The protesters shouted… “Death to the Oppressors!”
Witnesses told AFP that they hoisted a coffin symbolising their demands which the police then tried to break.
Iranian workers shout slogans while carrying a coffin to symbolise the death of Iran’s labour laws, during a Labour Day rally in Tehran May 1, 2007. (REUTERS/Caren Firouz)
Hundreds of labor protesters clashed with regime thugs today at a protest in Tehran.
The AFP reported:
The workers converged on a stadium in central Tehran in the officially sanctioned demonstration to mark May Day but were dispersed by anti-riot police when the march moved out into the street, witnesses said.
“Some 600 workers demonstrated at the exit to the stadium and shouted slogans against the minister of labour,” Mohammad Jahromi, the semi-official labour news agency Ilna reported.
“Incapable minister. Resign!”, “Government, parliament, stop your slogans and act,” and “Death to the oppressors”, the protestors shouted, according to the agency.
Scuffles followed when anti-riot police dispersed the demonstration as people moved into the street outside the stadium, just south of Haft-e Tir Square, a major Tehran traffic nexus.
One in Seven in Iran live below the poverty level according to new government stats.
Iranian policemen clash with labourers during a demonstration to mark May Day in Tehran, 01 May 2007. Hundreds of Iranians took part on Tuesday in a demonstration in Tehran to mark labour day, accusing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government of failing to improve their working conditions.(AFP/ISNA)
Serendip reports on the miserable economic situation.