Mahmoud Salehi's life is in danger

You might have already been informed that Mahmoud Salehi, one of the well-known worker leaders in Iran, has been in prison since April 9, 2007. He is in prison for organising May Day celebrations in the city of Saqez and defending workers’ rights. Mahmoud Salehi is not in good health and his life is under threat. Salehi’s one-year prison term ends on March 23, 2008. However, yesterday Branch 4 of the Public Prosecutor's office of the city of Sanandaj summoned Mahmoud Salehi. Salehi is accused, this time, of communicating with outside of prison, of publishing messages in support of workers and students. The prosecutor’s office has issued a new temporary arrest for Mahmoud Salehi.

The Islamic Republic’s decision to keep Salehi in prison despite his grave health conditions is a criminal act. To protest this decision, Mahmoud Salehi has gone on total hunger strike (food and drink). Mahmoud Salehi’s life is under even greater danger now that he has made such a decision.

Neither celebrating May Day, nor issuing messages of solidarity with workers’ and students’ struggles is a crime. Mahmoud Salehi should be freed immediately and unconditionally and should be provided with necessary health-care.

To save Mahmoud Salehi’s life, immediate international action is required. This is the only way to put powerful enough pressure on the Islamic Republic regime in order to release Mahmoud Salehi, so that he would not have to continue with hunger strike and risk his life even further.

We request all workers’ organisations to act immediately on an international scale to save the life of Mahmoud Salehi and secure his immediate and unconditional release.

*Shahla Daneshfar,* *Coordinator, International Labour Solidarity
Committee of WPI*

Bahram Soroush**, Public relations*

*www.kargaran.org www.wpiran.org
www.rowzane.com*

*International Labour Solidarity Committee of the Worker-communist Party
of Iran (ILSC-WPI)*

*Head office:*

Co-ordinator: Shahla Daneshfar shahla_daneshfar@yahoo.com

Public Relations: Bahram Soroush bahram.soroush@gmail.com

*Around the world:*

*Australia*: Arsalan Nazeri ilscaustralianb@optusnet.com.au
*Belgium*: Hossein Pishehesan
workersiniran_belgique@yahoo.fr
*Canada*: Mehran Mahbobi workersiniranca@yahoo.ca
*Finland*: Abdol Golparian
workers_iniran@yahoo.com *Germany*:
Reza Nouri workeriniran_de@yahoo.de
*Norway*: Saber Rahimi workeriniran@yahoo.no
*Sweden*: Mamad Amiri
workersiniran_se@yahoo.se *UK*: Shiva
Mahbobi workersiniranuk@yahoo.com

150 at protest to defend Mehdi Kazemi

Over 150 people turned out on Saturday 22nd for a protest against the deportation of Iranian gay 19-year-old Mehdi Kazemi. Even though the Iranian regime has already executed his boyfriend, Mehdi is in limbo, with the Dutch government and the UK Home Office refusing to let him stay. The protest also highlighted the cases of Pegah Emambakhsh - an Iranian lesbian woman - and Jojo Yakob - a Syrian gay man - also under threat of deportation.

This turnout was particularly pleasing in that it came despite snowy weather and bitter cold. Dozens of activists came from outside London, including groups of students from Edinburgh, Leeds and Manchester.

Speakers such as Sofie Buckland (NUS NEC and Feminist Fightback) and David Broder (Middle East Workers' Solidarity) highlighted the inherent racism of the immigration system and called for the abolition of borders. Similarly, demonstrators chanted slogans including "No borders, no nations, stop deportations!" and "Mehdi must stay!"

They furthermore pointed to the homophobia of people like George Galloway who call themselves left-wing but have refused to back Mehdi Kazemi, instead leaping to the defence of Iran's theocracy. Opposing war does not mean we have to whitewash the Iranian regime - the anti-war movement needs to be honest if it is to deserve support.

Other speakers at the demonstration opposite Downing Street included Peter Tatchell, Scott Cuthbertson (NUS LGBT), Chris Strafford (Hands Off the People of Iran) and Dave Landau (who advertised next Saturday's conference of trade unions against immigration controls)

Middle East Workers' Solidarity will continue to defend Middle Eastern asylum seekers from deportation and highlight the issue of immigration controls, as well as opposing war and supporting unions and social movements in the region.

