Tehran Bus Boycott - and Solidarity Rallies for Striking Drivers

It's a fascinating new grassroots campaign that's quietly gathering steam and picking up international support: the Tehran Bus Boycott.

The essence of the story is a strike by Iranian bus drivers and the subsequent crackdown on them by the Iranian regime. The 17,000-strong Union of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (the "Sherkat-e Vahed," which is not recognized by the government) called a strike on January 28 to protest the arrest of the union's President, Mansour Osanloo, who was arrested in late 2005 during a union meeting. At the strike rally, Iranian authorities arrested hundreds of the striking bus drivers. (See background here and here.)

Now the international labor unions are picking up their cause. For example, the US Teamsters Union is getting involved, joining a protest rally last week outside the Iranian Interest Section in Washington, DC:

Dozens of Teamsters participated in an International Day of Action at the Iranian Interest Section to demand the release of hundreds of imprisoned Iranian bus drivers. The drivers were arrested after police brutally cracked down on a planned January 28 strike.

“We call on the Iranian government to recognize the bus drivers’ right to form a union,” said Jim Hoffa, Teamsters General President. “We demand that the Iranian government release imprisoned union members and return all fired drivers to work immediately and unconditionally."

So in Damascus it's the poultry workers protesting, in Benghazi it's rioting youth fed up with Libya's "Pharaoh," and in Tehran it's the bus drivers. Behind the headlines, the region is bubbling in all sorts of unlikely places. Now it would be good to see more solidarity rallies like last week's labor protest in DC.