To the 9th Open World Conference of the International Liaison (ILC) Committee of workers and People against War and Explotation. Algeria 8-10 Dec. 2017

To the 9th Open World Conference of the International Liaison (ILC) Committee of workers and People against War and Explotation. Algeria 8-10 Dec. 2017 From: International Bureau of Communist Party of Iran

An overview of the political power and relations of capitalism in Iran, the role of global capital and the conditions of the working class

The emergence of political Islam in 1978 was a necessity for global capital in Iran, in particular with the collapse of state capitalism in Russia which under the false name of ”Camp of Socialism” played the role of a deterring imperial block. In 1978, with the rise of a general and countrywide uprising in Iran, that still had no Islamic color and orientation, seven major world governments gathered in Guadalupe Conference and evaluated that the monarchy had no future in Iran anymore to support an anti-revolutionary Islamic alternative regime in Iran.

Establishing an Islamic State in Iran with the support of world imperialism under the leadership of the United States and led by Jimmy Carter, at the seven major world powers summit in Guadalupe, was an anti-human action the consequences of which we can see in the Middle East today.

This imperialist act at the height of the popular uprising in Iran against the monarchy and bourgeoisie of the ruling comprador in Iran was a counter-revolutionary act against a movement that had a labor and socialist potential in the most sensitive geopolitical point in Asia.

Khomeini sat down in France under an apple tree with CIA agents. Khomeini was brought out of the depths of history and became a charisma .The founder of terrorism and ISIS in all over the world landed in Iran with the Air France Private Airlines to fulfill its promises to heads of states at the Guadalupe Conference, especially the CIA delegation.

Political Islam had to prevail in Iran and insure the interests of the capitalist world in the geography of the Middle East.

The task of this alternative government was to preserve capitalist relations, retain the military machine and suppress the labor and socialist movements, reopen oil and gas pipelines, and prevent the organization and expansion of a progressive organizations and revolutionary movement, because with the potentiality of the labor force and the socialist movements, the economic and political map would have been transformed at least in the Middle East. The rule of an Islamic state of capital was vital to prevent this.

Contrary to the aspirations of the anti-imperialist struggle and following the overthrow of the kingdom, which was no longer valid, a more devastating autocracy came to power to rule this Asian society that was already suffering from a dual and chronic tyranny. The regime took the reigns in the lack of working class organization and in general the lack of awareness among people about the nature of the new regime. In a historical land of despotism and the prohibition of any political parties or independent labor and social organizations, nothing rises up but despotism.

The Counter-revolutionary that replaced the monarchy in February 1978 has the task of suppressing the revolution and kill revolutionaries and any voice of opposition.

During the revolutionary period of 1978, in all labor centers, amongst them oil, petrochemical, iron and steel industries, workers general assemblies were formed and workers 'councils came into being and it was due to the workers' general strike, that the monarchy surrendered. These councils were eventually suppressed with the defeat of revolution, banned and repressed, and the Islamic Labor Councils (the ideological arm of capital) replaced them.

Political Islam with its inherent despotism merged with the intrinsic despotism of capital took over everywhere because it owned all the grounds and facilities for propaganda, promotion and organization. This reactionary force was the only power that could mobilize the masses by the name of God and by a demagogue and populist such as Khamenei.

This destructive power, without the heart and sight, had come to trample the revolutionary potential of the society, the economic infrastructure, and what remained of production, the remaining of the agricultural, industrial, scientific, and artistic centers, as well as all the socio-historical-human values ​.

Instead of these values, corruption, falsehood, dual morals, hypocrisy ,drug addiction, insecurity, fear, and all kinds of physical, psychological and social illnesses had to prevail everywhere. Eight years of war with Iraq with the slogan "Conquest of Jerusalem from Karbala” with more than one million dead and injured, with the destruction of society and the continuation of the civil war especially in Kurdistan, passing the most inhuman laws against women and their rights, transforming Iran into slums and arsenals are only some of the Islamic regime’s achievements for the Iranian society.

Economic Recession

In the current Iran, the industrial and agricultural sector is rapidly eroding. Investments in the building have been in recession and deadlock, the trade and monetary sectors are on the verge of stagnation, and agricultural sector such as sugar cane, rice, and tea have been destroyed because of the policy of increasing imports.

Over the last 15 years, the development budget has been getting closer to zero rate, and revenues are used to pay the current budget and to cover terrorist and militaristic expenses. Hundreds of unfinished projects from thirty years ago are waiting for a budget. Banks are mostly bankrupt or near bankruptcy, and the masses are in escalating debt .Unemployment, poverty and the class gap have grown in an unprecedented and unacceptable way. The working class and the oppressed people from the lower parts of the society are faced with an unbearable life and lack of most basic needs. The value of Iran's currency is rapidly declining, and the stagflation or depression has expanded.

Political Crisis

Now and after 40 years, there is a political power in Iran that has broken record in corruption, repression, execution, imprisonment, and state terrorism.

This regime has resulted in the most insecure and unstable economic conditions for the flow of capital and policies of global capital, but for the militarism of all the capitalist blocs in crisis it is a good way to contain the structural crisis of capital. In such a situation, the three main wings of the Islamic regime – the clerical faction led by Ayatollah Khamenei, which is also the main faction in the government; the government, i.e. the executive branch and the powerful wing of IRGC and the intelligence forces are fighting with each other like wolves in order to swallow the profit, the added values and the capital of the society.

The socio-cultural and ecological situation of Iran is not any better. Corruption, divorce, addiction, theft, smuggling of goods, and other social crimes have rapidly expanding. The majority of the population of the 80 million, especially the working class and the toilers in Rural and Urban Areas are living in absolute disaster. With the spread of the global crisis, as well as the characteristics of the economies of the peripheral countries, and due to the reliance on a single product of oil and petrodollars, the social crisis is at its peak.

The corrupt policies and practices of financial looting, market economy and brokerage have accelerated the collapse of the ”middle class” or lower and middle layers of petit bourgeoisie in all economic, productive and social fields. The deprived, bankrupt and wretched layers of society are living a life of hell and and, moreover, more than half of the population, that is the youth see no hope and future for themselves because of widespread unemployment, oppression and repression and see no other way to survive but to escape from the great prison of Iran.

According to Iran’s statistics center, the average age in Iran is 31.1, and 50 percent of the population, that is over 40 million people are under the age of 30, and 57 percent of the total unemployed population in Iran is between the ages of 15 and 29. According to this statistics, nearly 30% of this age group are reported as unemployed. Drugs are being spread on university campuses, schools, and streets an sold to these young hopeless people at a lower price than cigarette to break and paralyze the new and upcoming generations. The IRGC, as a partner in purchasing and growing poppy in Afghanistan and converting opium into heroin, acts as one of the biggest cartels of drugs in the world.

