Iran: Long Live the Popular Uprising against the Mullah Regime!

 

 

Unite with the popular insurrections in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria etc. to a single Intifada! Down with the US sanctions against Iran!

 

 

Statement of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 18 November 2019, www.thecommunists.net

 

 

 

1. A popular uprising against the tyrannical capitalist regime in Iran has begun. Information is currently limited since the regime has cut off the internet for most people. However, reports from Iran’s state news agency IRNA or the semi-official Fars news agency show beyond any doubt that a mass rebellion is spreading throughout the country since 15 November. According to these reports, huge protests are taking place in more than 100 Iranian cities and towns (e.g. in Abadan, Ahvaz, Bandar Abbas, Behbahan, Birjand, Doroud, Gachsaran, Garmsar, Gorgan, Ilam, Isfahan, Karaj, Kerman, Khoramshahr, Mahshahr, Mashhad, Mehdishahr, Qazvin, Qom, Sanandaj, Shahroud, Sirjan, Shiraz, Shoshtar and Teheran). They often result in violent clashes with the police which are trying to repress the protests with utmost brutality. 100 banks have been torched and a number of police stations have been attacked. 1,000 protesters had been arrested and at least two people were killed (including a policeman).

 

2. The protests have been triggered by the regime’s announcement that the price of petrol would be raised by 50% for the first 60 litres (16 gallons) and by 300% for anything above that each month. The measure was expected to bring in 300 trillion rials ($2.55 billion) per annum, according to the head of the country's Planning and Budget Organisation, Mohammad Bagher Nobakht. About 60 million Iranians (i.e. ¾ of the total population) in need would get payments ranging from 550,000 rials ($4.68) for couples to slightly more than two million rials ($17.46) for families with five members or more. Under the scheme, drivers with fuel cards will pay 15,000 rials (13 US cents) a litre for the first 60 litres of petrol bought each month, with each additional litre costing them 30,000 rials.

 

3. The price hikes are primarily an attempt of the capitalists to retain their profits in a period of crisis and decline of the capitalist system. This is why we have seen such developments in many countries all over the world in the past years and decades. As another Great Recession of the capitalist world economy has begun, we have seen similar price hikes in Ecuador, Chile, and Lebanon in the last weeks which have also triggered mass protests.

 

4. Naturally, this does not stop the Iranian dictatorship to blame "hooligans" and “foreign enemies” for the popular uprising. (The reactionary rulers in other countries affected by mass rebellions use the same methods of slander.) Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei denounced the protests and said: "All the centres of the world's wickedness against us have cheered" the street protests. President Hassan Rouhani warned that "anarchy and rioting" would not be tolerated. The regime certainly fears a similar or even more powerful unrest like that in late 2017, when 22 people were reported to have died during protests in 80 cities and towns over poor living standards.

 

5. U.S. imperialism pretends to sympathize with the Iranian uprising. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated hypocritically “I have a message for the people of Iran: The United States hears you. The United States supports you. The United States is with you.” Obviously, this is nothing but hilarious cynicism, since the Trump Administration has imposed severe economic sanctions against Iran which largely affects ordinary people. And if the American imperialists would have any sympathy with people suffering from dictatorship and brutal repression, why do they support the Zionist state of Israel which commits the worst crimes against the Palestinian people, or the Saudi monarchy slaughtering the people in Yemen, or the barbarous Egypt regime of General Sisi – Trump’s “favourite dictator” (direct quote)?! No, the U.S. is the enemy of the Iranian people and of all other oppressed people!

 

6. The Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) unreservedly supports the popular uprising of the Iranian workers and poor. The popular struggle deserves the unconditional support of all socialists and democrats all over the world because it is a fully legitimate struggle against a capitalist dictatorship of thoroughly corrupt businessmen, reactionary generals and hypocritical mullahs.

