Iran

So the British sailors captured by the Iranian navy have now been released. Their capture was a deliberate provocation by the Iranian regime, possibly in part to distract from the working class struggle now gripping the country. For the last few weeks Iranian teachers have been protesting against poverty wages and poor conditions. Many thousands have taken to the streets or staged unofficial sit-in demonstrations in schools. They have risked their personal safety in acts of audacious solidarity against the Islamic regime. The teachers initially demanded negotiations with the government over...

By Paul Hampton The recent teachers’ struggle in Iran is the latest visible sign of an independent labour movement emerging after 25 years of repression. This movement holds out the greatest hope — both for getting rid of the theocratic regime and winning some kind of democratic republic – but also for averting a terrible war in the region. A new book, Iran on the brink, by Swedish journalists Andreas Malm and Shora Esmailian chronicles the rise of a new independent workers’ movement in Iran. * The movement has grown despite the fact that independent unions are outlawed and strikes illegal...

The seizure of the British sailors by the Iranian navy is a deliberate piece of coat-trailing by the Iranian regime. They are flexing their muscles. That they feel safe in doing that is one measure of the weakening of the USA as a results of its setbacks in Iraq and Afghanistan, and those wars' byproduct of a comparative strengthening of Iran, which now has dominant influence in western Afghanistan and southern Iraq. We have no idea whether or not the British ship was in Iranian waters. If it was, it shouldn't have been. No matter how far inside Iranian waters they were, the ship could hardly...

The Iranian regime has arrested hundreds of teachers in an attempt to crush the teachers' ongoing struggle against low pay. See reports: International Alliance in Solidarity with Workers in Iran The Iranian Workers' Solidarity Network Workers' Left Unity Iran Amnesty International Education International The Guardian of 17 March .

By Rhodri Evans Despite its oil riches, Iran is a country of huge economic inequalities, huge corruption, 20% unemployment, and 12% inflation. The Islamic regime which came to power in a dramatic revolution/counter-revolution in 1979 is discredited. There is increasingly wide resentment against its obscurantist, sexist impositions on everyday life. Since 1979 women have been compelled to wear the “chador” — a head-to-toe, loose-fitting black overcoat and veil that covers their hair and hides their shapes. Over the years, the laws slackened. Women began to get away with skimpy headscarves (and...

Teachers and other education workers last held mass protests in 2001, demanding equal pay with other state employees. Their action resulted in the drafting of a “Pay Parity Bill” which promised to lift salaries above the poverty level. - More than five years later the Bill has not been enacted and Parliament looks set to repeal the measures. The arrest of six key activists from various teacher organisations failed to halt a 7,000 strong demonstration on Thursday 8 March. Teachers have the lowest monthly income of all public servants, earning around half the Iranian poverty line of $543 per...

Following the threat of protests when former Iranian president Muhammad Khatami visits St Andrew's University to receive an honorary degree on 31 October, jailed Iranian student activist Ahmed Batebi has been temporarily freed. When it became known that Khatami would be visiting St Andrew's, activists from Education Not for Sale and Scottish Socialist Youth issued a statement calling for solidarity with Iranian workers and students against both the Islamic Republic and the US's threats of war - and promising protests. This received widespread press attention, and quickly a majority of the NUS...