Economic protests continued on Wednesday, March 5, with gatherings of workers, retirees, farmers, and defrauded investors in several cities across Iran, as well as a truck drivers’ strike in Isfahan.
According to reports published on social media, Wednesday’s economic protests included gatherings of workers from Bagan Dam in Bushehr, farmers in Ilam, oil retirees in Ahvaz, defrauded investors of the Caspian financial institution, housing applicants, and a truck drivers’ strike in Isfahan.
According to a citizen-recorded video, a significant number of truck and freight trailer owners, protesting against “discrimination and monopolization in cargo distribution,” went on strike by stopping their vehicles on the eastern bypass of Isfahan.
Additionally, a group of farmers gathered in front of the Ilam governor’s office to protest against the Siyahgol Mine for violating “environmental laws and their living space.”
The mine officials, while “violating environmental laws,” have exposed the farmers to “threats to their living environment” and an “environmental crisis.”
Workers employed in this project, which is being carried out on the border of Dashti and Jam counties to supply drinking and industrial water to the region, have gone on strike in protest against “a four-month delay in their wages.”
The protesters say that “their last received salary was from November 2024,” and now, on the verge of the Iranian New Year (March 21), they are “empty-handed” and “facing economic, livelihood, and family difficulties.”
Workers’ protest in Bushehr
According to another report, defrauded investors of the Caspian financial institution gathered on Wednesday to protest eight years of financial losses.
The Caspian financial institution, which operated “with a license from the Central Bank but faced a deficit of several trillion rials in assets,” has left its depositors without answers even after eight years.
Since 2016, Caspian depositors have been protesting and pursuing the return of their deposits along with the accrued interest.
Reports also indicate that applicants for the National Housing Program staged a protest in front of the Isfahan governor’s office on Wednesday.
According to reports on social media, a group of retired oil industry workers also gathered in Ahvaz on Tuesday, chanting: “Livelihood, healthcare, more destroyed than ever.”
The Council for Organizing Protests of Contract Oil Workers also reported a strike and gathering of employees in the Parsian operational area.
According to this report, contract workers in the operational areas of “Lamerd, Tabnak, Varaviz, and Isar” have been on strike and gathering since Monday, March 4, chanting: “Unity, unity, against poverty and corruption” to protest their economic conditions.
Strike of oil industry workers
The labor protests of retirees, workers in the oil and gas, steel, and mining industries, teachers, defrauded investors, nurses, and healthcare workers—which have been steadily growing in recent years—reflect the worsening economic hardships in Iran and the negligence of Iranian regime officials.
For years, Iran’s economy has faced multiple crises—including the collapse of the national currency, rising inflation and skyrocketing prices, and severe recession—due to the policies of the Iranian regime, including its so-called “resistance economy.”
