report from Iran

People's Democratic Movement of Iran

Iran has once again become the scene of a big battle. The battle of the people against the anti-people forces, the battle of the exploited and oppressed classes against the exploiters and oppressors, the battle for freedom and democracy against tyranny and dictatorship, the battle of wisdom against the rule of ignorance. Now it can be called a great uprising or a revolution, a democratic and anti-imperialist revolution. However, for some reason, the democratic side is much stronger than the anti-imperialist one.

The killing of Mahsa Amini by the police
On Wednesday, 23 Shahrivar 1401 (September 14, 2022), Mehsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish girl, was arrested by an Irshad patrol, which is now correctly called the "killing patrol" by women and people’s masses, on the pretext of "improper clothing". After a few hours, his body was transferred to Kasri Hospital in Tehran without vital signs, and she died after being unconscious for two days.
Zina (the Kurdish name of Mehsa, it means life) was a Kurdish girl (one of the oppressed nationalities of Iran). People who have been a symbol of resistance and struggle against the Islamic Republic and the dictatorship of Khomeini and Khamenei and have fought against the religious regime for forty years.

Mehsa's funeral in Saqqez became a big movement
Mehsa's funeral took place in Saqez, where Mehsa lived, one of the cities of Iranian Kurdistan. In this ceremony, women took off their headscarves. In Tudeh city people chanted slogan "women, life, freedom" in protest against the government crime, and held gatherings, marches, and demonstrations.

The movement covers the whole Iran
Masses of men and women started a great movement in support of the masses struggles in Saqqez, with the same main slogan "Women, Life, Freedom" and this movement quickly spread to all the cities of Iran. From Kurdistan to Baluchistan, from Azerbaijan to Bandar Abbas.
It is a tough battle of all classes of people in Iran, especially the workers, farmers and toiling classes, against the regime of exploiters and oppressors, criminals, thieves and money-worshippers, corrupted, deceivers and swindlers. This movement has shaken the entire system headed by the criminal Khamenei.

A forty-year struggle
The long history of this great mass battle dates back to the 1957 revolution. At that time the tyranny declared war on freedom and pushed it back, and now they have been ruling for 41 years. The main aspect of the current fight is the struggle for freedom and to establish a democratic and independent government.

The leadership
This movement is spontaneous, no party has the leadership, due to the forty years long regime and heavy blows dealt to the people's parties, especially the left parties. It oriented by itself and currently it is centered on rejecting the Islamic Republic and overthrowing it, without slogans specifying what government has to be established. The the working class youth are the main body of the movement.

The children of the working class are the main body of the movement
The women, men, girls and boys who chant in the streets against this system and the Khamenei dictatorship belong to the working masses, and at the front line there are the workers, farmers and the lower and middle strata of petty bourgeoisie. These are the most or the population in the country. The participation of the higher strata of the petty bourgeoisie is still not so noticeable, and the wealthy strata have not yet joined the classes fighting to overthrow the Islamic Republic, as they should. Of course, doctors and lawyers waged struggles, especially the doctors but thy were severely suppressed.

The working class
While the movement continued, sectors of the industrial workers joined the struggle with strikes. The workers started these strikes based on economic demands, but in fact they were in connection with the current democratic movement and had a political ground.
One of these strikes has been that oil contract workers. The government arrested 250 workers in the first days of strike. After that, new waves of labor strikes arose and in Isfahan two factories, Zob Ahan and Sepahan Cement, went on strike. However, the working class has not yet staged a nationwide strike with political demands, and its role in the uprising is not noticeable.

Women
Iranian women have played a very prominent role in the struggles in this period. The fight against the murder of Mehsa Amini started in Saqez, Kurdistan, and quickly spread to all the cities of Iran. In these protests women played an important role, leading the campaign, and there were many of them among the demonstrators. Many brave girls and women participated in street-fighting, defending themselves and counter-attacking. Some of them were killed (about 40-50 women) and many were arrested. Women are tortured and raped in the prisons of the Islamic Republic. Some girls and women, as well as young boys, committed suicide after being released, the reason for which is still unclear to the masses.

Students
After the decline of the student movement for a long time, because of various reasons, the entry of students into the field of struggle widened and deepened the movement for freedom and democracy. Students held rallies and marches and clashed with the police and Basij In many universities of Iran.
The government attacked the Sharif University of Technology with its uniformed and military forces to suppress the students. Many students were seriously injured and many were arrested by the forces of the Ministry of Intelligence and the IRGC.
Nevertheless, the student movement has continued its struggle until now with progressive slogans such as "We are the sons of workers, we will stay by their side" and "Workers, students, unite!".

Kasbeh and Bazarian (merchants and shopkeepers)
After the revolution in Iran on 1357, Kasbeh and Bazarian did not make big struggle, except a few narrow cases following mass movements, but in the last three months, they held two nationwide strikes, the second one on 14^th, 15^th and 16^th of December2022. This three-day strike took place in more than 70 cities of Iran.
In response, the regime sealed many shops and government-affiliated forces wrote slogans on their windows. It is clear that these struggles will be not ended by these actions and will probably continue in the future.

