Open letter to President Hugo Chavez from Iranian Revolutionary Socialists' League
Mr Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias,
President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
Dear Mr President,
In November 2004, at the time of your fourth official visit to Iran, a number of Iranian labour activists wrote to you (a copy of the letter is enclosed) expressing their concern about how the Iranian regime was using your name and popularity among the Latin American masses, and progressive and anti-globalisation activists throughout the world, to falsely present a similarly positive image for itself.
Your Excellency, they highlighted the fundamental differences between the Bolivarian government, which enjoys popular support and strives to eliminate many longstanding economic and social problems in Venezuela, and a regime which came to power by crushing the mass movement that had mobilised millions of people against poverty and against the Shah's CIA-installed dictatorship.
Two governments with opposite programmes
In the 20 months since their letter the economic, social and political situation in Venezuela and Iran have developed in opposite directions. Although both countries have seen a similarly significant boost to their oil (and gas) revenues the contrast between the ways in which this extra money has been used by the two governments could not be more marked: their economic policies, social programmes and political priorities are diametrical opposites.
On the one hand, in Venezuela, we have seen the nationalisation of an increasing number of companies, the free provision of healthcare, education and so on, and the policy of granting the masses, especially the workers and the poor, more rights in a new constitution. For workers these developments have meant giving them greater control over the way they work and the way they live. Most importantly, the expropriation of factories and the presidential encouragement of workers' control and participation have transformed the character of the workers' movement in Venezuela. It was not long ago that the corrupt, pro-boss and bureaucratic Confederación de Trabajadores de Venezuela had a monopoly over representing the workers of Venezuela. Today the CTV has become marginalised.
The Bolivarian movement and the policies of the government have brought about a huge shift in the balance of class forces in Venezuela. Not only has the government encouraged the Venezuelan workers to build the Union Nacional de los Trabajadores as an alternative to the CTV, but the workers have become involved in running and managing factories and other enterprises. The whole world knows that Your Excellency has even drawn up a list of 1,149 closed-down factories and given their owners an ultimatum: re-open them under workers' control or the government will expropriate them!
In Iran, on the other hand, on top of the lack of many basic democratic rights affecting the vast majority of the population, the workers are also without any trade union rights. But this has not always been so: the overthrow of the Shah brought about many freedoms for workers including, in some cases, control over production and even distribution. Then, however, the Islamic hierarchy managed to hijack the movement's leadership by manoeuvres and stunts which appeared to be 'radical' or 'revolutionary'. Once they had assumed this leadership the mollahs then smashed the movement, killing thousands of workers and pushing the workers' movement back by several decades. Under this regime even the 'yellow' pro-boss unions that the Shah had tolerated became and remain illegal! Even a CTV-style trade union federation is illegal!
Today the workers have to tolerate poverty and severe conditions at work due to the absence of two main rights: the right to form their independent unions and the right to go on strike. The lack of these two rights not only means that they cannot present a united front to defend their basic rights and standard of living, but, when faced with attacks by the bosses and the regime's thugs, they are totally at the mercy of the authorities. Not only are they prevented from struggling as a class but they are also criminalised for it!
The result of this is that official (and underestimated) unemployment stands at 10.85 percent, with unemployment among youth (15-24 year-olds) standing at 22.35 percent (autumn 2005 figures). Even when workers are employed they are often not paid - in many cases for over a year. And those who get their wages face an impossible task in paying for the basic necessities of life. For example, with the rent for a two-bedroom flat at $422 a month, a civil servant on $120 wages, or a teacher on $180, or even a doctor on $600 a month struggle to survive (2005 figures). It is no wonder that 90 percent of the population live below the poverty line!
Privatisation: the regime's solution
The regime's main 'answer' to all these economic problems is privatisation. But even though privatisation has been a key government policy for 14 years the state still owns over 70 percent of the economy. This is due to political instability and insecurity, diplomatic isolation, corruption and constitutional limitations. So far, therefore, most of the privatisations have involved selling companies to the relatives of the elite and 'charitable foundations' run by the same rich and powerful people.
