The destruction of the Islamic Republic is the prerequisite to the survival of the working class!

The Iranian People’s Fadaee Guerrillas

(On the occasion of May 1; International Working Class Day)

Under the hellish rule of the Islamic Republic, this year, the Iranian working class welcomes May 1st, international working class day, where the bloodsucking ruling capitalists in Iran are inflicting the worst living and working conditions on them. Today, a look at the critical living and working situation of the working class demonstrates the fact that the parasitic capitalists, with the blessing and support of their government, have minimized the wages of workers to the point that a worker, who must basically sell his or her labour power in order to provide the means of subsistence for themselves and their families, is forced to resort to working a second or a third job in order to survive. A task which, of course, considering the enormous army of the unemployed in Iran, is not easy to achieve, and therefore, a large sector of workers are trapped in a situation where their wages are not nearly enough to maintain their livelihood and thus are driven under the line of poverty. This bitter reality is well reflected in the statement of the workers of “Polyacryl” factory in Isfahan where they describe the deadly conditions of their lives and that of their families: “The income of the workers is not enough to stay alive”. It is under these conditions that, with the support of the anti-labour regime of the Islamic Republic, the bloodsucking capitalists play with the lives of workers on a daily basis by disregarding safety regulations in the workplace in order to gain a few more dollars.  And precisely due to this, every day a number of workers get injured or lose their lives, and their impoverished families too, as a result, are devastated for life and join the ranks of casualties of the capitalists’ wrongdoings.

Even the poverty and unemployment as well as the inadequate wages and suffering of workers within the hell that the capitalists have made in factories and other workplaces do not clearly reflect the grim realities that the imperialist-dependent bourgeoisie in Iran has created for workers. Simply because, while using different excuses, this miserly bourgeoisie often does not even pay their low wages, and instead of paying them in full, only a small portion of their wages are released as “an advance” with gaps up to several months. That is why the demand for receiving unpaid wages is at the centre of workers’ demands, and fighting for wages has become one of their most common protests.

Looking into this very issue, alone, would reveal the depth of the horrific conditions that the capitalists have created for workers. Conditions that have forced workers to spend a great deal of their militant energy on getting their unpaid wages instead of fighting to improve their working conditions and higher wages; wages that they had already worked for and legally should have been paid. On top of that, the magnitude of this oppression against workers is so vast that fighting for these wages is often answered with being fired, or sentenced to lashes or jail time. In fact, there is not one day that employers do not fire a number of militant workers or bring them to court under the pretext of “disturbing” the public order. And in these courts, workers are faced with unjust sentences such as tens of lashes or years of imprisonment for protesting the evasion of their wages. The case of five workers of “Chadormalu” mines who were recently sentenced to lashes and one year of imprisonment for fighting for their basic rights, is one among many.

To understand the extent of the critical working and living conditions of workers under the rule of the Islamic Republic, it is enough to mention that nowadays according to the management of government-concocted worker organizations such as “The Islamic Council of Labour”, “70%” of Iranian workers are forced to live under the line of poverty. (Rahmat-allah Pour-mossa, The General Secretary of the Grand Centre of the Islamic Council of Labour, February 16, 2015)

Under these conditions, the Islamic Republic officials, as representatives of the ruling class, whose only concern is to protect  the capitalists’ interests, are trying to blame all the inherent disarrays of the capitalist system and the insatiable thirst for profit on the sanctions imposed by the imperialist powers, especially the ones in  recent years concerning the regime’s anti-people nuclear project. They try to give workers the false hope that through current negotiations, the sanctions will be removed leading to an increase in the investments which will create new jobs and thus lower unemployment is just around the corner. This is how they lie and give empty promises to workers; workers who, as the steel workers in Azerbaijan put it, “are fed up”. In fact, by propagating lies like this, and by deceiving workers and giving them false hopes, the Islamic Republic is trying to condition them to further tolerate the current hellish situation, precisely in the same manner its propaganda machine has continuously tried in the past three decades.

Militant workers!

The basis of the stagflation cast upon the country’s economy is not derived from foreign sanctions but rather from the inherent crisis of the capitalist system which, no doubt, these sanctions have also further intensified. Therefore, in order to escape the consequences of this ruinous crisis, one cannot, nor should one be fooled by the deceitful propaganda of the ringleaders of the Islamic Republic regarding an illusionary heaven which allegedly will come as a result of the removal of the sanctions. Didn’t your employers pocket your wages before the sanctions, and only once in a while paid a small sum to you as what they called “an advance”?  Didn’t the capitalists fire workers, group by group, before the sanctions without taking any responsibility for them? Aside from that, didn’t billions of dollars of revenue pour into the treasury of this country as a result of the increase of the price of oil?  Was this revenue invested in creating jobs or increasing wages?  On the contrary, it was wasted, some funnelled into the offshore bank accounts of the unscrupulous nouveau riche, and the rest spent on repressive and anti-people policies both in Iran and abroad!

Although these sanctions, imposed under the pretext of the Islamic Republic’s anti-people nuclear project, are against workers and their interests, their removal, however, will not bring about any relief from the dreadful life that they have made for workers. The fact of the matter is that within the ruling exploitative system and the savage dictatorship of the Islamic Republic regime, there is no light of hope for a real improvement in workers’ lives. The real emancipation of workers depends upon the resolute destruction of the roots of their enchainment, i.e., ruling dependent capitalism. And this vital task, at this point, can only be achieved through the destruction of the Islamic Republic regime which safeguards this oppressive system.

Militant workers!

At the threshold of May 1, and under the circumstances when the Islamic Republic does not even allow you to hold a celebration for this great working class day, and trembles from fear of your unity and assembly, we must emphasize that the horizon of a life void of poverty and misery will only appear by destroying the Islamic Republic and the ruling capitalist system which this regime is shielding with fervour. In order to materialize this horizon, which is the only true horizon, there is no other way but to fight. The only way for workers is to unite and to organize, and in our dictatorship-stricken society, it is only through an armed struggle against the armed forces of the enemy that will provide the grounds for organizing the workers, and it is through this process that the highest form of organization for workers becomes possible.

Long live May 1, The International Working Class Day!

Down with the anti-worker regime of the Islamic Republic!

Victory to the revolution!   Long live Communism!

With confidence in the victory of our path!

The Iranian People’s Fadaee Guerrillas

April 14, 2015