In this hopeless situation, committing suicide is escalating. These recent months have seen many suicides among the lower strata and ages of the society, and the most painful thing is that suicide rates are under the age of ten, and this is a human disaster. In the village of ”Ghalerash” in the Sardasht city of Kurdistan, in just two weeks, 10 people killed themselves by hanging. The terrible living conditions of the toiling people of this border village with 1,400 inhabitants is only a tip of the iceberg of a bigger catastrophe. Hundreds of other examples of these types can be found across Iran.

Woman

Women in Islamic Iran are formally and practically as well as according to the laws and beliefs of the Islamic state considered as half human. As a significant half of the society, women are victims of gender and class oppression more than any other group in the society. Government statistics talk about 18 million housewives. These women are deprived of the most basic social rights.

More than three million women who are head of family without any income and supporting are struggling with death. There are about two million bread-winning women, 85 percent of whom have no source of income. The spray of acid on women’s face by the fatwa of religious leaders in Isfahan and Tehran and prisons full of women not wanting to stick to strict Islamic rules are crimes against humanity.

Calling for foreign capital Investment

Representative of capital in the parliament, Mrs Farida Ulad Ghobad, the agent of Rouhani’s wing, while admitting in 2016 to a part of women's miserable circumstances, considers unemployment as the root of all the problem in society: "The origin and cause of all issues like increase in age of marriage, increase in divorce rate and increasing number of female head of households, the widening and diversifying range of social problems, especially addiction, and violence is the phenomenon of unemployment and lack of jobs.“

As a solution she cites "the entry of these companies can increase economic growth and employment for the country”. According to her “due to the high ability of these companies, the market can easily be achieved by them. The ban on the entry of global capitalists deprives the country of the capabilities of the world and increases the gap between domestic and foreign capabilities; the main solution is the partnership and cooperation with foreign companies, the compulsion of foreign companies to transfer technology to the country instead of selling products alone, encouraging the creation of joint-venture firms. " These lines show the the wish of all the agents of the capital; one group sees hope in Russia and China and another group sees it in Europe and the United States.

This expert and representative of the regime knows that more than 95% of the work contracts are today temporary; from daily to white contracts and 90-day or one-year contracts. This figure was six percent in 1988. In 1995 in reformist and pro-West Khatami’s era, workplaces with five workers an later with ten wotkers were excluded from the labor law. These were ILO’s, IMF’s and World Bank’s guidelines in order to guarantee the profit and security of capital. Thousands of workers were fired and joined the unemployed army to be selected by dealers of labor force from the labor market based on the requirements and need of capital.

The environmental Crisis

The environmental situation and political geography are also becoming more critical every day. The water crisis is rising strongly, and the state of groundwater, lakes, rivers, and wetlands of the country is closer to a dangerous and dense land. The air, water and land pollution of the country are continually increasing and the fossils, especially in southern part of country and the province of Baluchistan cause death and destruction. The destruction of forests and the erosion of soils are threatening the future of the ecosystem.

The destructive role of the regime in the exploitation of nature, its efforts to be equipped with nuclear energy, drought, increasing of water and air pollution, climate change, inappropriate industrial and agricultural productions, inefficient usage of water and natural resources, and ignoring existing environmental regulations have contributed to Iran’s current ecological crisis.

Environment and geopolitical conditions are also becoming more critical every day. Some 74 important Iranian wetlands are “seriously damaged”, and the lakes are going to die, according to Masoumeh Ebtekar, Iran’s vice-president and head of the Environment Protection organization: the water crisis is rising sharply and the state of groundwater, lakes, rivers, and wetlands of the country is closer to a dangerous and dense land. The air, water and land pollution of the country are steadily increasing and the haze cause death and destruction. Haze, the HYPERLINK "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_phenomenon"atmospheric phenomenon in which HYPERLINK "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust"dust, HYPERLINK "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke"smoke, and other dry HYPERLINK "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particulates"particulates are accumulating, has been another disaster in Iran . In fact, dust particles that are so smaller than 1 millimeter, produce a huge film of smog that reduce visibility to a few hundred meters It’s really horrible and dangerous for life. No mask could help you. You cannot breath and it’s really horrible; you cannot see anything in the streets; and everything is really dusty. The situation is more serious in the southern and western of Iran, i.e. in , Baluchistan, Khuzestan, Ilam , and Kermanshah provinces. In fact Ahvaz, Abadan, Ilam, etc. have been another mass killing factor which darks the streets under 6 to 9 months of the year !! In these cities the dust storm reduces visibility to a few meters, and the pollution increase 50 to 100 times. The Iranian Regime not only has done nothing, but also their destroying acts inside Iran, have worsen the problem. The destruction of forests and the erosion of soils are threatening the future of not only the ecosystem, but also the life. Particulate pollutants (5 / 2MP and 10 PM) in Tehran have been reported to been more than 5 times higher than authorized. According to government reports, 5894 deaths per year are estimated to be equivalent to eleven and eleven and sixty hundredths of the total deaths in Tehran. According to the World Bank estimates, in 2013, air pollution in Iran was 30 billion And $ 599 million in economic losses. (HYPERLINK http://www.eghtesadonline.com http://www.eghtesadonline.com) - December 2, 2017.

Lack of water, the drying of lakes and rivers, desertification, and the destruction of forests and natural resources are a catastrophe that is the main factor behind the Islamic Regime in Iran. The oligarchs in Iran, in order to accumulate capital and profit, have exploited and destroyed the earth and being. Soon we will see a water conflict inside and outside Iran, between Iran and Turkey, and Afghanistan and Iraq. In the mass media, terms such as mountain eaters, land eaters, lake, sea and woods eaters are among the routine words that point to the heads of state gangs in Iran

Nuclear Energy Crisis and Policies

The current regime in Iran, in a historical illegitimacy, in an increasing economic and political crisis, killing more than 5,000 political prisoners only in two months of the summer of 1988 after losing in the 8-year war with Iraq and in order to survive, has realized that the social gaps between the rulers and the ruled is huge and it can survive only by possessing nuclear weapons, missiles, bombs and terrorism.

The factions within the Iranian government, despite all their differences, agree on one thing and that is brutal crack-down on people’s protests and opposition. This regime has a will of oppression, bloodshed and military ability. By possessing nuclear power and atomic warheads to threaten the interests of the global capital market and spread fear in the emirates, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Strait of Hormuz, it is trying to ensure this will and the power to suppress an internal uprisings. It is trying to secure its existence, preserve its inhuman rule and prevent the interference of foreign powers by achieving nuclear weapons. The heads of G5+1 are aware of the Islamic state's mentality and plans.

The Islamic state in Iran and the crises it creates have become a positive factor for global capital. World capitalism, which is sunk in an economic crisis, has been unable to cope with the crisis. The capitalist system while seeking low-cost solutions to curb the crisis and postpone it, on the one hand, chose to confront the popular uprisings in peripheral as well as Metropolitan capitalist countries and on the other hand chose to replace or reform the old and weary political powers faced by people’s anger and protests. Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, and Yemen are among such countries.

