A year ago Mansour Osanloo, President of the Vahed Syndicate – the Tehran Bus Workers’ Union was arrested. He was severely beaten, insulted and abused by the Iranian security service and has suffered poor health, due the violence, harassment and frequent imprisonment he has endured over many years.
I met him a week or so before his arrest. He was warm and sincere, committed and passionate for the rights of workers, in Iran and across the globe.
Last year Osanloo was sentenced to five years imprisonment on charges of ‘acting against national security’ and ‘propaganda against the state’. He is guilty only of fighting for independent trade unionism and for workers’ liberty in Iran. He is a class war prisoner. He is out of sight, but he is not forgotten.
