A Letter Written By Esmail Abdi From The Kechoui Prison: "The Holding Of The General Assemblies Of Trade Unions Should Be A Priority For The Trade Union Centers And Associations."
Zhaleh Sahand
Socialist
Jun 25, 2023 11:49
869
Zhaleh Sahand
June 17, 2023
At first, I would like to express my respect to all trade unions that are the members of the coordination council and to the tireless activists whom in the last two decades, while were trying to fulfil free education (Principle 30 of the Constitution), equal and quality, and improve the livelihood and dignity of teachers, and side by side the people of Iran have also revived and continued the path of making demands, and have given a new life to the path of civility and transformation by putting their efforts on union activities in the syndicates; I present my gratitude.
Dear friends and fellows!
The establishment of the free and democratic circulation of power and its fair distribution and safe transformation, has been one of the most central reasons for the formation of parties and guilds. Based on this idea, sociology philosophers have sought to limit and prioritize the responsibility for "controlling the desire for power" in humans and the resulting disasters. So far, we, the teachers, with this thought and according to the emphasis of this importance in the constitution of trade unions, have always unblocked the path of new activism and confronted patriarchal behaviors and trade union privileges, and in this way by creating new opportunities for newer union ideas, we have blocked the hardening of the direction.
It is expected that despite the fragile conditions and the inflicting sabotage by the government, the member centers of the Coordination Council of the Teachers' Union Organizations of Iran, will be able to provide the ground for holding public meetings with a competent initiative. Putting the efforts in this direction, and making calculated planning to fulfil it through holding non-selective elections and creating opportunities for the presence of new faces and the selection of a dynamic boards of directors, are the historical duties of all organizations across the country.
Undoubtedly, the membership in the board of directors of organizations is fiducial and none of us represent the teachers permanently. The centers are not the personal property of any of us, and we are actually the union tenants in partnership with the union activists across the country.
Today, the real possessors (teachers) have the right to ask why after seven years, most centers in the country have not held their assembly.
I am well aware of the hard and difficult conditions of the trade union friends and the overt and hidden pressures of the security institutions against them, but I deeply believe that this issue in the path of activism, should not cause us to act in any other ways in the democratic transformation of responsibility and become accused of monopolization.
I emphasize once again that it is necessary for all of us to pave the way for this auspicious and blessed event by creating the legal framework and advancing the objective conditions.
In the end, I request all my friends and colleagues across the country to take stronger and higher steps to fulfil this important matter.
With respect
Ismail Abdi
Kechui prison
Notes
1- Esmail Abdi is a high school teacher and the former Secretary General of Iran’s Teachers’ Trade Association (ITTA)
2-Kechui prison is located close to Tehran, the capital of Iran- in Central District of Karaj County, Alborz province.
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