Mrs. Rajavi also voiced her hope that, very soon, the people of Iran will be victorious and will enjoy freedom and the same rights that much of the rest of the world enjoys. The injustice workers face in Iran is horrifying and the courage of the people that are exploited on a daily basis must be commended.
With regards to the strikes and protesting that workers in Iran are participating in, Mrs. Rajavi called on the people to maintain the momentum in their pursuit of justice. She described the clerical regime as anti-labour and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as criminal and a “bandit enterprise”. The leadership of Iran, she said, represents “the force of devastation, waste, and obliteration of the country’s resources” and encouraged the people to continue confronting them.
“Defeating this regime and obtaining freedom and social justice will be possible through the struggle waged by you and all the arisen people of Iran in the great army of liberation; the army of the impoverished, unemployed, homeless, the displaced and flood victims.”
Over the past 12 months, many people in the country have lost their jobs because of the economic crisis and unemployment is intensifying. Short-term employment contracts are even more prevalent than they were before with estimates indicating that an overwhelming 96 per cent of workers are contracted on one. Mrs. Rajavi pointed out that this makes the Iranian workforce one of the poorest in the world.
The regime continues to plunder the nation’s wealth on its exploits abroad and it ignores the people and the services that are urgently needed. Poverty is rife, and Mrs. Rajavi points out that even the regime admits that “83% of workers are living under the line of death”. If it was not enough to deal with extremely low wages, the people of Iran are often not paid for months at a time.
Furthermore, female workers in Iran are persecuted even more than their male counterparts. Female workers are usually the first to be laid off and they are generally paid less. The leader of the Resistance emphasises that women, and even children, who work in Tehran’s brick ovens are paid an appalling $2 for 17 hours of hard and labour-intensive work.
Mrs. Rajavi calls on the Iranian regime to immediately provide housing and shelter to the flood victims who have lost everything and for unemployment insurance to be provided to breadwinners. She also said that all unpaid wages should be paid immediately and that workers should benefit from health insurance.
“Hail to Iran’s workers and toilers.” Mrs. Rajavi urged the people to continue protesting and rising up, promising the support of the organised Resistance that will stand with the people until they are finally free from the regime.
