Welcoming
more new storms on the horizon:
The
world is witnessing a new upsurge in the resistance and the struggle
of workers and other oppressed against the capitalist system
threatening the very existence of imperialism and all reactionaries.
The rising tide of resistance and struggle is gathering momentum in
all continents. Particularly in the Middle East, the scene of decades
of imperialist rivalry, war by proxy and domination of reactionary
states and forces and countless genocides and barbarity against the
people, despite the rapid deterioration of conditions following the
spread of coronavirus, everywhere voices of resistance and rebellion
can be heard. From occupied Palestine to Lebanon, Iraq, Iran and
Turkey, militant popular mass resistance has shattered the dreams and
aspirations of the imperialist powers and their lackeys to impose a
graveyard peace in the region. One example is the ongoing heroic
resistance and all-out strike of Haft-Tappeh sugar workers in Iran.
On
the 3rd of August, 2020, the 4,500 strong militant independent
workers of Haft-Tappeh Sugar Factory in the city of Shoosh, in
southwestern Iran, will begin their 50th day of all-out strike for
their rights, demanding 4 months unpaid wages; prosecution of the
corrupt owners of the factory; the unconditional release and freedom
for all imprisoned workers and their colleagues; return to work of
all sacked employees; and, more importantly, their central demand to
end all privatisation initiatives by the government. This is the
second major strike of the militant independent workers of
Haft-Tappeh in 2 years. The last militant strike was the prelude to
the large scale and widespread mass protests by the urban poor that
shook the pillars of the regime of the Islamic republic. In December
2017 and January 2018 over 90 cities across the country rose in
rebellion in protest against austerity measures and price hikes by
the reactionary regime. Hundreds were arrested. While for months the
sporadic protests in different places continued, in November 2019, a
new surge of mass rebellion shook the crisis-ridden regime. This time
over 190 cities were the scene of massive and prolonged resistance
and protests by the urban poor and broader sections of society.
The
militant strike of the Haft-Tappeh Sugar workers will enter its 50th
day during the rise of coronavirus pandemic in Iran, a country under
the rule of the regime of the Islamic republic with one of the worst
records of mismanagement and containment of the disease.
Notwithstanding this, the militant workers are protesting in the
streets of the city of Shoosh, tolerating a 50+ centigrade heat wave
and enjoy the widespread support by the population across the
country.
The
notorious regime of Islamic republic that has a 40-year history of
crimes and atrocities against the oppressed peoples of Iran, wearing
an anti-American cloak claims all economic hardships are the result
of the US sanctions and the undeclared war between the two countries.
Yet the militant workers of Haft-Tappeh have complied evidence and
proven beyond any shadow of a doubt that the current plight of their
enterprise, located in one of the most fertile regions of the Middle
East and dating back to several thousand years of agriculture and
food supply, is solely due to corruption and squandering at the
highest levels of the state. As a result, the owners of the factory
have been arrested and put on a show trial under crimes of currency
speculation and corruption. Some of their closest associates in the
central bank and the government are also implicated in this
scandalous affair exposing the utterly devastating policies of the
regime that is aimed solely at lining the pockets of their cronies
and relations with windfall loots from auctioning off of national
assets. The workers have also proven that since the privatisation of
the Haft-Tappeh Sugar Factory 4 years ago, and the deregulation of
imports that has allowed cronies of the regime including the IRGC
(Army of Guardians of the Islamic Revolution) corporation, to import
sugar and other supplies from abroad they have forced many companies
and producers to go bankrupt or reduce their production capacity.
They have also shown that because of the above and the mismanagement
of the company, production has been reduced from 80 thousand tons of
sugar prior to privatisation to 18 thousand tons during the last
year.
