From: hrcoord@igc.org (Human Rights Coordinator)
Newsgroups: soc.rights.human
Subject: CLC CONDEMNS EXECUTIONS IN IRAN
Date: 10 Aug 92 16:30:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1476700346:000:3686
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!hrcoord    Aug 10 09:30:00 1992


From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: CLC CONDEMNS EXECUTIONS IN IRAN

/* Written 12:05 pm  Aug  2, 1992 by pns:akosha in cdp:labor.newsline */
A:CLC.W27[C[C[C          CANADA'S CLC CONDEMNS EXECUTIONS IN IRAN
Labour organisations worldwide express solidarity with Iranian
workers' struggle
Worker Today No.27, July 92

WT News Service:
A LARGE number of trade unions around the world in letters and
resolutions condemned the Iranian government's repression against
workers, its denial of basic labour rights and the brutal
execution of the people arrested following the recent mass
protests in a number of Iranian cities.
   In Canada, Robert White, President of the Canadian Labour Con-
gress, in a letter to the Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani,
on behalf of the CLC Executive Council and two million members
of the CLC called for an end to the executions and the immediate
release of the hundreds of people in jail. (See below for text
of the letter.)
   In Vancouver the 19th Constitutional Convention of the
Canadian Labour Congress, in a resolution on labour conditions
in Iran, called on the CLC to work with other international
labour organisations to broaden trade union support for the
struggle of Iranian workers and to call on the Canadian governm-
ent to, among other things, suspend its financial links with
Iran.
   A number of other unions around the world, including the
Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW); the Scarborough Local
of CUPW; Local 660 of Service Employees International Union
(SEIU); Local 1108 of the American Federation of State, County
and Municipal Employees Union (AFSCME); Alsace Regional Committee
of the CGT union in France; Section 22 of the National
Educational Workers Union of the state of Oaxaca, Mexico; Finnish
Food Workers Union; and Finnish Glass Workers Union, in letters
or resolutions denounced the anti-worker policies of the Iranian
government.
   In connection with the recent mass arrests and the executions,
the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of Canada (UE)
and the Unity Against Poverty organisation in Ontario condemned
the Iranian government's savagery and violence against the
working people.

CANADIAN LABOUR CONGRESS LETTER TO IRANIAN GOVERNMENT AGAINST
REPRESSION IN IRAN

The Canadian Labour Congress, which represents 2 million orga-
nized workers in Canada, has learned of the arrest of hundreds
of working people in Iran and the execution of eight of these
people in early June.  Furthermore, we are informed that five
others have been sentenced to death and forty-five others have
been sentenced to jail terms ranging from 4 months to 10 years.
   On behalf of the Executive Council and the membership of the
CLC, I call on your government to put an end to these executions
and to either release or to immediately bring to fair trials,
those people still in jail in your country.
   I also wish to bring to your attention a resolution tabled in
Vancouver, on June 10, 1992:

"Therefore be it resolved that the 19th Constitutional Convention
of the Canadian Labour Congress call on the CLC to work with
other international organizations to broaden trade union support
for the struggle of workers in Iran and for the goals of human
rights, democratic institutions, and democratic development; and
be it further resolved that the CLC call on Canada to suspend
financial relations with Iran, call for an arms embargo against
Iran, and call for the conditioning of oil sales on respect for
international human rights norms."

   By copy of this letter, I am asking the Canadian Secretary of
State for External Affairs to act on this resolution.

Yours sincerely,
Robert White, President
Newsgroups: soc.culture.iranian