Action to defend Mehdi Kazemi March 22nd

On Saturday March 22nd 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 plans to send back to Iran on the grounds that if gay Iranians are "discreet about their sexuality", they will not get in trouble.

In fact, Mehdi Kazemi's boyfriend in Iran has already been executed for being gay, and the regime knows about Mehdi Kazemi and will likely kill him if he returns. We are demonstrating to demand that he should not be sent to his death in Iran, and that he should be allowed to stay in Britain if he so chooses.

Saturday March 22nd, 2pm, Downing Street. Nearest tube Westminster/Charing Cross

Mahmoud Salehi declares hunger strike

Monday March 17, 2008- According to the Committee in Defense of Mahmoud Salehi, Mr. Salehi was taken from Sanandaj Prison to branch 4 of the department of justice in Sanandaj on March 17, 2008. After making Mahmoud waiting for hours, they ordered a temporary arrest against him. They charged Mahmoud with communication and contacts with outside prison and issuing solidarity messages such as the one to those on hunger strike on Tir 27th 1386 (July 18, 2007) and also supporting freedom and equality seeking university students. This order was issued while Mahmoud’s one-year prison term was going to end on Farvardin 4th, 1387 (March 23, 2008), and his family and friends were expecting his release soon.

Immediately after this unjust order of arrest, Mahmoud went on dry hunger-strike to protest these unjust actions of government authorities to keep him in prison.

The Committee in Defense of Mahmoud Salehi has strongly condemned this new order to keep Mahmud in prison and demanded the unconditional and immediate release of Salehi.

Salehi’s health got seriously deteriorated last week while in jail. He completely passed out and was taken to hospital for a short period but was sent back to jail again. Salehi’s health does not allow him to be on hunger strike and his life would be at great risk; however, it is very clear that the government authorities are determined to keep him in prison and deny his freedom.

Stop the War demonstration 15 March

At the Stop the War demonstration on 15 March, the Middle East Workers’ Solidarity campaign gave out leaflets for the 22 March Mehdi Kazemi protest, copies of the 4-page news bulletin Workers in Struggle and furthermore collected almost £200 for Freedom and Equality Seeking Students in Iran.

Freedom and Equality are a group of socialist students opposed both to war and sanctions and to the Ahmedinejad regime, and many of their number are among the 81 students in prison following December’s protests at campuses across Iran.

Gay Syrian teenager faces deportation

In a case with close parallels to that of Mehdi Kazemi, a Syrian teenager is being threatened with deportation back to his homeland, where gay people are persecuted. The Syrian Embassy has described homosexuality as a "disease", which the country wants to "treat".

His only crime was to be gay. For that he was half-drowned, brutally beaten and then fell into a coma. He survived, escaped from jail, fled his country and eventually arrived, exhausted and bedraggled, here in Scotland. And now the Government wants to send him back.

Read more at Scotland on Sunday

El Al fires one ground crewmember and suspends another for inciting wildcat strike

El-Al ground stewards decided to bypass the company's excess weight charge in a wildcat responding to months` neglect in addressing grievances. In retaliation, the company rooted out the alleged ring-leaders, fired one and suspended the other.

See libcom.org's article...

Egyptian doctors demonstrate over pay

On Saturday March 15th Egyptian doctors staged a demonstration outside their Cairo union offices calling for an average wage of 1200 Egyptian pounds (around £100 sterling). The current average figure stands at just 220 Egyptian pounds (£20).

However, the doctors have suspended a two-hour strike which was meant to take place in public hospitals from 9am to 11am on the morning of the 15th.

Hani Fawzi, of the Alexandria Syndicate Council, said however that "the strike has not been cancelled... It has been postponed until further discussion, which will happen at the usual general assembly which convenes on Friday 21 March."

Fawzi commented that the union delayed the strike due to a shift in the stance of the Minister of Health. The minister has pledged to increase the salaries of resident doctors and emergency and intensive care physicians from July 2008.

However, given the clamour in the union to assert its right to go on strike (which is to be disputed in the Constitutional Court), and the anger about low wages and price inflation in Hosni Mubarak's Egypt, further industrial action seems likely.

Mehdi Kazemi review

The UK government has announced that it is to review the case of Mehdi Kazemi, which offers hope for anti-deportation activists who have campaigned in defence of the young Iranian gay man.

However, the fight is not over. Mehdi is not yet safe, and neither is Pegah Emambakhsh, the Iranian lesbian woman threatened with deportation. Neither has the government sorted out the racist and homophobic immigration system which has repeatedly sent LGBT people and others back into perilous situations in their 'home' countries.

