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 14th, 15th and 16th 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
