Leave a line in memory of Neda.
“All around the world and at all levels, in small villages and in national governments as well as at the highest levels of international justice, people are creating and using innovative tactics to make their work more effective. The New Tactics in Human Rights Project captures these tactical innovations and shares them with others striving to advance human rights. I invite you to join me in celebrating this work and in making use of the valuable resource you now hold in your hands.” - Justice Richard J. Goldstone
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“They have cordened off about 20 metres of road in Vanak Square, I was there at 7pm tonight. They are stopping and searching cars and peoples bags. They are taking peoples ID cards and cameras.”
Flashback:
A short clip documenting how Rafsanjani, now under pressure from the government and Khameneyi, lead the descision to choose Khamenei as Iran’s supreme leader after Ayatolah Khomeini’s death.
[TEHRAN BUREAU] Since June 13, the start of nationwide demonstrations and protests against Iran’s rigged presidential elections began, a clampdown on many of the leading reformist politicians, as well as journalists and bloggers, has been under way. Many have been arrested and imprisoned.
There are strong rumors that some of them, including Messrs Tajzadeh, Ramazanpour, and Aminzadeh (see the link), are under strong pressure to “confess” to planning the demonstrations well in advance of the elections, and having “connections” with foreign powers. The following is a list of those whose arrest and imprisonment have been confirmed, together with a brief background for each.
Neda, 26 years old Philosophy student, was shot dead yesterday in Tehran.
The Autobus Workers Union of Iran (Sendikaye Sherkat Vahed, in Farsi) has just made the following declaration (translated for The Field by Iraj Omidvar):
In recent days we have witnessed the passionate presence of millions of women and men, the old and the young, and ethnic and religious minorities in Iran, people who want their government to recognize their most basic right, the right to freely, independently, and transparently elect, a right that in most societies around the world is not only recognized officially but for whose protection no effort is neglected.
In the current situation, we witness threats, arrests, killings, and naked persecution, which threaten to grow in dimension and lead to the shedding of innocent people’s blood thus bringing a rise in popular protests and not in their decline.
;Iranian society is facing a deep political and economic crisis. Million-strong protests, which have manifested themselves with a silence that is replete with meaning, have become a pattern that is growing in area and dimension, a growth that demands a response from any responsible person and organization.
The Autobus Workers Union in an announcement issued before the elections declared, “in the absence of the freedom for political parties, our organization is naturally deprived of a social institution that can protect it.”
“Workers of the Autobus Workers Union consider their social involvement and political activity to be the certain right of each member of society and furthermore believe that workers across Iran as long as they submit the platforms of presidential candidates and a practical guarantee about campaign slogans can choose to participate or not participate in elections.”
The fact that the demands of the vast majority of Iranian society go far beyond those of unions is obvious to all, and in the previous years we have emphasized that until the principle of the freedom to organize and to elect is not materialized, any talk of social freedom and labor union rights will be a farce.
Given these facts, the Autobus Workers Union places itself alongside all those who are offering themselves in the struggle to build a free and independent civic society. The union condemns any kind of suppression and threats.
To recognize labor-union and social rights in Iran, the international labor organizations have declared the Fifth of Tir (June 26) the international day of support for imprisoned Iranian workers as well as for the institution of unions in Iran. We want that this day be viewed as more than a day for the demands of labor unions to make it a day for human rights in Iran and to ask all our fellow workers to struggle for the trampled rights of the majority of the people of Iran.
With hope for the spread of justice and freedom,
Autobus Workers Union
[see the link above for more info]
Maddi lightens the mood, asking you to join Iranians with your support.
Thanks Maddi :)