 

7. Furthermore, the RCIT calls for solidarity with the uprising because of the arch-reactionary role of the Iranian state in Syria and Iraq. In Syria, General Soleimani and his shock troops of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have played a crucial role in keeping the tyrannical regime of Assad in power which faces a revolutionary popular uprising since more than eight and half years. Similarly in Iraq, where IRGC-aligned militias are central in the brutal repression of the mass demonstrations which are rocking the country since several weeks.

 

8. Obviously, the immediate goal of the popular uprisings is the removal of the drastic price hikes. For this it is necessary to organize a nation-wide, indefinite, general strike. In order to continue and deepen the struggle, it is urgent that the masses organize themselves in popular councils at work places, neighborhoods, universities and villages. Likewise they need to build self-defense committees to fight against the police and army. However, the RCIT says that the struggle should be combined with the perspective of the revolutionary overthrow of the regime and its replacement by workers and poor peasants government based on popular committees of action.

 

9. The popular uprising in Iran is another important event of the revolutionary process in the Middle East – the Great Arab Revolution which started in 2011. Furthermore, we welcome that Iran has joined the global wave of class struggles which are rocking the capitalist world order since some months. The RCIT says: the struggles in Chile, Ecuador, Honduras, Haiti, Bolivia, Catalunya, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Egypt, Hong Kong – all these popular uprisings for freedom and social justice must be united into a single Intifada! The RCIT calls for international solidarity based on the support for all these struggles of the workers and oppressed as well as on the anti-imperialist opposition against all Great Powers (U.S., China, EU, Russia and Japan).

 

10. In order to advance the popular uprising in Iran as well as other countries, it is crucial that revolutionaries advocate a clear program of socialist revolution. The RCIT calls liberation fighters all over the world to unite in building revolutionary parties – in combination with building a Revolutionary World Party! Join the RCIT in tackling this great task!

 

* For the immediate withdrawal of the price hikes!

 

* Build popular councils at work places, neighborhoods, universities and villages!

 

* Create self-defense committees!

 

* Organize a general strike! Victory to the popular uprising!

 

* For a workers and poor peasants government!

 

* End the imperialist sanctions against Iran!

 

* US Navy and allies – out of the Persian Gulf!

 

* Unite the uprising in Iran with the second wave of the Arab Revolution! Long live the socialist world revolution!

 

* For a revolutionary party as part of a revolutionary world party!

 

 

 

International Bureau of the RCIT

 

 

 

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For the RCIT's analysis of Iran and the imperialist aggression we refer readers to our numerous articles and statements that are published on our website at: https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/

 

In particular we refer to:

 

Iraq: Victory to the Popular Insurrection against the Government of Abdel Mahdi! Build Popular Councils! For a Workers and Poor Peasants Government! 04 October 2019, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/iraq-victory-to-the-popular-insurrection-against-the-government-of-abdel-mahdi/

 

Aramco Attack: Defeat the US/Saudi/Israeli Warmongers! Defend Iran against any imperialist aggression! But no political support for the reactionary Mullah Regime in Teheran! 16 September 2019, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/aramco-attack-defeat-the-us-saudi-israeli-warmongers/

 

Strait of Hormuz: Escalating Tensions between the US/UK and Iran. Drive the Great Powers out of the Middle East! But no political support for the reactionary Mullah Regime in Teheran! 22 July 2019, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/escalating-tensions-between-the-us-uk-and-iran/

 

Iran: Down with Trump’s Sanctions and Military Threats! But no political support for the reactionary Mullah Regime in Teheran! 11 May 2019, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/down-with-trump-s-sanctions-and-military-threats-against-iran/

 

Warmongering in the Middle East: Down with all Imperialist Great Powers and Capitalist Dictatorships! 13 May 2018, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/joint-statement-warmongering-in-the-middle-east/

 

For the Iranian Revolution! Down with the capitalist Mullah dictatorship! Down with Imperialism! For a working class revolution in Iran! Action Platform for Iran by the RCIT, February 2017, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/iran-platform/

 

Michael Pröbsting: Are We Nearing a New “68 Moment”? A massive upsurge of global class struggle in the midst of a dramatic shift in the world situation 22 October 2019, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/are-we-nearing-a-new-68-moment/