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Statement No1 by
the First of May Organising Committee
On the occasion of
1st of May, the International Workers’ Day, and in
response to the call by the independent Iranian labour
organisations, at 5pm on Friday 1 May, a large group of Iranian
workers, labour activists and their families gathered at Laleh
Park in Tehran to celebrate the May Day.
The security forces
who from days prior to the occasion, had taken measures, such as
following the activists and making constant threatening
telephone calls, to prevent the gathering, appeared in police
uniform on the day, and along with several plain clothes police
had taken up positions in the Park, hours before the official
celebration.
Security forces
based in several key companies and factories had also been
brought to the gathering to identify the activists and pass on
the information to the mainstream security present in the park.
Filming and taking photos of the participants by security police
had been carried out extensively throughout the day.
The large number of
participants, despite the initial effort to prevent this,
angered the police. Immediately after the start of the
gathering, and whilst the slogans of “long live workers’
movement” and “Workers, Unite” began to fill the park, the
security police embarked on their angry and savage attacks. Many
of the participants were hit by police buttons and subjected to
electrical shocks. Some were surrounded by police and whilst
thrown to the ground as a result of button charges, were hit in
a savage manner by several police individuals. Police also used
a type of coughing and eye-burning gas to disperse the crowd.
Some of the
participants began defending themselves against the waves of
attacks and attempts to arrest them.
A large number of
workers and activists, some with faces covered in blood, were
arrested by the police. After this show of force, the security
police began arresting people outside the park in the
surrounding streets and alley ways.
In the course of
this, more than 150 men and women from various age range, have
been arrested and are now in prison.
The 1st
of May Organising Committee whilst congratulating the Iranian
working class movement for this extraordinary success to hold a
common May Day celebration by various labour groups, and
identifying it as a turning point in Iran’s workers’ struggle,
and whilst announcing the ruling class’s attempt to quell this
unified action as a defeat, hereby condemn this inhuman and
savage attempt to suppress the gathering and demand for the
unconditional freedom of all those arrested in the course of
this incident.
(Further News and
statements will be duly announced)
Tehran – Laleh Park
– 1 May 09
The May Day
Organising Committee
- The Syndicate of
Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Vahed Bus Company
- The Syndicate of
Workers of Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Company
- The Free Union of
Workers in Iran
- The Founding
Committee of the Syndicate of Building 's Painters and
Decoration's Workers
- The Center for
Workers’ Rights in Iran
- The Collaborative
Council of Labour Organisations and Activists
- The Coordinating
Committee to Help Form Workers’ Organisations
- The Committee to
Pursue the Establishment of Free Workers’ Organisations
- The Women’s
Council
-A Group of Worker
Activists
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