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A matter of life or death - LabourStart Appeal & News Update
Friday 09 March 2012, 03pm
Every campaign we run on LabourStart is important. But sometimes, these are literally matters of life and death.
A few years ago, we were asked to run an online campaign in support of a jailed Iranian teacher named Farzad Kamangar. Thousands of you sent off protest messages to Iran, but it was not enough. On 9 May 2010, Kamangar was executed. He was 32 years old.
Today we are once again being asked to mobilize tens of thousands of trade unionists around the world in defense of an Iranian teacher who has been sentenced to death. His name is Abdolreza Ghanbari and the crime he is accused of is "enmity towards God". The Education International, which represents teachers' trade unions around the world, is demanding his release.
It will take you only a minute to send off your message of protest - please click here to do so.
Please spread the word in your union. Maybe this time, if we can send enough messages, our voices will be heard.
Meanwhile, in Turkey, we're being asked by Amnesty International to help support their campaign to grant Turkish workers their fundamental labour rights. Please take a moment to sign their online petition, here.
And at the same time, Turkish trade union members are staging a sit-in today at the ILO's Turkey office in a bid to force their government to comply with ILO core labour standards and to enact new labour laws that respect workers' rights. You can follow their sit in -- which they're calling "Occupy ILO" on their blog and on Twitter using the #OccupyILO hashtag. They're asking all supporters of workers' rights in Turkey to tweet using the #OccupyILO hashtag to show their solidarity with those doing the sit-in.
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