A deadly incident of the explosion in the coal mine in Tabas shook Iran on September 22, 2024. On the day when schools reopened and students went to classes, 51 families lost their breadwinners in Tabas, most of them miners, in a city in Khorasan province with a population of 40000.

Working in the mines is a risky profession. The collapse of walls and roofs, explosions, and gas leakages are among the cases of deadly accidents in mines all over the world. Despite being aware of these possible dangers, miners are forced to work in the mines due to a lack of jobs. The protest movements of miners have been able to force mine owners to use safety and protective equipment all over the world.

But in dictatorial countries like the Islamic Republic of Iran, workers face many problems when it comes to meeting their demands. To obtain their most basic rights, Iranian miners not only face the great wall of capital and its supporters in the government as a means of oppression but also the clergy and religion seek to prohibit them from fighting by promising them remittances in the afterlife.

In all capitalist societies, the police and repressive forces are not used to create an easier and safer life for the citizens but to protect the interests of the big capitalists. But in Iran, we also have the police, the Basij militias, the IRGC, and the army which come into the streets against demonstrations of mineworkers. They are worried about large and widespread workers’ riots. These same forces use newspapers, magazines, internet websites, and radio and television stations under their control to prevent any exposé of the crimes of capitalists in not implementing safety and security measures.

A few hours after this disaster, Ahmed Midari, the new Minister of Labor in the government of the Pezeshkian, appeared on TV and announced that there was no violation on the part of the owner or owners of the mine in terms of safety and protection. This is the Minister of Labor who was said to be an institutionalist and against neoliberalism who defends the state economy. But we can see how openly he defends private capitalists before any investigation even occurs.

According to the workers who survived the explosion and collapse of the Tabas coal mine, there was a problem with the air conditioning system; the equipment inside the mine was not explosion-proof, there was no warning system, the gas measurement was not done correctly, and a drainage system was not installed in the mine. There was no standard route for the release of gasses that could cause an explosion in the depths of the earth at any moment.

Nowadays, most coal mines use rescue cabins. A rescue cabin is made in the shape of a trapezoid that can shelter six people. The workers can spend up to two weeks in such shelters. Coal mines are the most dangerous of mines and there is always a risk of explosion due to the presence of methane gas. Turkey, which is much more dependent on coal than Iran, uses these cabins in mines. In Iran, which is ruled by the Islamic Republic and determines the fate of the people, bringing the VAR video system to record games at football stadiums is more important than having cabins in mines. The life and health of the coal miners should become everyone’s concern.

The authoritarian, religious, and capitalist regime of the Islamic Republic has always been a full-fledged defender of capitalism. In the mining sector, workers have repeatedly clashed with government forces after protesting their working conditions and low wages, and in some cases, non-payment of wages. Workers should not be happy with the promises of the capitalists and their supporting government. Only by uniting and fighting with other workers, who also face difficult conditions, can mineworkers push back the capitalists and implement their demands against the government that supports the capitalists.