More Repression in Iran.

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reports that Ahmadinejad’s regime is again attacking human rights lawyers:

“Ebadi noted that prominent lawyers Mohammad Ali Dadkhah and Abdolfattah Soltani have both been imprisoned during the past year and released on large bails, Mohammad Seifzadeh is awaiting his trial, Mohammad Oliaeifar is serving a one year prison sentence, and Shadi Sadr and Mohammad Mostafaie have been forced into exile.

Two members of the One Million Signatures Campaign advocating for gender equality, Fatemeh Masjedi and Maryam Bidgoli, have been sentenced to one year in prison. On 22 August, security forces arbitrarily detained human rights activists Hassan Asadi Zeidabadi and Ali Jamali. Prominent human rights lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, has been summoned and her assets frozen.

In an interview with the Campaign, Sotoudeh said that a new method of persecuting human rights lawyers by the authorities is to make unfounded financial allegations on tax grounds.

“I was referred to the taxation bureau and while there I noticed in addition to my name, they are conducting special investigations into thirty human rights lawyers,” Sotoudeh told the Campaign. She noted that while human rights lawyers take on cases on pro-bono bases, authorities are using bogus tax charges to prosecute them.

Sotoudeh said she believes these developments are aimed at putting an end to any legal defense by the human rights community. “The only institution capable of defending lawyers is the Bar Association, but the authorities are putting it under tremendous pressure and attempting to incorporate it into the Judiciary and take away its independence,” she said. “

(H/T: Roxana Saberi )

Update on Bita and Mohsen.

HMG certainly likes sending people back to Iran, irrespective of the consequences that they might face: torture or death.

Thankfully the British High Court and European Court of Human Rights have ruled that Bita Ghaedi won’t be deported today.

As with Nadia Arzane and Bashir Foris, HMG in the form of the Home Office are content to kick people out of Britain no matter the consequences, when certainly many of these activists would face the prospect of torture or death at the hands of Ahmadinejad’s regime.

Although the deportation has been delayed, Bita Ghaedi is still not safe and has a further hearing set for the 21st July 2010.

I wish her the best of luck dealing with the Home Office.

Deportation Campaign Against Iranian Activists.

I was alarmed to see the HMG is still deporting activists back to Iran and the clutches of the Ahmadinejad regime, Nadia Arzane and Bashir Foris are about to be sent back:

“The UK continues its deportation campaign against Iranian activists, this time a young pregnant couple whose deportation was scheduled for today. The woman, Nadia Arzane, became very distressed at time of boarding and due to stress on the unborn child, they did not fly today as planned. However, they are back in detention and still at very high risk fo deportation.

Any deportation of people to Iran, which detains, tortures, and executes political activists just like this couple, is unconscionable. But somehow the idea of sending a pregnant woman to her death is more revolting still. “

The background:

“Nadia Arzane and Bashir Foris are a married Iranian couple in their early 20s. They are currently detained in Yarl’s Wood IRC and due to be forcibly removed from the UK tomorrow, Friday 23rd April on Air Baltic BT652, from Gatwick airport to Riga, Latvia. Where it is likely they will be returned to Iran.

Nadia is an activist from Iran who supported the opposition party by making a stand against human right abuses. On a protest in July 2009, in the town of Bandar Abbas, she saw a person beaten to death by government agents. She handed out leaflets and CDs in her local area calling on people to vote against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. A few days later, she returned home from work and witnessed her father being beaten and arrested because he would not hand over information about her. Her father spent two months in an Iranian prison where he was tortured. As a young Christian and human rights activist she has suffered prolonged persecution from the Iranian government and will be arrested and possibly executed if she is returned.

Nadia has shown immense courage and conviction in her Christian Faith and her belief in Human Rights. Her and her husband have been detained since their arrival in the UK and are currently being detained in Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre.

Nadia and Bashir are under immense stress. Nadia’s physical and mental health are a serious concern. Nadia she is terrified. She is 14 weeks pregnant and at the stage during which miscarriages are most common. She has not had a full psychological assessment as recommended by health professionals; She is showing signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and is unable to eat or sleep. Without a full psychological assessment there is no way of knowing the full state of Nadia’s mental health, and how the stress of the imminent removal will affect the health of her unborn child. She is not receiving any treatment.”

Over In The Workers’ Paradise?

Not exactly, but Iran must seem like the bastion of “anti-imperialism” to some (a modern day workers’ paradise for Westerners that don’t have to live under the repressive regime), I just heard of a strike at the Abadan oil refinery and checking Labourstart I was surprised at the number of on-going disputes.

