[Peace-discuss] Protests in Iran Took Many By Surprise - But Not Iranian Labor Activists

Mon Jan 8 23:22:36 UTC 2018

Unlike the 2009 Green Movement, which was largely a product of the educated,
urban Tehrani middle class, the recent protests in Iran appear to reflect
the anger of the country's working-class masses. As Iranians grapple with
high inflation, unemployment, and economic corruption, the burden of these
problems has fallen most heavily on young people who lack the political
connections to survive, let alone raise their standard of living. Iran's
Working Class Behind the Protests. 

We share this excellent report on the Iranian protests. It was originally
published at
<https://theintercept.com/2018/01/06/iran-protests-working-class-rouhani/>
The Intercept

Protests in Iran Took Many By Surprise - But Not Iranian Labor Activists

 <https://theintercept.com/staff/murtaza-hussain/>
https://cdn01.theintercept.com/wp-uploads/sites/1/2014/02/Murtaza-Hussain-Hi
-Res-Original_350.jpg

 <https://theintercept.com/staff/murtaza-hussain/> Murtaza Hussain

January 6 2018, 4:30 a.m.

Over the past week, tens of thousands of people in dozens of cities across
Iran have braved bullets and tear gas in a public outpouring of dissent
against the country's ruling establishment. Videos of demonstrations shared
on social media have shown protesters smashing government-owned banks,
tearing down posters of government officials, and at times calling for the
end of clerical rule in the country. At least 22 people are reported to have
been killed since the unrest began December 28, with human rights groups
saying hundreds more were detained by security forces.

The outbreak and nature of the unrest have taken many analysts of Iranian
politics by surprise. Rather than emerging from liberal Tehran, these
protests appear to have originated in working-class conservative cities and
towns that the Islamic Republic likes to depict as its core constituency.
One group of people, however, has long expected such an outbreak of
discontent from the economically disadvantaged people in these areas:
Iranian labor activists.

"Working people in Iran have been dreaming of a better life for four
decades, but today ordinary people often have to work two or three jobs
simply to survive," says Mehdi Kouhestaninejad, a longtime Iranian trade
unionist now living in Canada, who is active in the international solidarity
movement for workers' rights in Iran. "Many people inside and outside Iran
may be shocked by what is going on, but trade unionists have been warning
for the past 10 years that there will be an uprising against the ruling
class and their kleptocracy."

Unlike the 2009 Green Movement, which was largely a product of the educated,
urban Tehrani middle class, the recent protests in Iran appear to reflect
the anger of the country's working-class masses. As Iranians grapple with
high inflation, unemployment, and economic corruption, the burden of these
problems has fallen most heavily on young people who lack the political
connections to survive, let alone raise their standard of living.

The latest protests also erupted from an unclear place in terms of Iran's
political spectrum: While the Green Movement was rallying around reformist
politics and its leadership in Mir Hossein Mousavi, the latest protests have
seen chants cursing just about every actor and political affiliation in
Iran. There were frequent changes of "death to Rouhani" - referring to
Iran's reform-minded centrist president, Hassan Rouhani, whom young Tehranis
have repeatedly poured into the streets to support.

<https://theintercept.imgix.net/wp-uploads/sites/1/2018/01/iran-protests-151
5193229.jpg?auto=compress,format&q=90> Photo taken on Dec. 30, 2017, shows
unrest on the streets of central Tehran. Two people were killed overnight in
the western province of Lorestan amid anti-government protests erupting
across Iran. (Kyodo)==Kyodo

Unrest on the streets of central Tehran on Dec. 30, 2017, amid
anti-government protests erupting across Iran.

Photo: Kyodo News/AP

In response to the protests, five Iranian labor organizations
<https://www.en-hrana.org/statements/statement-number-independent-labor-orga
nizations-recent-protests> released a statement calling for "an end to
poverty and misery" in the country and urging the government to enact
economic reforms. But while labor groups have supported the protests, it is
unclear to what extent they have been involved in actually directing them.
The ability of independent civil society groups to publicly organize in Iran
is greatly constrained by the government.

One of the few videos that has been released clearly articulating economic
grievances against the government
<https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/01/iran-protests-irgc-media
-producers-landscape-avant-tv.html> appears to have been an astroturf
operation organized by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a way of
turning the unrest against their rivals in the Rouhani government.
Historically, however, workers' movements in Iran have been an important
center of power in the country. During the 1979 Iranian Revolution, labor
organizers helped play a decisive role in the fall of the Pahlavi monarchy,
particularly oil workers, whose decision to go on strike in the late days of
the revolution brought the country's economy to a halt and helped seal the
fate of Mohammad Reza Shah.

