Statements on the Occasion of Workers' Day

In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Thanks be to God, the Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be upon our master and prophet, Abu al-Qasim al-Mustafa Muhammad, and upon his pure and chosen progeny, especially the Awaited One among the inhabitants of the earth.

Welcome, my dear ones; you have illuminated our Hosseiniyah with your sincere, faithful, and revolutionary presence, with your statements and expressions, and you have made us taste the sweetness of meeting with a large gathering of the devoted and hardworking class. Truly, our working community — as has been pointed out, and I have repeatedly said — is a class of sincerity, faith, honesty, and hard work, not only in factories but also in the realm of the revolution, for the essence of the revolution, for defending the revolution, and during the imposed war.

Today is close to the day of the 15th of Sha'ban. I would like to say a word regarding the occasion of the 15th of Sha'ban, and that is that the 15th of Sha'ban is a symbol of hope for the future; that is, all the hopes we have for something may or may not come true; however, the hope for final reform through the absolute guardian, the Almighty God, the Master of Time (may God hasten his reappearance and may our souls be sacrificed for him) is an unwavering hope. Peace be upon you, O promise of God that He has guaranteed; it is God's guaranteed promise; peace be upon you, O banner that is raised and knowledge that is poured forth, and the vast mercy and help that is an undeniable promise; this is the divine promise that cannot be broken. We do not only say this — we Shi'ah do not only say this — but all the religions of the world are waiting for such a day. Our distinction is that we know the one we are waiting for, we feel his existence, we accept his presence, we speak to him, we address him, we ask him, and he responds to us; that is the difference. Others — non-Shi'ah Muslims and non-Muslim believers — believe in something vague; we Shi'ah do not; it is clear what we want and who we are speaking to; the 15th of Sha'ban is a day of hope. My dear ones, dear youth, dear workers! Value hope; keep hope in your hearts; hope for the change of the oppressed and dark face of the world that is currently under the domination of superpowers. Know and be assured that this situation will change; be assured that this atmosphere of oppression and injustice that you see in the world today, of bullying, slander, malice, and wickedness — which is exemplified by the leaders of America and the Zionist leaders, and others are somewhat similar — will undoubtedly change; this is the hope we have. We must help, ask God, and strive ourselves to bring that day closer, God willing.

One point regarding the month of Sha'ban; we should not neglect the month of Sha'ban. The month of Sha'ban is a celebration from the beginning to the end, just like the month of Ramadan. The month of Ramadan is also a celebration from the beginning to the end, the celebration of the friends of God. Any day in which there is an opportunity for a person to engage in the purity of their soul, in the illumination of their heart, that day is a precious day and a day of celebration. The month of Sha'ban is the month of these opportunities, from the first day to the last day. Seeking forgiveness in this month, praying in this month, visiting in this month, supplicating in this month, reading the Quran in this month, praying in this month — all of these are opportunities. We must exert all our efforts for the prosperity of the world, and there is no doubt about that, but we must also strive for the prosperity of our hearts; we must cultivate our hearts. It is with a cultivated heart that a good world can be created; if the heart is not cultivated, if the heart is dirty, if the heart is black and sinful, technology may advance, and technology may reach the state it is in today and beyond, but the world will not be a sweet world; the world will be a bitter world, a world of injustice; the sweet world will only be realized when decision-makers, actors, movers, and if possible, the general public, have cultivated hearts, bright hearts. Do not neglect the month of Sha'ban.

I would like to say a word regarding labor issues; a brief word about the global issues we are facing. Regarding labor issues, human resources are one of the greatest treasures of any country; that is, the presence of workers, designers, engineers, and active producers in any field in the country is far more valuable for the country than underground resources, gold, oil, diamonds, and the like; those who can build a country are these individuals. Now you see, there are countries in the world that produce all or most of the world's diamonds, yet they live in misery and poverty; why? Because they lack sufficient human resources, they lack active human resources, they lack thoughtful human resources. Human resources are the greatest treasure of a country, and you are that human resource; you are workers, you are entrepreneurs, you are engineers, you are designers, you are active individuals in various work sectors; you are human resources. This is the high value of human resources, of which the working class is a part of this high value and this immense treasure.