The Iranian Workers’ Solidarity Network has more on the oil worker’s case:

“After their wages and bonuses went unpaid a group of Abadan oil refinery workers began a protest on Wednesday November 11. Around 300 workers have not been paid for more than three months.

Tehran Emrooz daily reported that when the workers protested outside the Abadan oil refinery on November 12 the “Abadan oil refinery officials told the workers that as they are working in the third phase of the refinery then they are working for a private contractor and their wages have nothing to do with the refinery.”

This protest is highly significant in that oil industry workers have had no major protests for a number of years. They are paid regularly, unlike most workers in Iran, and their work environment is very heavily policed and controlled.

The Abadan oil refinery in the southern Khuzestan province is over 95 years old and was the biggest refining facility in the world for many decades. It is one of the oldest and most important centres of the Iranian workers’ movement.”

Update 1: I have had my eye off of the balls, HOPOI has more on protests in Iran.

Update 2: Over at the Guardian, Iran moves to silence opposition with internet crime unit.

Update 3: Reuters reports:

“TEHRAN, Nov 14 (Reuters) – An Iranian court on Saturday sentenced a student who took part in protests following Iran’s disputed presidential election this year to eight years in prison, a website reported.

The June 12 vote triggered big street demonstrations by opposition supporters accusing the authorities of rigging the result, which gave President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second term in charge.

Abdullah Momeni’s wife told website Mowjcamp, which backs defeated candidate Mirhossein Mousavi, that Momeni was sentenced to six years for taking part in post-election protests and two years for previous activities concerning national security.

Several other post-election detainees have received jail terms and three people have been sentenced to death, according to Iranian media.

Last week a court sentenced a man to seven years in jail and 74 lashes for post-election activities, Mowjcamp reported.

Thousands of people were detained after the election five months ago. Most of them have since been freed, but more than 100 have been charged with fomenting post-election street unrest, including senior reformist figures.”

Update 4: More brutal than the Shah?

Dictatorship Learn From Each Other.

The ruling elite in Tehran have been quick to follow China’s example of locking up human right’s lawyers, the LA Times reports:

“According to his colleagues, Dadkhah has been under heavy pressure to publicly confess to being involved in a nefarious plot against the Islamic Republic

Specifically, his interrogators wanted him to betray the the Center for the Defense of Human Rights, the small nonprofit organization he runs with Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, and to state that Ebadi was a traitor.

According to fellow lawyers who got a chance to meet with him, he was severely abused during the first days of his imprisonment in solitary confinement in early July.

For two days, he was deprived of food. Then he was blindfolded and thrown down a spiral stairwell. For a few days, he was barred from using the bathroom.

He was told that his teenage daughter was also under arrest, only to find out later it was a lie.

Still, he refused to budge.

After a while, the interrogators gave up. They allowed him to leave solitary and stay in a ward with other prisoners. “

Bahais On Trial in Iran.

The ruling elite in Iran has decided, in a similar fashion to Stalin’s lust for them, that you can’t have enough Show Trials, so now it is attacking a small defenceless religious minority, the Bahais:

“Seven members of the Bahai faith in Iran are to go on trial on Tuesday on charges of spying for Israel and of “insulting sanctities”.
…
Last year relatives of the six Bahai leaders arrested in May said they had been taken to Evin Prison in Tehran after intelligence ministry officers raided their homes in the middle of the night.

Hundreds of Bahai followers have been jailed and executed since Iran’s Islamic revolution in 1979, the Bahai International Community says.

However, the government denies it has detained or executed people because of their faith.

The Bahais consider the man who founded their faith in the 19th Century, Bahaullah, to be a prophet.”

Over at HOPI.

HOPI has more videos of the struggle in Iran and a piece about Alireza Davoudi:

“Hopi activists have just received the sad news that Iranian activist Alireza Davoudi died yesterday from a heart attack resulting from the extreme torture he was subjected to in the Islamic Republic’s jails. This is a sad loss to our movement and our hearts go out to his family, comrades and friends.”

Show Trials Begin.

The theocracy in Iran has started its prosecution of protesters in the wake of the fiddled election, the Guardian has more:

“The first trials of opposition political activists and protesters arrested after June’s disputed Iranian presidential election began today.

Up to 100 defendants were reported by Iranian media to be appearing before a court in the capital, Tehran, accused of violence following the 12 June vote.

