These days, many articles in the official media deal with the livelihood problems of workers, and sometimes they also interview some figures and retirees. The reflection of the intolerable situation of the workers in the official media, which had a habit of denying or belittling the workers’ issues, shows the progress of the workers and imposing their demands on the ruling relations. Also, union and labour activists have helped to further these demands by actively participating on social media and newspapers in various ways.

In these articles, the sharp and growing gap between income and expenses, as well as the shrinking of the working people’s food table and the lowering of people’s purchasing power, to the point where they have also faced problems in supplying food, have been discussed. It is then continued to mention that despite the slogans of inflation control and economic growth, the government is practically unable to respond appropriately to the problems, and no attention is paid to labour organizations and tripartism according to the conventions of the International Labour Organization(ILO), and even wages are not increased according to the existing current inflation.

The fact is that these discussions are absolutely useless without addressing one of the most important roots of the problems, which is the severe suppression of all independent organizations. Is there any labour organization- which was formed solely by the workers without the interference of the government-employer and in a democratic atmosphere- ever participated in the process of so-called “tripartism” that has now been “ignored”? In recent years, a handful of independent organizations, including the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, the Haft Tappeh Sugar Cane Mill Labour Syndicate, Teachers’ unions, independent organizations of retirees, writers’ union..., were established despite thousands of systematic obstacles and all kinds of repression, many of whose members were either fired, and arrested or they are still in prison and they are permanently under the supervision and control of repressive security forces.

Only if such organizations expand and play a role, and with the maximum support and involvement of workers and toilers, then the government and other small and large employers will be forced to pay attention to our rights in general and as such within the framework of the International Labour Organization(ILO) conventions in the various fields including children, women, and workers’ living conditions.

It is obvious that the so-called artificial labour organizations such as the Islamic Labour Council, the Labour House, the Assembly of Representatives, and etc. do not put pressure on the government because the people at the top of these organisations are self-governing people who have never been elected in democratic processes. But workers and independent labour activists know that these fake representatives have neither the support of workers, nor can they win the trust of workers.

If we want to get rid of millions of unemployment and malnutrition cases; if we want to improve the conditions of all working people; if we are fed up with social anomalies such as crime and theft, running away from home, family murders, addiction and homelessness, and the root cause of all of them being exploitation, unemployment and poverty, the instability and insecurity of job and livelihood and all kinds of discrimination and double oppression; then we must declare fearlessly that the workers will not get anything with the empty promises of the governments, officials, and fake representatives of the workers.

We do not trust any government related entities and organisations, and we know that the time for appeasement has come to the end. Our youth are getting murdered every day, and everything we have achieved so far has only been through the demonstration of the true workers’ power, solidarity and unity of all the toilers and oppressed people, as well as organizing and by occupying the streets. Therefore, talking about the restoration of wages and the improvement of working conditions without emphasizing on the necessity of independent and nationwide organization of workers, and without trying to implement our fundamental rights such as assembly, protest, strike, and rallies in the street as channels for advancing workers’ demands, will be futile and even misleading.

Reza Shahabi
Evin Prison
03/11/2023