We will be demonstrating as planned at 2pm on March 22nd opposite Downing Street.

Basra electricity workers' demo

From SB News

Demonstrations and sit-ins of electricity workers in the Euphrates East, Basra and Kut

The electricity Workers in many locations had organized series of protest rallies, on Monday morning 4-2-2008 after giving a warning to the Ministry of electricity in case their demands were not met.

The workers in the electricity sector had compiled a petition including their demands and threatened to organize Sit- in case of non-implementation of their demands, which focused on:
• Fighting corruption in the organs of the Ministry of Electricity
• Establish power stations to provide electricity throughout the country
• Build homes or buildings housing for workers electricity sector.
• To pay compensation on the basis of risk as a 75% percent of the salary
• Changing the employing system of the daily workers wages to the workers labor contracts
• Appointment System contract workers working on the permanent staffing


When the ministry did not respond to the workers' demands, thousands of workers from Basra, Musayyib and Hilla and Kut, started their sit in, which appealed by the union of the engineering jobs & technicians with FWCUI, Which is widely participated in demonstrations in Basra and Masayab where collected Electricity Workers Union.

Israeli Coffee Bean workers win agreement

Workers at the Coffee Bean coffee chain in Israel have won significant gains after a series of strikes over the last few months. The agreement marks the first recognition deal between the Histadrut union and a restaurant.

The agreement means that management will now allocate 10 percent of the chain's yearly profit to its employees, give workers employed for at least a year benefits between 50% and 100% of their salary, pay salaries and overtime on-time and according to the law, and give a one-off payment to compensate for not receiving tips between May 2006 and May 2007. The employers have also agreed to pay workers' taxi fares at night and on weekends when there is no public transport.

During the dispute, union organiser Alon Green, 19, was victimised and dismissed from his job at a Coffee Bean coffee shop. However, in November the Tel Aviv labour court ruled that this was unlawful, and instructed the company to rehire him.

Around 180 employees at 12 Coffee Bean branches in Israel are now represented by the Histadrut labour federation.

Palestinian workers' activist assaulted

Israeli soldiers assaulted a 53-year-old Palestinian worker at a checkpoint near Ramallah on Monday 10th.

Fawwaz Amarna, a resident of Shweika north of the West Bank city of Tulkarem, was treated at Thabit Thabit hospital after being beaten and bruised by the Israeli troops.

Amarna is an activist with the workers' movement in the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP). The DFLP workers' movement in Tulkarem issued a statement condemning the attack.

From Maan

George Galloway's comments on Mehdi Kazemi

Middle East Workers' Solidarity have called a demonstration for March 22nd in defence of Mehdi Kazemi, and support the international campaign against his deportation to Iran.

We were therefore extremely disappointed to hear today the comments of George Galloway MP on a Channel 5 talk show, playing down the homophobic nature of the Iranian regime and slandering Mehdi Kazemi's boyfriend. Among other comments, Galloway alleged that Mehdi's boyfriend had not been hanged because he was gay, but instead because of "sex crimes with young men".

Galloway went on to insinuate that those who defend Kazemi are adding to "propaganda against Iran", implying that they support a war drive against that country.

Galloway's claims are ill-informed and non-sensical, even beyond the obvious fact that Iran has repeatedly executed men for being gay, since "sodomy" is a capital offense, and does not even spare under-18s who commit this "crime".

It is also nonsense to claim that criticising the British government for planning to deport a man whose life is in danger in some way amounts to supporting its imperialist ambitions. Indeed, what activists including Middle East Workers' Solidarity campaigners are doing is highlighting the government's contempt for democracy and human rights.

Nor do we accept that opposing war and sanctions against Iran - which we do, wholeheartedly, since it can bring no progress - means whitewashing the Ahmedinejad regime and pretending that it is a bastion of democracy. The anti-war movement needs to tell the truth if it is to deserve to get a hearing. Opposing war is part of our solidarity effort, but not to the exclusion of our other principles.

The video of Galloway's comments is here

Pegah Emambakhsh faces deportation to Iran

An Iranian lesbian who fled to Britain after her girlfriend was arrested and sentenced to death faces being forcibly returned after losing the latest round in her battle to be granted asylum.

