On the 10th anniversary of the 1999 student revolt in Iran, we are publishing a statement by the IRSL written at the time and published in Kargar-e Socialist No 66. It highlights the heroic struggles of the youth and the need for these to link up with the working class.
The heroic struggles of Iranian students and youth must be regarded as a watershed in the twenty-year struggle against the capitalist-clerical regime in Iran. Iranian students entered the battlefield as a “centrifugal force” within Khatami’s ridiculous process of creating a “civil society” in Iran. In a short time, however, they broke the limits set by the Second of Khordad Front (1) and have questioned the existence of the whole regime. This was the logical step after Khatami threatened the students with repression.
Contrary to those who imagined that the actions of the youth, women and workers can only be realised by obeying the limits of Khatami’s “civil society”, the students have shown that none of the regime’s factions contains the slightest signs of “progressiveness”. They have learned in practice that they should only rely on their own strength for realising their demands.
The students’ struggles of the past few days have united all the factions of the regime! Khatami, who appeared to be a supporter of “freedom”, is today condemning the students’ actions and intends to silence them. During the past few days the students have gained the equivalent of a hundred years’ experience and have shown to the whole of Iranian society that Khatami’s promises and declared intentions are just empty and worthless words.
The militant section of the students has gone much further than this: during the last few days they have kicked aside the Islamic “leaders” (the Office for Strengthening Unity). It was noticeable that the representatives of the Office for Strengthening were absent from a student demonstration with 10,000 participants. The students no longer paid any attention to Khatami’s “advice” and took their destiny into their own hands. Non-students – other layers of the people – have gradually entered the battlefield in support of the students.
In order that the students’ restless actions reach their final aim, however, they must consider the following points in their perspective:
Independent Students’ Organisation
At the same time as their anti-regime struggle Iranian students must prepare the groundwork for organising themselves in an independent students’ organisation. This must be an organisation that will under no circumstances admit the regime’s representatives into itself. It must be an organisation that includes students with differing views, but is anti-capitalist and makes its own day-to-day decisions. The right to set up independent organisations of the youth is one of the just demands of the students. For how much longer are the mollahs supposed to decide for the students on what they should wear, what kind of music they should listen to, how they should study and what kind of relations they should have with each other? The youth make up a considerable part of the people and are the only future “asset” of Iran. For how much longer are they to be presented as stupid and be denied the right to decide their own destiny?
The setting up of an independent students’ organisation will for the first time create the basis for the “freedom” of the youth, since their destiny will be in their own hands.
Socialist Youth
The socialist youth cannot just be satisfied with the setting up of the independent students’ organisation. They must act as the backbone of such an organisation by organising themselves in clandestine action cells so that they minimise the blows from this reactionary regime. So long as the capitalist regime (whatever shape or form it takes) exists in Iran, repression and suppression of the youth (and other oppressed layers and the workers) will continue. The socialist youth within the clandestine action committees can organise themselves both organisationally and theoretically. Their tasks include organising Marxist educational classes and preparation for intervention in student circles and establishing links with the vanguard of the working class and militant women.
Obviously such committees must strictly observe the necessary security measures during their activity, as they may be subject to blows from the police at any time.
Such committees are necessary because the students’ organisations (even if they are formed) will not necessarily be long lasting. The existence of a permanent and clandestine organisational structure is therefore necessary.
Linking up with vanguard workers
Obviously the activity of the youth and students will not be able to progress their tasks on its own (and relying on their strength alone). Historical experience, and especially last week’s experience of the youth’s struggles in Tehran (and other towns and cities), has shown that no matter how broad-based and organised students’ gatherings only by workers, especially vanguard workers, joining the ranks of the youth, and their unity in struggle, is it possible to weaken the foundations of the regime.
The socialist youth know that the working class is the only potential revolutionary force in society. The workers of Iran and their allies (the poor peasants, oppressed national minorities and sections of women) make up the majority of Iranian society and are capable of creating fundamental changes in society. By involving the vanguard workers and linking their struggles will the students of Iran create a qualitatively important force in realising the objective of organising long-term anti-capitalist activity.
The liberation of all the oppressed
Socialist students know that only by having a revolutionary programme for the liberation of all the oppressed can they draw other social layers towards themselves. But it is not possible to have a revolutionary programme without a revolutionary organisation. In the last analysis, in order to attract the majority of the people, the workers and students must address all of society’s unresolved problems and their party must be the advanced guard of the social movement.
The drafting of the revolutionary programme for the liberation of the whole of society from the capitalist yoke is only possible through the formation of the revolutionary vanguard party. A party that attracts the most committed and the most serious revolutionary elements for realising the objective of replacing the “Islamic government” and “Islamic Republic” with a workers’ government and a Soviet Republic.
14 July 1999
(1) The Second of Khordad, May 23rd 1997, is the day when Khatami was elected President.
See also:
- The First Shots of the Iranian Revolution by Alan Woods (July 17, 1999)
