We are happy to declare the launch of our new website, Mobarezeye Tabaghati ("Class Struggle"). After years of apparent apathy, the Iranian masses are now rising against the totalitarian dictatorship of the Islamic Republic. The stormy events that started after the rigged elections last June is nothing but the first phase of a popular revolution, that deserves our full support.
The green movement, as some like to call it, in many ways resembles the Russian revolution of 1905, where the Russian masses, lead by the contradictory figure of Father Gapon, took their first steps on to the sphere of politics carrying religious symbols and pictures of the virgin Mary.
In the same way, the lack of a revolutionary party and organization, initially forced the Iranian masses to push forward a more or less random figure, Mirhossein Mousavi, not as a leader, but as a focal point for their movement. Mirhossein and the rest of the "reformists" have nothing to do with the rank and file of the movement - neither in their way of living nor in their aims and aspirations.
In fact, contrary to the claims of some so called "Marxists", the apparent and immediate reasons for the eruption have nothing to do with its real, underlying roots. The real roots to the present is nothing but the endless horrors that the capitalist system offers. As long as this system prevails the Iranian society will be dominated by suppression, poverty, misery, violence and corruption that in turn will lead to revolutionary upheavals.
As long as society is divided in classes and based on private property and the nation state, there can be no true development of science, technology or human relations - on the contrary, as we have already seen these factors will deteriorate.
The immediate aim, OF THE MOVEMENT, is and must be the overthrow of the Islamic Republic, which has plagued the lives of Iranians for more than three decades, but the lack of a revolutionary leadership will probably lead to its replacement by some kind of bourgeois democracy. This will be a very unstable regime. It will not be able to satisfy the most modest needs of the masses. The world economic crisis will not leave much room to manoeuvre for the capitalists.
Therefore the regime will sooner or later be forced to continue the attacks on living conditions made by the present regime. But it will be met with resistance from the workers and the poor masses who will attempt to struggle against the bourgeoisie on an increasingly class divided basis. Through their experiences the masses will discover that the only way out of capitalist barbarism is through a socialist revolution.
The communists and the movement
It is on this basis that the Marxists of the International Marxist Tendency are launching their new Farsi website. We give our full and whole hearted support to the movement and consider ourselves the Communist wing of it. We understand that the only solution for the masses is to struggle for socialism and we know that through their own experiences they will gravitate towards the same conclusion.
For the struggle to be truly victorious it must be carried out on a class basis - not to be understood as "the workers against everyone else", but as the oppressed masses lead by the working class against the bourgeoisie and the representatives of capital. In this context our name, mobareze tabaghati, does not need any justification.
We must emphasise that no revolution begins with the masses marching on to the streets carrying a fully developed program. In fact all prior revolutions have had the constant rise and fall of slogans and leaders, as one of their main characteristics. At present the main obstacles (that are of course related to each other) for the movement to move forward is the lack of real mass organization, the lack of a program, the lack of a revolutionary party and leadership and most importantly the lack of the working class intervening as a class.
It is our duty to participate in the struggles, shoulder to shoulder with the workers and the oppressed masses, and patiently explain the ideas of Marxism and the necessity of socialism. In this way we believe that it is very possible to win the majority of the Iranian masses to the banner of communism.
Although we do not wish to participate in the petty and cosy quarrels of small sects we will gladly cooperate and engage in discussion with any honest group. We draw the line between those who sincerely wish to discuss a way forward for the movement and the communists and those who only discuss because it relieves them from the painful act of building a revolutionary organization.
Forward to socialism!
The possibility of defeat is always inherent in a struggle, but at present the possibility of victory is even greater. The conditions for building socialism have never been greater and the forces of reaction have never been drained of forces as rapidly as now. Victory for socialism in Iran is the only way for the masses to fulfil their full potential. If achieved it would not only mean a massive impulse to all oppressed peoples of the world to rise, but it would also pave the way for an unprecedented development of science and culture.
Also we must emphasise, that by nature and necessity the Iranian revolution can and will not be limited by the borders marking the Islamic republic. Victory in Iran will only be the prelude to the setting up of a socialist federation of the Middle East that will in turn pave the way for world socialism.
Join us
We encourage all honest revolutionaries to join us and help build our website as the organ of the communists within the movement. We welcome discussions about the next step for the movement and for the communists within it. While announcing the launching of the website, we are also making available a document that we prepared, “The Historical Roots of the Iranian Revolution and the tasks of revolutionary Marxists” which we hope can serve for further discussions and our orientation.
Mobarezeye Tabaghati (Iran)