Iran

52 days have gone by since the start of the strike, which began when thousands of Iranian oil workers downed tools on 19 June and walked off oilfields across Iran. The Council for Organising Protests by Oil Contract Workers has issued 11 statements so far. In our previous article we published parts of their first 6 statements (see leftcom.org) as well as giving a short explanation of their full context.

An interview with the Federation of Anarchism Era about the current situation in Iran and Afghanistan. This interview was originally broadcast by the Final Straw Radio show, and is available as a printable PDF.

A call for a week of solidarity with Abtin Parsa, an Iranian anarchist refugee in danger of extradition from the Dutch state, and brief statement from Abtin about his case.

With less than forty days to the 13th presidential election in Iran, its architects and promoters are finding that the harsh social climate is making it difficult to "heat up" the political atmosphere. Their previous tricks are not so effective, but this has not stopped them continuing to do whatever it takes to stir up interest. It seems that this time the option of not participating in the election has been added to the gamut of choices by the policy-makers of the ruling class political factions and the zealous lovers of the ballot box.