Today, Thursday, January 23, 2025, marks the 21st anniversary of the bloody suppression of the struggles of the workers of the Khatoonabad Copper Complex in Babak city, Kerman Province. The massacre of the workers in Khatoonabad occurred on this day in 2004, during the administration of Iran’s so-called reformist government. At a time when figures like Khatami, Karroubi, and Mousavi loudly claimed to defend civil rights, they initially promised under pressure from domestic and international labor organizations to investigate the crime and identify those responsible for the massacre. However, as usual, they not only failed to fulfill their promise but also sought to bury the incident in oblivion while continuing their anti-labor policies.
The protests by the workers of the Khatoonabad Copper Complex began on January 5, 2004, when the management of the smelting plant laid off 200 workers under the pretext of completing construction work at the facility. Upon learning of the decision, the workers stopped working and staged a protest. Company officials promised the workers their jobs back, and the workers ended their demonstration. However, two weeks later, there was no sign of the company fulfilling its promise. As a result, on January 18, the workers, joined by their families, staged another protest, blocking the road leading to the Khatoonabad complex. Despite this, company officials remained indifferent to their demands.
On the morning of Friday, January 23, 2004, government forces and special police units attacked the protesting workers and their families from both air and ground using helicopters and various firearms. Several workers were severely injured, and one worker was killed as a result of the shooting.
On January 24, 2004, protests by workers and their families continued in the city of Babak, where they gathered in front of the governor’s office. Following orders from the city governor, security forces directly opened fire on the protesting workers. This brutal attack resulted in the deaths of four workers Riyahi, Javidi, Mahdavi, and Momeni and a student named Pouramini, while more than 300 others were injured. The protest gained the support of the majority of Babak’s residents, leading to a citywide shutdown. Although the ferocity of local officials, acting under orders from Tehran, ultimately suppressed the labor movement, the massacre in Khatoonabad fueled widespread public resentment toward the Islamic Republic and the reformists who had risen to power with promises of change.
Although the Khatoonabad incident was an overt massacre of workers, the Sarcheshmeh Copper Complex has continued to claim workers’ lives in other ways over the years. This semi-private, semi-governmental facility, controlled by the National Iranian Copper Industries Company, is one of the most dangerous mining operations in the world. Unsafe working conditions, including exposure to toxic gases, claim the lives of numerous workers annually.
The massacre of Khatoonabad workers was not the result of factional disputes within the regime but rather a reflection of the Iranian bourgeoisie’s determination to crush labor protests against workforce downsizing policies. Privatization policies, initiated in the late years of Rafsanjani’s presidency, were pursued more aggressively during Khatami’s administration. These policies involved mass layoffs of thousands of workers without any social safety net. A small number of skilled workers would later be rehired under temporary contracts with lower wages.
The shooting of Khatoonabad workers was not a mistake by reformists in power but a deliberate act. At the time, over 40,000 workers were employed in various industries and mines across Kerman Province, most of which were jointly managed by the government and private sectors. The regime sought to implement workforce reduction policies in this industrial sector to set an example for the rest of Iran’s industries. The success of Khatoonabad workers’ protests would have encouraged broader resistance against the economic policies of the reformists, so it had to be crushed.
The city governor of Babak, who ordered the shooting of workers and their families, did not act out of a moment of rage. Both he and policymakers in Tehran had ample time from January 5 to January 24, 2004, to deliberate on their course of action. Their brutal response to this labor protest was driven by the fear that it could spread nationwide.
At the same time, the reformist government amended labor laws to further disadvantage workers, while directly shooting protesters in Khatoonabad. These actions were part of a unified anti-labor policy. The Khatoonabad experience, for which workers paid a heavy price, revealed to Iran’s working class that when class interests are at stake, the regime’s various factions, despite their differences, act uniformly against workers’ struggles.
This realization is why, during the December 2017 protests, workers and the broader public chanted loudly: “Reformists, conservatives, the game is over!” This shift in public consciousness about the true nature of the reformists is rooted in the painful struggles and sacrifices of workers like those at Khatoonabad.
