Iranian oil workers joined the strike of tens of thousands of workers for higher wages and contracts—the largest such action since the general strike in 1978-79 helped to overthrow the Shah’s regime.
This article is First published in Human and Nature.
Teachers, pensioners, and families seeking justice for relatives killed in a wave of mass protests in November 2019 have supported the suspension of more than 60,000 workers.
The protests began on June 19, the day after the conservative clergyman Ebrahim Raisi won the election, and he will take over as president next month.
union
The Iranian oil industry is dominated by the state-owned National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).
But in recent years, it has hired many contractors — many of which are owned and controlled by government officials and their relatives — who have cut wages and destroyed working conditions.
The Petroleum Contract Workers Strike Organizing Committee established during the operation is Report It has been said that the main demand of workers is higher wages.
A spokesperson added: “We will no longer tolerate poverty, insecurity, discrimination, inequality and the deprivation of our basic human rights. Given the soaring costs, [monthly] Workers’ wages should not be less than 12 million Tomans ($491). “
According to other reports, the strikers demanded cancellation of temporary contracts, cessation of use of contract companies, and recognition of the right to form independent trade unions.
change
The strike was supported by contract employees and skilled workers in less precarious jobs, according to Interview published by Kayhan Life media.
Reza is a forward on fixed-term contracts and he condemned the Ministry of Petroleum’s claim that it is not responsible for the low wages paid by contractors.
He said: “Why does a person who works on a 20-meter-high platform for 12 hours and the temperature is unbearably high can only get the minimum wage?
“If it’s fair, then why should long-term contract workers perform the same job in the oil industry, pay two to three times that of fixed contract workers, and get other benefits?”
economic
As for contracting companies, he said: “These companies either pay bribes to influential people. [NIOC] The manager is awarded a plum contract or has close contact with senior state officials.
“Otherwise, how can a contractor whose employees are dissatisfied and fail to complete the project on time to win another lucrative contract in Asalouyeh?”
Another interviewee, Alireza, is a welder with more than ten years of experience. He said that skilled workers like him have “started and spread” the strike.
He added: “I regret that my youth was wasted on oil projects in the Islamic Republic. If I worked in a neighboring country, my family would now live better.
“[The republic’s leaders] Bragging about what they call a resilient economy, but in fact their pockets are full of the fruits of our labor. “
Council
The conditions and poor food in the dormitories where the workers have lived for several weeks have exacerbated the workers’ anger.
An invaluable comment on the strike was published on the Angry Workers World website.
Iman Ganji and Jose Rosales say: “The general strike of project workers in the oil industry is not just a fight for wages.
“Every day, project staff come to the club with borrowed mobile phones and fake identities to report on the strike, its development and their ideals.
“The main slogan that shapes revolutionary enthusiasm and guides organizational practice is’parliamentary governance’.
contract
“The council is an autonomous organization of industrial workers that emerged during the 1979 revolution. It was suppressed immediately after the establishment and consolidation of power by the new Islamic regime. It is in this sense that one of the main demands of’deprivation’ as a worker should be understood.
“The private sector in the Iranian rentier system is directly related to or owned by the ruling elite. […]Therefore, the workers’ demands for “deprivation” are mostly against the interests of the ruling elite.
“It opposes the wave of privatization that began after the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) and the massacre of left-wing prisoners in the summer of 1988.
“The current Supreme Leader Ali Hamanei is a right-wing Islamist who allowed a’reinterpretation’ of Article 44 of the Iranian Constitution to force privatization and economic liberalization.
“Subsequently, most of the private contracts were related to senior officials-reformers and politicians (conservatives) or the Revolutionary Guards.”
Pre-corrosion
They also emphasized the political nature of the movement: “Another sign is that workers refuse to accept the support of conservative egalitarians; a small group of hardline Islamists who have close ties to the supreme leader have repeatedly tried to readjust the workers. The struggle and demands will be used as a political weapon against the reformists of the government.”
in Another article, The two activists described the broad movement surrounding the strike: “Many statements from different unions and unstable workers, women’s movements and feminists, pensioners, truck drivers, teachers, nurses, etc., support the strike and express Solidarity.
“This is a reminder of May Day this year, when various organizations called for protests or support protests to improve living conditions.
“Workers used to be the main symbol of the lower class, but the coalitions that emerged through the declaration of solidarity in recent protests, including in the case of May Day, are more diverse and common than the traditional so-called’workers’.
“Government retirees, teachers, nurses, contract workers, drivers, women, unemployed, apprentices, ranchers, farmers, industrial workers and other small-scale producers are now part of this protest coalition. They all call for an end to neoliberalization and Unstable labor.”
Neo-liberalism
Although the Iranian regime has made anti-imperialist remarks, it has joined the international neoliberal offensive against working-class organizations and living standards. The intrusion of contractors by the petroleum industry is at the forefront.
Iman Ganji and Jose Rosales to sum up Social forces from the’marginal’ were brought to the center of the struggle: “At a rare moment of emotional solidarity, young people (25 years and younger) stand beside pensioners, chanting slogans against the Islamic Republic.
“Workers, unemployed, students, women, and farmers have all participated in these national protests to resist the Islamic Republic’s government and its neoliberal governance model, especially the formal tolerance of global capitalism.
“Almost at the same time as the ongoing protests in Iraq, Lebanon and other places, the protests in Iran are not just economic or political. They are targeting the local performance of the global regime: neoliberalism.”
They added: “Neoliberalism is indeed the spirit of the times. However, the’ghost of the age’, which is now haunting West Asia, North Africa and other parts of the world, are those who’are having enough of it now’ (in recent Iranian protests) One of the new slogans) and hopes to remove the neoliberal government and its sovereignty from the history of the people.”
regime
The dynamics of these class struggles were hardly hindered by the conflict between the Iranian clerical power regime and US imperialism. In the four decades since the 1979 revolution, Iran’s oil and gas production has been steadily increasing.
The US sanctions have undoubtedly hit Iran’s access to the financial market and made cooperation with Western international oil companies impossible. But the long-term trend of oil and gas production is relentlessly upward.
The same was true for the trend in the export revenue of hydrocarbons on which the regime relied—until oil prices fell from their 2009-10 peak, and sanctions were the most important.
Income constrains the regime and its oil industry in an international order dominated by capital.
Sanctions
Hydrocarbon export revenues soared in the early 2000s as oil prices soared, and fell sharply for the first time as oil prices fell from their peak in 2009-10.
When the nuclear agreement between Iran and Western powers-the Joint Comprehensive Action Plan, JCPOA-was signed in 2015, exports and revenues began to recover.
But when Donald Trump asked the United States to withdraw from the agreement and re-impose some sanctions, this situation was reversed again, and production levels were also affected.
But the loopholes in Iran’s export revenue are likely to be fixed soon.
Exit
Even under Trump’s sanctions, Iran continues to sell oil to China, European customers, and the Middle East market (especially Turkey and Iraq). Other volumes continue to be relabeled to avoid sanctions.
Earlier this year, exports to China Soar So sharp that Shandong Province Port Overcrowded and overflowing storage tanks.
Now, U.S. and Iranian diplomats are talking about resuming JCPOA in Vienna, and the oil market is betting There will be a deal, Which will include an agreement to rapidly increase Iran’s oil exports.
Iran is locked in the international economy. Its government stands with neoliberals against the workers. Let us find a way to stand on our side.
This author
Simon Pirani is an energy researcher and historian.His most recent book is Burned up: Global history of fossil fuel consumption (Pluto 2018).He is blogging Human and Nature —— where is it This article first appeared -And tweeted as @SimonPirani1.