Forms of Struggle
These struggles has been somewhat peaceful and defensive, but what is going on has turned them from peaceful and defense to violent and counter-attacks. The sentence that is now heard from the masses most of times is: "Hit those beasts!". And it women and men of Iran punish these mercenaries of the government and enemies of the people.

Basic forms of struggle
This struggle has many different forms. From gatherings of small groups in the street shouting slogans and clashing with police forces, etc. to writing slogans on the walls, setting fire to Basih centers, attacks on Friday imams, MPs, religious bildings and schools.
The most recent change in the forms of struggle is the strike of industrial workers in some industries, as well as the strike in the transportation sector by truck drivers and owners.

Movement forms and slogans
The main forms of this movement have been gatherings, marches and sloganing. The slogans generally were against the Irshad patrol, the police force, Basij and the government. In general, the most common slogans are: "Death to the Velayat", "Death to Khamenei", "Death to the Islamic Republic", "Down with Makhund", "Death to Basiji" and "Death to Sepahi". (the Revolutionary Guards, which is another military force beside the army, its main role is to suppress internal struggles and organize Hezbollah forces in the Muslim countries of the region, such as Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen).
The intervention of the special units, police force and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the "Killing Corps", which now concentrate under their control most of main political, military and economic issues, led tp counterattacks of the people’s masses against these mercenaries and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. They set fire to the vehicles of repression forces and "Gesht Irshad" and beat them with fists and kicks.

Global reverb of the movement
This movement has echoed all over the world mobilized the masses of Iranian immigrants in all the countries of the world side by side with the people in Iran. Many artists and sportsmen condemned the killing of Mahsa Amini and took stand in favor of the mass movement.

Khamenei and his guards are scared!
Khamenei is afraid of the working class and mass movement. He fears that the working class and people of Iran to unite and their movement spreads everywhere and becomes global and, more importantly, that it continues.
The repression of the government has been very severe. In Zahedan, the center of Balochistan (another oppressed nationality of Iran) more than one hundred people were killed on a day, the "Bloody Friday of Zahedan". The Baloches are Sunni and have always been oppressed by the religious dictatorship ruling Iran. Also, the government organized an attack on Sharif University of Technology, an attack with heavy military equipment on Mahabad (in Kurdistan) and even a bombing in a religious place in Shiraz, called "Shah Chirag", where they killed 15 pilgrims and blamed ISIS and then said that it is better for people to stop protesting because if they continue, ISIS will attack more. But the people understood that they were lying and continued fighting. The last form of repression is the execution of young street-fighters who had been arrested. So far, they have executed two people and most likely they will execute more young people.

United people, the global movement of all social classes and the continuation of this movement
They know very well that if the people are united and the current movement continues, they can neither control it nor prevent their own internal collapse. The continuation of the movement ultimately means the loosening of the chains of tyranny and shows the inability of its killing squads, as well as the disintegration of government gangs and the further disintegration of the government from within. These are two sides of the same coin. That is why they try to present themselves as united, powerful and invincible. So that people are afraid of them, think they cannot overthrow them and finally surrender to their tyranny. That is why they move and shoot frantically and kill people.

Advancement and retreat of the government
There is no doubt that Khamenei's faction and gangs, the so-called "hard core of power" (the clique that surrounds Khamenei) will not retreat. Having been surprised, unprepared and generally unable to react immediately to the movement, or fearing the consequences of such reactions, their general method so far and most of times was to let the mass movement slowly discharge some of its energy in fighting out and, when the people are tired, to plan and organize their military and paramilitary forces for an all-out counterattack and the fiercest suppression.

Fighting the hell of tyranny
The mummified heads of this rotten system and its few supporters have created a great hell in Iran, a hell of ignorance, death of freedom and tyranny to bring people their promised "heaven"..The current struggle of the Iranian people is against this hell and for freedom, and it will continue until it is achieved.
The advance and development of this great uprising will undoubtedly affect the masses in the countries of the region and the world and will bring new changes.

The position of the left forces
In Iran, there are no left parties and organizations, i.e. communist revolutionaries (Marxist-Leninist or Maoist). There are groups and organizations that we call "pseudo-left". These are divided into two streams. The trends of Khrushchevite revisionists and the Trotskyist. There are other small groups that call themselves "Western Marxists", "New Left", "Euro-Communists", "Marxists", etc. There is also an Avakianist group. All these trends are divided into groups and small groups of few people, all their leaders and cadres are abroad. None of these organizations, most of which call themselves parties, have influence among the working class or the people’s masses, at most on few individuals.
Following the war between Russia and Ukraine, these were divided into two groups. Khrushchevite revisionist parties and organizations sided with Russia, while Trotskyist, "Marxist", "Western Marxism" and "New Left" parties and organizations sided with Ukraine. In the current movement they have no role and most people do not know them. Most of their activities are only on the Internet and in virtual space. Of course, there are Kurdish and Baloch parties, but they have most of their influence among the Kurd or the Baloch peoples and do not have influence in the rest of Iran. We ourselves are a very small movement and our activity is very limited, we have grown compared to the past and it can be said that we hope to grow more in the process of this movement, uprising or revolution.

Long live the liberating  and democratic movement of women!

Long live theliberating and democratic movement of the masses!

Death to the Islamic Republic!

For a People's Democratic Republic under the leadership of the working class!

red road of Iran (Maoist)

December 2022