Joint Statement by Independent Organizations in Iran

[‼️]  Warning on the Intensification of Warmongering Threats and the Heightened Risk of Widening War

Dear hard-working colleagues at the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, and fellow workers across the country,

Given the increasingly critical war conditions in the country—especially their impact on the livelihoods, employment, and very survival of us workers in Tehran and throughout Iran, including drivers and workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, Metro employees, municipal service workers, intercity transport drivers, and truckers responsible for delivering essential goods from city to city—and in view of the continued daily bombings in Tehran and other regions, the widespread public anxiety, and the deep fear of destruction and the killing of innocent people—and in continuation of the joint statement we issued a few days ago alongside a group of independent labour organizations—we wish to stress the following:

The recent threats by Donald Trump—including the order to evacuate Tehran, a city with about 14 million residents including its suburbs—and the very real prospect of direct U.S. military intervention in support of Israel have not only caused deep concern and outrage among us workers and the oppressed, but have also provoked criticism from some of his closest political allies.  We workers take these violent threats extremely seriously and unequivocally condemn them alongside Israel’s military aggression.

The silence and inaction of international institutions, including the United Nations, and the shameful complicity of European governments—particularly Germany, the United Kingdom, and France—with these expansionist, aggressive, and unjustifiable threats have effectively fueled the march toward war. This war has now become an official, coordinated, and open project of the criminal governments of the United States and Israel, backed and supported by other Western states—a project of destruction, human slaughter, environmental devastation in Iran, and the continued repression and denial of basic rights in the country.

What has become of this world that millions of people in another country are so casually threatened with the destruction of their homes, lives, and very existence—on television and social media, in flagrant violation of the very international laws that these same powers  once drafted themselves?

The global public conscience and peace-seeking movements in the United States, Europe, and beyond must pressure the governments of the U.S. and Israel to immediately halt their military assaults and agree to a ceasefire. The Islamic Republic government must also act with full seriousness and transparency to stop the war and secure an immediate ceasefire. Continuing this war will be disastrous for the people and the future of both Iran and the region.

We, the freedom-loving and equality-seeking people of Iran and the world, must raise our voices louder than ever to demand an immediate ceasefire.

The justice-seeking struggles of us workers in Iran have always faced systematic hostility and repression from the exploitative, authoritarian, and anti-worker state and ruling establishment. This confrontation—now spanning more than four decades—has come at great cost to workers and their families: imprisonment, dismissal, flogging, threats, assaults, and severe economic hardship. This class struggle, which will undoubtedly continue, has never been and will never be waged so that we become cannon fodder for Israel, the United States, or their allies. The backbone of this struggle is the independent, collective, and organized power of workers, justice-seeking people, and the global working class. It not only rejects all imperial powers, but has also suffered serious harm from their interventions, which have undermined and damaged our social foundations and class solidarity.

Once again, we call on all peace-seeking forces across Iran and the world—especially labour organizations, political organizations and parties, environmental movements, women’s organizations, student and civil groups, human rights defenders, and anti-war movements—to resolutely demand an immediate ceasefire and an end to the war, and to work toward a just and lasting peace. A peace that saves lives from the impending catastrophe, and enables us—workers and the oppressed—to shape our own destiny through our independent organizations.

In these dangerous and uncertain times—when war, insecurity, destruction, and repression loom over our lives—consciousness, solidarity, and mutual aid remain powerful tools for defending our lives, dignity, and future.

No to War – No to Warmongering Policies

A Ceasefire Now Is Our Immediate Demand

The Liberation of Workers and the Oppressed Lies in Unity and Organization

Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company

This statement was released on June 21, 2025 (Khordad 31, 1404), following a delay due to widespread internet outages in the country.

----------------------------------------------------------------

 

The Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, a member of the International Trade Union Solidarity and Struggle Network, is transmitting this text, signed with other independent organisations in Iran:

 

In light of the current unstable and dangerous conditions in Iran and the region, the undersigned organizations consider it their duty to adopt a collective position.

