Reports from Iran indicate that protests by all walks of life continued across Iran in recent days. According to these reports tallied by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, on May 1, simultaneous with International Workers Day, many workers across Iran held rallies, protesting their harsh living conditions and calling for the regime’s sham presidential elections boycott.
Workers rallied in Tehran and other cities, including Karaj, Arak, Mashhad, Khorramabad, Marivan, Kermanshah, Haftepeh, Tabriz, Sanandaj Rasht, Boroujerd, Qazvin, Sari, Ilam, Isfahan, and Ahvaz.
Deprived workers were chanting: “The enemy of the workers is the corrupted government,” “We will not stop until we get our rights,” “We will not vote anymore, we’ve heard many lies,” “Our enemy is here; they lie it is the U.S.,” “We’ve heard so many lies, but did not receive our salaries,” “no nation has seen his much injustice,” “Enough with promises, our tables are empty,” “Death to the oppressor, hail to the worker,” and “Social Security shame on you.”
Iranian workers’ salaries are many times lower than the poverty line. They cannot make their ends meet amid the rising inflation rate, skyrocketing prices, and the coronavirus pandemic. The regime’s so-called “privatization” plan has caused many workers to lose their jobs. The regime’s Social Security Organization does not support these workers. Those workers who have not lost their jobs receive their salaries after months of delays.
On Thursday, water and wastewater workers in Susengerd protested, demanding their 10-month delayed wages. Workers marched across the street holding placards, demanding their salaries, protesting authorities’ inaction.
Protests in Iran are not limited to the workers.
On Thursday, the nurses, and medical staff of the Rouhani Hospital in Babol, Mazandaran Province, held a rally, demanding their unpaid wages and sharp reduction of their Covid-19 bonuses.
People of Maymeh in Isfahan, central Iran, gathered in front of the mayor’s office to protest the transfer of drinking water from this city to the industrial area of Golestan province.
On Wednesday, several taxi drivers in Naghadeh gathered in front of the governor’s office to seek approval for a fare increase. The decision to increase the fare rate has been pending the approval of the governor for weeks.
May 1 – #Iran
Hardworking laborers across the country are holding rallies marking International Labor Day and protesting the violation of their rights by the mullahs' regime.#MayDay pic.twitter.com/LKqgnpymyH— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) May 1, 2021
On Tuesday, contract teachers of the Ministry of Education staged a protest in front of the regime’s parliament. The demonstrators protested the regime’s refusal to hire them officially.
On Sunday, deprived retirees and pensioners staged a protest in Tehran and 13 other cities for the 14th week in a row. They demanded their fundamental rights and protested their dire living conditions, high prices, and below-poverty line salaries. They also called for a boycott of the regime’s sham presidential election.
While the regime’s security forces in most cities prevented people from joining the protesters, except for Tehran, the outraged retirees succeeded in holding their protests in front of the main offices of the Social Security Organization.
With worsening social and economic crises in Iran, more people stage protests and balm the regime for the ongoing crises. In other words, the mullahs’ 40 years of oppression and corruption have turned the society into a powder keg ready to explode.
“Imagine workers and employees who are dissatisfied with their low income. These low incomes alone, which are their inalienable right, generates anger. But when in the face of their demands, they receive this answer ‘take it or leave it,” the anger is intensified. When the existing legal mechanisms cannot respond to this part of the demand, it is as if a brick is put on the wall of anger again,” the state-run Hamdeli warned regime officials on April 25.
Hamdeli warned the regime that “The wall of anger has been laid brick by brick.”