The
story of the sale of this factory to a private consortium composed of
cronies of the regime including families and relations of those in
power at a price equal to one-thousandth of the actual value of the
factory 4 years ago, has found resonance in other industries too. The
widespread auctioning off such public industries and national assets
includes vast national forests, mines, steel industry, tractor
factories, and others and the public services. This has aroused deep
anger and indignation amongst the population. Even sections of the
ruling classes who have not profited as much by all these corrupt
dealings are raising their voice and demand answers.
As
if the auctioning off of the companies and national assets to
domestic private financiers and tycoons was not enough, the highest
levels of Islamic Republic have been in secret negotiations with the
Chinese imperialism to auction off the rest of country, on a 25 years
lease. The full details of this agreement have not been published.
They are being kept secret despite vocal demands for their
publication even within the handpicked members of the Islamic
parliament.
In
the meantime, the regime continues to suppress the unprecedented rise
in the workers’ struggles across the country, threatening and
intimidating the protesting workers and their families. Many workers
are arrested with on trumped-up charges and given long prison
sentences. Workers leaders from various industries including from
those from Haft-Tappeh and Ahvaz Steel Factory have been arrested on
trumped-up charges, and many following their release from prison have
been sacked. These include workers’ representative Esmail Bakhshi
from Haft-Tappeh Sugar factory and Meysam Al-Mahdi from Ahvaz Steel
factory and many others who continue to serve long prisons sentences.
The
current surge in the workers' struggle in Iran that was sparked off
in March 2020, by the militant copper miners in Kerman and now
continues in Haft-Tappeh in Shoosh, on its 50th day of all out-strike
certainly is based on the worsening and dire economic conditions.
But, during the past 5 years, there has been a significant
transformation in the workers' movement and their militancy in such
strikes and protest actions. These struggles are no longer merely
spontaneous and sporadic protests or strikes based in a factory. The
strikes inevitably spread to the rest of the city and are supported
by the other workers and the oppressed. In fact, the demand of
workers across the country that is voiced by the militant Haft-Tappeh
Sugar Workers struggle that is bringing focus on the ending of
privatisation of public assets is a direct challenge to the corrupt
and reactionary regime of the Islamic republic. This central demand
of the worker now has found sympathy in other industries and sectors
including education, health, retired personnel and their underground
associations.
Since
its founding in February 1979, the regime of Islamic republic through
the imposition of retrogressive labour laws and reactionary
anti-labour measures such as imposing “Islamic workers councils”
has legalised the maximum exploitation of the workers and other
oppressed by the capitalists and their institutions. It has also made
the formation of independent trade unions and associations illegal.
Nevertheless, such militant and legitimate organisations do exist and
have been engaged in the struggle for decades. A noteworthy point,
however, is that in the last few years under the condition of severe
repression they have evolved attempting to improve the coordination
and unity in their common actions in defence of workers’ right and
just demands across many industries across the country.
The
workers in their struggles have exposed the true nature of the
Islamic republic regime as the instrument of the imperialist system,
the comprador bourgeoisie, and the representative of the most
reactionary and corrupt sections of the ruling classes, in Iran.
Today, the Iranian workers that have over 120 years of history of
engagement in the class struggle are entering a new phase to put
their mark on the history of the country.
We
take this opportunity to hail the struggle of the militant workers of
Haft-Tappeh and extend our revolutionary greetings, solidarity and
support for our common cause on the 50th day of their militant and
inspiring resistance. On behalf of the workers and the oppressed in
Turkey, we extend our solidarity and support to the workers and other
toiling masses in Iran and condemn the ominous collaboration of the
reactionary ruling classes in Iran and Turkey in their war and
repression against the people of both countries and the region.
We
condemn the handover of militant Iranian refugees escaping
persecution in Iran by the fascist Turkish state. We condemn both
reactionary and fascist regimes for the case of three young
militants, Amirhossein Moradi, Mohammad Rajabi and Saeed Tamjidi that
have been condemned to death in Iran accused of their involvement in
the November 2019 protests and following their handover to the
Iranian regime by the Turkish authorities.
