The following is a statement published on the Haft Tappeh Sugar Cane Company workers’ independent Telegram channel.
Capitalists and governments are responsible for the destruction of nature and society. The workers, however, pay the price for any irresponsible and profit-seeking policy. Sitting in their palaces, the capitalists have access to the greatest medical facilities, but the workers have to look after them. Capitalists can bring to their home the hospital, medical facilities and a healthcare team, but the workers have to shield them and endure the most casualties. Preventing the vaccination of citizens is an attempt to kill the dispossessed in Corona’s minefield.
The government has no right to chant slogans and then shrug and make us pay with our lives. The government and the elite that holds power and controls everything is directly responsible for the current situation. The government has no right to sentence the citizens of a country to mass death. No government has the right to deprive the inhabitants of a land of their right to life and a livelihood. No power has the right to put its personal beliefs ahead of the interests of the people of a country.
Enough is enough. In these difficult times, when rulers are hiding in their crystal rooms and palaces, workers have fought on the front lines of factories and hospitals. The policy of the government and capitalists was to increase unemployment and impose poverty and hunger. So far, our share has been more repression and deaths.
The workers of Haft Tappeh, along with the working class, demand the immediate supply of a vaccine that is approved by world-renowned health centres, free of charge for all residents of the country, with priority given to vulnerable sections of society.
A group of Haft Tappeh workers in different sections
19 January 2021
Source: Haft Tappeh Sugar Cane Company workers’ independent Telegram channel
Translation: Shahrokh Zamani Action Campaign
Shahrokh Zamani Action Campaign 