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Protest the Continued Imprisonment and Repression of Iranian Workers
Date: Thursday June 25, 2009 from 6:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Venue: Vancouver Art Gallery (Robson Street side).
Four global union organisations representing over 170 million workers have called a worldwide day of labour action on June 26 to demand justice for Iranian workers.
Demonstrations will take place outside Iranian embassies and consulates around the world to protest the ongoing denial of rights and arrests of trade unionists within the country.
Demonstrations are planned outside the Iranian Embassy in Ottawa and at Nathan Philips Square in Toronto as well as this demonstration in Vancouver.
The International Trade Union Confederation (formerly the ICFTU), Education International, the International Transport Workers’ Federation and the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations are forming a coalition for the event, which is the latest move in an ongoing campaign to secure justice and trade union rights inside Iran.
This campaign was prompted by the beating and arrests of more than 250 workers and union member who were attempting to hold a peaceful Mayday celebration in a Park in Tehran which was brutally broken up by Iranian undercover police resulting in many beatings and arrests.
Today, more than 100 still languish in jail with the exact number is unknown. This call went out long before the massive mobilizations that we have seen in recent days protesting the results of the recent election in Iran but those events make this protest very timely.
For the last several days hundreds of protesters have been gathering on the Georgia street side of the Art Gallery to hold a silent vigil protesting the lack of democracy in Iran.
In Iran, workers and union members who attempt to form independent unions are routinely fired for organizing at work and are often imprisoned or physically attacked. Attendance at union events can lead to punishments like flogging.
Amnesty International and the global labour movement are organizing solidarity for Iran's unions. We are demanding:
• the right to organize, strike, protest, free speech and assembly for all Iranians
• the immediate release of all arrested workers, students and political prisoners unjustly jailed including all May Day detainees and those arrested during recent protests
• freedom for bus workers’ union leaders, Mansour Osanloo and Ebrahim Madadi, and Farzad Kamangar, a teacher on death row.
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