To international labour and human rights organisations

Week of Action in support of jailed students and political prisoners in Iran (2–9 Feb 2008)

The news on the condition of over 50 jailed students in Iran is very worrying. Last week Ebrahim Lotfollaahi was killed under torture in the city of Sanandaj. Nearly two months since their arrest and detention, many students continue to be held incommunicado. Reports from prisons speak of long and severe interrogation sessions by the feared Information Ministry officials, with many students being tortured and kept in solitary confinement.

In addition to the jailed students, many labour and women’s rights activists continue to be detained and persecuted. There are grave concerns over the health of labour leader Mahmoud Salehi, who is still being held in prison despite a life-threatening kidney condition. Mansoor Ossanlou, the leader of Tehran’s bus workers’ union, is still in prison following his violent abduction last July by the security forces. Ali Reza Hashemi, a teachers’ leader, has just been handed a three-year prison sentence for trade union activities, and many of his colleagues are being persecuted for last year’s strikes and protests over pay and conditions.

Iran under the Islamic Republic is literally a huge prison for workers, teachers, women, students and all dissidents.

To mobilise support for the jailed students in Iran, their families have called for a Week of Action from 2nd to 9th of February. This is an important opportunity to show support not only for the jailed students in Iran, but also to renew the call for the unconditional and immediate release of Mahmoud Salehi, Mansoor Ossanlou and all other imprisoned activists and political prisoners in Iran.

Your union and organisation is requested to support and join this Week of Action in any way you can – from publishing the news of the campaign and sending protest letters to joining the demonstrations and other actions planned for this week across Europe and North America.

Please see our forthcoming Week of Action bulletins for further details of the events.
International Labour Solidarity Committee of the Worker-communist Party of Iran
24 January 2008

Head office:
Co-ordinator: Shahla Daneshfar
Public Relations: Bahram Soroush