Article 44 of the Islamic Republic's Constitution states that the ownership and management of large companies like banks and financial institutions, large mines, the main industries, airlines, shipping companies, power generators and communications networks should be exclusively in the state's hands.
The way they dodged this in the crucial oil industry was to introduce the 'buy back' schemes a few years ago. To date foreign 'buy back' involvement in oil has brought in $40 billion.
The key missing factor has been foreign direct investment. During the whole of the past 27 years just $4 billion has been invested in Iran (in steel and mining). That is why on 3 July Ayatollah Ali Khameneii, the real leader of Iran, ordered the government to make preparations for selling 80 percent of shares in large state-owned enterprises to the private sector. In addition, the co-operatives' sector will be expanded and the extent of state intervention and investment in the Iranian economy is going to be reduced. Khameneii's edict is aimed at further circumventing Article 44.
Since the state-owned companies are mostly unprofitable, and the regime's main way of improving the profitability of the companies is to sack many workers and to make the remaining workers toil harder for less money, it is clear that they hope to make Iran an attractive destination for foreign direct investment from American and European companies in this way.
The Iranian regime and imperialism
We believe that this government has no fundamental disagreements or contradictions with US imperialism. Looking at the ups and downs of the Tehran-Washington relationship we see that the trend points to normalisation of most links within a few years. Indeed, the Iran regime has already been helping the Americans in their military invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq - and propping up the puppet regimes of Karzai and Maliki through significant trade, security and other deals. Despite the rhetoric and posturing, therefore, this is a regime that is heading towards re-establishing old links with the US and letting in American trade and investment.
The inescapable logic behind this rapprochement with the United States has been the deteriorating state of the Iranian economy and its precarious long-term prospects. It therefore comes as no surprise that in May 2003 the regime made overtures to US imperialism to resolve all outstanding issues, including nuclear facilities and terrorism. It did, after all, make the now infamous Iran-Contra deal with the Reagan government while calling America "the Great Satan"!
A turn towards imperialism and renewed repression
Once the aims of the 'reformist' wing of the regime were achieved - i.e., channelling and neutralising internal dissent and breaking the government's diplomatic and trade isolation - the ruling elite installed a new nominal head of state, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, through a completely undemocratic and bogus 'election' process. The main task of Dr Ahmadinejad's cabinet is to consolidate the regime's weakening social base prior to further privatisation, liberalisation, de-regulation and cuts in various social benefits and subsidies. These policies will prepare the way for closer economic relations with US imperialism and for much needed investment and technology from American companies - and help the survival of the regime for a few more years.
In order to be able to contain and suppress the inevitable social protests that these neo-liberal and pro-imperialist policies will cause, however, the regime needs to use its social base in a similar way to the time of its inception during the early 1980s. In addition to these policies, therefore, it has adopted schemes like the $1.3 billion Reza Love Fund (financial help with the costs of getting married) to shore up support in its own base. This layer of society will then be more effective in repressing the struggles which manifest the genuine aspirations of women, the youth, national minorities and, most important of all, workers.
The selection of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - the former mayor of Tehran, whom you know well from when you unveiled a statue of Simon Bolivar in the capital - represents a turn by the regime towards the final resolution of its differences with imperialism, particularly US imperialism. Despite all the 'defiant' and 'anti-imperialist' gestures and rhetoric the regime is preparing to resolve its outstanding differences with the Americans.
They want to turn it into a place like Colombia, where thousands of trade unionists have been killed so that multi-national companies can exploit the workers and the natural resources without any hindrance.
Economic hardship and repression against workers
At the same time as improvement in diplomatic relations with most countries we have witnessed a big disaster in domestic policy. There has therefore been a massive growth in social movements in Iran. The great upsurge in workers' struggles during the past two or three years has been caused by the ever deteriorating economic and social situation and the fact that the workers have no official or even legal bodies or procedures for solving these problems. The coupling of the ever deteriorating economic situation with the lack of rights in defending oneself has meant that the masses, especially the workers, have had to become much bolder and the regime's social base has also become smaller and more demoralised.