We
condemn the expansionist and adventurist policies of these two
fascist regimes that hand in hand with the imperialist powers and
their rivalries have turned the middle east into a devasting war
zone.
Our
party in our recent statements and analysis has pointed to the
pending storms on the horizon and has called on all our comrades and
fraternal parties to prepare and raise the banner of the proletarian
internationalism and join forces, to seize the day and to advance the
cause of revolution against the whole imperialist system and the
reactionary and puppet states.
The
widespread militant anti-racist struggles in the US and other
struggles across the world amid the spread of coronavirus and the
economic devastation compounding the existing economic crisis are all
components and aspects of an international class struggle that must
eventually be directed by proletarian parties capable of leading
these struggles to victory. In Iran, and other countries in the
region and across the world, many such parties do not exist or have
been weakened through years of intense repression by the ruling
classes and their imperialist backers. However, we must all recognise
that this weakened state is more to do with the consequences of the
domination of modern revisionism and opportunism that has undermined
the power and the capability of the international proletariat. The
restoration of capitalism in Russia in 1956 and then in China in
October 1976 has brought untold damage to the international communist
movement and has facilitated the spread of revisionism in all
countries paralysing the revolutionary movement. Yet all the
contradictions of the imperialist system that led to October
revolution in 1917 and the victory of Chinese Revolution in 1949 and
other liberation struggles in the 20th century, continue to exist in
a much more acute and critical level.
Genuine
proletarian parties that emerge with deep links within the working
class are not formed in glass houses or as detached entities nor are
they formed online in the abstract. They can only be formed within
the heat class struggle and be tempered through direct engagement in
the day to day struggles injecting the latest revolutionary theories
into the practice of workers engaged in the class struggle. Our party
is no exception. The founders of our party TKP-ML, led by comrade
Ibrahim Kaypakkaya, were deeply inspired by the heroic and militant
workers’ strike on June 15-16, 1970 in Turkey. It was the
engagement in this tremendous struggle, the ensuing ideological
struggles and the rupture from revisionism that led to our party’s
foundation in April 1972. This year we celebrated the 50th
anniversary of this great workers’ resistance that was a major
turning point in the history of the class struggle of the workers
against the capitalist class in our country. Throughout this period
of almost 5 decades, our party has suffered countless losses and
setbacks. We have lost 4 general secretaries and numerous cadres in
the struggle against the ruling classes and their fascist state in
Turkey. But every set back has fertilised the ground for the recovery
and intensification of our struggle.
In
our last congress, in April 2019, suffering the effects of the most
concerted attacks against our party, the arrest of some of its
leading figures in Germany in 2015 that was followed by a
liquidationist split, our party recognising the importance of the
role of our party in the region upheld the decision to intensify our
internationalist role in the region and make every effort to build
bridges throughout the region with revolutionary forces and the
militant struggles including those of workers, women, youth and
national minorities.
We
call on all our comrades and our fraternal parties and reiterate our
call to let us join to realise this critical and urgent need, to
render every support for the just struggles of the peoples of the
region and to find solutions to our common problems and serve the
people in their revolutionary and just struggles for liberation from
the yoke of imperialism and all reaction.
Capitalism
has given birth to its own gravediggers. Only the proletariat and its
vanguard have the historic mission to rally, unite and lead the
struggles of the oppressed masses and direct the revolutionary effort
to smash the state machinery of the bourgeoisie and to end the rule
of imperialism and all reaction.
---
Let
us prepare for the coming tremendous revolutionary storms!
Long
live proletarian internationalism!
Long
live the democratic and anti-imperialist struggles of oppressed
peoples of the Middle East!
Victory
to the revolutionary proletarian forces in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq,
Kurdistan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Turkey!
Victory
to the militant workers of Haft-Tappeh and other workers in Iran!
Down
with all imperialism and reaction!
Communist
Party of Turkey - Marxist-Leninist
TKP-ML
- International Bureau
August
2020
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