Brutal Repression of Iranian Bus Workers’ Attempt to Organize, and Iran’s Internal Decay, Ignored by Media
Royal Hakakian has a Sunday OpinionJournal.com column worth noting, not only its perspective on what’s going on inside Iran, but for hard news that the worldwide media that is supposed to be delivering to us, but has instead ignored:
The (bus drivers’ union) executive committee’s first meeting came under fire. Baton-wielding thugs shouting “The bus syndicate, the monarchs’ hideout!” charged in, set their office on fire, beat everyone in attendance, and promised to cut off the tongue of Mr. Ossanloo if he continued his activities. As a sign of their seriousness, they ran a blade over his tongue, shaving a layer off. He has spoken with a lisp ever since.
In every flier and in every interview, the workers emphasized that they were apolitical and did not wish to topple the government, asking only to have some very basic demands met. And their initial demands, as posted on their Spartan Web site, moves even the most casual browser: the delivery of two sets of winter and summer uniforms, plus two pairs of shoes, basic stationary for record keeping, a raise of less than a dollar a day to subsidize lunches, and an assistant for every driver. “In the name of He who created justice,” write the organizers, “we hope for the people of the world to hear our plea: Death or Syndicate!”
Days before the strike, several members of the executive committee were summoned to appear before the Revolutionary Court, where they were ordered to call off the strike. When they refused, they were arrested and taken to prison. The officials had declared the strike illegal and threatened to fire all participants. In the days that followed, security forces launched mass arrests of the union members. Those who showed up on the day of the strike were beaten while watching members of the security forces cross their picket line to take their places behind the wheels. In the last week of January, an estimated 1,000 workers were arrested and taken into prison. Though hundreds were released upon signing guarantees that they would not participate in any strikes again, and received permission from the Revolutionary Court to return to work, the company itself refuses to let them back. On the eve of the Iranian New Year, hundreds of these workers have become unemployed. The six union leaders remain in prison incommunicado.
The war against terror is, above all, a war of ideas. But if the terrorists’ ideas, be they in the form of the 1979 hostage crisis, the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, the nuclear issue, or the fury over the depiction of Muhammad, so intensely occupy us–our headlines and our airwaves–doesn’t geographical territory become irrelevant? Can we still say that the terrorists have not conquered us? Historians agree that the most significant blow to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was delivered by the 1978 strike of the oil workers, which sparked other unions to join, and ultimately brought Iran’s economy to a halt. But when the current regime systematically suppresses information, and the free press of the free world cannot be cured of its chronic fetish for uranium, will Iran’s movement for democracy have any hope of gathering momentum?
I don’t agree with Mr. Hakakian that Iranian use of uranium is a “fetish.” After all, the possibility of getting blown into oblivion is reason enough to explain the world’s concentrated attention.
But that doesn’t mean that important events inside the Iran, such as the bus strike and its brutal results, or other labor disruptions, or the collapse of what’s left of that country’s mostly state-controlled economy, or the wholesale assault on academic freedom, should be ignored, and it’s obvious that they are. And how about the big picture? Iran’s current president “has repeatedly said that his policy is going back to the time of Khomeini” (the link has good background about Khomeini’s rise in 1979, and the West’s gullibility in encouraging it).
A search on “Iran” at the AFL-CIO’s web site yields three results not relating to the bus drivers’ plight, or any other reference to Iranian workers’ attempt to organize. Where is John Sweeney when he’s needed? This is his opportunity to be his generation’s Lane Kirkland, the AFL-CIO leader who famously helped Poland’s Solidarity movement establish and defend itself — a milestone in the chain of events that led to the overthrow of communist regimes in Eastern Europe.