Capitalism wants to make sure that the uprisings demanding jobs, bread, and freedom are not turned into political and social revolution; political revolutions should be suppressed and replaced by counter-revolution. As far as it relates to Iran, the political reforms in Iran should not lead to protests and a revolutionary uprising, a potential that, according to the materialistic law of the phenomenon, should be deviated inevitably from inside with interfere of external factors. Just as the Shah in 1979 and Hosni Mubarak as a favorite man of global capitalism in 2011 were victimized to prevent the political revolution from growing into a social revolution.

Unemployment

The ruling bourgeoisie has sacked millions of workers with intensive exploitation under the name of "modulation," or the nickname of unemployment, or "rationalization" of production. This process is aiming at higher profits by making the labor force cheaper, by exploiting the workforce of women, children and migrant workers, by attacking progressive and independent labor organizations, by arresting and flogging workers, with the help of jail and torture, by silencing labor uprisings and intensifying the exploitation of workers. 50 percent of the population, in other word over 40 million people are under the age of 30, with 57 percent of the total unemployed among youths.

In Iran, employment was based on an hour work per week. The rate of unemployment rises over 10 millions means over25% of the workers.

More than 95% of the work contracts are temporary, from daily worker to white or Blank contract. The ruling bourgeoisie has committed to layoff of millions of workers under the name of "moderation", or the "rationalization" of production with intensive exploitation.

The Chancellor of Iran's Chamber of Commerce in 2017 announced the unemployment rate at about 14 million people, out of which more than 4 million university graduates. This rate represents only shows 30% of the real unemployment rate. According to Iran’s Central Bank, the number of unemployed families makes up 24% of the total households in the country. In Iran, working an hour per week is also regarded as employment. Thus, unemployment rate exceeds 40%.

The consequence of unemployment is not limited to economic performance; the consequences are burnout and devastation of one’s life and soul. Impact on personality, worker’s self-esteem, impoverishment, addiction, AIDS, suicide, child labor and street children, selling one’s body and soul, increase in infectious diseases, separation and disintegration of families, displacement, migration, abandonment of human principles, The intensification of violence and anger in the society, stroke and cardiovascular diseases, the spread of mental illness, murder and accumulation of prisons, and dozens of other devastating social complications and damages, which, like genetic inheritance, are descended from generation to generation.

There are no accurate statistics from the unemployed. Government statistics are false. The highest unemployment rates according to official statistics is among the age group of 20 to 24 years-old, which is 28.3%. In this age group, the unemployment rate has been reported 23.8 percent among men and 48.4 percent among women. That is, among men, one in four is unemployed. Of the 2 women, one was unemployed. 18 million housewives deprived of the most basic social rights and of whom three million single parents of the family without any income and support are faced with miserable and harsh living conditions.

The capitalists have been using this unbridled unemployment rate to oppress and commit crimes against workers, to increase the load and intensity of work, while reducing the wages and do not pay workers’ meagre salaries for several months. It is for this reason that 82,000 steel workers have not received three months' salary. Temporary and contract workers, who make up more than 95 percent of Iran’s workforce, are more silent and more oppressed than workers with permanent job agreements, and inevitably and in order to survive, give into demands of employers and allow to be exploited intensively.

According to official confessions, close to two million construction workers in the worst conditions of job insecurity and danger, without any insurance, despite the payment of 7% insurance share by the workers themselves and 20% by the employer, are deprived of any legal and insurance coverage, and every day workers across Iran fall from towers, bridges and other high places like autumn leaves and lose their lives at the slaughter houses of the capitalists and the regime. The Social Security Fund has been announced bankrupt due to government corruption and theft. The government is one of the biggest debtors of this fund and does not pay its debts.

Under this situation, the most common demand of the labor movement in Iran is the request for "unpaid wages". In many work centers, the wages of millions of workers have not been paid for more than a year.

The ruling bourgeoisie in Iran, with all its factions, has caused the devastation of many domestic industries to the benefit of brokers and rentiers. The process of closing many production centers, followed by job losses and layoffs accelerated from 2006 onwards. This is while liquidity with a growth of 36 percent now stands at 1.5 trillion tomans. This volume of capital will not fall into the production cycle, but will be only accumulated in the form of commercial and trading capital in the import and stock markets, or in the banks that have mushroomed everywhere, go bankrupt every day and promise 30% profits and this type of capitals are heavily inflationary.

Child Labor

Iran under the Islamic state is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor.

In Iran as the other class society countries, the concept of the ‘street child’ and the ‘child laborer’ cannot be understood without relating them to the socio-political agenda behind it. Children ‘on’ the street are child workers on the street from the families who are the victims of capitalism system in Iran. Director General of the Office of Social Welfare the Labor said: According to research carried out by some researchers on street children in Tehran, about 60 percent of them are Iranian street children. There are different statistics on the number of street children and child labor in Iran. The statistics of seven million street children even may have been heard.

Those children between the ages of 10 and 14 account for 45% of the total street children, as well as 34% of street children studying, 40% dropping out of school, and 24% did not attend school at all. The report of the children of migrant workers in Afghanistan accounts for more than 45% of children. Most of these children are from Iranian mothers who, according to government regulations, do not have a birth certificate.

An article by the Institute for War and Peace Reports: Afghan children were being taken from the streets by the Iranian security forces and deported back to Afghanistan. Some of these children had never been to Afghanistan before and appear to have been deported from Iran without their parents‘ knowledge. According to the Institute for War and Peace Report, many of the children which really were kidnapped by Iranian regime facing deportation are denied food and forced to perform work while they await deportation in transit camps.

There is much to buy on the streets of Iran. Iran's capital offers alcohol, drugs, sex, healthy kidneys, eyes retina and even infants and uterus for rent. More and more parents are selling their children out of economic desperation across Iran.

Human trafficking and child labor have become increasingly prevalent in Iran, which according to HYPERLINK "http://neobservatory.org/reports/"reports is now one of the worst offenders of children rights in the world. The Iranian has in fact beenHYPERLINK "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/reporters-uncensored/irans-dark-secret-child-p_b_262222.html" implicated in human trafficking and the exploitation of children

In a report about "child trafficking," the Bahar daily cited from Mohammad Ali Pormokhtar, a member of the Judicial and Legal Commission of parliament, warned against the spread of trafficking in child body organan, saying: "Leasing of and trafficking in child organs, specially among addicted families is common, therefore, the Law on Protection of Children and Adolescents legally determines the status of these people involved.”

The report, while recalling cases of abduction of children, including in Kerman, related to the trafficking of organs and wrote: "The victims of organ trafficking in Iran are children at their childhood and girls that are generally between 14 and 25 years old. In the majority of cases, dealers in human organ trafficking use the collapse of a family due domestic conflicts, addiction of the parents to drugs, divorce, poverty, inappropriate housing or living on the sidelines of large cities that create an insecure environment for the children, to kidnap children and kill and sell their organs. Most of the victims are from the lower layers of society or runaway girls."

