Home News Protests Protest by truck drivers in Iran grows

Protest by truck drivers in Iran grows

Videos and photos circulated on social media by activists and supporters show truck drivers parked in a convoy on the main highway in central Tehran holding up banners with slogans calling for solidarity.

The strikes, which began over low wages and high expenses, are continuing in spite of the Iranian Regime’s repression. The mullahs have threatened to charge the striking truckers with propaganda against the regime and violating national security, “crimes” that could carry fines, imprisonment, or even the death penalty.

Radical cleric Ahmad Alam al-Huda, a member of the Assembly of Experts and a close confidant of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, attacked the strikers and claimed that Iranians should not take part in strikes.

He said: “Iran is not France or Britain where you can take part in the strike.”

Many Iranians opposed this notion and shared their support for the strike on Twitter using a Farsi and an English hashtag #Iranstrikes.

Trade unions from all over the world, like the International Federation of Truck Drivers, the National Federation of French Trade Unions of the General Federation of Labor (CGT) and the North American Truckers Association, have also issued statements in support of the truck drivers’ strike and demanded that the mullahs meet the demands of the protesters.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) wrote on May 30: “The Iranian Resistance calls on the public, especially the courageous young people throughout the country, to work in solidarity with the strikers and support the detainees. The Iranian Resistance calls on all international human rights organizations, labour unions and international transportation agencies to condemn repressive measures against striking drivers in Iran and to take immediate action to release the detainees.”

Uprising

The truck drivers’ strike is just one part of the ongoing uprising among the Iranian people that began last December. The anti-regime uprising began with a small protest in Mashhad over a proposed budget that would slash subsidies for the poor and increase military spending, but soon it became about so much more.

The protesters knew that the cause of all of their problems, from water shortages to high unemployment to lack of political freedoms, was the result of the mullahs’ malign policies. Therefore, the solution was regime change. That is the wish of the Iranian people.

Regime change and the uprisings in Iran will be a major focus of this year’s Free Iran Grand Gathering in Paris on June 30, organised by the NCRI, which over 100,000 people are expected to attend.

Exit mobile version