The efforts of our workers are an extraordinary effort compared to the average of the world in terms of value creation. I have repeatedly said this regarding various sectors, regarding students, regarding researchers, and the reports they provide confirm this meaning; I hold the same opinion regarding workers. The Iranian worker is one of the best workers in the world, meaning that their skilled hands, thoughts, and high motivation are above the global average. And this is while during the period of oppression, during the tyranny of the Pahlavi regime, and even before that during the period of negligence and perpetual slumber of the Qajar era, there was no attention paid to work, labor, the working community, and national issues; of course, during the Qajar era due to ignorance and mental backwardness, and during the Pahlavi era due to treachery. Meanwhile, during the revolution, when the labor force and workers gained momentum and new vitality and advanced in terms of quantity and quality, we observe that the average capabilities and distinctions of the Iranian worker are higher than the global average.

Yesterday, a small exhibition of domestic products was set up here for me to see. I went and spent several hours viewing this exhibition, seeing your works. Truly, the skilled hands of the Iranian worker deserve to be kissed; your hands deserve to be kissed! This valuable domestic production in terms of quality, despite all the difficulties we have, with these sanctions that hinder the supply of raw materials, that hinder advanced machinery, and the various problems that the arrogant powers of the world place in our way; meanwhile, when one looks at the products, one sees what remarkable quality they have! Everything was there! Yesterday, dozens of companies brought their products — which are the works of your hands — here for us to see; from fabrics and shoes and sewn clothes to household items, ceramics, and glass, to medicine, cosmetics, household appliances, refrigerators, tools, and stationery, everything was shown to us yesterday — all were outstanding, all were excellent. One truly bows in respect before the power of domestic labor! Then when I say support Iranian goods, some either do not believe it, or do not acknowledge it, or do not act upon it! Well, supporting Iranian goods means supporting this worker, means supporting labor, means supporting production! This support is comprehensive; both the people must support, and the government must support; everyone must support.

They raised problems that are the concern of both entrepreneurs and workers; the problem of insurance, the problem of lack of facilities, the problem of liquidity, the problem of tax obstacles, problems from the banks, problems from the Ministry of Economy, problems from various places; these problems must be resolved, and decisive and complete action must be taken to eliminate these problems. When the problems are resolved, when Iranian goods are supported, when the work of the Iranian worker is valued, then we will no longer witness a factory saying, "I am working at one-third capacity." Yesterday, some told us the same thing; we have this much capacity and we are working like this: at one-third capacity, at half capacity. Well, why? Where are the other two-thirds of the workers? This leads to the accumulated unemployment within the country. When we say "support Iranian goods," it means jobs must be created, work must come into existence; it means we should not have unemployed workers; it means our educated youth should not only think about desk jobs; they should know that according to their dignity, they can work in various sectors. If support for Iranian goods is realized, this will happen. Why do some insist on pouring their money into the pockets of foreign companies? What is this affliction that foreign goods must be consumed? Sometimes there is no similar Iranian product; well, that is a different discussion; there are some goods whose production is not economically viable domestically; very well! In that case, we do not have a similar product domestically. However, when a similar product exists domestically, is produced, and in quality is sometimes equal to or even higher than the quality of foreign counterparts, why should some insist on going for foreign goods and certain foreign brands? What is this affliction? What misunderstanding and misperception do some have? We must consume Iranian goods. Let us decide; large institutions, the government itself, and others must all decide to support Iranian goods. We do not have a bias against others, we do not want to be hostile; we want to engage our own children, our own youth, and our own workers in work; we want to occupy them with employment, we want to save them from the harms of unemployment. Unemployment has many harms; it has social harms, security harms, moral harms, and various types of harms. This is what we want; the way to achieve this is through supporting Iranian goods. Iranian goods, Iranian production must be supported and defended.