From the Independent

New website for Mehdi Kazemi campaigners

There is a new website for the international campaign to defend Mehdi Kazemi, the young Iranian gay man who is being threatened with deportation back to Iran and execution.

The site is at www.medhikazemi.com

Yesterday a Dutch court decided to reject Mehdi's application for asylum, on the grounds that his case is a matter for the UK government to which he originally applied for asylum.

New report about women in Iraq

Here is a link to a new report about the situation of women in the wake of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, confronted as they are by increased violence and fundamentalist oppression as well as violence perpetrated by occupation troops.

Arab and Jewish women march for International Women's Day

On 8th March the Israeli-Palestinian workers' organising campaign Workers' Advice Centre-Maan took part in the celebration of International Women's Day by staging a joint Arab-Jewish women's march against unemployment and low-paid work.

WAC-Maan explained,

"On International Women’s Day (Saturday 8 March) hundreds of women will march through the streets of Tel Aviv. These women, mostly agricultural workers from the Galilee and the Triangle and organized through WAC, will march to assert their right to work under fair conditions to lift themselves out of poverty. Most Arab women in Israel do not work. Only around 17% are part of the labor force, and among these few, unemployment is rife. It is no surprise, then, that almost half the Arab citizens of Israel live in poverty, and two out of every three Arab children are poor.

"Arab women are not the only ones living in poverty. Tens of thousands of contract and manpower agency workers, temporary workers, waitresses, single mothers, Mizrahi women, immigrants and migrant workers are also under the poverty line. They are the first victims of policies that lead to widening gaps between the poor on one hand and the affluent on the other, who blame the poor for their poverty.

"The government speaks eloquently about the need to encourage women to work, but in practice it continues to allow the import of cheap labor, is a central factor in enabling employment through manpower agencies that pay less than the minimum wage, and turns a blind eye to substandard work conditions – all this after destroying the safety net provided by the welfare state. Thus a situation has been created in which women who work remain in poverty."

Mehdi must stay – No deportations to Iran

Peter Tatchell speaks out in defence of gay Iranian asylum seeker Mehdi Kazemi

Gay Iranian asylum applicant Mehdi Kazemi is in detention in the Netherlands. He is fighting attempts by the Dutch government to return him to the UK.

Mehdi fled Britain and sought asylum in the Netherlands because the British government wants to deport him back to Iran. The gay human rights group OutRage! campaigns on asylum issues and supports Mehdi Kazemi’s claim for refugee status. OutRage! spokesperson Peter Tatchell said

"The Home Office decision to deport Mehdi back to Iran is shameful and reckless. If returned to Tehran, he will be at risk of imprisonment, torture and execution. Gay men in Iran are hanged from public cranes using the barbaric method of slow strangulation, which is deliberately designed to cause maximum suffering. This deportation order borders on a criminal decision. It violates the government's legal obligations under the Refugee Convention. The Home Office country report on Iran ignores the true scale of homophobic repression, in order to justify the deportation of lesbian and gay Iranians. I have been tipped off by a senior Home Office official that government orders are to cut asylum numbers at almost any price. Staff are encouraged to assume that all asylum applicants are bogus and to play down the merits of individual cases, such as Medhi’s".

Background

Here is the Everyone organisation’s link about Medhi's case. Please scroll down to read Mehdi’s own statement, as given to the Iranian Queer Rights Organisation:

Need to reform the handling of LGBT asylum claims

“The Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith MP, must urgently remedy her department's five failings with regard to the treatment of LGBT asylum claimants,” added Mr Tatchell.

“Currently, the Home Office stands accused of:

- No training on sexual orientation issues for asylum staff and adjudicators
- No explicit official policy supporting the right of refugees to claim asylum on the grounds of sexual orientation
- No action to stamp out the abuse of LGBT refugees in UK asylum detention camps
- No accurate, up-to-date information on the victimisation of LGBT people in violently homophobic countries
- No access to adequate legal representation for LGBT asylum applicants

“These are systemic failings by a callous and indifferent government that is more interested in cutting asylum numbers than in ensuring a fair, just and compassionate asylum system,” concluded Mr Tatchell.

"workers in struggle" issue one

The first issue of the Middle East Workers' Solidarity newsletter Workers in Struggle has been produced.

It features articles on the strike wave in Egypt, the imprisonment of trade unionists and student activists in Iran, the plan of US dockers to strike against the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, the Israeli assault on Gaza and other short news pieces about strikes in the Middle East.

