The Only Solution in Iran: Power to the Workers’ Council!

After her murder by the morality police, the name Mahsa Amini became the symbol of a wave of rebellion, which was born with the burst of anger of Iranian women, youth, and workers against the regime. The murder was a manifestation of the rotten bloody Mullah regime. However, the regime, which has suppressed the people's revolt with blood many times before, cannot cope with the power of the accumulated anger and disgust of the Iranian people on the streets this time.

After the women's reactions, all the cities, in tandem; Persian, Kurdish, Azeri… all ethnic identities entered into a common fight against the regime. Young women and girls are challenging the regime; boycotts and protests at schools are not stopping. While the universities bravely join in the protests, shouldering the heavy tolls and risks, the workers' protests are also showing their effect. Politically charged strikes started with the slogan “Death to the Dictator!”, in addition to the economic demands, the petrochemical, sugar, steel, and transportation sectors and more are on the way. Teachers and municipal bus drivers had declared their strikes with political and economic demands. For the first time in the history of the "sacred" system of the Islamic Republic, the facade of the propaganda apparatus was smashed and famous names known for their closeness to the regime broke off their ties with the regime.

We need to express that behind the uprising in Iran there is anger directed toward the system. The rebellion of the poor in Iran against the high cost of living and the corruption of the regime was bloodily suppressed in 2019. The anger that accumulated and the problems that the system was not capable of solving, ignited the rebellion with a new wave, in which women are symbols, in 2022.

Iran is a mirror of the Middle East: a cruel dictatorship that feeds corruption, oppression, and the oligarchs. This structure, which stands on capitalist interests, has turned into an obstacle to the solution of the most basic issues such as poverty, national problem, education, medical care, etc.

The social content of all these problems necessitates developing a perspective on the class character of the Mullah regime, not just its authoritarian character of it. The regime, which holds power around the interests of oil money, governed with nepotism cannot sustain its power without suppressing the people as this model of capitalist relations in Iran is the obstacle before the masses. These regime relations not only with Iran but also all-region from Afghanistan to Yemen, from Lebanon to Iraq. The Iranian regime owes this international power to the oil money that is also distributed to control the region through guns and interest relations. Without exception, all the elite mullahs of the regime have turned into wealthy capitalist oligarchs. While their children are living a secular, luxurious lifestyle abroad, and even in the country’s rich regions in immunity; Sharia, which is the name of the authoritarian rule over the poor workers and women, makes millions live under a ruthless despotism. In other words, it is not possible to solve the country's most basic problems (human rights, freedom, hijab, women’s rights, poverty, democracy, etc.) without waging a total war against the interests of this parasitic capitalist class. All kinds of murders, torture, and brutality are rampant in the streets, as a loosening of the regime’s grip would mean the disintegration of the now very weakened regime.

A New Era: One Solution Permanent Revolution! 

It is critical to talk about the future of the Iranian revolution as the first month of the protests has already ended. This wave of rebellion points to a new beginning: for the first time, people from different ethnic identities take to the streets at the same time for a common cause; The participation of the Bazaar (the petty-bourgeois strata), which has been of the Mullah’s historical base by closing their shops shows the depth of the disintegration in the system; stubborn young generations continue to their protest in the streets at the cost of their lives; the movement could attract international support; Above all, workers are declared one strike after another in critical industrial sectors. In the history of Iran and the region, it is no longer possible for the system to return to the old conditions. The genie is out of the bottle.

A revolutionary wind is blowing in Iran and with this excitement, our thoughts are with our Iranian brothers and sisters. But we must now raise some important historical questions. First, how the mullah regime will be overthrown is very important. The system cannot offer an alternative from within itself. There is not a single in-system element that the masses can turn to because everyone involved in the system is on the side of the enemy in the eyes of the people. The revolutionary energy of the masses, on the other hand, is unorganized and ideologically directionless. This situation limits the young generation of protestors to the pursuit of capitalist-parliamentary freedom in the Western sense. Let there be elections, respect for their lifestyles, the establishment of democratic rights, freedom, an end to poverty, an end to looting and bribery… However, the basic social problems of working people living in poverty cannot be resolved through free elections or along the line of liberal democracy.

The way the system survives in the Middle East is simply dependent on the bare and intense exploitation of the working masses and an oppressive rule. Capital accumulation is weak,the only thing the ruling class can offer to the masses is naked exploitation. Democratic rights and freedoms only scare the sovereigns; They can't find an option other than oppression. The system itself in the region is proof of the inter-relationship of authoritarianism and exploitation. The situation in Iraq is very similar. The reactionary forces supported by the imperialist powers in the region and the reactionary capitalist relations they rely on raven the region. The deep contradictions mentioned are fueling the endless popular uprisings throughout the region; The backlog of anger against dictatorships erupts again and again. After the uprisings, the bloody counter-revolution wins because the masses lack leadership with a clear revolutionary program. The main problems of these societies can only be solved if the workers and poor peasants take over the power, and appropriate all the means of production to end capitalist relations. Oppression also can only wither away with the workers’ power; the realization of women's and oppressed people's aspirations for equality, democracy, ethnic and sectarian bloodshed, imperialist war… The socialist revolution starts in a country but revolutionary winds will inevitably affect all the countries of the region.

Long live the Workers' Councils!

The revolution of the Iranian people must attack the capitalist roots. For this, we need to turn our faces to the capacity of the "Workers’ Councils", which are revealed by the historical experiences of Iranian workers, to destroy the system and establish a new system. The coordination of the strikes of the workers, which started to show itself in the insurgency movement, and the ability to organize against the regime depend on the connection of all these centers to each other by workers’ councils. Even if it is partial, some are in the workers' movement right now. However, the workers’ councils must be extended to all workplaces and take the leadership of the rebellion movement in the country. Such a center is needed to stop production, cut the veins of the system and collapse the mullah regime. While political strikes are announced one after another, the councils that will unite the poor people under their leadership will be a destructive storm among the ranks of the regime. An inevitable disintegration of the armed forces means the end of the regime but we should not stop there; the revolution must be permanent. Putting an end to both poverty and the regime by confiscating all the wealth of the country through the workers' councils will mean the liquidation of all reactionary forces in Iran through the socialist revolution. By the workers’ council government, all capitalist relations that feed the mullahs and all other reactionary forces will be abolished. Iran will then be the country of workers, women, and oppressed peoples. The full control of the workers' councils over production and property means taking control of the country. This workers’ council government will also be the way to realize the democratic aspirations of the oppressed peoples in all the provinces of Iran. This is the embodiment of the program of permanent revolution in Iran.

Iran's experience with workers’ councils has been alive since the 1970s. The workers' council experience of Haft Tappeh workers has no more advanced precedent in the world today. The brave revolutionary workers, women, and youth of Iran have the power to build the social structure necessary for this great revolutionary anger by themselves to be crowned with a revolutionary breakthrough in society. This is how all imperialist powers will be swept out of the Middle East together with the mullah regime and a new door of freedom will be opened across the region.

Long live the Iranian Workers’ Council Government!

Long live the Socialist Middle East!

Down with the capitalist Mullah regime!

One Solution, Permanent Revolution!