Workers' Liberty

On 15 April, Behrooz Karimizadeh, one of the founding activists in the Iranian socialist group Freedom and Equality-Seeking Students, paid 300,000 toman (roughly £16,000) to be released.

Over 150 people turned out on Saturday 22nd for a protest against the deportation of Iranian gay 19-year-old Mehdi Kazemi.

Mehdi Kazemi is a 19 year old gay man being threatened with deportation to Iran.

Respect Renewal MP George Galloway has been far from sympathetic to the case of Mehdi Kazemi, instead choosing to spew homophobic bile and defend the Iranian regime. Showing his complete contempt for human rights and democracy, he has levelled the ridiculous accusation that people campaigning against the deportation of Mehdi Kazemi are “the pink contingent of imperialism” — even though the protests are against our own government.

AWL members, supporters and friends collected money for the campaign to free the jailed socialist students in Iran on the Stop The War demonstration in London on 15 March.

On Saturday 22 March, at 2pm, Middle East Workers' Solidarity will be staging a protest opposite Downing Street in defence of Mehdi Kazemi, a gay Iranian asylum seeker who the British government threa

Hezbollah were among the organisations represented at the “World Against War” rally in Friends’ Meeting House, London on 25 February, with the Stop the War Coalition seeing fit to give a platform to the clerical fascist Lebanese militia.

Thursday 6 March was a day of action for Iranian trade unionists facing political repression, jail and torture. The Rail, Maritime and Transport Union organised leafletting at stations in London, Edinburgh, Bristol Cardiff and Liverpool for the jailed Iranian trade unionists Mansoor Ossanloo and Mahmoud Salehi.

In an effort unusual for British unions, the rail union RMT and the TGWU mobilised members on Thursday 6 March to leaflet at several rail stations in support of the jailed Iranian trade unionists Mansour Ossanloo and Mahmoud Salehi.

Zohreh and Azar Kabiri are sisters and mothers. They were arrested on 5 February, 2007 following allegations of adultery by Zohreh’s husband.

The left devotes much of its efforts to campaigning against imperialism, which is no surprise given the present foreign policy of the American and British governments.

The 16 February edition of Socialist Worker carried an interview with an Iranian activist about the growing socialist movement in Iran's universities (see

The last two years have seen an upsurge of the Iranian student movement — and a sharp turn to the left, as more and more student radicals become influenced by Marxism.

International union federations are organising a global action day on 6 March to express our solidarity with Iranian workers.

The ITUC and the ITF organised a global day of action on 6 March 2008 to express solidarity with the Iranian workers once again. "We want Mansour Osanloo and Mahmoud Salehi released immediately and unconditionally from prison. Their health conditions are deteriorating".

Activists in Education Not for Sale have organised to nominate jailed Iranian socialist student activist Anoosheh Azaadbar as NUS Honorary Vice-President. Below is the text of her manifesto.

Two women are to be stoned to death on adultery charges in Iran.

AWL conference notes

1. The rise of workers' struggles in Iran

In December last year, several dozen left-wing Iranian students were arrested for organising or taking part in action on 16 Azar (7 December), Iran’s traditional “Student Day” of protest. Since then, many more activists have been arrested in a continuing crackdown, and one of the detained has now been murdered by the police of the Islamist regime.

At the start of December, the Iranian government arrested over 40 left-wing Iranian student activists. Some have been released but many are still in prison. (A full update will appear in the next issue of Solidarity.) Meanwhile, there have been a number of protests held in London, and British students and education workers have launched this statement of solidarity.

The KarlMarxStrasse blog reports that Germany's far-right party NDP has sent a delegation to Iran to beg for donations.

London AWL members joined a protest on Saturday 22 December demanding freedom for the detained Iranian students.

1- URGENT ACT NOW - Amnesty International Online Action for Salehi
2- To All Medical Organizations, Nephrologists, and to all diligent persons of conscience in this field (From Najibeh Salehzadeh)
3- Prominent Labour Activist Mahmoud Salehi's Life is at Risk! By Iranian labour solidarity organizations in Europe, North America and Australia

In response to the detention of over 40 student activists in early December by the Iranian regime, a group of education union and student movement activists including several AWL members have produced the following statement. Please add your name!

The NC notes: 1. The rise of workers' struggles in Iran
2. The anti-worker repression of the Ahmedinejad regime
3. The much increased international clout of the Iranian regime. (a) As an unintended consequence of the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Tehran has huge influence in western Afghanistan and southern Iraq. (b) The rise in oil prices and the paralysis of the Iraqi oil industry strengthens Iran's position as an oil and gas exporter

Statement by the International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran

The recent extended wave of oppression against the well-known activists of workers' organisations in Iran and other social movements is not a new incident but a routine practice of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This wave of repression nevertheless exhibits particular characteristics, including the radicalisation and development of class-based labour protests, advancing social movements within the specific socio-economic context and pressures from both within the country and internationally.