We will be handing this out at the March 15th Stop the War demo as well as the March 8th Palestine protest at Downing Street.

Click here for the pdf file

Mahmoud Salehi’s message for the March 6th Global Day of Action

Mahmoud Salehi is the founding member of the Trade Association of Bakery Workers in Saqez, Iranian Kurdistan, and has been locked up by the regime for his organising efforts, despite his significant heart and kidney problems. He sent this message from his cell in reaction to international protests for his release.

The International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and their affiliates along with colleagues of the Global Union Federation are organising an international action day on March 6th for workers’ rights in Iran and the freedom of Mansour Osanloo and me (Mahmoud Salehi). For my part, I gracefully appreciate such militant actions.

We must not part from the struggle for the creation of independent workers’ organisations!

A workers’ movement has grown in the context of aggravation of economic crisis, factory close downs, mass dismissal of workers, excessive increase of inflation that lowered the working people’s purchasing power, and generally widening of the class gap… as the result of all this workplaces have turned into a battle field of class struggle for workers in order to meet their demands. Worker activists were raised and taken their roles within such struggles.

The close relationship between these fed-up masses and progressive workers has helped labour activists to adapt their views and behaviour to the realities of life and struggles of workers. Consequently, they have conveyed the proper ways of thinking and acting towards mass workers. Living and working with their co-workers, activists are telling them that the only way out of this terrifying misery, from poverty and starvation, from unemployment, from collective dismissal, and so on, is to fight with the capitalist system and to organise independent workers’ organizations. They tell their colleagues that an independent worker’s organisation will empower them against the harsh onslaught of capitalism; that with their labour organisation, they will be in a better position in their battle with capitalists; that they can set their wages up from a powerful position. Through their independent organisations, workers can make gains through struggle, step by step.

Dear honorable and hard-working colleagues and fellow workers!

As the result of the efforts of honest labour movement activists, international rights’ organisations are now recognizing us as a working class with legitimate demands. As one of the labour activists, who is imprisoned in this capitalist country, I am proud to see such a day in the name of workers in Iran because I now know that the world’s working class has never easily accepted the imprisonment of these activists and has always fought for their freedom. They will not let the persecution and imprisonment of workers to become an obstacle or barrier in their rightful struggle.

On March 6th, I will be joyful, even behind the bars of my cell, dreaming of unity and solidarity amongst workers. At this day, workers in Iran should be cheerful while their enemies would grieve!

I will see myself among you, arm in arm, by your side and fighting with you; and I, along with you, will emphasise that we must not part from the struggle for the creation of independent workers’ organisations!

Mahmoud Salehi - Central Prison of the City of Sanandaj, Iran
March 04, 2008

Another Israel: dissident voices from Israel

12th March 2008, 7:00pm, NUT, Hamilton House, Mabledon Place, off Euston Road, London NW1


Speakers include

* Michel Warschawski (founder of the Alternative Information Centre),
* Eyal Weizman (architect, author of The Hollow Land)
* Eyal Sivan (film-maker of award-winning documentaries on Palestine-Israel)
* Daphna Baram (journalist, author of Disenchantment: The Guardian and Israel)
* Matan Cohen (from Israeli 'Anarchists Against The Wall')
* Judith Keshet Israeli Writer and Activist

Iran’s trade unionists call out from the prison cells

Iranian trade unionists Mansour Osanloo and Mahmoud Salehi are experiencing terrible conditions in prison, with the regime showing the utmost contempt for their welfare. The pair, alongside almost a hundred of student activists, have been locked up by an unpopular regime cracking down on a rising tide of popular discontent.

While the media in Britain portrays Iranian politics as a battle between Islamist ‘conservatives’ and more liberal ‘reformists’ like former president Mohammad Khatami, in fact the divisions in Iran go deeper than disputes between different sections of the elite. A new left is shaking Iranian society.

Independent trade unions and social movements have rejected both the politics of the regime and the empty ‘democratic’ promises of US imperialism, and are waging a desperate struggle for a democracy enshrining workers’, women’s, LGBT and minority nationalities’ rights.

It appears that repression has stepped up in the last few months, with massive reprisals against the student movement. Hundreds bravely demonstrated at sites including Tehran University in December, raising slogans such as “No to imperialist war, death to the dictator “ and “The university is not an army garrison!”. After mass arrests, it is feared that as many as 81 of these students are still in jail.

