In the largest work stoppage since the 1979 revolution that overthrew the U.S.-backed dictatorship of the shah and ensuing bourgeois-clerical-led counterrevolution, thousands of truck drivers in Iran held an 11-day strike starting May 22 and ending June 2 — four more days than originally planned.
While the government and bosses promised to improve pay and conditions, they “have not yet fulfilled our main demands,” the Truckers and Drivers Union said. Still, holding the strike was a victory, “the result of the sacrifice and perseverance of drivers who stayed on the scene, stood firm, and did not bow down.”
The strikers — mostly independent owner-operators — protested low freight rates; rising costs of spare parts, insurance, and oil; shortages of fuel at subsidized prices; payment delays by shippers; and unsafe conditions on poorly maintained roads. Working people in Iran have been hit hard by Washington’s sanctions and the worldwide capitalist economic crisis.
At first the government slandered the strike as counterrevolutionary. It arrested more than 40 drivers. But as the strike spread to 163 cities and towns in all of Iran’s 31 provinces the regime was forced to admit the truckers’ complaints were legitimate. Regime spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani had to say the strike “is a sign that society is alive.” This is the “first time,” the union said, that a drivers’ protest “has been officially recognized.”
Since 2023 the class struggle has heated up in Iran, with strikes and protests almost every day by farmers, steel and oil workers, retirees, teachers, nurses, bakers, shopkeepers, disabled workers and more. Baluchis, along with others of Iran’s many oppressed nationalities, have taken to the streets to protest government repression.
A weekly hunger strike by prisoners demanding an end to the death penalty has spread to 47 prisons. Opposition to the government-imposed oppressive dress code, and in support of women’s equality, has made it harder for the reactionary regime to force women to wear the hijab.
Anger at port explosion fueled strike
On April 26, an explosion and long-burning fire at the port of Bandar Abbas, Iran’s largest, killed scores of people and injured over 1,000. Many were truck drivers.
The disaster was caused by a chemical shipment that Revolutionary Guard authorities hid in an area reserved for commercial goods. Despite government denials, most working people are convinced the regime intended to use the chemicals to make fuel for ballistic missiles targeting Israel.
Thousands of truckers joined caravans all over the country after the explosion to protest the government and bosses’ disregard for the life and safety of workers.
The regime and bosses tried to pit farmers against the truckers. But the drivers appealed to the farmers, saying, “We need your support and extend our hand in solidarity.”
One farmer said, “Now that the honorable truck drivers have gone on strike with one voice, suddenly everyone pretends to care about farmers? Back when the farmer was crushed, no one said a word.
“To the drivers I say: More power to you! Keep going! Maybe your movement will spark something for others to claim their rights — the farmer, the worker, the teacher, the nurse.”
The strike won broad solidarity from working people and those fighting for political freedom, national self-determination, women’s rights and against the regime’s diversion of resources to its attacks on Israel.
‘We must put aside all our divisions’
Recognizing the broader significance of their fight, the truckers proclaimed, “We are no longer just drivers. We are the voice of a weary nation that demands justice.”
“Persian, Lor, Turk, Kurd, Baluchi, Arab — all of us, everyone — must have unity, unity, in order to achieve our rightful demands,” the union said.
Government forces attacked a protest in the Kurdish region and arrested strikers there. In Kermanshah hundreds of strikers gathered in front of the governor’s office to demand the release of 11 arrested strikers. “Protest is not a crime,” the union said. “It is our legal right.” The union said the immediate release of all those detained is “fundamental and nonnegotiable.”
Some 10 days after the strike ended, Israel launched ongoing attacks on Tehran’s nuclear sites used for developing nuclear weapons, which threaten a new Holocaust against Jews in Israel. The union noted that the regime took no measures to protect the lives of truckers.
Taking exception to the regime’s demand for sacrifice, one message posted on the union website said, “In this critical time and wartime conditions, again we’re expected to work for nothing — for who and for what? Is there anything more precious than our lives?”