Under the Islamic state, one out of every three students is deprived of the right to education. These figures reflect the bitter fact that at least 6 million children in the society are deprived from education. In other words, in the Islamic state of Iran, one of the three students has been thrown onto the streets. Nearly 70% of Iranian students are deprived of studying in their mother language, another problem in Iran’s educational system, which has created unequal educational conditions for the majority of Iranian students.

Reza Ghadimi, Managing Director of Tehran City Municipality's Social Services Organization, announced in November 2017 that 4400 children and adults from 22 districts of Tehran have been collected from the streets: "Of these, 400 are children." He admitted that “ all these 400 children have been raped” and added that 75 percent of these Iranian children are not from Iran. These children have been forced to beg at Tehran's crossroads. Under the plan for arresting labor and street children, thousands of Afghan, Pakistani and Bangladeshi children were kidnapped from the streets by the police and taken to the military camps to be sent to Syria’s war fronts or to be trained and used as suppressing forces against internal protest movements.

In recent years, child prostitution has risen 635 percent in the country, and dozens of Iranian girls are brought to Turkey, Emirates, Pakistan so on to be sold as sex slaves every day. HYPERLINK "http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/822312.stm"In Tehran, there are an estimated 84,000 women and girls in prostitution, many of them are on the Streets, others are in the HYPERLINK "http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/822312.stm"thousandsHYPERLINK "http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/822312.stm" HYPERLINK "http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/822312.stm"of brothelsHYPERLINK "http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/822312.stm" that reportedly operate in the City. Other girls are sold into prostitution under the guise of a HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikah_mut%E2%80%98ah"short-term marriage, or HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikah_mut%E2%80%98ah"sigheh, which is permitted under Shari’a law in certain Shia schools. These marriages can last anywhere from one hour to several years, depending on a fixed contract. One tragic consequence of prostitution in Iran has been a spike of HIV/AIDS infection in recent years, specially among street children.

Iran has experienced a dramatic increase in the number of homeless people in the past few years. Thousands of homeless people forced to live in cardboard cartons and vacant graves.

Koolbars

Due to the bankruptcy of agriculture and small production units, in Iran and specially in the province of Kurdistan since 1990 a job called Koolbari emrged. Koolbari in Persian means carrying things on back. Koolbars (people engaged in koolbari) are mostly unemployed Iranian farmers, women, children, old and even students who earn a living carrying goods over the border from Iraqi Kurdistan into Iranian Kurdistan, usually on horseback or on their own backs. This includes all sorts of goods, like tea, textiles, television sets, perfume, alcoholic beverages, and satellite receivers, the latter two of which are illegal in Iran. They take the loads, which sometime weigh up to 120 kilos, by horses or mules or on their own backs through mountains, rivers, mine fields, snow and freezing temperatures of winter. On the way, they face many risks such as falling into valleys or into the ambushes set by security forces and shot by snipers from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC or Sepah as called in Persian) just to earn a living. Official reports estimate their number to be 300 thousand, but the real numbers are estimated at around half a million people. These people resort to this job because there no other jobs and in the process, they risk their lives. This year, dozens of them were killed by border police and IRGC’s snipers, many injured and maimed, and dozens of horses and mules, the only means of these people to carry their goods, were shot down by the police and IRGC troops. These Koolbars are not covered by any insurance and are deprived of any coverage of labor laws.

Government structure and private financial institutions

Minister of the Interior: We cannot say that Iran's economy is clean and healthy!

A large part of economic activity in Iran is monopolized by religious institutions such as Astan Quds Razavi and under the supervision of the Supreme Leader which are exempt from tax. The existence of the docks and border crossings under the Revolutionary Guard monopoly for importing smuggled goods was even discussed in the Parliament. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s ex-president, when fell out with some part of the IRGC, pointing at these border crossings, called his opponents and parts of the IRGC as "our own smuggler brothers".

The IRGC and security faction, the Supreme leader’s faction, and the government, are three governments within the state that are rivals and comprise the government structure in Iran. These factions are in a fierce competition for a greater share of economic and political power, but they work in full coordination when it comes to upholding the regime’s despotic system and when suppressing protest movements in the society.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or IRGC was formed as an ideological army under the command of Khomeini from the very day that the Shah was overthrown. The mission of this force has been to suppress internal movements and protests and carry out military and terrorist acts outside Iran. The duty of the classical army left from the time of the Shah is to defend the borders. The IRGC, especially after the end of the Iraq-Iran war, entered the realm of economic activity and the world of politics. There is no economic, political or social arena in which the Revolutionary Guards and security agencies would have no primary role to play. All football teams in Iran, many sports clubs, insurance, stock markets and banks, and chain stores to parliament, telecommunications, and various levels of management are all civilian areas which are attended by the commanders or cadres of the IRGC. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani noted June 23, 2017, that "part of the Iranian economy has been handed over to the government that has both the gun and the media and no one dares to compete with them."

The political activity of the military became more public from 2005, with the presence of some of IRGC commanders in Ahmadinejad’s government. There are reports that 35 percent of the Iran’s key economy, including oil and gas and petrochemicals, and the largest holdings and financial institutions in Iran, is owned by the IRGC, which identifies itself as the private sector. This is the militarization process rather than privatization. From the rest of the Iran’s economy, 30 percent owned by the supreme leader and only 35 percent owned by the government. The private sector has a weak role in Iran’s economy only participating as insignificant contractors and partners of the IRGC. The IRGC has its own prisons, security centers, secret and open bases, airports, including Iran’s main airport (Imam Khomeini International Airport) In Tehran and dozens of maritime, air and ground terminals. The IRGC is officially backed by Russia and has provided them with military bases including the Russian bombers in the city of Hamedan.

In Iranian’s previous parliament, elected March 2012, half of the members of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission were former commanders and members of the IRGC. The IRGC Cooperative Foundation (Bonyad-e Ta'avon-e Sepah), established on August 23, 1986, has now become one of the main players in Iran's economic scene. Although the IRGC itself is not directly involved in the stock market of Tehran, but its affiliated companies have an active role in it.

This faction of the bourgeoisie in Iran hand in hand with the greediest sectors of global capital has been looting the society, intensively exploiting the Iranian workforce and destroying all the economic and production infrastructures as well as cultural, educational and human values. They would commit any crime for the easiest and quickest gain of wealth, for gaining more market share and the preservation of their political power. The Islamic Republic of Iran, more bankrupt than ever and without the slightest legitimacy and any popular base inside and outside of Iran, has no way but to impose military rule, to blatantly violate all human rights, to torture and massacre and to turn Iran into a big and terrible prison.