One of those arrested, law student Ebrahim Latif Allahi, was murdered in Sanandaj prison. His family were told that “he had committed suicide in prison”, and that “his body has already been buried” – but they are convinced that he died during torture.

This assertion seems highly likely, given the similar brutal treatment of Mansour Osanloo, Iran’s best known trade unionist, who has repeatedly been kidnapped, assaulted and imprisoned for “attempts to jeopardise national security”. Currently serving a five-year sentence after leading bus workers’ strikes in Tehran, he has been blinded in one eye in prison.

The same goes for Mahmoud Salehi, the founding member of the trade Association of Bakery Workers in Saqez, Kurdistan. Imprisoned for his attempts to organise a union, he has fallen seriously ill in jail. But despite having been diagnosed with a blocked blood vessel in his heart, and the doctor’s recommendation that he be kept under medical supervision for at least a week, the prison authorities have sent Salehi back to his cell and denied him even the right to stay in the prison’s medical unit. In hospital Salehi's leg was cuffed to the bed, while his wife was threatened with arrest for protesting when a prison guard tried to assault her.

On March 6th Middle East Workers’ Solidarity activists participated in the international day of solidarity with Iranian trade unionists, which in Britain included mass leafleting at King’s Cross station in London (backed by the RMT railworkers’ union) as well as a demonstration at the Iranian Embassy.

Responding to the call of the International Transport workers’ Federation, trade unionists protested in solidarity with Osanloo and Salehi across the globe – from Australia to Ethiopia, from India to Indonesia, the international labour movement is slowly waking up to the cause of working-class resistance to the dictator Ahmedinejad.

► Part of our solidarity with our comrades in Iran is opposition to any war, bombing raids or sanctions, which can only serve to undermine the workers’ movement. MEWS activists will be leafleting the Stop the War demo on March 15th and collecting money for Iranian student organisations. Contact middleeastworkerssolidarity@googlemail.com
for more info – why not join us?

News in brief

►iraq – The leader of Iraq's journalists' union, Shihab al-Tamimi, has died in hospital. He was shot in the chest on February 23rd, and as a result died of heart attack. An independent journalist working for many local newspapers, al-Tamimi was a fierce critic of Iraq's sectarian militias and called for an end to the civil war. He is the 270th Iraqi journalist to have been killed in the violence since the 2003 invasion.

►jordan – 200 Vietnamese migrant workers, mostly women, struck for more than two weeks in protest at being forced to work long hours for just £50 per month, when they had been promised a rate of £100.
The footwear machinists’ strike was repressed by the Jordanian police, who sided with the security guards and joined in beating the workers. This despite the fact that the Jordanian Labour Ministry investigators had found the workers to be starving and bruised.
The workers, who were taken to Jordan by a Vietnamese agency, are demanding that they be allowed to return home.

►lebanon – Unions seem likely to force Prime Minister Siniora to grant an increase in the minimum wage. The unions are complaining that the minimum wage (on which one-third of Lebanese subsist) has been frozen for ten years, with the result that purchasing power fell 15 per cent last year. With a mounting £22 billion public debt and chronic power shortages in working-class areas, they say that Siniora is presiding over economic disaster.

US dockers call for strike to end occupation of Iraq

A motion passed by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union conference

FOR WORKERS' ACTION TO STOP THE WAR

WHEREAS: On May 1, 2003, at the ILWU Convention in San Francisco
resolutions were passed calling for an end to the war and occupation
in Iraq; and

WHEREAS: ILWU took the lead among labor unions in opposing this bloody
war and occupation for imperial domination; and

WHEREAS: Many unions and the overwhelming majority of the American
people now oppose this bipartisan and unjustifiable war in Iraq and
Afghanistan but the two major political parties, Democrats and
Republicans continue to fund the war; and

WHEREAS: Millions worldwide have marched and demonstrated against the
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but have been unable to stop the wars; and

WHEREAS: ILWU's historic dock actions,

1) like the refusal of Local 10 longshoremen to load bombs for the
military dictatorship in Chile in 1978 and military cargo to the
Salvadoran military dictatorship in 1981 and

2) the honoring of the teachers' union antiwar picket May 19, 2007
against SSA in the port of Oakland stand as a limited but shining
example of how to oppose these wars; and

WHEREAS: The spread of war in the Middle East is threatened with U. S.
air strikes in Iran or possible military intervention in Syria or the
destabilized Pakistan;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:

That it is time to take labor's protest to a more powerful level of
struggle by calling on unions and working people in the U. S. and
internationally to mobilize for a "No Peace No Work Holiday" May 1,
2008 for 8 hours to demand an immediate end to the war and occupation
in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of U. S. troops from the
Middle East; and

FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED:

That a clarion call from the ILWU be sent with an urgent appeal for
unity of action to the AFL-CIO, the Change to Win Coalition and all of
the international labor organizations to which we are affiliated to
bring an end to this bloody war once and for all.

