Long-live May 1st, International Workers Day!

The Iranian People‘s Fadaee Guerrillas

This year, the militant workers of Iran are welcoming May 1st a short
while after the January 2018 revolutionary movement towards the
overthrow of the anti-worker regime of the Islamic Republic and the
dependent capitalist system in Iran. The main forerunners of that
movement were indeed the army of workers. A massive column of
employed workers, dismissed workers, as well as the reserved army of labour, most of whom are unemployed young men and women, are faced with poverty and desolation due to the intensification of the capitalist system‘s incurable crises and the shutting down of factories and workshops. All these masses of people, those who have got nothing to lose but their shackles, indeed shook the foundation of their oppressive and exploitative class enemies with their heroic and to the death fight during the fiery days of January. In this glorious fight, the army of labour had its own allies, i.e., the vast sectors of the toiling masses deprived from any livelihood as the result of the immeasurable exploitation and oppression inflicted by the capitalists and their ruling regime. During those days in January, these oppressed masses terrified the imperialist-dependent, tyrannical regime of the Islamic Republic, and completely altered the political atmosphere to the advancement of the struggle towards the overthrow of the ruling political system as well as the current socio- economic order; a deed which undoubtedly is a step forward towards the working and toiling masses’ ideal society, i.e., socialism. Therefore, one must congratulate the revolutionary workers of Iran.

On this revered day which signifies an international day of the working class across the globe against capitalists and their exploitative and barbaric system, if we take a look at the living and working conditions of the Iranian working class we can see the horrendous image created by Iran‘s dependent capitalist system. Nowadays, a complete non-payment of wages to workers has become a common practice. Sometimes workers are not being paid for up to twelve months. Or in other cases, workers are being deprived from their unemployment or safety and health insurance by the capitalists who funnel the workers’ accumulated money into their own private bank accounts. Even when workers get their wages, the so-called minimum wage by no means matches the rate of inflation and the cost of living. One can understand the bitterness of this realty when one reads that the minimum wage determined by the government for current year is four times below the line of poverty. In other words, even if the employer pays the worker a full wage, the worker still immerses in poverty. As a result, today the fight for unpaid wages is a central theme of labour struggles in Iran. This, in return, has naturally pushed to the side most other rightful demands of workers, thus preventing them from fighting for the improvement of their working and living conditions, which in itself shows their detrimental position in fighting the employers. Workers’ lack of unity and organization due to the suppression of the ruling dictatorial regime which inflicts imprisonment and savage torture on those who have tried to organize, the ability of the capitalists and their representing government to freely and overtly exploit and rip off workers, the absence of a genuine trade organization together with the existence of a vast reserved army of the unemployed which subjugate workers to unbound exploitation and ever more tyranny, etc., enunciate the dire and dreadful situation of the working class in Iran.

However, economic pressure is only one of the afflictions imposed on workers in our imperialist-dominated society. There are other intolerable political adversities imposed on workers by the regime. In fact, workers, especially their most militant and class conscious members, more than any other sector in society, are subject to the brutal attacks waged by the government and its suppressive institutions. Not a day goes by without government intelligence agents raiding workers’ homes at night and arresting them. Not a day goes by without this or that government agency summoning these militant workers which often leads to their arrest and imprisonment.

Under these conditions and even though the yoke of suppression and tyranny is on workers more than any other sector, their fight against the capitalists and the suppressive and dictatorial regime of the Islamic Republic has not ceased. Simply because, despite the repression and tyranny of the Islamic regime, i.e., the guard dog of the dependent capitalist order, workers have no other choice but to intensify their fight against the bourgeoisie and its draconian ruling regime. In fact, this is the only way workers can defend their own lives and human dignity.

A consideration of the working class struggles in Iran reveals the very important point that although it is economic demands that draw the workers into the battle, the regime‘s outright support for the capitalists provokes workers to direct their fight against the government. As a result, in order to achieve their economic demands, workers in Iran generally engage in a political struggle which often, due to the regime‘s armed retaliation against workers, turns into a coercive fight against the regime.

A deep consideration of the living and working conditions of the Iranian workers, and of the fact that under such harsh repression imposed upon them, workers will not be able to improve their livelihood, leads us most clearly to conclude that the overthrow of the Islamic Republic is the first and foremost prerequisite to their freedom from the current unbearable conditions. The January 2018 insurrection of the”countless army of labourers” throughout the country also proved that when the downtrodden rise up to break their chains, the decadence and powerlessness of their enemies are revealed. Indeed, since the workers’ power lies in their organization, today, the grand task before militant and class conscious workers in Iran is to organize themselves in a clandestine manner- which under the existing dictatorship and based on actual experiences must be formed in an underground political- military structure – and move directly towards the overthrow of the Islamic Republic as the first struggle on the path of workers’ liberation.

On May 1st, we call upon the militant and conscious workers of Iran to bring an end to the rule of the Islamic Republic and the oppressive system it represents so that, upon its ruins, the working class will be able to establish the necessary conditions for the definite emancipation of workers from despotism and exploitation.

LONG-LIVE THE SOLIDARITY OF THE WORKERS OF THE WORLD!
DOWN WITH THE IMPERIALIST-DEPENDENT REGIME OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC! VICTORY TO REVOLUTION!
LONG-LIVE COMMUNISM!
The Iranian People‘s Fadaee Guerrillas
April 2018