Version imprimableThe fall of the national currency seems endless. The population’s mobilizations against the cost of living are multiplying. If political strikes in support of the uprising remain limited for the moment, those to demand the payment of salary arrears (sometimes up to four months) or to denounce working conditions and demand wage rises are daily.
At the same time, the repression is continuing as ferociously as ever. For example, on 22 February, the regime announced the execution of Arash Ahmadi, a 29-year-old Kurdish activist accused of murdering a police officer in 2018. Heavy sentences against demonstrators and protesters continue to be handed down.
In the face of this, the protest against the regime takes multiple, less spectacular but permanent forms. Mass demonstrations every Friday in the region of Sistan-Baluchistan and particularly in Zahedan, nightly slogans in the working-class neighbourhoods of the big cities, street actions in Kurdistan, the agitation does not stop.
The counter-revolution is organized from outside the country
It is in this context that, from outside the country, the right-wing and monarchist oppositions are trying to deviate the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement, with the help of Western govenments. Georgetown University recently organized a conference with all the leaders of this bourgeois, authoritarian and reactionary opposition, including Reza Pahlavi, son of the last Shah.
Reza Pahlavi was also invited to speak at the Munich Security Conference held from 17 to 19 February. On the sidelines of this conference, Emmanuel Macron staged his meeting with Masih Alinejad, Trump’s friend. Reza Pahlavi was also invited to speak at the French Senate on 20 February.
At no time did Reza Pahlavi condemn the crimes of his father and the Iranian monarchy. On the other hand, he does not hesitate to say regularly “that it will be necessary to rely on members of the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij to ensure security during the future transition period”. The same people who have been torturing, raping and killing protesters and political prisoners for 44 years.
Support for independent organizations and activist networks from within!
In the front line of the struggle against the Islamic Republic, some twenty independent trade union and civil society organizations from the interior published a declaration and an important platform of demands on 15 February. [1]
These organizations were joined in their stance by numerous student and university associations and by militant networks in the country.
This text links democratic (abolition of the death penalty, torture, freedom of organisation...), feminist, LGBTQI+, environmental, social and national and religious minorities’ demands.
The declaration calls for the seizure of the property of the regime’s dignitaries and denounces the deprivation of freedom suffered by Iranians both under the monarchy and during the last 44 years. The manifesto demands, among other things, the establishment of a radical democracy from below. It is a call to fight for a radical project of social transformation.
These demands are of course incompatible with the current dictatorial regime, but they are also incompatible with the reactionary, liberal, patriarchal, grand Persian and authoritarian project of Reza Pahlavi and his cohorts. Moreover, the monarchist networks have violently attacked this manifesto.
It is the duty of anti-capitalist and revolutionary activists to support radical expression and the struggle against the Islamic Republic. It is also the duty of the radical left to denounce the imperialist actions of the great powers and reactionary forces in Iran.
The outcome of the current uprising is crucial for all peoples struggling against religious fundamentalisms, authoritarian and dictatorial states, and imperialist powers.
2 March 2023
Translated by International Viewpoint from l’Anticapitaliste.
