Ironmongers in Tehran, Qom and Tabriz join the strike
NCRI – The strike of goldsmiths in Bazaar continued in Tehran and other cities on Tuesday, September 28, despite severe pressures imposed by the regime and its agents. Ironmongers in Tehran’s Shad-Abad Bazaar and Ahan-Makan; Shour-Abad of Qom; and in Tabriz municipality area and city center also joined the strike.
In Tehran, the strike started on Saturday, September 25, as the goldsmiths gathered outside Sabze Meidan entrances. The agents of the regime’s suppressive forces brutally attacked their shops in order to break their strike and broke the shops shutters by big iron rods. The attacks led to clashes between the Bazaar merchants and the Bassij forces and plainclothes agents. One of the Bassij agents was sent to hospital after being punished by the people.
In addition to Goldsmiths’ Bazaar, the strike expanded to important galleries of Farvardin and Khordad in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, goldsmiths in Sabze Meidan, Karimkhan Street, Sadeqieh and Sattarkhan districts, Shahrak-e Gharb, Borj-e Milad-e Nour, Abrisham Gallery in Kaj Sa’adat Abad Square.
Moreover, the strike of goldsmiths in Mashhad and Ardebil Bazaars continued for the seventh day on Tuesday. In Mashhad, the merchants from other streets such as Khosravi, Arg and 38-Metri have joined the strikers. On Saturday, more than 100 goldsmiths and gold merchants in Mashhad staged a protest outside the city’s judiciary.
In Shiraz, goldsmiths, including those in Ahmadi T-Junction and Mullah Sadra Street; and in Tabriz, goldsmiths and jewelry shops of Amir Kabir, Mohammadi, Amir and Qatran Bazaars were on their sixth day of strike on Tuesday. The suppressive agents of State Security Force (SSF) have been deployed to most of important entry points of Shiraz. Bassij paramilitary and plainclothes agents are patrolling some of the streets in the city center.
In Isfahan, goldsmiths and jewelry shops of Meysami, Timcheh, Naqsh-e Jahan bazaars and the goldsmiths of Mellat shopping center in Charbagh were still on strike. The plainclothes agents have been trying to break the strike by resorting to force and breaking shutters of the shops.
Goldsmiths and jewelry shops in Shahriyar, Varamin, Qom, Ahwaz, Orumieh, Zanjan and Qazvin joined nationwide strike.
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, in a message on September 27, commended the bazaar merchants who had gone on strike in Tehran and other cities. She said: Your strike is a laudable reaction to the ruling mullahs’ plunder of country’s wealth and their treacherous policy that has destroyed the national production and domestic trade in favor of the Supreme Leader’s Revolutionary Guards. She added: revealed the explosive state of the Iranian society that seeks the overthrow of the clerical regime.
While urging other Iranians to join Bazaar protests, Mrs. Rajavi praised the merchants who had not compromised with anti-Iranian, anti-Islamic regime of Khomeini and his heirs and have paid the price for their stance by losing their lives and belongings or going into exile.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
September 29, 2010