The election sparked days of protests as thousands of Iranians took to the streets to denounce the official results, which declared victory for the incumbent president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.”

This is a statement from the reformist camp, via Google translation, make of it what you will.

The Huff Post suggests that they are not allowed lawyers and there is no jury.

More Revolutuon In Iran.

As predicted the revolutionary spirit still continues within Iran.

The mighty theocracy with all of its repressive apparatus, the police, the army, the secret police, the Revolutionary guard and Basiji cannot stop it.

The fiddled presidential election broke the illusion that Ahmadinejad had a legitimate mandate. The subsequent repression, murder, imprisonment of protesters only reaffirmed that point.

The BBC’s reporting:

“Police clashed with hundreds of people marching despite a ban on public gatherings since the disputed election in June, Reuters news agency said.

The re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sparked widespread protests and allegations of vote-rigging.

Defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi has continued to contest the result.

Mr Mousavi has issued statements opposing the election result, saying detention of protesters would not end opposition. “

Forbidden From Forming Independent Trade Unions.

Reuters has more:

“BEIJING (Reuters) – Workers in China have become more aware of their rights and willing to go to court to fight for them, but are still hampered by an official ban on independent unions, a labour activist said on Thursday.

Publicity over the 2008 Labour Contract Law, which was opposed by some private business owners and foreign investors, is partly responsible for increased awareness, said Geoffrey Crothall, editor of China Labour Bulletin (CLB), which on Thursday released a survey of labour disputes in China.

Local governments are also becoming somewhat more accommodating of workers’ claims, although in some industries, particularly coal mining, they collude with bosses to stamp out worker action, he said..

“In general, the Chinese government is more conciliatory towards Chinese workers, but that’s not to say that everything in the garden is rosy,” Crothall told reporters.

“Workers are still harassed and detained, although they are less likely to receive long prison sentences.

Collectively, Chinese workers still lack a mechanism to resolve disputes stemming from unpaid wages and poor working conditions, particularly after an economic downturn last year and made economic growth China’s main priority, he said.

The state-backed All China Federation of Trade Unions is unlikely to fight for workers against owners, since its branches are often dominated by management and local party officials.

The union, which collects dues from members’ wages, last year made a strong push to expand into foreign multinationals’ operations in China.

Chinese workers are forbidden from forming independent trade unions.”

Update: Read the report at China Labour Bulletin.

Death To The Dictator

The Iranian people will not be stopped, AP reports:

“TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Thousands of protesters streamed down avenues of the capital Thursday, chanting “death to the dictator” and defying security forces who fired tear gas and charged with batons, witnesses said. Turning garbage bins into burning barricades and darting through choking clouds of tear gas, the opposition made its first foray into the streets in nearly two weeks in an attempt to revive mass demonstrations that were crushed in Iran’s postelection turmoil. “

Protests 9th July 2009.

Another Internet Blackout.

Iran’s repressive rulers shutdown communication and restricted parts of the Internet around the recent Presidential election to suppress the exchange of information and try to limit dissent, well, it has happened again.

The Beijing dictatorship are doing the same, RWB reports:

“Reporters Without Borders condemns the Chinese government’s filtering of online information about the rioting in the Urumqi, the capital of the western province of Xinjiang, in which hundreds of people have been killed or injured. More than 50 Uyghur-language Internet forums were closed yesterday and communications were cut in the city.

“Urumqi is currently cut off from the rest of the world,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Once again, the Chinese government has chosen to cut communications in order to prevent the free flow of information. We firmly condemn this behaviour, which is serious violation of Uyghur freedom of expression and an unacceptable act of discrimination.”

The microblogging website Twitter has been inaccessible since yesterday afternoon. Uyghur PEN Centre general secretary Kasser said: “All the leading media are controlled by the state but only independent and privately-owned news sources are inaccessible. We have not been able to access any forum since this morning. It has so far been very difficult to confirm the reports we have been getting.”

Troops Poured In.

The Times reports:

“Thousands of Chinese troops poured into the restive city of Urumqi early today in a massive show of force, as President Hu Jintao cut short a visit to Italy for the G8 summit to deal with the outbreak of ethnic violence.

Along one road ringing the capital of the western region of Xianjiang where 156 people died in riots on Sunday, The Times counted more than 30 paramilitary trucks, each followed by about two dozen men, many in black body armour, and most carrying riot shields, batons and fire arms.