The best way to counter the enemy is this. See, my dear ones! Our enemies have understood and realized that they will not succeed in a hard military war. A few years ago, another president of America — who was also like this ill-mannered and nonsensical person — said some things against us. I said in a speech a few years ago, "Dear sir, the era of hit-and-run is over; if you hit, you will get hit." They know this; they know that if they engage in a hard military confrontation with us, they will get stuck. Yes, they strike us, but they themselves may suffer several times the damage; they have understood this. The path they have found is economic warfare and cultural warfare and the like. Now, leaving cultural discussions aside, what is currently at stake for our enemies is economic warfare. The war room of America against us is the U.S. Treasury Department, which is their Ministry of Economy and Finance; that is the war room against us. Well, what is the way to counter economic warfare? It is that we focus on our own economy. When our economy is reliant, dependent, problems arise. Of course, I do not believe that economic relations with the world should be cut off or can be cut off; it is clear that it cannot be; today the whole world is interconnected. However, reliance on external borders is a grave mistake; we should not rely on it. Yes, they should go with cleverness, with planning, with correct policymaking, with proper follow-up, and with seriousness, to establish relations with the world. The world is vast; the world is not just America and a few European countries; the world is very large; they should establish relations to the extent necessary, but they should not fixate on any foreign power; they should focus on internal elements, they should focus on this great value: internal human resources. When people see that we officials insist on solving our problems internally and utilizing internal capacities, even if some difficulties arise for them, they will endure and help us; this is what the respected officials of the country must pay attention to: reliance on the outside should not be done.

One of the American strategies to confront the independent freedom-seeking system of the Islamic Republic — which they oppose precisely because of its freedom-seeking and independence, they say, "Be under our flag, be under our umbrella, obey our orders, and make policies according to our wishes because our weapons are more, because our power is greater, because our money is more" — is this economic action; one [way] — just so you are aware and pay attention — is to provoke some of the ignorant governments, how shall we put it! The inattentive governments in our region to create discord and conflict and such things. The Americans go and sit next to these Saudis to provoke them against the Islamic Republic; well, if you want to provoke, why do you not provoke the Zionists who are your servants — in one sense they are servants, in another sense they are masters? Why do you provoke those poor Saudis? They say they want to start a war between Muslims. One of their programs is to encourage and incite certain countries of this kind — I mentioned the Saudis as an example — to confront and stand against the Islamic Republic. If they had any sense, they should not fall for this enemy's trick; if they confront the Islamic Republic, they will certainly suffer and be defeated. They want to avoid bearing the costs of confronting the Islamic Republic and the powerful Iranian nation and place the burden on these kinds of governments in the region.

America's goal is to create insecurity; wherever the Americans have stepped in these years, they have created insecurity. In every place — whether in the West Asia region where we are, or in other parts of the world; wherever they have gone — they have created insecurity; either they have instigated civil wars, or they have incited brother killing, bringing misery to the people wherever they have gone. For this reason, the American foothold in the West Asia region must be eradicated; the Americans must leave the West Asia region; the one that must be cut off from here is America, not the Islamic Republic. The Islamic Republic is us; we are from here; the Persian Gulf is our home; West Asia is our home; this is our home; you are the outsiders, you have come from afar, you have malicious goals, you want to create discord, you must leave. And know that the Americans and others like them will be cut off from this region.

One of the things I emphasize regarding the issue of supporting Iranian goods, which I have repeatedly mentioned — now the minister is also here — and God willing, it must be pursued seriously in the government and around this issue is the matter of preventing excessive imports and seriously preventing smuggling, which is the complaint and grievance of many of these officials and those who are active in the field of Iranian goods, such as entrepreneurs, investors, skilled workers, and others, is that foreign goods come in, often with low quality, and compete — in an unequal and unbalanced competition — with domestic goods and limit the promotion of domestic goods; this is one of the things that must definitely be stopped. Of course, the matters that the minister mentioned today and the actions that have been taken or are being taken are valuable works; God willing, they will be pursued so that the outcomes of the work are seen, meaning the outcomes of the work are felt; and God willing, day by day, our working community, especially our dear young workers, will become more encouraged and hopeful for the future.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings.