December 21, 2018
Political protests and strikes continue across Iran, but with little action in Tehran, the anger doesn’t seem to penetrate the political system.
Phoebe Street, an analyst with the Global Food and Water Crises Research Program in Australia, reports that angry farmers in Esfahan province have now attacked the water pumping infrastructure for the 25th time this year. The damage has disrupted the piping of Esfahan’s water to Yazd province, which Esfahani farmers complain has left them literally high and dry.
Sugar mill workers at the Haft Tappeh refinery in Khuzestan province have now been on strike for more than a month and are insisting they won’t talk with management until their two colleagues who have been jailed are freed, Radio Farda reports.
Nearly 4,000 steel workers in Ahvaz continue on strike demanding two months’ in back wages as well as safety improvements and fresh investment so that production lines that have been closed can be re-started. It is the workers third strike this year, but little has been reported in the media. The Iran Times information came from the website of the World Socialist organization, which backs the strikers.
(Environmentalists say Iran should not be building steel plants in dry areas because steel refining makes a high demand on water resources and simply increases the problems of farmers.)
In a rather unusual protest, this one in Tehran, about 30 physicians gathered outside the Majlis building November 26 to demand the hospitalization of Farhad Meysami, a physician and human rights protester, who has been jailed since July 31 and started a hunger strike Aug 1.