The economic share of the supreme leader

The Executive Committee of the Imam Khomeini’s Order or EIKO, the Islamic Revolution Mostazafan Foundation (Bonyad-e Mostazafan), the Armed Forces Pension Fund and the government-affiliated entities are the largest owners of the major companies in Iran's economy. The Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran, or in other words, the government of the supreme leader, is supreme leader Ali Khamenei’s exclusive administrative and economic headquarters. One of the major economic entities owned by this faction is the EIKO. In November 2013, Reuters reported that based on official evidence and valuation of property prices and shares of the companies and institutions affiliated with the agency, the value of the assets under the control of the EIKO was estimated at $ 95 billion.

EIKO is an institution (dependent from government) in Iran, which was established by the decree of Rouhollah Khomeini and is now directly administered by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This headquarters is responsible for the management of the property that the supreme leader is entitled to under Article 499 of the Constitution and other laws. EIKO is active in two major areas of charity and economic activities. Companies affiliated with EIKO are involved in the activities of banking, finance, oil and telecommunications to the production of medicines and animal husbandry.

The economic section of the EIKO, which is an immense economic arm active in various sectors of industry and trade in Iran and abroad, finances supreme leader's financial activities and thus these activities are neither overseen by the Islamic Consultative Assembly (Iranian Parliament) nor are dependent on the national budget. Astan Quds is the largest religious holding in the world. 34 percent of the total area of Iran is owned by the clergy, who are tied to the supreme leader.

Holdings

The IRGC holdings, including Khatam Al-Anbiah, one of the largest Middle East hubs in the oil, gas, and petrochemicals, do not pay taxes and do not allow any government oversight. In Mashhad, the central city of Khorasan province, there are more than 110 financial complexes all of which are in possession of Astan Quds, the heads of the IRGC and government groups.

The head of the Iranian judiciary, Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, who is the candidate for the Velayat-e faqih (supreme leader) after Khamenei's death and one of the three brothers, who are the heads of the legislative and judiciary forces and the representative of the regime at the United Nations, has 63 personal bank accounts known as "law enforcement accounts", which hold people’s confiscated property and bail of prisoners, according to a report by the ministry of economy.

Social Security Investment

Social security investment is the task of economic and commercial investment with the funds of the Social Security Pension Fund, and symbols the state corruption. This huge economic cartel, which appears to be run by the state, but the IRGC and security forces have the largest share of its ownership and management, manages a diverse range of assets, including 17 petrochemical companies, 9 gas and oil companies, 30 pharmaceutical companies, 13 cellulose industries, and several household appliances and animal husbandry companies. It is also a stockholder of four banks, five insurance companies, a capital financing company and three brokerage firms, Bahonar, Saba Ta’min and Ta’min Ayandeh.

30-billion-dollar annual trafficking in Iran

One of the main revenues of the IRGC is the smuggling of goods. Organized imports and smuggling by the IRGC have crippled Iran’s economy. Until now, some industries and products such as knitting and garments, cement, sugar, tea, rice and wheat have been destroyed, while the official import of clothing has increased by 5%. In Iran, in addition to more than 70% of the small, medium and large industries, many small and medium-sized businesses and businesses have been closed or are on the brink of bankruptcy. The rest are operating with a very low capacity slowly going towards bankruptcy.

Official reports in Iran reveal that: "Last year, foreign goods accounted for 41.5 billion dollars, more than 25 percent of which were Chinese. The value of imported Chinese goods into the country last year was 10.4 billion dollars.

Armed Forces Social Security Organization

The Social Security Organization of the Armed Forces is clearly visible on the stock exchange. The executive arm of Armed Forces Social Security Organization on the stock exchange is Ghadir Investment Co., a major shareholder of a large portfolio of petrochemical and oil companies.

Eurasia, Mafia and Iran Attachment

In 2004, the Eurasia project in Iran began with the arrival of Alexander Dugin in Iran and the leaders of the IRGC and security forces. Eurasia's politics were promoted in the form of open and secret congresses and meetings and apparently through negotiations. Alexander Dugin as an  advisor of Iranian key political and military authorities and has the same role and influence in kremlin as Rasputin had with Romanovs.

Dugin’s aim is the formation of a Eurasian bloc that would include all fundamentalists and fanatical Christian, Salafist, Shiite and Jewish, as well as other doomsday believers, with the aim of advancing the interests of the Russian bloc and giving Russia its neo-tsarist position that would enable it to achieve new economic and political markets against the West and the US imperialism.

The Islamic government and Moscow have hidden what was happening behind the scenes. More than 54 congresses and more than 100 conferences and seminars in Iran, Russia and other countries formerly part of the Soviet Union have been held by 2010 on the initiative of the ruling oligarchs in Russia and the participation of the ruling oligarchs in Iran who favor Neotsarism and their economic and political policies. Dugin is constantly meeting with the highest religious and state authorities and is traveling and having meeting and speeches in Asia and Europe.

The Persian translation of Dugin’s book The Fourth Political Theory was published at the same time its English translation came out and a group of highest Iranian Islamic clerics like Mesbah Yazdi, Nouri Hamedani, Qazi Lankarani and Mohaqeq Damaad, the same officials who ordered the murder of Iranian writers and scholars exchanged presents and medals with Dugin.

In Iran, he has been introduced as follows: “Dr. Alexander Dugin is one of the most well-known thinkers of Russia and the founder of the New Eurasian context and the modern geopolitical school of Russia, and, with a traditionalist look, criticizes modernism, postmodernism, and other epistemic phenomena that come with globalization". He seeks to link “the current religious tendencies of Russia and the Islamic and Shi’ite mysticism there and the possibility of dialogue between mystics” as well as “the possibility of reviving the traditions and spirituality of Russia's past.” He is the engineer of the Ukrainian crisis, the occupation of Sevastopol, the presence of the Russian military and the Russia-Iran-Syria military corridor.

Dugin’s aim is the formation of a Eurasian bloc that would include all fundamentalist and fanatical Christian, Salafist, Shiite and Jewish forces, as well as doomsday believers, with the aim of combating the achievements of humanity, advancing the interests of the Russian bloc and giving Russia its neotsarist position that would enable it to achieve new economic and political markets in the face of the West and the United States. In November 2017, this demagogue along with the Basijis of the Iranian government and the commanders of the IRGC headed for Karbala to mobilize the Eurasia front to build the land bridge from Russia, Iran, Iraq and Syria up until the Mediterranean Sea.

NGOs

The task was to normalize, integrate and overhaul the path of globalization, especially in the Middle East and Islamic Iran. This goal should be consistent with the prevailing view of politics, economy and culture.

In Iran, until the first half of the 1990s, the most "non-governmental" organizations were charity and religious institutions. With the Khatami the reformist government, the NGO,s project in the 1990s, this trend was turning to the benefit of “civil society” , NGOs and controlled by an Islamic standard. According to the Ministry of Interior, in 2000 there were 250 women's NGO,s , some of whom were registered and some without registration, of which 70% were charitable associations. In 2001, there were more than 590 organizations that increased the proportion of non-religious organizations. In 1380, nearly 140 organizations were added to the statement that 45% were cultural, 21% were social and 16% were charitable and the rest were economic.

