Tudeh Party of Iran

Neoliberals align with Khamenei to "save the regime", while the theocratic dictatorship's fear of the spread of justice-seeking popular protests grows…

(Translated Excerpts from the Editorial of NamehMardom, issue no. 1182, published Monday 22May 2023)

The imposition of harsh prison sentences on trade union activists [in Iran] in recent weeks shows just how afraid the theocratic regime has become of the growing struggle of the [country's] working class and toilers. The default response of the regime's leadership, through its enforcement and security apparatus, is nothing other than the fostering of an atmosphere of fear, repression, and persecution.  The increasing wave of executions in recent weeks on trumped-up charges - including the Islamist regime's criminal act on 19 May to execute Saeed Yaqoubi, Saleh Mirhashemi, and Majid Kazemi - should be seen in this context. The purpose of these executions is manifestly to demonstrate the [regime's] power, to exact revenge [on those daring to dissent] and to terrorise the protesting population at large.

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The theocratic regime feels threatened by an increasingly large swathe of [Iranian] society. The consequences of "structural adjustment" and "economic surgeries" [neoliberal shock therapy] over the past three decades have led to such a situation that the regime has no prospect of solving the multifaceted mega-crises [in Iran] for the benefit of the people. It is no secret that the economy presided over by the Islamic Republic regime basically works for the benefit of the upper layers of the bourgeoisie connected to the pyramid of power [in the country].Furthermore, three decades of [unrestrained] implementationof neoliberal capitalist programmes have weakened the country's economy to such an extent that a power like the U.S. can now easily impose huge pressures on the country's economy and people's livelihood by through the imposition of financial sanctions.  [Iran's economy has been continually rendered acutely vulnerable to pressures exerted from outside.].

For the working class and toilers of Iran across various sectors of industry, agriculture, and service provision - in both the public and private spheres - these painful realities are only too clear to see, touching their very skin and flesh, and they no longer pay attention to Khamenei's nonsense and the regime's propaganda.

Inside the supreme leader's headquarters, the daily and desperate efforts of the "Leader" to divert public attention from internal affairs to those pertaining to abroad and international developments, in an attempt to justify and actually obscure the multifaceted internal crises and rampant growth in class inequality [in Iran], only serve to underline that the reactionary regime and the leader's promulgated ideologyof "Political Islam" is now at a dead end!

The regime's leaders are acutely aware that the balance of power couldwell shift to the detriment of the theocratic dictatorship as the Iranian labour movement becomes more coherent and visceral - with trade union protests becoming more coordinated and linked with the wider freedom and civil rights protest movements. Thus, the violent suppression of trade union movements that stem from the country's deep class inequality, along with the imposition of mandatory hijab to defend "Political Islam" and the continuation of its dominance, has become a vital necessity for the regime. In any case, the Islamist regime now undeniably faces an impasse,both practical and theoretical, and knows that it must proceed very cautiously indeed- as, according to the government's own statistics, more than 80 percent of the population do not accept "Political Islam" and want it removed from the country's political life..

The Tudeh Party of Iran believes that the central and key role of the material demands of the working class and toilers, within the framework of securing labour and trade union rights, will have a decisive effect on the process of raising the level of the wider anti-dictatorship struggle in the country. The continuation of this process not only threatens the life of the existing political system but has already jolted the powerful private and quasi-private capitalist sectors on which the theocratic dictatorship relies [for its survival].Along with the government's aggressive and repressive moves against labour activists, Iran is now witnessing a calculated propaganda campaign by media both inside and outside the country against the justice-seeking views and programmes that seek to defend the working class and toilers of Iran. As per usual, the Tudeh Party of Iran is the focal point of these malicious attacksand campaigns.

Several of the right-wing opposition media linked to Reza Pahlavi (the exiled son of the deposed shah) have also seized upon this opportunity; using the vocabulary of the previous regime's notorious secret police (the SAVAK) to actually helpbolster Khamenei's disastrous economic orders [and vision]. All evidence points to yet another conspiracy against the Iranian people. This time, it involves the leadership around Khamenei purporting to "safeguard the regime” through the intensification of neoliberal capitalist programmes - and,through the complicity of staunch advocates of neoliberalism, forming an unwritten alliance with parts of the right-wing opposition.  [Essentially, the imposition of a neo-liberal capitalist vision upon the people of Iranand what that would entail, including a system of fierce repression, is the common ground upon which these otherwise disparate forces agree.] 

One of the strategiesadopted in the common agenda of this unholy alliance is to divert the public attention away from the realities of the past four decades by coining a particular vitriol in an attempt topoison the public's opinion of the Tudeh Party of Iran and its former leadership, and by deliberately distorting and reframing the popular and justice-seeking policies of our Party historically.[Tied in with this,] another commonality between these forces is their viciously anti-communist stance; a position that Khamenei re-emphasised recently so as to give reassurance to capitalists linked to the pyramid of power inside the country and imperialist circles abroad.
خKhamenei's speech on 20 May 2023, in which he referred to "flexible diplomacy" and its translation to "taqiyya" (withholding the truth for the good of the religion), which apparently even bypassed the notice of some government officials, is also noteworthy.He essentially stated that in order to "safeguard the regime" and the astronomical wealth accumulated under his watch, every word and action to deceive [Iranian] public opinion about relations with the US and global capitalism is absolutely necessary and justified from the point of view of "Political Islam".

The fundamental reality remains that the current developments [in Iran] vis-à-vis the growing demands for justice and the protection of the interests of the working class and toilers of the country, and the interlinking of these currents with the wider freedom and civil rights seeking movement, are hugely troubling for the leadership of the theocratic regime as well as a certain range of right-wing forces and ideologues both inside and outside the country.. They are right to be worried that with the continuation of such developments and the increase and spread of class consciousness among the workers and toilers, the movement will only become more radical - and the possibility of the "formation of a popular alternative against the theocratic regime" will emerge with the participation and cooperation of the leftist and national liberation forces in Iran.

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For the statements of the Tudeh Party of Iran and its analysis of major developments in Iran Please visit:    www.tudehpartyiran.org