“Secretary Pompeo: Aid Iran’s Democracy Movement by Routing Proceeds from Confiscated Fuel to Iranian Workers on Strike”

August 17, 2020

The Honorable Michael Pompeo
Secretary of State
US Department of State
2201 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20230

Dear Mr. Secretary:

We write to you with gratitude for the support and solidarity you have shown for the Iranian people’s struggle for a democratic future. That future depends on the peaceful overthrow of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s regime, which the administration’s maximum pressure strategy has proven highly effective in exposing, discrediting, and degrading.

Over the last two years especially, the Iranian people have been engaged in an unprecedented series of labor strikes and street protests. Today, workers at oil and gas refineries and at electric power plants in several cities continue their consolidated work stoppage. Alongside them are thousands more workers striking at the nation’s railways, at the Haft-Tappeh sugarcane mill, and at HEPCO, the Middle East region’s largest heavy equipment manufacturer. Theirs is a continuation of strikes from virtually every sector of the Iranian economy, from bazaar merchants to teachers, truckers, nurses, and more.

Iranian workers’ resolve and unity are fierce. Their already impoverished state, however, is combining with a collapsing economy and the COVID crisis. A great many among them are their family’s primary breadwinner but have not received their wages in months. By striking, they know they may lose their jobs, and they know they risk being imprisoned, as countless workers before them have been. Yet they have their eyes on the prize of a dignified life and an accountable government. Their families suffer but support their cause, as does the whole of the Iranian nation.

On August 12, the US seized over one million barrels of fuel from four tankers traveling from Iran to Venezuela, enforcing the forfeiture order on both the Khamenei and the Maduro regimes. We understand the administration may seek to award proceeds from the confiscated cargo to families of victims of terrorist acts perpetrated by the Islamic Republic of Iran. We would like to offer an alternative that would advance America’s interest in punishing the world’s top sponsor of terror while also lending practical support to the Iranian people’s movement for democracy:

provide the proceeds to families of striking workers through an Iran Strike Fund.

Doing so would aid the people’s movement to overcome the regime that has brutalized them and terrorized the Middle East region and the world for over four decades. We at Iran Revival (Farashgard) stand ready to assist the US Department of State in this endeavor. Such an action would be in keeping with America’s proud legacy of supporting the Solidarity movement in Poland, an effort instrumental to toppling Communism.

We thank you for your consideration and thank you again for all your efforts to counter the regime we are battling.

Sincerely,
Iran Revival (Farashgard)