The workers strike as Roya Hakakian puts it is for very "Humble Demands" like delivery of two sets of winter and summer uniforms, a meagre amount of raise like one dollar a day to subsidize lunch, or two pair of shoes. you would see Ms. Hakakians. I compared the height of corruption between two regimes, to hint at the confused "left" leaning , "Progressive" trojan horses who still support the regime and denounce the workers as paviing the ground ofr "american agressors.

Cheers

here is the link:

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Tens of the Public Bus Co. ( Sherkat Wahed ) employees have been arrested !

Tens of the Tehran Public Bus Drivers who were following up on their syndicate demands and the release of thier leader Mr. Mansur Osanlu the president of the Syndicate workers of the Public Bus Co. ( Sherkat Wahed) were arrested last night and this morning by the security agents of the Islamic Republic.The number of the people arrested, as reported are upto hundreds.

in some cases there are family members of the employee who are also been picked up by security agents.

The protest which was set to take plce today Saturday in Tehran the capital of Iran for the demands such as the release of thier president Mr. Mansur Osanlu and thier rights was cut off by the attack of police forces. The syndicate believe that the number of the people who are arrested upto now are 750.The arrest started from last night. They have also arrested three employees wife .

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Wives and children, even distant relatives of the activists, were hauled off into detention to force the union leaders to turn themselves in, as India's Communist Party threatened to leave the ruling coalition in New Delhi if India voted to refer Iran to the Security Council. Clearly, workers of the world ought to postpone uniting until other scores are settled.

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Demands are humble, but is shaking up the Islamic Regime, whose leaders assume the throne of the former monarch and inherit his corruption.

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Let us insert a few more of this "Islamic Regime" and "Mullahs" expressions for vigor and punch.

Are we calling for support for the workers because they are facing a ruthless employer or because they are facing an "Islamic Regime" and "taking on the Mullahs" ? Had workers under secular regimes, such as the client regime of the Shah and the Latin American Juantas fared any better ?

Are left-leaning people expected to move faster and more forcefully when we insert such "code words" ?

These code words are more likely to be picked up by the likes of the Wall Street Journal, as shown above. And of course, while we are at it, how about talking about Iran's nclear thing, which, surprise! the Wall Street Journal just did.

[ 06 March 2006: Message edited by: sidra ]

quote:

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Originally posted by sidra:
Let us insert a few more of this "Islamic Regime" and "Mullahs" expressions for vigor and punch.

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Why shouldn't we? Those are the problem.

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Are we calling for support for the workers because they are facing a ruthless employer or because they are facing an "Islamic Regime" and "taking on the Mullahs" ?

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How about both? Would you want Pat Robertson and James Dobson running this country? Because if they were, I'd be saying exactly the same thing.

[ 06 March 2006: Message edited by: Michelle ]

quote:

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Originally posted by sidra:

Let us insert a few more of this "Islamic Regime" and "Mullahs" expressions for vigor and punch.
[ 06 March 2006: Message edited by: sidra ]

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Why not? Do you have a problem dealing with the truth? The Iranian Mullas rule in the name of religion, invoke Islam to oppress the population. Why shoudn't I as a non-Muslim be allowed to critique them for what they are, and what they stand for?

quote:

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Originally posted by sidra:

Are we calling for support for the workers because they are facing a ruthless employer or because they are facing an "Islamic Regime" and "taking on the Mullahs"?
[ 06 March 2006: Message edited by: sidra ]

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Both. The workers are taking on a ruthless employer that has the backing of the Mullahs who refer to themselves as the "Islamic Republic."

It is the Mullahs who have sullied the good name of Islam, not their critics.

quote:

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Originally posted by sidra:

Had workers under secular regimes, such as the client regime of the Shah and the Latin American Juantas fared any better ?

Are left-leaning people expected to move faster and more forcefully when we insert such "code words"?
[ 06 March 2006: Message edited by: sidra ]

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Yes, Left leaning people inside Iran have been murdered by the thousands by the Iranian Mullahs. If their is an ounce of left leaning spirit in you, you would join our Iranian brothers and sisters in solidarity, instead of apologizing for the facist Mullahs who kill with impunity

quote:

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Originally posted by sidra:

These code words are more likely to be picked up by the likes of the Wall Street Journal, as shown above. And of course, while we are at it, how about talking about Iran's nclear thing, which, surprise! the Wall Street Journal just did.
[ 06 March 2006: Message edited by: sidra ]

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That is such a load of crap. You are apologizing for a murderous regime that has a right-wing agenda of privitisation and Wall Street Journal type economic system in place and you invoke the fear of the WSJ as a reason to apologize for these thugs?

Did you know that the Mullahs have privitised almost every aspect of Iranian public systme. Including their ports that are now run by the children of the Ayataullahs?

Please stop positioning the ayatullahs as some sort of anti-imperialists. They are not. Go try living there for sometime.

As an non-Muslim with roots in India who lived in Iran for a few years, I was taken aback at the repression of the regime and the abject poverty of the working class and the low wages of the poor who live in the slums of south Teheran.

It shocks me to see progressive people with trade union and leftist poltical credentilals talk about Iran as if it is Vietanm of the 60s. It is not, and I urge people to shed their preconceived romantic notions about Iran and view its regime throuhg the eyes of the Iranian Left and workers, not those who apologize for it

The Wall Street Journal (predictably) is conflating two (at least) issues here. One is what looks indeed to be yet another burst of resistance to the Iranian regime, which we can watch and hope for, except in some fear since repression is still so severe that the resistance has lost the cohesion and organization it appeared to have just six, seven years ago.

The other is the cynical use of any event in Iran, really, by the U.S. to begin ramping up support for violence against Iran - maybe just a bombing campaign of nuclear facilities, but the MO is strikingly like the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq, so this is a different kind of worry.

Kaven and bhagat are spamming this board with propaganda.

bhagat, you are not here in solidarity with striking bus drivers. You are here to slander something you call "the left," or "progressives."

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Originally posted by skdadl:
Well, certainly "leftists" on babble have been following the bus-drivers' strike longer than Kaven has

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I have strong doubts that this is true. I may be wrong about this, but I think Kaven is either from Iran, or has an Iranian background (at least, the name Kaven is Persian), and most Iranian-Canadians I know follow the news in Iran pretty closely. I'd be quite surprised if he hadn't been following this story from the start, even if he wasn't talking about it on babble.

I do agree, however, that the US will probably try to use this as support for bombing Iran. Because, of course, the US is a worker's paradise, where no corporation ever tries to break unions, and the government never interferes with people's right to protest.

I think it's possible to not support bombing Iran, and also to denounce the atrocities that the religious dictatorship in Iran commits in the name of religion.

[ 06 March 2006: Message edited by: Michelle ]

And babblers have been doing that!

But we keep getting new threads started by people who claim that we are supporting the mullahs!

However, you're right about the new threads thing. Kaven, you don't need to start a new thread on this subject every time you come to babble. There's already one in progress here, in this same forum. Please just add to that thread when you want to discuss this issue.

Oh damn. I didn't read carefully enough and didn't notice the last sentence of Kaven's post. You're right. Kaven and bhagat, if you're just here to smear "the left" and babblers, then find somewhere else to talk about this issue.

[ 06 March 2006: Message edited by: Michelle ]