The following is a statement by a section of the oil industry’s official workforce.
Declaration of support for the people’s protests and against government repression
We, the official workers working in the operational departments of the oil [industry], strongly condemn the murder of Mahsa Amini, which was really a warning to all of us people and could not be justified for any reason. Such crimes have touched all our hearts.
We declare our resolute support for the people’s protests on the streets and we are part of the same people whose lives and human dignity have been trampled by the despotic and anti-human government for more than forty years. Today, the living conditions have also reached a point where there is no provision and tolerable conditions left for us people. We ourselves witnessed that when we gathered and pursued our demands, they arrested our work-mates and filed [criminal] cases against them.
We will no longer accept the continuation of these slave-like living and working conditions. We had given an ultimatum that if our demands are not met, we will come to the streets with our families; and now, not only have our demands not been satisfied, but the rulers are responding to our protests with repression and bullets. With their Guidance Patrols, they killed people and killed our Mahsa, and this is the destiny of us all. Our strength is in our nationwide and united strike. While we are the same people who appear in street gatherings and shout the “Woman, life, freedom” slogan. We warn that if the repression continues, if all those arrested are not released, if the barracks-like atmosphere in the streets, in the cities and in our work environment does not end, and if our livelihood and dignity are not returned to us; as we have already announced, that we will stop working and this time we will gather with our families and the people. Stop the repression and crimes. Livelihood and dignity are our inalienable rights.
A section of the oil industry’s official workforce
28 September 2022
Translation: Shahrokh Zamani Action Campaign
