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In tonight’s program of Behind the Headlines we will look at the continuation of the workers strike at the Haft Tapeh Sugar Factory and Ahwaz Steel Plan.
Why certain factions of the regime refuse to accept the presence of money laundering in Iran and why the regime has chosen to crack down on the workers rather than talk to them about their grievances?
Could the Europeans finally come to the rescue of the nuclear deal and what does that mean in economic terms for the Iranian people?
Our guest tonight to discuss these issues is the internationally renowned economist Dr. Fereydoun Khavand.
Dr. Fereydoun Khavand:
The strike and industrial dispute at the Haftapeh Sugar Factory is not necessarily the most important economic issue in Iran, but rather the country’s state of economy as a whole is in question now.
This dispute comes as a result of a defective privatisation of some of state runindustries. The government claims that it has privatized most of the state run industries but in reality and according to its own sources only 3 percent of them have been privatized.
The Haft Tapeh Sugar Factory already had many managerial problems before it wasgiven to the private sector.
The Chinese managed this process very efficiently because at the same time they had a strong economy but in Iran this is not the case and mismanagement and corruption have taken the economy to the brink of bankruptcy.
The workers in Iran are now asking for their overdue wages but the state does not have any funds and is forced to print more notes, which in turn raises the inflation. The Haft Tapeh strike is the symbol of the critical state of Iran’s economy.
