini, Yadolah Ghotbi, Mohammad Salehi, Hosein Moradi, Vafa Ghaderi, Behzad Sohrabi, BehroozKhabbaz, Mohsen Hakimi, Pedram Nasrollahi, Kurosh Bakhshande, AbdolrahmanEbrahimzadeh, Isa Ebrahimzadeh,etc. Have been arrested and imprisoned many times since seven years ago.
Also since five years ago members of “Etehadiye-ye-Karegaran-e-Azad-e-Iran” such as Fooad Keykhosravi, Jafar Azimzade, Shapoor Ehsanirad, Khalil Karimi, Ashraf Saedpanah,etc. Have been arrested and imprisoned many times. And alsoSheis amani and Sedigh karimi who are both in prison right now.
Members of “Kanoon-e-Modafeaan-e-Hoghoogh-e-Karegar” are FariborzRaeesdana, Alireza Saghafi, Mohsen Saghafi, Haleh Safarzadeh, NaserZarafshan,etc. And also Ali Akhavan who is in prison right now.
At the same time 11 workers of Isfahan steel industry including YoosefMehrpooya, Jamshid Askarian, Ali Hashempoor, Heydarali Alirezayi, GholamrezaRahmani, Alireza Rezayi, Mojtaba Sharifi, Hosein Sarshoomi, Behzad Bagheri,Alireza Riahi are in prison.
Worker members of syndicate of “electricity and steel” of Kermanshah were arrested and imprisoned, including Javanmir Moradi and Faramarz Ghorbani.
I should also mention that 16 worker members of “Reopening Union Board of Steel Industry Workers-Mechanics” and 150 of workers who participated in May first 2009 rite in Tehran and some other cities were arrested on May first 2009.
And also arresting and trial of some members of founding board of painters and building decorators syndicate including Reza Dehghan, Saleh Kiamari, me(Shahrokh Zamani) etc. And I am sentenced for 11 years of imprisonment because of trying to form a syndicate.
Friends of trade union, I can neither access statistics nor find exact names of all imprisoned workers and all I’ve written have came out of my memory andcooperation of others in jail with me.
I am fully aware that thousand of workers in Iran are being tortured, sentenced, imprisoned and fired from their job because of trying to achieve their rights and form workers’ associations.
However if you need exact numbers and names of arrested,imprisoned or suppressed workers and activists you can ask for a full list from other labor activists that fortunately are free as for now and syndicates that are illegal according to Islamic Republic of Iran who are always under pressure and harassment, therefore you can see how thousands of workers in Iran are being fired, suppressed,trialed,imprisoned and hanged.
Therefor you can see that we, Iranian workers, have no rights and Islamic Republic of Iran is not committed to its international commitments or even the laws that were made by itself.
I want to ask you to:
1. Select representatives from among yourselves to investigate the suppression ofworkers by Islamic Republic of Iran, so you can see how severe the situation is.
2. Select representatives from among yourselves to investigate “Worker’s Home (Khane-ye-Karegar)” which complicit to police in suppressing and deceiving workers since 33 years ago and it has been Islamic Republic of Iran’s complicity in all it’s anti-union activities, after finding out all the facts about “Khane-ye-Karegar” you may end your relationship with them and ask all workers’ association around the world to stop “Khane-ye-Karegar” and its representatives from entering worker’s societies and imposing itself as the representatives of Iran workers.
3. After all necessary investigations and discovering the truth about suppressing syndicates and workers’ associations and their opponents, you can force Iran’s government to be committed to its obligations toward workers by global alliance among workers’ associations.
4.Evantually, I want to ask you, if you discovered the truth and if you accept that we, Iranian workers, are losing our life in prison while we are innocent, to help us obtainour freedom.
5. If possible, assign some lawyers for me to present and follow up my complaint about being tortured,trialed and imprisoned without any proof or evidence to competent authorities.
Where in the world will a worker who is a member of a syndicate be sentenced of 11 years in prison for trying to form a syndicate(union)?
Long live the international solidarity of workers
Thanks to workers of French trade unions
Shahrokh Zamani
Member of founding board of painters and building decorators syndicate in Iran
