This year again Ali Taiebniah,
Islamic Republic’s Minster of Economics, and Valiolah Seif, Director of Iran’s
Central Bank, leading two separate high-ranking delegations attended the International
Monetary Fund and World Bank’s joint fall meeting in the United Sates. According
to the Mehr News Agency’s October 11, 2014 report, during Valiolah Seif’s
meeting with Naoyuki Shinohara, Deputy Managing Director of the International
Monetary Fund, as usual Seif presented a report on “the implementation status
of the ‘Targeting of the Subsidies (elimination of the subsidies) Law’.” In
other words, the Imperialist organizations of International Monetary Fund and
World Bank are eager to receive reports on the process of implementation of
this anti-national law in Iran ;
and Islamic Republic authorities see the need for presenting reports on this
matter.
With implementation of this
anti-national law and sharp increases in the production plants’ fuel costs,
thousands of our country’s production factories were shut-down and millions of
workers lost their jobs. With millions of unemployed workers becoming
available, big capitalists and parasitic capital have been able to impose very
cruel wages, work conditions and work contracts to Iranian workers. In addition
to millions of workers losing their jobs and inhumane work conditions of those
still working, with elimination of the subsidies and increases in prices of all
commodities needed by workers such as water, electricity, propane gas, gas,
milk, cheese……a very tragic living condition has been imposed on the workers as
well. As an example, Mehr News Agency’s October 14, 2014 report indicated, “The
minimum wage of about 609000 Tomans (approximately $187 - one Dollar is
approximately 3200 Tomans) determined for the current year, at best can take
care of a worker family’s needs for the first ten days of the month.” The same
report added, with “500000 Tomans of increases in the workers’ cost of living
during the first three months of this year”, the cost of living of a 4 person
worker’s family increased from “1700000 Tomans” at the end of the last year to
“2200000 Tomans” at present. In other words, workers’ minimum wage is
approximately one-forth of the money required to reach the poverty-line; and
price increases during only the first few months of this year is approximately
equivalent to the workers’ minimum wage in our country. We must remember that a
considerable segment of the workers receive less than the minimum wage; and often
they receive their salaries with months of delay.
Prior to assuming
responsibilities and during the 2013 presidential elections, Rouhani pledged
for determining workers’ wages according to the inflation-rate; and his Minister
of Labor Rabieih promised adjusting the 2013 wages. Not only workers’ 2013
wages were not adjusted, their 2014 wages were also determined 11.5 percent
below the inflation-rate announced by the government. While according to ILNA’s
(Iranian Labor News Agency) March 1, 2014 report, Deputy Minster of Labor,
Seid-Hassan Hefdah-Tan had indicated, “Between the years of 1997 and 2011,
workers’ wage share of the total cost of production in Iran had dropped from
about 13 percent to about 5 percent”; Hefdah-Tan had also indicated,
“Considering the inflationary-recession and negative economic growth in the
country, we cannot determine the minimum wage on the basis of inflation.” On
March 10, 2014, ILNA reported that starting in May 2014, regular meetings “for
determining workers’ wages on productivity basis” will be held; and on May 19th,
while reporting on the “Wage and Productivity Committee’s” responsibilities,
Faramarz Tofigy, President of the Committee indicated, “In Iran we have between
35 to 63 percent of unnecessary intermediary costs of the raw-material”; and on
June 31, Tofigy described the “large amounts of payments (enticements),
intermediary costs, and financial misuse” as “difficulties of the total costs
of the raw-material.” On August 26, Mehr News Agency published the first report
of the anti-worker Committee, where in 13 items mentioned influencing the “cost
of production”, except for “serious role of intermediaries” and extensive
Islamic Republic’s corruption, there was no mention of the role of workers’ wages
on the “costs of production”; and on October 7, in its third report to the
Ministry of Labor on the “state of the wages in the food industry”, by
indicating that the “studies show that the intermediaries play a crucial role
in the food industry……..a kind of lack of transparency exists in operations in
this sector”, this anti-labor Committee indicated, “The Ministry of Labor has
asked the ‘Wage and Productivity Specialty Committee’ to put an end to the
bargaining methods and the extensive discussions between workers and managers
concerning wage determination; and
workers’ yearly wages should be determined and ratified with a specific
model.” As usual, Islamic Republic has left the enormous profits of the big
capitalists and parasitic capital, and the costs of intermediaries,
enticements, and limitless corruption within the regime in the cost of production
alone, and intends to initiate another assault on the workers’ wages.
The fact is that our country has
a capable and educated work-force, considerable under-ground reserves and
resources for creation of jobs, and considerable wealth to advance production
in the country. By emphasizing on implementation of the anti-national
“Targeting of the Subsidies (elimination of subsidies) Law”, imperialist countries
and organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank
intended to destroy our national production, create vast markets for sale of
their own products, and use our educated and very cheap work-force to expand
their production and achieve enormous profits. Considering the extensive
opportunities and incentives that Islamic Republic authorities are promising for
foreign investors, it seems the imperialist countries have achieved their goal.
But implementation of the anti-national “Targeting of the Subsidies Law” also
has a worthy internal value for the Islamic Republic authorities. Profits from
very low cost of the labor and revenues from elimination of the subsidies are
divided among different sectors of the regime. Rouhani’s government pledged to allocate
a portion of the earnings from implementation of the second phase of
elimination of the subsidies to production. After passing of many months and
much criticism for not acting on their pledge, on September 15, 2014, Rouhani’s
First Deputy Esehage Jahangiry announced, “1.6 billion dollars from revenues of
the ‘Targeting of the Subsidies’ plan will be allocated to the production.”
However, on October 4, 2014, Mehr News Agency wrote, “Only 370 million dollars”
of the 1.6 billion dollars will be assigned to production; and added, “It is
interesting that the most vocal critics of unsuccessful implementation of the
first phase of the ‘Targeting of the Subsidies Law’ were the authorities of the
eleventh government (Rouhani’s government).” Finally, on October 2, 2014,
government’s Spokesperson Mohammad-Bagger Nobacket told ISNA, “Payments to
producers will in no way……be in cash form; but it will be in the form of
subsidies to cover the difference in bank’s interests.” In other words,
production’s portion from the revenues collected from elimination of the
subsidies will also go to the banks, meaning to the financial capital. We must
put an end to all of this corruption, exploitation and cruelty of the capital.
The only path to workers liberty and achieving their rightful class interests
is through organization of their independent labor unions and continuous and
united struggle.
United Workers Everything
Isolated Workers Nothing
