Making Cars in Iran: Working for Iran Khodro David Mather, Yassamine Mather & Majid Tamjidi This article examines work, employment relations and industrial conflict at Iran Khodro, Iran’s largest car plant. It pays particular attention to work intensification and the spread of contract work, which according to the workers have led to a rise in the number of fatal industrial accidents at the plant. These developments, we argue, are rooted in an alliance between the Islamic regime and its neo-liberal policies on the one hand, and the western multinational companies that have returned to Iran on the other. We also briefly examine workers’ resistance to these developments, which has taken place despite the absence of permanent workers’ organisations. Keywords: Car Plant; Casualisation; Imperialism; Iran; Iran Khodro; Privatisation; War; Workers Introduction In Iran during the course of the last year a series of strikes and protests in the manufacturing sector have finally brought to light the widespread discontent of workers over conditions of employment, work and pay, which have been simmering for several years. At stake in these confrontations are issues not only of employer strategies of productive organisation, work and pay, but also the neo-liberal policies of the Islamic Republic that have intensified the casualisation of employment relations, and have led the state into actively participating in the violent settlement of disputes on the side of the employers. The most prominent dispute, which initiated this latest wave of protests and one which has gained international attention, was a strike of Tehran’s bus drivers in January 2006. They were demanding the right to set up an independent trade union to advance their demands. Several hundred bus drivers and members of their families were arrested within a few hours of the beginning of the strike in order to force the strikers back to work. 1 1 Amnesty International, ‘Iran: Amnesty International Calls for Release of Bus Workers’, Public Statement MDE 13/007/2006, 2 February 2006. B http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE130072006 , accessed 4 January 2007. ISSN 0301-7605 (print)/ISSN 1748-8605 (online) # 2007 Critique DOI: 10.1080/03017600701238356 Critique Vol. 35, No. 1, April 2007, pp. 9  21