In the Khatami government, more than 37,000 registered NGOs, including 17,000 law enforcement agencies, 2,000 from the National Youth Organization, 1700 from the Higher Education Center and hundreds of cases They are licensed from the Center for Women's Participation. The head of the Center for Women's Participation has announced the growth of women's NGOs in past years by 318%.

The task of NGOs in the economic-political struggle between pro west bloc and government interests in front of the pro- Russia Revolutionary Guards and intelligence officials is evident in the intensive rhetoric of Mr. Razzaghi, the most famous NGO activist in that time: "Unfortunately, the weakness of civil society and the private sector in Iran has made the military enter this Arena. One of the indicators that can be said in the future is that civil society in Iran is strong and powerful, so that civil society can return troops to the barracks. That is, the same duties and the main role that the military must take over. "(With Deutsche Welle report Agency- civil society, soldiers should be returned to barracks. • Interview with Dr Sohrab Razzaghi, a civil society activist)

The project was named with state subsidies in Iran and a foreign countries, including the German-German Social Democrats, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation of Germany, which was called the Weimar republicans in 1925 by Friedrich Ebert. He extends his quasi-Khatami era.1)

Re: Abbas Mansuran, "Non-Governmental Organizations", Second Class, p. 9, p. 111, Tehran, 2000.

The concept of imperialism

With the domination of world capitalism over the whole world, there is no more one imperialist state and imperialism in the sense it existed in the 1900s and as defined by Hilferding, Bernstein, Bukharin, and then thoroughly and correctly by Lenin. In the 1970s and afterwards, imperialism became a global system. It was no longer one or more countries to be called imperialists. The financial and industrial capital were merged and financial capital in the stock market created globalization. The global market transformation into shares, stock markets, debt securities etc. based on neoliberalism ideology is the imperialist that is ruling the world.

The Islamic regime in Iran appeared as the fighter of imperialism by hypocritically chanting “death to imperialism”, which in Iran and among the Iranian left then was interpreted as the United States, and in this way, the regime disarmed the working class against capitalism. The global and traditional pro-Russian and pro-Chinese left, relying on the same understanding of imperialism, supported the Islamic regime of Iran, Hezbollah, or any anti-Western and anti-American group. Imperialism is not a phenomenon outside of society, any society, whether Iran or Bangladesh. Imperialism is that flood of the stock market and global shares which includes Russia and China, and India and Iran, as well. The troika - the chartered horses of global capital, the IMF, the World Bank, and stock markets (Wall Street, Tokyo, Frankfurt and Amsterdam …) manage the world the way it benefits capital. Capitals in the free trade and industrial zones of the world, such as Hong Kong, UAE and Qatar that are invested day and night in oil, gas, currencies and large corporations, capitals that change ownership every moment in the form of real and imaginary capital and are in circulation around the world. The assets of the IRGC and the Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran are part of this global capital that hand in hand are circulating and making benefit in the current global capital market, in the stock market, in casino stocks and the purchase and sale of shares.

Imperialism is made up from these world-wide and globally dominant relations who are partly based in Iran and partly in North America, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Israel, China, Russia, and the whole world. The two blocks of global capital are the United States and Europe, on the one hand and the Russian-led Eurasia bloc on the other hand. China, meanwhile and dependent on Eurasia, has occupied the globe.

If we do not understand this correctly and see imperialism as just a country and not a global phenomenon, the ruling relations in any country, such as the new Tsarist Russia, the capitalistic China and despotic capitalistic and theocratic Iran will continue ruling. Globalization, and with that the ideology that formed the globalization of world capital, transformed the traditional concept of imperialism. Neoliberalism, as the worldview in the form of a devastating free economic market became the ideology of globalization. Is not it, in Marx's words, that the dominant ideology in any society is the ideology of the relations governing that society? In the face of this global capital, we the workers’ and socialist movements must also become global and internationalist.

Proxy wars

The war in Syria is an imperialist war that entered a new phase when Russia joined Iran there. In addition to the members of IRGC and Lebanese Shiite organization Hezbollah, the Fatimid (Fatimiyoun) Brigade (Afghans) and the Zaynabion Brigade (Pakistanis), along with Shiites from Iraq were recruited by the IRGC and, along with the Syrian army, supported by the Russians, to fight against the enemies of Bashar al-Assad, especially the Free Syrian Army and ISIS. In Yemen, the reinforcement of the Houthis and the war with a coalition of countries led by Saudi Arabia continues. The IRGC pursues pressure on Saudi Arabia on several other fronts other than Yemen. Fomenting hostility with Saudi Arabia provides the IRGC with the possibility to promote itself and gain the upper hand inside Iran too.

In Bahrain, the training of terrorist groups opposed to the Bahraini government is pursued by sending trained personnel, explosives and weapons there. Following Mr. Khamenei’s speech for the Basijis against the Bahraini government, the propaganda war between Manama and Tehran has intensified. In Iraq, the infiltration of the IRGC is very high, and holding the Arba’een rally from Najaf to Karbala, using 1.5 million Iranians who went from Iran to Iraq, is an example of IRGC’s display of power in Iraq. The IRGC, not only within the Dawa Party (the ruling party), but also by forming several paramilitary forces in Iraq, including the Hashd al-Sha'abi (an umbrella organization for 40 predominantly Shi'a paramilitary forces based in Iraq but under the command of Iran's Quds Forces), has tried to establish organizations similar to Lebanon's Hezbollah with the three-fold political-terrorist-economic function.

In Palestine, Iran keeps its presence through the formation of Islamic jihad and financially supporting Hamas, whose leaders are fluctuating between Iran and Saudi Arabia for money. In Afghanistan, the IRGC has been for long collaborating with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who has been in Iran for more than a decade. He is the one whose forces have been one of the main pillars of the Taliban. The IRGC, in partnership with the Taliban, plays an important role in the deadly business of poppy cultivation, production of heroin from opium and trafficking it into Europe. For a long time, the IRGC has been cooperating with the international smuggling network in the region from Afghanistan to Lebanon, from Lebanon to the port of Marseille in France and Caracas in Venezuela. These partnerships take place both for money laundering and with the aim of earning and trading, as well as with the aim of cooperating, expanding and supporting terrorism and smuggling of weapons and explosives.

Occupation of Iraqi Kurdistan

On September 25, 2017, the Iraqi Kurdistan held a referendum on self-determination. Reports indicate that 72% of the more than 5,200,000 eligible voters participated in the referendum voting. The same reports reported more than 93 percent of the participants agreeing with the "independence" of Iraqi Kurdistan. Kurdistan was occupied by the IRGC and the Iraqi army for this. Day after, Kurdistan was occupied by the IRGC, Hashd Alshabi and the Iraqi army. The decision makers of the Main both parties of Iraqi Kurdistan, Kurdistan Democrat Party(KDP of Barzanies) and Kurdistan National Unity Party (KNUP of Talbanies) betrayed the people and surrendered the Kurdistan. the occupation of Kurdistan without a green light from the United States , Russia and Europe was impossible. This proved that federalism and autonomy within the framework of bourgeois states have no guarantee, and are subject to cancellation and occupation at any moment. Only that independency and self-determination has an executive guarantee that is backed by the workers' and a socialist revolution.

