2024-05-21

The death of Ebrahim Raisi has aroused a silent but active joy among most Iranian people. From the moment the news of the “hard landing” of the helicopter carrying Ebrahim Raisi and his companions was released, while Khamenei, Khatami, Rouhani, and others stood in prayer for his well-being, the bereaved people of Iran were counting down the moments until his death. Rarely does someone’s death evoke such tears of joy from the eyes. Even the eyes blinded by his orders shed tears of joy on this day. This wave of pleasure from the demise of the oppressor once again showed that the relations of the Islamic government with the suffering workers and people of Iran have reached an irreconcilable point.

First and foremost, in the collective memory of the Iranian people, Ebrahim Raisi’s name and visage are synonymous with his role as a member of the Death Committee and the orchestrator of the political prisoners’ massacre during the summer of 1988. These atrocities, committed in this corner of the world against humanity at the close of the twentieth century, persist vividly in memory. In the summer of 1988, Khomeini, in consultation with Khamenei and Rafsanjani, resorted to inhumane crimes in an attempt to terrorise the populace already grappling with the effects of war and economic turmoil. The evidence and documentation of these atrocities stand as poignant witnesses to the brutality of the Islamic regime’s officials. During that period, based on Khomeini’s decree, a special committee, later notorious as the “Death Committee,” was established, with Ebrahim Raisi among its members tasked with the execution of the project to massacre political prisoners. During those days, Ebrahim Raisi and the other members of the Death Committee entrusted thousands of prisoners with diverse political backgrounds to the grip of death, burying them in mass, anonymous graves. Before committing this inhumane crime, Ebrahim Raisi held prominent positions in the judiciary, serving in Mashhad and later in Masjed Soleyman, Karaj, Tehran, and Hamadan. During this time, he played an active role in suppressing political dissent, mainly targeting leftist groups. Building on the foundation of these atrocities, he later rose to influential positions within the Islamic regime, serving on the Supreme National Security Council, then assuming leadership of the judiciary, and ultimately, becoming president. During his time as the head of the judiciary, Ebrahim Raisi spared no effort in justifying the massacre and issuing unjust verdicts against the participants of the nationwide protests in November 2019 (Aban 1398). He also pursued the arrest and imprisonment of active labour movement activists and other prominent figures in social movements while continuing the execution of political prisoners without any remorse. During his truncated presidency of the Islamic Republic, he added further infamy to his record. This included the violent suppression of the revolutionary women’s movement, the assault on the fundamental rights to life and freedom, and the slaughter of over 600 protesters. He authorised the blinding of dissenters, chemical assaults on girls’ schools, consecutive waves of executions, attacks on workers’ empty tables, and the declaration of a nationwide war against liberated Iranian women.  Trained as a well-trained figure within the Islamic government, Ebrahim Raisi played an active role in promoting religious fanaticism and glorifying corruption. He mercilessly suppressed cherished societal values, propagated misogyny, and demeaned the human rights of women. Additionally, he fostered ignorance and superstition, systematically stripped people of their fundamental political, individual, and social rights, and actively engaged in proxy wars to advance the agenda of Islam. Consequently, the freedom-loving and equality-seeking people of Iran, particularly the families of the victims, were vehemently demanding that Ebrahim Raisi be publicly tried and held accountable for his crimes against humanity in the presence of the masses.

However, Raisi didn’t descend from the sky. He was one of the anti-revolutionary figures under Khomeini’s leadership during the 1979 uprising. Iran’s capitalist class, along with the United States and other imperialist powers, supported him to advance their interests and preserve the capitalist system in Iran. During the 1979 revolution, when oil industry workers halted oil exports and took to the streets with their political and class demands, it became evident that the anti-revolutionary monarchy regime couldn’t suppress the mass uprising by resorting to violence in the streets. In those days, Iran’s bourgeoisie relinquished their banner of independence to Khomeini to preserve the capitalist system. Meanwhile, imperialist powers convened at the Guadeloupe Conference to ensure the continuation of suppression by handing over the military and repression apparatus, fully prepared and ready, to the Islamic movement, thus allowing it to continue its duty of suppression and bloodshed to crush the revolution. Raisi was a product of these trends, and with his notorious track record, he epitomised a segment of the capitalist elite within the Islamic government.

Khamenei and the leadership of the Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) seek to exploit Raisi’s death, along with his associates, by declaring five days of national mourning. Through threats and intimidation, they aim to unify the disarrayed factions within the Islamic government and instil fear among the masses. The leaders of capitalist governments have archived Raisi’s record as a human rights violator and are sending messages of sympathy to the Islamic government one after another. With Raisi’s death, certain sections of the bourgeois opposition, who see top-down change and the soft overthrow of the Islamic Republic regime as one of their strategic pillars, regret why it wasn’t Khamenei who died instead. They hoped that “his death would have a significant impact on political processes,” enabling them to transition their strategy for a velvet overthrow of the Islamic government into a new phase. However, communist workers steadfastly reject any notion of relying on patience, waiting, or hope for Khamenei’s demise and top-down changes. Instead, they are actively engaged in a struggle. They refuse to let the working masses and freedom-seeking people of Iran be led astray by the varied and bourgeois-tinted paths of the opposition.

Informed and communist workers are acutely aware that the fate of the Islamic government rests squarely in the hands of the working class. Just as the oil workers played a pivotal role in toppling the despotic monarchy regime during the 1979 revolution by halting oil production, today, the key lies in labour strikes across vital industrial sectors such as oil and gas, petrochemicals, steel, automotive, iron smelting, electricity, mining, railways, and more. By swiftly demanding urgent reforms for workers and retirees, the release of all political prisoners, an end to capital punishment, and immediate relief for women, we can apply immense pressure on the Islamic government and grind its oppressive machinery to a halt.

Communist workers know there is no shortcut. Nationwide strikes by workers in pivotal production centres have the potential to rally and coordinate all forward-thinking social movements and protests within society. Political strikes on a mass scale, with labour strikes at their core, could fracture the unity of the armed forces and the Revolutionary Guards Corps, deepen internal divisions within their ranks, dismantle their oppressive capabilities, and pave the way for organising revolutionary uprisings to overthrow the Islamic Republic regime.

Down with the Islamic Republic regime!

Long live freedom, equality, and workers’ rule!

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Iran

2024/05/21