Submitted by:

ILWU Local 10

passed overwhelmingly after thorough debate

If you need any further information or wish to send messages of support and solidarity please contact Bob McEllrath, International President, ILWU, 1188 Franklin Street, San Francisco, California 94109.

Tel: (+1 415) 775 0533 Fax: (+1 415) 775 1302. Email: robert.mcellrath@ilwu.org

Messages of support and solidarity should also be sent to ILWU Local 10 President Melvin Mackay
fax (+1 415) 441 0610 and/or melmackay@aol.com

Please send copies to dockers@gn.apc.org (sacked Liverpool dockers)

Israeli jets bomb Palestinian trade union HQ

On the night of February 28th Israeli jets levelled the five-storey Gaza headquarters of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU)with three heavy F-16 missiles.

The "Folk House building" in Gaza City had been used for union-administered health care as well as organising. But this fresh Israeli atrocity has changed all that.

The complete destruction of the building not only means severe hardship for Palestinian trade unionists, but the death of one Palestinian and 37 other casualties, many of them children. It badly damaged numerous homes, and destroyed the area's electricity and water supply.

The attack came as part of Israel's continuing "collective punishment" of Gaza, which in one four-day period killed one hundred and ten Palestinians, one third of them children.

"The occupation doesn't need any justifications to commit crimes against Palestinians," said Nabil al-Mabhouh, acting head of the PGFTU in Gaza. But the building was targeted because "we at PGFTU are supporting the rights of tens of thousands of Palestinian workers."

The PGFTU has put out a call for solidarity, commenting "We call for an appropriate and effective response from the international trade unions and the International Labour Organisation to put compel Israel to compensate the PGFTU for the destruction of the Folk House in Gaza."

- Demonstrate against the Israeli onslaught - 4pm, Saturday 8th March, Downing Street, London (Westminster tube)

International day of action for trade unionists in Iran

Demonstrate for Mansour Osanloo, Mahmoud Salehi and union rights in Iran

On Thursday 6 March there will be a trade union demonstration outside the Iranian Embassy in London as part of a worldwide day of action against the repression and harassment of trade unionists in Iran.

The RMT railworkers' union has called for activists to meet for leafletting King's Cross station from 7:30am, hopefully covering as many of the exits as possible.

Furthermore, a demonstration will be held from 12:30 to 1:30pm outside the Iranian Embassy at 16 Prince's Gate, London SW7 1PT.

The international day of action has been called by the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF). Here is a location map for the event.

Egyptian workers step up

An article on recent working-class struggles in Egypt by Sacha Ismail of Workers' Liberty

The class struggle in Egypt, rising since 2006, has reached a new pitch in the last few weeks.

On Sunday 16 February, more than 10,000 workers from the Misr (Egypt) Spinning and Weaving Company textile mill in the Nile Delta city of Mahalla el-Kubra, north of Cairo, staged a mass demonstration against prices rices, low wages and the regime of Hosni Mubarak, joined by thousands more working-class people from the town. The Mahalla workers' action was followed by similar, smaller-scale actions and protests by workers across Egypt.

The Mahalla factory, which employs 27,000 people, has been the site of huge workers’ struggles since December 2006, when nearly the entire workforce went on strike over withheld bonuses. In September last year, 15,000 workers were on strike again over profit-sharing, safety and bonuses, leading to a confrontation with riot police; and there have been struggles over issues including services at the company hospital and the provision of free bread to workers.


The difference this time is that the workers’ action has been much more directly political. In previous struggles, there were appeals to Mubarak’s government to intervene; on Sunday, according to California-based journalist and blogger Hossam el-Hamalawy (one of the very few sources about strikes in Egypt), workers shouted slogans including "Down, down Hosni Mubarak! Your rule is shit!" and "Gamal Mubarak, tell your dad we hate him!" (a reference to Mubarak’s son and heir apparent).

Hamalawy also reports that the Mahalla workers attempted, before being blocked by police, to organise a demonstration in solidarity with the people of Gaza: evidence of impressive politicisation, even if, like Hamalawy's blog, such actions are polluted by Arab nationalist chauvinism against Israel.

The target for the workers' action was the convening, in the context of big increases in the price of basic commodities, of the National Council of Wages, which sets Egypt’s minimum wage. The minimum wage has been held at not much more than £3 a month since 1984, despite soaring inflation; the Mahalla workers have demanded £112 a month, while the representatives of Egypt’s official General Federation of Trade Unions on the Council have been calling for £55. Including profit sharing, a Mahalla worker currently makes about £40 a month. The government has now announced that the rate will be raised to about £25, making further protests very likely.

Even on official estimates, a fifth of Egypt's population, 13 million people, lives below the poverty line. As another of the slogans from the Mahalla demonstration put it: "We are sick of eating beans while the rich eat chickens and pigeons".

When protests began in the factory on 16 February, the bosses once again called in riot police, but the workers stormed the gates and drove them off before marching into town.

This inspiring class struggle has enormous significance. The textile workers are in many ways the vanguard of the Egyptian working class. The December 2006 strike was followed by action in many other sectors – including rail workers, nurses, cement workers, binmen and tax collectors. Cairo’s leading independent and broadly liberal newspaper, al-Masri al-Youm, estimates that 226 sit-ins, strikes, hunger strikes and workers’ demonstrations took place in 2006; Hamalawy estimates 387 actions in the first six months of 2007.

This time, the Mahalla struggle has quickly been followed with action by other textile workers, by Suez Canal workers, train drivers, nurses and electricity company lawyers, as well as by working-class protests against housing costs. Meanwhile, doctors are threatening strike action on 15 March if the health ministry does not come up with a better pay offer; and real estate tax collectors, 55,000 of whom went on strike and occupied downtown Cairo last year, have been fighting to establish organisation independent from the official trade unions and discussing the possibility of an independent union.

This is the first time that large-scale workers’ demonstrations have raised clear anti-government slogans since the bread riots against the regime of Anwar Sadat in 1977. And the entry of the working class onto the political stage means that Mubarak is being challenged from the left, and not just by the Muslim Brotherhood, whose activists are also struggling against severe repression.

The Brotherhood remains what it always has been: a deeply reactionary and counter-revolutionary Islamist organisation. Yet it is also the biggest and best organised opposition force in Egypt; it does fight repression by the regime (for instance by mobilising thousands of students to protest against the detention of academics at the end of February) and sometimes gives demagogic support to workers' struggles.

Nonetheless, according to Hamalawy, the Mahalla action was fomented not by Islamists but by left activists inside the factory (which is not to say that the Brotherhood has no influence among the workers, of course).

The growth of mass workers' struggles in Egypt signifies between by far the biggest Arab working class and a deeply oppressive regime which is one of the US’s key allies, receiving $1.3 billion dollars a year in military aid, for instance. It means that both Egypt and Iran, the largest economies in the Middle East, are wracked by class struggle – holding out the prospect, distant but real, of workers’ revolution to sweep away all the region’s ruling classes, whether pro or anti-US.

As Hossam el-Hamalawy put it in September: "During my phone conversations with the strikes leaders and activists inside the company, they always ask me if people in America and the world have heard about the strike." We need to make sure the world knows, and that its labour movements mobilise solidarity.

- Hossam el-Hamalawy's blog: arabist.net/arabawy

- LabourStart coverage of Egypt: www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Egypt

Iranian Workers' Bulletin

The January/February issue of the Iranian Workers' Bulletin, which features in-depth coverage of the Iranian labour movement, is now available.

This month's issue features extensive coverage of the situation of imprisoned trade unionists such as Tehran Bus Workers' Union leader Mansour Osanloo as well as Mahmoud Salehi, organiser of the Bakery Workers' Trade Association. Both are suffering severe health problems due to the negligence of the Iranian regime as the two are kept in captivity.

The bulletin also has news of 5,000 workers at the state owned Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Company taking repeated strike action and forming a new independent union, along with the one-day action action of 3,000 Alborz tyre factory workers who had not been paid for four months.

Click here to see the bulletin