Qasem Soleimani, commander of the IRGC Quds Force, played an active role in the occupation of Kirkuk with a green light from the United States. He commanded the Hashd al-Sha'bi militias and occupied Kurdistan with commanders from the Iraqi Army and with a green light from the US and Turkey, and together with the United Nations, the Security Council and the European Union, as we saw in Catalonia as well, ignored the referendum, will and historical aspiration of a nation. This proved that federalism and autonomy within the framework of bourgeois states have no guarantee, and are subject to cancellation and occupation at any moment. Only that independence and self-determination has an executive guarantee that is backed by the workers' and a socialist revolution.

The goal of the Iranian government is the same as Khomeini’s directives: the export of the Islamic Revolution, and the creation of a Shiite crescent from Iraq, Syria, Bahrain and Yemen to Lebanon. Russia is also using this corridor or the land bridge to connect Russia from the Caspian Sea to Syria and to the Mediterranean Sea to achieve more territories.

We condemn any counterrevolutionary and imperialist interference and believe that we must and can overthrow the Islamic regime in Iran and end all its devastating and dangerous nuclear and military projects through a revolution that is controlled by the will and power of the masses led by the proletariat organized in a communist party and other mass and working-class organizations.

Military intervention under these circumstances, especially with the experience of the war in the Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria, is not the option of global imperialism for Iran. Avoiding direct military intervention with Iran is a sane strategy that the rationality of capital could see, as opposed to the controversy of the peace-keeping opposition groups who hope a US military intervention in Iran. Turkey, that is trying to turn into an arbitrary Islamic and neo-Ottoman empire, is the herald of global capital in the region, so that the map of the economic, political and military zones of this periphery is reconstructed as desired. The strategy of the Metropolitan countries for Iran is still to advance with and impose economic and political pressures with the aim of restoring the balance of power in the Middle East. The proxy war planned by the global capitalist blocs has not yet reached its goals. The Iranian government itself is one of the actors of this war and one of the brokers of proxy war.

Still, global capital led by the United States, while continuing the negotiations with the Islamic government, sees the intensification of the sanctions, the main victims of which are people, as the first option. The easiest way and the most affordable option to prevent the Islamic regime from obtaining nuclear weapons is to sanction the Central Bank of Iran, and then at a greater cost, to boycott Iran's oil and gas purchase, this main vein of the IRGC, Basij, Iran’s Intelligence agency, and all its terrorist apparatus and networks, Hezbollah, the Qods Force, Hashd al-Sha'bi and other terrorist and militaristic networks around the world.

The current situation the Islamic capitalist regime of Iran is experiencing is the logical consequence of the dialectic of the relations and the structure of capitalism and its rule in Iran. A structure characterized by Shi'ite ideological and political rule and the underdevelopment of capital in Iran. The Islamic regime in Iran which is ruling a population of more than 80 million people and whom it has taken as prisoners and hostages, likes wars and crises, because it sees a better chance for survival in those conditions. To put an end to a regime that survives in wars, we must eliminate the war element itself and the revolutionary overthrow of the regime in Iran is the first step in ending the war and attaining peace. Other than this, nothing works.

The status of the working class

The growth and expansion of capitalism in Iran in the last half century and the continuation of the process of capitalism has transformed the position of the working class and its movement. In the present situation, this class has got a greater role in social production. The villagers’ migration to cities, especially after the Iran-Iraq war, and their settlement on the outskirts of a cities, to sell their own workforce, doubled Iran’s labor force compared to the 1970s. The statistics on 24 million people living on city sidelines in Iran somewhat reflects this fact. On the other hand, the continuation of industrialization has multiplied the number of workers employed in industrial units.

2- Workers’ daily struggles; Workers’ struggles to improve the living conditions are the purposeful continuation of workers’ class struggle as a class against the capitalist system. Through these struggles, workers gain experience and learn from each other's experiences. Until these struggles, workers have been confronting with capitalists only in an individual way. From now on, workers learn how to use their collective force in this battle.

If we look at the course of workers' class struggles in the past four decades, we will see some ups and downs. In the eight years of the war with Iraq and the killing of tens of thousands of political and opposition forces and socialists in the 1980s, and the second wave of migration by the toiling people into the cities which created an army of unemployed people, caused worker’s demands to drop and this fact also affected the level of workers' struggles, but the working class has now passed through that period.

Today we witness the growth and spread of workers' daily protests and strikes. The forms of these protests range from strike to gatherings in front of the parliament and other state institutions, to closing roads, preventing employers and company officials from entering the workplace, to demonstrations, rallies, petitions, occupation of factories and so on. In many cases, workers’ families also take part in these protests. Wage and salary arrears have been workers’ top demand during these protests as employers often fail to pay workers’ salaries on time. It often happens that workers do not receive their wage and salaries for up to a year and longer. Workers’ also protest the low level of wages, job and workplace insecurity, labor laws that violate workers’ rights and benefits, enslaving employment contracts, various demands of the retired people, teachers, nurses, and so on.

Workplaces, companies and large manufacturing and service centers, which can be the realm of effective labor struggles because of the presence and concentration of workers in these places, are in the control of state institutions or the IRGC and its affiliated companies or state-run associations that work as the political, ideological and security arm of the capital, such as Khane Kargar (Workers House), Islamic Labor Councils and other Islamic state-run associations. The tyrannical rule and tight security dominating these centers have been the reason for the limitation of protest movements. Large industrial complexes such as the oil, gas and petrochemical industries are owned by the IRGC and a government affiliated subsidiary company. They have separated workers’ working environment as well as their legal and administrative staff. This division has greatly affected the unity of workers in the workplace.

Among the factors limiting workers’ struggles in Iran, one can mention the following:

- Workers’ dispersion over small workplaces

- Unemployment and job insecurity; The existence of a massive reserve army of unemployed people living on the margins of the cities and in the villages.

- The Islamic labor councils and Khane Kargar (Workers House) as the only allowed state-dependent organizations. These organizations, which are particularly active in large working centers and full of regime's supporters, play an important role in controlling labor protests.

- The weakness of class consciousness and the lack of organization of the working class.

Nevertheless, the labor movement has been growing and has been one of the most active social movements in Iran. For example, 2016 was one of the most vibrant period of labor struggles in the last ten years, and according to government statistics, about 1,300 labor protests have taken place. These protests involved all production and service sectors: workers from municipal and municipal services, water and sewage, electricity and municipal transport, steel and iron industries, mining, oil, gas and petrochemical industries to car industries, shipbuilding, railways, agricultural and food industries, construction and its various industries, communications and telecommunications, education and health centers.