The convoys included several white armoured personnel carriers accompanied by tear gas vans, all with paramilitaries standing ready to open fire if necessary. They were preceded by land cruisers, their sirens wailing as they moved almost at a walking pace through the town. ”

Reuters has more analysis:

“SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Chinese President Hu Jintao abandoned plans to attend a G8 summit in Italy on Wednesday, returning home early to deal with ethnic violence that has left at least 156 dead in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang.

More than 1,000 people have been injured and 1,434 arrested in unrest between Han Chinese and Muslim Uighurs since Sunday in Urumqi, capital of the energy-rich region which borders Central Asia and Pakistan.

Here are some scenarios at how current tensions may play out: “

Update: AVPS has more information:

“Racist clash at Guangdong factory

The protest was held to demand answers from officialdom over an incident in Guangdong, southern China, on 26 June. A horrendous communal (ethnic) clash between Han Chinese and Uighur migrant workers at a toy factory in the city of Shaoguan resulted in two Uighurs being killed (although there are reports the number could be higher) and 118 injured from both ethnic groups. The incident was started by a Han Chinese worker who had lost his job at Early Light, a private company, that until recently employed over 50,000 workers in southern China. Rather than blaming the boss – Hong Kong’s ‘toy billionaire’ Francis Choi – this worker vented his anger on the 600 Uighur workers brought to the province as cheap labour (even cheaper than Han). This worker, who has since been arrested, circulated a false story on the internet claiming six Uighur men had raped two Han women at the factory. Gangs of Han workers attacked the Uighur dormitories with knives and metal bars and the Uighurs defended themselves with the same means – a bloodbath ensued.

This incident is highly symptomatic of processes in China, as tensions reach breaking point over unemployment (at a post-1949 record), pay cuts (200m migrants have been pitched into a new ‘race to the bottom’ competing for fewer and fewer factory jobs) and official corruption that penetrates almost every sphere of human activity. With all protest channels closed down and workers’ self-organisation outlawed, anger against the state is rising but so too is racism, crime, drug abuse, suicide, and other expressions of hopelessness. As a footnote on the Shaoguan incident, Choi, the billionaire toymaker, is officially worth US$1 billion and boasts a mansion with over 30 sports cars in its car park. The minimum wage set by Shaoguan’s government, which is the norm for most migrant workers, is just 500 yuan a month (approximately US$73). Such are the extremes of the ‘two Chinas’ today: A migrant worker would have to work for 261 years, not spending one fen (cent) of his wage, in order to buy one of Mr Choi’s Ferraris; yet such abysmally low wages are being fought over sometimes with tragic and bloody consequences.

The outbreak of street fighting in Ürümqi represents a ‘feedback loop’ from the clashes in Guangdong. Reports have circulated that police also took part in attacking the Uighur workers in Shaoguan, that several Uighurs despite being victims were among those arrested, and there are rumours that the mobile phones of Uighurs in Shaoguan had been confiscated to prevent them speaking out. Angered by these reports, and suspicious of another official cover up, a crowd of Uighurs went to the streets of Ürümqi to demand answers and protest against what is obvious discriminatory treatment.”

Green Thursday And Other Things.

As the events in China show, the people are revolting. So it is with Iran, and although in both countries massive state repression has been implemented the people still keep revolting.

Now is your chance to share in those revolts:

“Here is something you can do about it. An anniversary demonstration at the Iranian embassy in London is scheduled for this Thursday, starting at 6 PM. Please wear green and come along to 16 Prince’s Gate, SW7. The nearest Tube station is South Kensington.”

Two Weeks Notice: A Latin American Politics Blog has more coverage of Honduras (thanks to Flesh is Grass). I am still looking for decent local information on events.

Darran at Red Star has a deceptively clever original essay which seeks to answer the question: why has marxism had only limited influence in Britain?

Recommended.

Over at Tulip there’s a piece about the Israeli journalists’ union being expelled from the International Federation of Journalists.

Mick Hartley has provided excellent background to events in and around Xinjiang for many years, read on: Razing Kashgar, A Force for Good, Hizb ut-Tahrir in Xinjiang, China’s Empire and China and Xinjiang.

Update: See Left Luggage for Where now for anti-fascism?

Update 2: Hates Crimes at Racismreview.com.

Harry Barnes In Memory Of My Father.

Eric Reeves Sudan Elections and Southern Self-Determination: At Growing Risk.

At the El Nuevo Pantano Peronism: A Brief History.