Honoring May 1st, International Workers Day
Today is the victorious anniversary of the May 1st. The flag that American workers carried on their shoulders on behalf of the world’s working class in 1886, still proudly is being carried by the world’s workers all over the world. By honoring this historic day, every year workers in different countries around the world hold rallies and demonstrations to show their power and determination confronting the international capitalist camp.

It has been a long time since Iran’s working class under the supremacy of dictatorial theocratic regime of Islamic Republic of Iran, has been prohibited from having its own independent organizations. Laws that have been set forth by the regime’s rulers in work places not only suppress freedom, right to strike, and diminish workers rights but also are spitefully in favor of capitalism and truly anti-workers. An organization named “Workers Home” which once in a while by using the state media pointes out a small portion of workers financial demands has been founded and established by the regime to deceive public opinion and to misrepresent economical and political issues facing Iran’s working class. During past few years workers for numerous times have gone under brutal crackdown of the government forces. This center constantly praises sacredness of the regime’s leaders and appreciates all the oppressions carried out by the regime. This organization defends backward and antiquated symbols of the Islamic regime. For many years every year the Islamic regime of Iran using this anti-worker organization, holds ceremonial public gatherings on behalf of the Iranian working class on May 1st. This deception is only intended to prevent genuine assembly of workers at this historic day.

In recent years due to lack of political freedom and economic pressures imposed on people, over and over workers have stood up against repression, exploitation, and police intimidations. In all these events regime have responded with harsh crackdown to quite the uprising and prevent the movements from further escalation. When the 8 years war with Iraq ended, tens of thousands of regime’s loyalists put aside their old military uniforms and with a covert plan started infiltrating work places, cultural centers, and political organization. Some of these career government operatives went on to work in factories and work places as regular employees. Some of them managed to infiltrate the opposition organizations. Their main goal and objective along with official mouthpieces of the regime have been to deface and tarnish the workers movement by derailing it from its main course, by lowering the workers’ demands to a level of non-essential, and trade-unionists demands. Their intention is to paint the workers’ movement as a colorless and non-essential movement and try to empty and deprive the movement from within. Organizations such as “Kar and Kargar” (“Work and Workers”) and many unheard newly emerged web sites under the names such as “left and workers” plan to divert the workers movements from its main revolutionary path. Aside from workers’ movements, in a bigger scale at the level of people’s movement, regime’s operatives by no means have been sitting idle, they have been busy with creation of new political figureheads, and sending these elements into the opposition organizations. Latest political scenario engineered by the intelligent machine of the regime was the scenario of “Referendum”.

Economic and social inequalities currently imposed on Iran’s working class and working masses have created an intolerable and harsh living condition in the society. From the day that the regime of Islamic Republic grasped the political apparatus in Iran many influential elements of the ruling class have managed to accumulate wealth in an astronomical scale. Despite all the pretentious hidings the lavish lifestyle of the government rulers and the people around them is shocking and unbelievable. This accumulation of wealth in the hands of few has continued to grow at the time that the heavy burden of poverty on the shoulders of the working class is breaking people’s back. In recent months some workers in factories and production centers haven’t been paid for months, sometimes up to six months. Last year in some working places due to determination and continuous strikes by the workers, bankrupt factories ended up giving handouts such as construction material, meat and things of that sort instead of unpaid salaries.

Harsh social and economic conditions have caused increase in spontaneous workers’ strikes and have created a social revolutionary consciousness. All thee realities indicate that the ruling political and economic system has no answer to the problems facing the nation. The entire system must be overthrown. Old economic structure which revolves around oil and importing goods has reached the end of its life. The system which for 27 years has been based on subordination of the working class and empowerment of few rich elements of Bazaar has caused deep resentments towards the regime. Heavy burden of the dictatorship and economic monopoly on people’s shoulders is so daunting, dark, and heavy that it seems the whole nation is captive in dark hands of few religious felons and criminal.

Meanwhile cyclical economic crises of the world capitalism have intensified the unavoidable tensions and contradictions between the imperialist regimes of Europe and America. All and all this has forced the EU in order to sweep aside the United States from the very lucrative market of Iran, to gradually cave in to the extortions coming from the Islamic Republic. Since the US imperialism now more than ever is desperately stuck in Iraq’s quagmire, and unable to wage a new Dark Age style war against the other neighboring countries of Iraq, therefore it prefers for the time being to put its approval stamp on EU’s compromises with Iran. EU ‘s compromises with Iran are not limited to technology exports to Iran, and condoning of the Iran’s atomic activities, these secret talks have adversely limited the activities of the Iranian opposition in abroad by Europeans imposing more pressures on the opposition.

Combatant workers,
As more time goes by and the count down for the life of the Islamic regime continues, repressive and savage nature of the government is being exposed more than ever. This has created a condition for expansion of political activities and for creation of centers and organizations to fight back the regime. As we have said in the past the “furious fights” between “reformist factions” and Bazaar faction are over the division of the country’s wealth and division of the political power. Large majority of the regime’s elements and politicians of both factions are the same butchers who were engaged in massacres of 1980s. They are the very same people that with lash in one hand and machine gun in their other hand massacred the revolutionaries in thousands. Policies and practices of both factions and the regime as a whole have been in line with the interests of the ruling capitalists and capitalism. Issues and problems facing the people and the society cannot be solved in abroad outside of the country’s borders. We need to pave such a solid foundation inside Iran, and build such a strong movement that can upend the system in a revolutionary process and build a new democratic system on top of the ruins of the Islamic Republic.

Long live workers international solidarity.