"Iranian workers are not alone" - report of the London picket

Tuesday March 20 saw the international day of action in solidarity with Iranian workers. In London a picket was held with over a dozen people present. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to protest in front of the Iranian Embassy and even before all of us had gathered, the police were there already to remove us from the entrance to the embassy, claiming this was "private property" where no demonstrations were allowed! Clearly the repressive methods of the Iranian regime apply to the territory around their embassy in London!

Not falling into provocations, we moved down along the road while the police entered the embassy to tell the Iranian staff that we wanted to hand over a letter protesting against the lack of workers' rights in Iran. Twenty minutes later they came back and said that the embassy was not interested in our letter and that it was better we left immediately

As we attempted to reach the gate to the embassy to at least post the letter, it soon became clear the two police officers were looking for any excuse to arrest someone. So much for democracy in Britain! Despite all the talk about "freedom and democracy" by Tony Blair, apparently this does not apply in his own country, where peaceful protesters are not even allowed to post a letter into a letterbox.

We were left with little choice but to send the letter by post. Of course we have no illusions that one letter will change the Iranian regime's attitude to its workers but at least we hope that this picket showed that workers in Britain are following the events in Iran. Pickets like these are an important way of demonstrating this support.

Report on activity of "Iranian workers are not alone" campaign in Austria

On March 20 we organised several activities in support of the "Iranian workers are not alone" campaign. In Vienna we had a stall at the university collecting signatures for the international appeal of the Iranian Workers Solidarity Network (IWSN). Dozens of students signed the appeal and we had very good discussions explaining the situation of the workers in Iran, how they struggle, how they are facing repression from the state. This initiative was organised together with the solidarity group "Iran SOS". These Iranian comrades had produced a very informative leaflet for this day of action giving a whole series of examples of workers' struggles, especially because the wages have not been paid for months. In the future we want to continue this cooperation with the Iran SOS group in building concrete solidarity.

For many students it was the first time that they had received any information about the class struggle in Iran. In the mass media Iran is always shown as a monolithic regime of Islamic fundamentalism threatening the whole world. There was a big interest in the question of how a viable workers' movement can develop in Iran.

Our campaign also got the support of the Austrian Socialist Youth which published the appeal on its web site.

On March 20 there was also a small rally in front of the US embassy organised by the Vienna Socialist Youth and other left-wing organisations against imperialist aggression against the Iran. There we also presented the appeal of our campaign.

In the evening we presented the appeal in several branch meetings of the Socialist Youth. There was also big interest and we will organise discussions on the perspectives of the Iranian labour movement and the resistance against the Mullah's regime.

Comrades from the Socialist Youth Vienna-Alsergrund

http://www.marxist.com/iranian-workers-not-alone-activities220307-5.htm

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