The working people of Iran — workers, teachers, nurses, retirees, and other wage-earners — have never had, and never will have, any interest in war, militarization, the bombing of the country, or in oppressive and exploitative policies.

The Israeli military attacks and the bombing of hundreds of targets across different parts of Iran — including infrastructure, workplaces, refineries, and residential areas — are part of a warmongering project whose cost is paid with the lives, livelihoods, and futures of ordinary people, especially the working class.

Israel’s claim that it holds no hostility toward the people of Iran is nothing but a lie and political propaganda. Just yesterday, the Israeli Minister of Defense threatened to “burn Tehran.” Repeated threats by Trump and other U.S. officials, along with the full support of Western governments for such actions, have only further fueled tension, insecurity, and destruction in the region.

The governments of Israel and the United States are the main perpetrators of the ongoing genocide in Gaza and numerous other crimes in the region and across the world. The United Nations and international institutions that hypocritically posture as peace-seeking while remaining silent in the face of these atrocities are part of the same system of domination. The entirety of the global capitalist system, its profit-driven logic, and imperialist powers are the main causes of wars, human catastrophes, and environmental destruction.

The working class of Iran not only has no benefit from war, but these wars have directly targeted its life and security. The continuation of economic sanctions, the allocation of massive budgets to military affairs, and the restriction of freedoms will lead to greater poverty, wider repression, hunger, death, and the displacement of millions.

We, the independent workers’ and grassroots organizations and activists in Iran, have no illusions that the United States and Israel want to bring us freedom, equality, and justice — just as we have no illusions about the repressive, interventionist, and anti-worker nature and conduct of the Islamic Republic.

We, the workers and toilers of Iran, have for many years paid heavy costs — including imprisonment, torture, execution, dismissal, threats, and beatings— in our struggle to secure even the most basic rights and necessities of life. We remain deprived of the right to organize, assemble, and freedom of expression. The workers and working people of this country are rightfully furious and fed up with the Islamic Republic and the capitalists who, over the past four decades, have amassed astronomical wealth on our backs while condemning us to perpetual insecurity and deprivation. All officials and institutions involved in the repression and killing of workers, women, youth, and the oppressed people of Iran must be prosecuted and held accountable by the oppressed people themselves.

Our struggle as workers is a social and class-based struggle. This struggle will advance only by relying on our own strength, in continuity with the movements of recent years — including “Bread, Work, Freedom” and “Woman, Life, Freedom” — and through solidarity with the international working class and all humanist, freedom-seeking, and equality-oriented forces.

The continuation of the current war can bring nothing but greater destruction, irreversible environmental damage, and the repetition of human disasters. The working class and the impoverished people of Iran — like the oppressed of other countries in the region — are among the main victims of this situation.

The undersigned organizations call upon all labour organizations, human rights institutions, anti-war groups, environmental activists, and peace-seeking forces around the world to unite in demanding the immediate cessation of war, bombings, the killing of innocent people, and the destruction of the environment — and to support the struggles of the people of Iran and the region to put an end to genocide, militarism, and repression.

The people of the Middle East urgently need an end to the devastating tensions between regional and global powers, and the establishment of a just and lasting peace — a peace under which people can determine their own destiny through organizing, mass organizations, expanding protests, and direct and collective participation.

No to War – No to Warmongering Policies

An Immediate Ceasefire Is Our Urgent Demand

 

Signatories:

Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company

Syndicate of Workers of Haft Tapeh Sugarcane Company

Retired Workers of Khuzestan

Retirees’ Alliance (Ettehad Bazneshastegan)

Coordinating Committee to Help Form Workers’ Organizations

Retirees’ Unity Group

 

Links to the original statement in Farsi:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DK_8H4PxUMd/?igsh=MWNhcWVhZXE5M3cwMw==
https://t.me/vahedsyndica/6278