It has been devastating to witness the thousands of men, women and children treated with such brutality by the repressive Iranian regime.

To see the death penalty explicitly used to suppress opposition voices to the state.

And whilst it is undeniably inspiring to see the extraordinary courage of the Iranian women in rising up against their oppressors and demonstrate for their freedom and their lives, we cannot simply pay tribute to their courage, we must also stand with them and support their demands for their fundamental freedoms.

In December last year, the regime’s brutality escalated; we saw the executions of two young men, Mohsen Shekari, and Majidreza Rahnavard, following unsound trials. On Saturday, we heard of the executions of Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Seyed Mohammad Hosseini. More young people are on death row and protesters have gathered outside the prisons where they are held, in an attempt to save their lives.

Let us reflect on Majidreza Rahnavard, who was 23 when he was killed at the hands of his own Government. His execution came just a month after he was arrested during protests in the city of Mashhad. Majidreza was killed for allegedly killing two members of the paramilitary Basij force and for wounding two others. He did not receive a fair trial and activists report that he confessed only after being tortured. Scenes from his trial, which were selectively broadcast on state TV, depict a grossly unfair show trial. Majidreza’s family did not know he was going to be executed. Photos taken in prison the day before he was killed show him and his mother smiling. His mother believed he would soon be home and that her nightmare would be over. She discovered the next morning that her son had been publicly executed and that security forces were burying his body in secret.

As an international labour movement we bear responsibility to stand with the Iranian people against their barbarous regime and demand repercussions for the crimes that are being committed against Iranian society.

Just yesterday, the crisis in Iran and Britain’s response was debated in Parliament and condemnation echoed around the chamber, with demands for the government to proscribe the IRGC, for sanctions and a clampdown on proxies operating in the UK under the direct control and influence of Ayatollah Khamenei and on all those funded by the regime both inside and outside of Iran.

The Labour Party has demanded the designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organisation, which the government is now actively considering.  And while the Government’s announcement of sanctions against certain regime figures is welcome, they must be the start of more. We must continue to ramp up our sanctions regime, bringing to justice human rights abusers from the bloody 2019 crackdown as well and against all those who are responsible for the policing of the protests and the execution of dissenters.

While ordinary Iranians struggle against oppression in their fight for freedom, and the Iranian diaspora has bravely mobilised against the regime, the sons and daughters of the hard-line clerics and the IRGC, known in Farsi as the “aghazadeh” or the “noble born”, are enjoying the freedoms that we in the UK enjoy and take for granted. The Labour Party has called on the Government to identify those who are funded by the regime and take action against them.

And we have, in lockstep with the German and Canadian left, raised the individual cases of political prisoners with the regime and the judiciary to demand they quash all death sentences.

This is a democratic struggle, that has united ordinary Iranians across all strands of society to call for a democratic regime to replace this repressive, autocratic reign of terror.  There have been strikes of oil workers, localised general strikes, the labour movement standing together with women to demand change.

We must use every tool available to us – from sanctions, expulsion of diplomats, sponsorship of political prisoners and the solidarity of the entire international labour movement to ensure the terrible sacrifices and astounding courage of the Iranian people are not spent in vain.