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London protest against Iranian terror tactics
14 February 2006
Trade unionists will demonstrate outside the Iranian Embassy in London tomorrow, 15 February, in protest at the brutal repression of the country’s first independent trade union for over 20 years.
Representatives of the ITF and its UK affiliated unions the TGWU, Aslef, RMT, TSSA and GMB, supported by the TUC, are organising the embassy demonstration as part of a Global Unions worldwide day of protest at the Iranian government’s violent attempts to crush the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company union. The demonstration begins at 11.00 at the Iranian Embassy at 16 Princes Gate, London SW7 1PT.
The global action is in response to the violent arrests of up to 1300 members of the Tehran union ahead of a planned token strike on 28 January protesting the continued imprisonment of the union’s president, Mansour Osanloo. Despite the intended strike being peaceful, thousands of members of the security forces and intelligence service were mobilised to arrest and intimidate members. They used tear gas and batons and threatened to shoot drivers who didn’t take their buses out. Most of those detained have now been released, and many now face the sack. However several of the union’s executive committee are still in prison. This is just the latest attack against the union (see http://www.itfglobal.org/urban-transport/tehranbuses.cfm for background and recent history).
Mac Urata, Secretary of the ITF’s Inland Transport Sections, commented: “Why would they use such brutal tactics against legitimate industrial action? Because this is the first genuine, independent workers’ organisation in the country since the 1980s. Its members are asking for nothing more than their basic right to be represented by a union, and in response they are being beaten and imprisoned.”
Graham Stevenson, National Organiser, Transport, at the TGWU, and Chair of the ITF's UK and Ireland Coordinating Committee, stated: “However far away they may be, the victims of this campaign of terror are our colleagues. That’s why members of transport trade unions are raising their voices worldwide to support them. We want the Iranian Government, whether in Tehran, in London or in any of the other cities where this protest is taking place, to hear their pleas for the basic rights that most of us take for granted.”ENDS
For more information contact ITF press officer, Sam Dawson, direct line: + 44 (0)20 7940 9260. E-mail: dawson_sam@itf.org.uk or TGWU press officer Andrew Dodgshon, tel: +44 (0)20 7611 2550. E-mail: adodgshon@tgwu.org.uk For details of the day of protest outside the UK contact the ICFTU press office. Tel: :+32 (0)2 224 0204. E-mail: press@icftu.org
International Transport Workers' Federation - ITF:
HEAD OFFICE
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Fax: + 44 (0) 20 7375 7871
Email: mail@itf.org.uk
Web: www.itfglobal.org
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