After four decades of working-class struggle, wage earners and the mass of people, called the 99 percent in the West are confronting the harsh and barbaric Islamic capitalistic regime in Iran. In this situation, recently we saw a people’s uprising in Iran, the screaming of their demands as a revolution with a socialistic and humanist structural base without any coreligionist rules clashes with harsh neoliberal economic politics. In four decades, the thieves in the Islamic economy in Iran even changed the class structure from neoliberalism’s norms. As a result of this economy, daily despair at the system in the Islamic Republic sees the petty bourgeoisie joining the working class indicating how the petty bourgeoisie has begun to disappear in Iran. In this case, the great mass of the working class which comprises roughly 99 percent of the population takes its stand against the one percent of capitalists and their dominance which have grown out of the structure created by successive governments. The unequal economy and the resultant class struggle, punctuated by daily prison and execution sentences for protesters and opposition activists, called people to streets to stand against the system that has delivered all the suffering and misfortunes to their lives.
The people’s revolutionary movement against the anti-revolutionary Islamic regime of 1979
The uprising of November 2019 in Iran has shown how the demand of freedom, equality and class struggle can withstand a capitalist system and stay true to the cause of its overthrow and revolution. Of course, in Iran, the capitalist system has an Islamic Sharia background which is completely at odds with human aspirations. Its rules could everyday kill and rape the people by the application of the reactionary law set down in the Qur'an. The Islamic Republic has never been a regime of people in Iran; the regime is the product of the Cold War and fixed between 1979-1988 with genocidal results. The Islamic Republic is already recognized as an anti-revolutionary Islamic regime by the great mass of the people, by the socialist and communist movements of Iran.
The November 2019 uprising’s demands and their achievement
The masses in Iran, after protesting against the increasing petrol prices by the government, targeted the base of the Islamic Republic and the slogans and oil protests changed to a people’s revolutionary movement. Workers, teachers, students, and all the suffering masses of people stood up and organised big protests and strikes all over Iran. Workers and their allies among the people targeted the centers of capital such as the “Mahshar Port” to stop the government gouging more profit and stop the anti-worker measures imposed in these economic centers. The people blocked all the highway roads in big cities and the protest spread to over 80 cities at the same time. In response, the barbaric Islamic regime started shooting protesters with military machine guns, killing over 1,500 people in the streets.
After the massacres of protesters by the Islamic regime, the people’s protests were not stopped and they organised to confront the regime’s murderers. The uprising’s protests and movements started in November 2019 but continued over the following months. The most important part of the protests following November 2019 started in January 2020 at Polytechnic University of Tehran and spread to all other Universities. The student movement in Iran had an important role in leading the protests. In January 2020, “the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps” (Sepah) attacked Ukraine international airline flight 752 with their rockets, killing 176 passengers onboard, as part of their terrorist games in the Middle-East.
Students and the protesters responded, saying: The Islamic Republic must be destroyed; we don’t want an Islamic regime and the November uprising will continue.
Students and the masses of people struggling against the barbariac Islamic regime continued their protests in the most radical way. The people, with leadership from the students, boycotted the Islamic Parliamentary election to say the Islamic Republic isn’t their lawful government. The Corona pandemic and the disease, which has increased its spread dramatically until the present, is the reason given by the managers of the Islamic Republic’s harsh capitalist economy. The protests have not stopped and the demand of overthrowing the regime still continues.
After four months of the Covid-19 pandemic in Iran, the working classes started the stage of the struggle with the “Hafttapeh” strikes that spread to more than 60 factories and petrochemical and oil extraction centers. The workers are still on strike in the Hafttappeh and the capital’s production centers to say to the government that they must give in to their demands. The demands are extensive. They want to take the management of the factories into their hands through the consultative management of workers. Students, teachers, nurses and all other wage earners supported these workers. The most important desire and demand of the protesters in this period was the campaign to stop the execution of Navid Afkari – the young wrestler and worker who was arrested during the 2017 protests.
The protest and the overthrow movement in Iran is still continuing and the people strive for a way to organize their activity in the most radical way to end the Islamic regime through people’s revolution. Of course, the people’s demands, such as equality, welfare and council management in factories and society directly relate to their bigger demands which are for a Socialist and Communist society. A century after first government by people’s council (the Soviet Union) was founded, it’s not a delusion to see that the people of Iran want to build a socialist society.
The next step of the Iranian people’s uprising to revolution after November 2020
On the anniversary of the murder of protesters in Iran in November 2019, the overthrowers are making their demands clear that they want to get rid of Islamic Republic. Struggle and protest need to continue but the most important key is organizing teams in the neighborhoods, productive facilities in the capital and other workplaces. The most important next step for continuing the struggle is to apply significant pressure on the government through public strikes. Students and teachers, along with their own movements must support workers and the broader public, at the same time, in next stage of the uprising by organizing joint strikes. On the other hand, they must take control of the universities in their hands. In this process, the teachers and other wage earners must take their organization’s control in their hands with independent council managements.
This struggle in Iran isn’t the only way to success the people’s revolution and overthrow movement. International human right activists and political activists must help this movement by applying maximum pressure on the Islamic Republic in international fora such as in trade unions, committees and other organizations. The people of Iran want international solidarity from the people and activists of the world. Exiled Iranian worker-Communist activists must also be in the struggle to boycott the Islamic terror regime in Iran using international platforms. The Islamic Republic has many centers of influence all around the world, and they are breeding political Islam and murderous Islamic radicalism. The opposition to their efforts must be international too.