Following the revolution, the new clerical rulers of the Islamic Republic
quickly moved to marginalize labor groups. Today, the formation of
independent trade unions is effectively banned in Iran, while labor rights
activists are routinely detained and imprisoned by security forces. Workers
today are allowed to organize government-approved Islamic Labor Councils,
but the bodies are widely viewed as being coopted by the state and unable to
effect genuine change.

The absence of genuine labor movements and the bargaining power that they
provide has helped foster an
<https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/04/iran-rouhani-economic-in
equality-rising.html> increasingly unequal society. Although the Iranian
economy is widely believed to have turned a corner following the lifting of
international sanctions related to the country's nuclear program, the
resulting benefits have been
<http://www.mei.edu/content/article/rouhani-s-neoliberal-doctrine-has-failed
-iran> unevenly distributed. For young, working-class people dealing with
rampant inflation, unemployment, and income inequality, there is a growing
sense of hopelessness about the future. The increasing militarization of
Iranian society and takeover of components of the economy by the Iranian
Revolutionary Guard Corps - an institution close to Iran's Supreme Leader
Ali Khamenei and other influential clerical bodies - have also created what
the exiled labor activist Kouhestaninejad describes as a "mafia-like"
atmosphere, in which the ability of working-class people to assert their
rights has been tightly constrained.

"There is no transparency. We are dealing with a government in which no one
knows who is who and every part of the economy is seemingly under the
influence of the IRGC, which is running it like a mafia," Kouhestaninejad
says. "Meanwhile, there are millions of youths who cannot find a job, or
when they find a job it is precarious and they have no job security.
Oftentimes to work, they must sign a 'white contract,' which means that
their employer can assign them any terms they want, with no negotiation."

While the recent protests have garnered considerable international
attention, labor activists and workers in Iran have been engaged in
long-running battles over unpaid wages and benefits that predate the latest
unrest.

In December, hundreds of workers at the Haft Tapeh sugar cane plantation in
Shush, a city in southwestern Iran, launched a round of strikes and protests
over unpaid wages that, by then, were more than four months late. While
working-class demonstrators often lack the media savvy, language skills, and
international connections available to Tehran-centric political opposition
movements, workers at Haft Tapeh managed to get international attention for
their fight through their affiliation with the International Union of Food
and Allied Workers, a global trade union federation also known as IUF.

IUF representatives say that the recent unrest across the country was long
expected and represents the culmination of grievances on the part of
ordinary people in the country. "There is no need to speculate on the causes
of the regular strikes and demonstrations like those at Haft Tapeh, and no
need to search for foreign enemies stirring the pot. The current round of
mass demonstrations is an authentic expression of frustration and anger,"
says Peter Rossman, a spokesperson for the IUF based in Geneva. "Workers at
Haft Tapeh have been compelled to hold strikes and demonstration since 2008
to feed their families. The ferocious repression against workers seeking to
form unions explains why the frustration can only express itself in this
form."

"The ferocious repression against workers seeking to form unions explains
why the frustration can only express itself in this form."

The recent demonstrations represent the biggest public challenge to the
Islamic Republic's rule since the Green Movement. But it's unclear what the
future trajectory of these protests in Iran will be. Unlike the Green
Movement, those who have taken to the streets in recent days have not won
the backing of prominent members of the ruling establishment, nor have any
identifiable leaders emerged.

According to the Iranian Interior Ministry, 90 percent of those detained
across the country in recent days are under 25 years old - members of a
generation that grew up under international sanctions and has little memory
of the relative openness of the Islamic Republic under reformist President
Mohammad Khatami. The apparent dissatisfaction of these working-class
demonstrators stands as a significant challenge to the regime's authority,
given its proclaimed status as a defender of Iran's conservative masses.

"Regardless [of] what happens going forward, the protests have proven two
things: Areas of [the] country that the regime depicted as their base -
small-town, conservative communities - are in fact very angry and very
anti-regime," says Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human
Rights in Iran. "There is a lot of anger among young people who are children
of the working class and went to university, but still find themselves
unable to rise in Iranian society."

In recent days, officials from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps have
announced plans to take control of the security situation in the country. As
waves of demonstrations and arrests continue, the future of the protest
movement may depend on whether a broader coalition forms that is capable of
withstanding the coercive apparatus of the state.

To some degree, the economically based nature of the protests could
potentially militate in the government's favor by dividing the urban
political opposition from the working-class conservative regions currently
taking part in the unrest.

"None of the Green Movement supporters - who are mostly from the educated
middle class - have come out in support of the protests, because they see
more of a future in Rouhani's policies than any other alternative, even if
they are unhappy with the regime," says Ghaemi. "The protests have a clear
class dimension. They are coming from a segment of young people who feel
they have nothing left to lose."

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