INTERNATIONAL LABOUR-IRAN:

GOOD NEWS-FARZAD IS STILL ALIVE:

Molly has just received the following from the Labour Start people, and it explains a lot as to what happened with their solidarity campaign for Iranian teacher Farzad Kamanger (see previous post on this matter a couple of days ago on this blog). Happily Farzad is still alive, but he still needs your support.

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We're back - and we need your help:‏

As you may be aware, Labour Start was offline for most of Wednesday and Thursday this week.

This was due to a decision by our web hosting company to move Labour Start to an 'auxiliary server' which effectively shut us down.

This decision of theirs followed a huge surge in traffic when we launched our appeal in support of Iranian Kurdish teacher Farzad Kamangar on Wednesday.

It took six phone calls, countless emails, and nearly 36 hours to convince them to put Labour Start back online.

Obviously, we're going to need a better web hosting company. We're working on this right now.

Meanwhile, it turns out that Farzad was not hanged as we feared. That's the good news. But he is still under sentence of death.

We've been asked by the Education International to continue with the campaign.

We've modified the text slightly but it is essentially the same campaign as before.

If you have not already sent a message, please do go here: http://www.labourstart.org/farzad

The Education International has its own online campaign - feel free to participate in it as well: http://www.ei-ie.org/form/20080818_en.php

Finally, individual messages can be sent by email to President Ahmadinejad:

dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir

I apologize to all of you for what happened this week and can assure you that we are taking steps to prevent this from happening again.

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INTERNATIONAL LABOUR-IRAN

SAVE FARZAD KAMANGAR:

The following just arrived this morning from the Labour Start online solidarity site. To say the least this is short notice. Also, when Molly attempted to send her letter the attempt came back "internal server error...try again later". Hopefully others will have better luck than I have had.

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Iranian trade unionist to be hanged today - your urgent help needed:‏
This morning I received news that jailed Iranian teacher union activist Farzad Kamangar may be hanged within the next few hours.

According to the Education International, he has been taken from his cell in Tehran's Evin prison in preparation for execution. The guards have told him he is about to be executed and they are making fun of him, calling him a martyr.

We need your help and we need it right now. Send off your message to the Iranian president: http://www.labourstart.org/farzad

Pass on the this message to everyone you know who might support this campaign.

We may only have a few hours left.

I know that I can count on your help. Thank you.

Eric Lee

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR-IRAN:

SOLIDARITY WITH WORKER ACTIVISTS IN IRAN:

The following appeal is from the online labour solidarity site Labour Start. Repression of the legitimate rights of working people may be no more obvious than in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and it behooves us to help the ordinary people of Iran as much as we can in their struggle. here's the appeal.

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Iran: No to whippings and executions of worker activists‏
On May Day this year in Iran, two brave women - Sousan Razani and Shiva Kheirabadi - participated in open celebrations of the international workers' holiday.

The regime considers this to be a crime and the women were arrested.

They have just been sentenced to 15 lashes apiece, as well as four months in prison.

They're not alone. In a new and ferocious wave of repression directed against worker activists, a Kurdish teacher (Farzad Kamangar) has been sentenced to death. Three men (Abdullah Khani, Seyed Qaleb Hosseini,and Khaled Hosseini) have been sentenced to 120 lashes between them,as well as prison sentences. Afshin Shams has been arrested and awaits trial.

Meanwhile, Mansour Osanloo, leader of the Tehran bus workers, has languished in jail since July 2007.

Enough is enough.

The Iranian regime must now receive a loud and clear message from the international labour movement that we have not forgotten our sisters and brothers in Iran. Thousands of us must raise our voices.

You can help send that message by going to Labour Start's new campaign page here:

http://www.labourstart.org/iran

We have also launched a cause on Facebook for those of you using that social network:

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/110025

Spread the word – build the campaign. No to whippings and executions!

I know that I can count on you.

Eric Lee