We live in a world where capitalism has abandoned its pretens. What was promoted for years in the name of democracy, freedom of expression and human rights is collapsing. Naked force, repression, censorship, war and elimination are no longer the exception; they have become the rule. Capitalism, at the height of its crises, shows its true face more clearly than ever.
In such a world, hoping and asking for help from dominant powers, governments and external forces will not lead anywhere. These are not a force for liberation, but part of the same order that has brought the lives of millions of workers to a standstill. Relying on them is only a repetition of past mistakes.
Iran is not outside this world either. What is going on here is a specific and naked form of the same relations, poverty, oppression, lack of rights, insecurity, discrimination and the destruction of the daily lives of all workers.
In such a situation, the cry for overthrow is loud everywhere. This cry is right and necessary. But the historical experience of the working class has shown that if the overthrow is just a slogan, if it proceeds without a horizon and without relying on the real strength of the workers, it has repeatedly led to failure and the reproduction of the same situation. We have seen many times that the inferior and the superior, the victim and the murderer, have gathered under a single banner, and the result for the workers has been nothing but continued exploitation and elimination. This experience has been repeated many times in Iran, and the workers and their families have paid the price.
Today, alongside anger and protest, there is another reality: in some parts of the media and even sometimes on the streets, monarchist currents have become louder. This atmosphere must be seen, but it must not be subdued. We must not allow this media noise and loud slogans to discourage or dishearten workers and divert them from their path. These voices, no matter how loud they are, do not represent the inner life of workers and do not provide answers to their real problems. History has shown that the dominant voices in the media and the moment are not necessarily the dominant force in real life. What is decisive is that they are rooted in the daily pains and needs of the working class. The main issue remains: overthrowing by relying on which force and for what change? Simply remaining on the streets, especially in conditions of naked repression and disconnection, increases casualties and drains strength more than it advances the workers. The street is important, but the street is not everything. The street has meaning when it has a basis in the real life of the workers.
Life does not happen only on the street. Bread, medicine, treatment, education, water, electricity, transportation, security and peace are the problems of the workers every day and right now. If these remain unanswered, no protest and no cry will last.
What is available to us is not governments, not foreign powers, not the motley bourgeois oppositions – right, left, domestic, foreign. What is available to us is the workers themselves; workers living together, working together, struggling with common problems. This is where we can maintain strength, carry the work forward week by week, and take the possibility of making real decisions about work and life. When workers can manage their daily lives, when a sense of support and companionship is formed, and when decision-making comes from the heart of the working class itself, then the street is no longer a place of erosion, but the point of concentration of a real power. And this path cannot be advanced without clarity of immediate and urgent demands. In preparing to overthrow the status quo, the demands of the workers are clear and unambiguous:
1. Food, clothing, housing with all facilities, medicine, treatment, education, water, electricity, gas, internet, transportation, entertainment, travel and all the basic necessities of human life must be completely removed from the control of any type of commodity and monetary exchange and made available to everyone everywhere – especially workers and their families – without demanding any money.
2. Any kind of government interference in every corner and every part of human life – from clothing and communal life to social relations, belief, culture, ethics, tradition, customs, political activity and any other area – must be absolutely prohibited.
3. Domestic work must be completely abolished and replaced with collective social services, outside of any form of monetary exchange.
4. The prison system must be crushed and all prisons dismantled.
5. Any form of execution must be absolutely prohibited.
These are the urgent and vital demands of the working class; the realization of each of them is tied to the real power of the workers, the same power that is formed in everyday life, not in media hype nor in promises and projects of power from above.
Down with capitalism, the Islamic Republic and every capitalist state
Establish a Council society without any exploitation, classes, wage slavery, Active anti-capitalist workers of the movement for the abolition of wage labour