Letter: Iranian bus workers and the British unions
The following letter was originally submitted by a party member to the RMT’s monthly journal.
I was interested to read about the trade union struggles of Iranian bus workers in the March issue of RMT News, but am dismayed at the absence of any mention of the most dangerous threat currently posed to the Iranian people: the campaign of intimidation against their nation being orchestrated by our own government in concert with the Bush regime.
This campaign cannot be motivated by dislike of union-bashing practices. After all, the present Labour government has itself jealously guarded the wide arsenal of anti-trade union laws on the British statute book. Rather, the hate campaign against Iran, taking for pretext that nation’s efforts in the field of nuclear energy, is in reality driven by the same greed for oil profits that dictated the criminal war against Iraq.
What really galls the political representatives of big business in London and Washington is the new vigour with which the recently elected Teheran government has asserted Iran’s sovereign rights in relation to its energy and defence needs. Least welcome of all in these quarters is the government’s stated aim of diverting oil revenues away from multinational coffers and towards Iran’s own development requirements.
Only trade union solidarity that proceeds from the clear recognition of this primary threat to the Iranian people, which is posed by our own ruling classes in Britain and America, can genuinely assist either Iranian or British workers. ‘Solidarity’ actions that maintain a studied silence on this primary threat can only serve to grease the wheels of the West’s propaganda war against the sovereign rights of the Iranian people.
Giles Shorter