It is over nine years ago that independent workers' organisations that had continued their clandestine struggle through the Iran-Iraq war began to voice their grievances publicly. Starting with open letters to Mr Khatami on May Day 1997, they became emboldened in their struggles and began to close roads, occupy factories and demand taking over the control of factories. Some, like the workers of Jamco and Shadanpoor textiles, who were merely demanding the payment of their unpaid wages (!), were gunned down and killed in front of parliament. Others, like the copper workers of Khatoonabad, were killed when they protested against lay-offs.
Yet despite these brutal measures we have seen hundreds of strikes and protests. The most important of these has been the struggle of the bus drivers and mechanics working for the Vahed Company in Tehran.
The Vahed workers' struggle for a trade union
The Islamic regime and management have been harassing and intimidating the Vahed bus drivers and other workers for over 16 months. In March 2005, when activists tried to re-launch the trade union which had been disbanded during the repression of the 1980s, the company began firing them. Then on 9 May 2005 around 300 agents of the Labour House and the Islamic Labour Councils - two bodies that the Islamic regime uses to suppress genuine workers' organisations and trade unions - attacked a meeting of the Founding Committee of the Trade Union of the Tehran and Suburbs Vahed Bus Company. Aided by the security forces, they were able to break the door of the union's office, smash windows, tear up documents and books, and beat up around ten members of the Founding Committee.
Hassan Sadeghi, the Secretary of the Co-ordination Headquarters of the Islamic Labour Councils, and at least a further nine leaders of the Labour House and the Islamic Labour Councils, led this attack. The assailants in particular targeted Mansour Ossanlou, the leader of the union. While Sadeghi held Ossanlou's hand behind his back, another regime-appointed 'labour leader' tried to cut out his tongue. Following hospital treatment it was Mr Ossanlou who was taken into custody for questioning - not the attackers!
Then a few weeks later, these attackers attended the 93rd Session of the International Labour Council in Geneva! On 14 June 2005 the conference reviewed the labour situation in Iran with Sadeghi and another of the attackers pretending to be genuine workers' representatives and 'experts'! By late July the number of fired workers had reached seventeen. These were all leaders and members who had been involved in organising the first general assembly of the Vahed trade union on 3 June 2005 - when 8000 of the 17000 workers took part in debates and elections.
The regime gradually, and under much pressure from the Vahed workers, workers in other industries and international organisations, released these leaders and activists. Nevertheless, the persecution of the Vahed trade unionists continued at a lower level until 22 December. At 6am on that day, Information Ministry personnel searched the home of Mr Ossanlou and arrested him and several members of the Steering Committee of the union. This was a move calculated to make them feel isolated - as international support during the Christmas break would have been difficult to mobilise.
But the Vahed workers were not going to be cowed by the bosses. Around 3000 of them went on strike on 25 December 2005. The regime's response was to freeze the trade unionists' bank accounts, block wage payments and put together dossiers full of trumped up charges. It also used Dr Ghalibaf, the new mayor of Tehran, to sweet talk the workers into ending their strike. Ghalibaf told them stories about being from a humble background and that his father had been a worker and so on. But all his promises about the underlying problems of the workers turned out to be empty ones.
The workers then announced that they will go back on strike on 28 January, demanding that Mr Ossanlou is released and their union recognised. This time the regime's security forces attacked their homes the night before the strike and beat and took into custody members of their families. (A number of the workers' wives and daughters were held for a number of days.)
On the day of the strike the regime mobilised the police, riot police, plain clothes security officers and various paramilitary groups. They tried, through beatings and violence, to force the drivers back to work. They then arrested between 700 and 1300 workers, and many students and other supporters of the strike. The jailed workers resisted: at one stage over 500 were on hunger strike in Evin prison. Those still free announced that they would go on strike on Friday 3 February. Their demands were:
- The release of Mr Ossanlou and other leaders
- Signing a collective agreement
- Union recognition
- Better pay and conditions.
