The labor seminar "Iranian Workers' Movement: Perspectives and Obstacles" in
Toronto, June 1-2, 2002

During the months of May and June 2002, the International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran in Canada organized several activities in solidarity with Iranian workers. An important component of these activities was a tour for three independent labor activists and researchers from Iran who participated in a number of labor meetings and conventions. These were Parviz Babbaei, a veteran labor activist, Mohammad Reza Ashouri, editor of Andisheh Jamehe (Social Thought), a monthly journal published in Tehran, and Ali Reza Saghafi, a labor researcher. This tour was sponsored and financed by the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) and Canadian Auto Workers (CAW). These guests from Iran together with Yadullah Khosroshahi, the last secretary and representative of the former national Oil Workers Council before it was suppressed by the Islamic Republic in 1983, and Behroz Daneshvar, an Iranian labor activist who now resides in Germany, attended the CUPE Ontario Convention from May 23 to 25 in Windsor, Ontario. They also attended the CLC Convention in Vancouver, BC, June 10 to 14. Parviz Babbaei addressed the CUPE Ontario convention on May 25. Drawing on common experiences of workers around the world facing global capitalism, he talked about privatization of public services and the lack of labour rights in Iran. He urged CUPE Ontario to participate in a special delegation from the International Labor Organization (ILO) and International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) to visit Iran to see first hand the situation of workers.

The IASWI organized a two-day seminar entitled "The Iranian Labor Movement, Obstacles and Perspectives" on June 1-2 at Toronto Metro Hall. Some 120 individuals from 12 cities of 6 different countries (Canada, US, Germany, UK, Sweden and Iran) participated in this seminar. Guest speakers included Hassan Yussuff, Executive Vice-President of the Canadian Labour Congress, Sid Ryan, President of CUPE Ontario and Edgar Godoy of CUPE Ontario's International Solidarity Committee. Speakers in Farsi included Parviz Babbaei (who spoke on "Historical methods of labor organizing and activities of workers' syndicates in Iran"), Yadullah Khosroshahi ("The Iranian labor movement and obstacles to organizing"), Habib Ladjevardi ("Trade unions and politics in Iran"), Behroz Daneshvar ("On theoretical challenges of facing the working class in Iran"), Iraj Azarin ("Workers' organizations, strategy and politics"), Mohammad Reza Ashouri ("The labor law, temporary contract work and the poor people's movement in Iran"), Nasser Saeidi ("Workers' independent organizations"), Houri Sabba, ("Gender and organizing Iranian female workers"), Ali Reza Saghafi ("The impact of globalization on workers in Iran"), and Mehdi Kouhestaninejad, President, CUPE Toronto District Council, ("International labor solidarity, requirements and options"). Iranian labor solidarity activists in Vancouver organized a similar seminar with a smaller scope on June 8.

One objective of these seminars was to provide an opportunity for Iranian labor activists across North America and Europe to exchange views and discuss issues confronting the labor movement in Iran. Another objective was to raise awareness and international solidarity with the Iranian workers within the Canadian labor movement. The 23rd CLC Convention in June 2002 adopted a resolution proposed by the IASWI, and adopted by a number of national and local unions, that included a call to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions to dispatch a fact-finding delegation to Iran to investigate labor rights and to demand the right for Iranian workers to freely organize their own independent organizations with both effective collective bargaining and the right to strike. Discrimination against Woman Workers in Iran By Houri Sahba1In 1996, some 13.6% of workers in industry in Iran were women. Yet, they are seldom present in labor struggles, even though there is a considerable presence of women from the more well- to-do sections of society in the press. In this brief comment, I share with you aspects of the double oppression of women workers that make it difficult for them to be presented in these struggles. 1Houri Sahba worked in the Piltex Textile Factory where she was the liaison between the factory's workers council and the women workers in the period after the 1979 revolution. Later, she worked in the Melli Shoe Factory and was very active in establishing the workers council there. In 1992, she was forced to quit her job and move to Canada.