3- Workers' Organizations; Workers in the daily struggles to meet their demands learn that they need organizations to fight capitalists and achieve their basic rights. They turn from one class in itself to a class for itself.

Workers in the ongoing protests have shown that they have gained some level of organization and leadership. Workers’ strikes that have continued for long times in some production lines during this year indicate some organization, the presence of a leadership, and development in the course of these struggles. However, the Iranian labor movement is still far from being able to establish its own class and mass organizations and to stabilize the balance of power in its favor. In recent years, labor activists have made valuable efforts in this regard, and several independent labor organizations have emerged. Despite pressures and threats and at the cost of imprisonment, torture and death as a result of torture in jail and limitations and disadvantages set against these activists, they continue their efforts to defend workers' rights.

Workers have not been able enough to bargain over their immediate demands because of the absence of their own class organizations that would be independent from the government and the bourgeoisie. Although the existence of political repression and police crackdown are the main obstacle to the organization of workers, the working class, in addition to the repression and oppression, is struggling to organize itself because of poverty and economic problems, because of unemployment in millions, the unprecedented increase in interim contracts, widespread use of contractors that have broken the direct legal relationship between the worker and the employer, the scattered organization of production and etc. each of which make it harder for workers to organize. Therefore, the lack of workers’ class and mass organizations is still one of the most problematic issues in the Iranian labor movement.

4. Workers and political struggle; the continuation of daily struggles, especially in a country like Iran, with the rule of the duplicity of capitalist and Islamic tyranny, opens up the political struggle to the workers.

When Rouhani’s government wants to modify the already anti-worker labor law in favor of employees and leave no channel for the workers to defend their rights within the framework of the law; when protesting workers are daily beaten up and detained; when labor activists are imprisoned, flogged and fired from work in order to intimidate and frighten them, all these indicate regime’s fear of the spread of protests and the power, potential and the role that labor activists and leaders can play in leading the protests. When workers from various working centers gather at the front of the Parliament and shout slogans saying that workers' wages are less than 200 Dollars a month, while poverty line is defined at more than 900 Dollars a month, this is a political struggle. Here, the issue goes beyond workers' struggle in a factory or against an employer; here the workers challenge the minimum wage set by the Supreme Labor Council and approved.

When workers declare that they no longer accept wages set on the basis of the inflation rate announced by the central bank, they actually question the labor law. When workers resist the government's attempt to modify its anti-worker labor law even more in favor of employers and against the workers and force the government to retreat, it is a political struggle. When workers protest for the release of jailed labor activists, in fact they are fighting for political freedom. The confrontation of the workers' movement against the political class system in power and its policies and laws has been on the rise and given the frustration of the ruling factions to end the poverty and misery imposed on the workers and the majority of the people of Iran, workers mass upheaval in the future is inevitable.

5. Workers and party; the victory of the workers' revolution without a communist leadership is untenable. Therefore, a nonstop part of our efforts, as the Communist Party of Iran, is the integration of leading and socialist workers into the ranks of the Communist Party of Iran. The Communist Party of Iran has no way to advance its strategy and realize its program but to become a party including progressive and communist workers in the Iranian labor movement. The existence of a strong communist political party that includes the activists and forerunners of the labor movement is part of the strategy of the workers' revolution.

A brief background of the Communist Party of Iran

The Communist Party of Iran was established on September 2, 1983. Despite the ups and downs in the struggle for its goals and after nearly 40 years of fighting and losing up to 3000 comrades in the class struggle, the party has been constantly fighting for the same goals as have been expressed in the Manifesto of the Communist league by Marx and Engels. The Communist Party of Iran is a part of the international army of the working class, which has set as its goal the victory of the workers revolution and socialism. The party is originated from Komalah in Kurdistan and some other regions of Iran during 1970, s. Kamala means organization in Kurdish language. our party is fighting to organize and unite the ranks of the working class and toilers for abolitioning of exploitation system and its ruling power for the realization of the new world of socialism.

The anti-Communist bourgeois savagery that is organized on a global scale today, and decades of destructive functioning of revisionism and its detrimental effects on the workers and communist movement faces the communist party of our time with specific circumstances. These circumstances require from a communist party to be prepared for the longest and most bloody battles with the rigorous and organized bourgeoisie, to train and prepare its ranks for fighting and victory in the most difficult conditions of oppression and repression of the police and military forces and at all times, to symbolize and embody the purity of communism in philosophy, insight and politics, and to never stop from fighting the colorful thoughts, ideologies and policies of the bourgeoisie inside the working class movement.

The message of the founding congress of the Communist Party of Iran (CPI) addressed to the Iranian workers said: "Which one of you does not yet know that our salvation from all this hardship and misery, from all this injustice and deprivation is through our unity and solidarity?" Which one of you does not yet know that we, the workers, in the immediate aftermath of the most massive uprisings and the most brutal confrontations with the tyrannical rulers, will not receive anything other than what we have today if we are not united and if we haven’t organized our independent forces? Undoubtedly, the secret of our victory is our unity and solidarity.

The Communist Party of Iran is born in the heart of struggle and while fighting. From the revolutionary Kurdistan, where the Kurdistan Organization of the Communist Party of Iran (Komaleh) is the leader of a mass movement and organizer of a revolutionary movement, to the cities throughout Iran, where communist activity should continue in the darkest circumstances of police crackdown and mayhem, our party is fighting to organize and unite the ranks of the working class of Iran. Our party, the workers' party, is a party for the impoverished and marginalized people who fight for workers state, for the abolition of private property and for socialism.

The Communist Party of Iran, as part of the vanguard of the international working class and in accordance with its internationalist duty, is fighting for the revolutionary and socialistic overthrow of the Islamic capitalist regime in Iran. The Kurdistan Organization of the Communist Party of Iran – Komaleh, is also doing its part in preparing the red army of proletariat for the revolution and socialism by organizing Peshmerga (guerrilla) forces and a revolutionary base in Kurdistan.

Iranian capitalists enjoy the support of the religious authorities and they have been able to use faith as a leverage to avoid paying workers’ minimum wage or as Marx puts it “to rescue the church, God may sometimes ask for devil’s help”.

Iranian oppressed masses need international solidarity for the freedom of political prisoners who are facing death penalties and long-term imprisonment. We belong to world workers front. Iranian workers as a part of the global working class continue their struggle to fight back against the assault of global capitalism. We shall overcome.

Long Live Workers Solidarity!

Long Live Socialism!

Presents by Abbas Mansouran

Hamid Fouroutan

Only a new Labor International on the basis of the First International will take direct action to address the world's wretched conditions and billions of people; only a socialism that is reinforced by modern working-class Internationalism can put an end to the devastation and economic misery of the universe, the widespread wars and militarism and the collapse and the catastrophic shifts in ecosystems.

Abbas Mansouran