The solidarity and support of the international labour movement was crucial in bringing about the release of many of the Vahed workers. The Iranian labour movement stands at a crossroad and the victory of the Vahed workers will open the way for union recognition, genuine and representative labour organisations, and better pay and conditions for millions of workers.
In contrast to these negative developments in Iran we have the clear and unequivocally pro-working class moves in Venezuela. Today the workers of Iran do not even have a corrupt and pro-boss trade union confederation like the infamous CTV in Venezuela! All they have are the Labour House and the Islamic Labour Councils that attack them.
Questions to ask your hosts
Your Excellency, although we fully appreciate your government's achievements in domestic policy, and have been encouraged by the work of the various missions in Venezuela, we must, as a duty to the Venezuelan workers as much as Iranian workers, question a single aspect of your foreign policy. To us it is possible for the Venezuelan government to have close diplomatic and trade relations with the Iranian government without giving it political support - particularly where domestic policy is concerned. Above all, endorsing its labour policy is in complete contradiction with your own domestic policy. And we say this as activists who over a number of years have supported the Hands Off Venezuela campaign and the further development and radicalisation of the Bolivarian Movement.
Your Excellency, on the basis of the above points, we believe that your government, and in particular the office of the President, should be cautious in its dealings with this particular government. Our reservations regarding your relations with this regime rest on our analysis of the long-term interests of the Iranian and Venezuelan peoples. When Iranian workers, youth, women and national minorities see someone of your standing having such close relations with individuals like Dr Ahmadinejad and other members of the regime's elite, they become disillusioned with your social model. They see this as your endorsement of the regime and dismissal of their aspirations for freedom and a decent standard of living.
During your recent visit to Belarus you are reported to have said: "We do not want to be deceived or exploited by anyone. We must defend the interests of the individual and not the hegemonic interests of the capitalists, wherever they may be, in Europe or Latin America." Your Excellency, the workers of Iran have for the past 27 years been deceived and exploited by a new clique of capitalists traditionally tied to the mosque and the bazaar. The workers try to defend their livelihoods against the capitalists and their well-armed state. The Venezuelan workers and poor masses are their natural allies in this struggle. We hope that you, Your Excellency, will uphold the interests of Venezuelan and Iranian workers by questioning your host about Vahed, Iran Khodro, and the countless other struggles and the absence of basic rights, like the right to strike, the right to form independent trade unions, the right to elect genuine representatives, and many others.
We therefore urge you to raise these issues with your hosts. For example:
- Why has Mansour Ossanlou, the Vahed bus workers' leader, been jailed for over seven months - often in solitary confinement?
- Why did activists of the pro-regime Labour House and Islamic Labour Councils smash the office of the Vahed trade union and assault its leaders?
- Why did they try to cut our Mr Ossanlou's tongue?
- Why is Mr Ossanlou denied medical treatment that he needs due to the above attack?
- Why, only a few days ago, were three leaders of the Vahed workers arrested when they went to meet the Deputy Labour Minister?
Your Excellency, even Jack Straw, the former Foreign Secretary of imperialist Britain, said that he had "raised" the issue of human rights with the Iranian regime's leaders while meeting them in Tehran. We therefore expect much more than a mention about labour rights from a leader who has such a following in the anti-imperialist and anti-globalisation movements.
Your continuing closeness to the regime's leaders will eventually make the Iranian masses turn their back on the great lessons of the revolutionary process in Venezuela. Winning the hearts and minds of the masses in Iran and similar countries is the best long-term solution to breaking Washington's stranglehold on Latin America. Despite some similarities, and the current difficulties with imperialism, the Islamic Republic of Iran is a regime that is fundamentally different from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. We therefore hope that you will turn down the First Class Medal of the Islamic Republic of Iran that Dr Ahmadinejad will be offering you and stand with the workers of Iran.
Yours respectfully,
Iranian Revolutionary Socialists' League
28 July 2006
iran_socialists@yahoo.com - http://www.pishtaaz.com/kargar/english.htm