Towards Creating a Popular Alternative… 

(Translated Excerpts from the Editorial of Nameh Mardom, issue no. 1176, published Monday 27 February 2023)

Towards Creating a Popular Alternative… 

The place for the Left is not at the side of the right-wing “opposition” forces reliant on foreign powers.

The deepening of Iran’s multifaceted political, socio-economic, and environmental crises in recent years clearly betrays the abject inability of the so-called “unified government” to bring about their resolution and improve the livelihoods of the majority of [Iranian] people.

Thus, it can be concluded that the regime’s leadership is no longer able to even regenerate the necessary conditions/means in order to maintain their social base and prevent its collapse.  Their only recourse is repression combined with baseless irresponsible propaganda speeches and religious subterfuge.

The era for this kind of vulgar and deceptive propaganda and the desperate abuse of people’s religious beliefs, which are now met with ridicule and disgust from public opinion, is over.  The past few years’ protests, including the more recent wave, show that the country’s working people are fully aware that their [lives and] livelihoods will not be provided for by the regime’s empty promises.

Superficial makeovers such as sham elections or propaganda speeches can no longer mask the [reality of] one person’s absolute rule over an entire system predicated on reactionary views (i.e. “Political Islam”).  The ruling dictatorship is on the defensive, now constantly fearing the people’s discontent and their becoming unsettled.  With the intensification of the irreconcilable contradiction between the ruling dictatorship and the demands of the majority of people, i.e. the working class and other working strata, the resolution of this contradiction has now become a central and determining factor shaping the country’s future.

The Tudeh Party of Iran believes that our country has now entered a new era.  Changes in public opinion towards the dictatorship and increased social and class consciousness place a heavy responsibility onto the shoulders of all the country’s Left, progressive, and nationalist parties and organisations.

Furthermore, the Left and progressive forces should pay serious attention to the possibility that the [hugely significant] “Women, Life, Freedom” movement at this important moment could still be [hijacked and] diverted by the various rowdy, undemocratic, and destructive monarchist “opposition” propaganda – consequently disrupting [and subverting] the real ongoing anti-dictatorship struggle inside the country.

The events over the past few weeks clearly show that it is simply not credible [for activists operating under the banner of the ‘Left’] to justify collusion with right-wing forces […] and then express surprise and regret when, during [monarchist] street protests , they receive messages of support from warmongers such as GW Bush and John Bolton and pictures of the former chief of the shah’s [notorious] secret police (SAVAK) [at said demonstrations] begin to surface!

In any case, as could be predicted, the recent attempts by the monarchist “opposition”, through the Munich Security Conference and European Parliament, to present themselves as an “alternative government-in-exile” with the support of the Western powers, failed. In this regard, the Tudeh Party of Iran once again reemphasises the fundamental point that the powerful Western governments will not cut off their relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran as long as there is no “effective” and “reliable” political alternative to them, and they will not take any step towards its “removal”.  For example, the German Foreign Secretary explicitly rejected the issue of adding the IRGC to the [proscribed] list of terrorist organisations at the Munich Security Conference as, according to her, [such a move] had “no legal basis”!

Evidently, those sections of the opposition to the Islamic Republic of Iran that, under the pretext of the “defence of human rights”, are attempting to gain the support of Western governments – and particularly the warmongering imperialist circles – are, for the time being, merely used as tools by the Western governments in their behind-the-scenes negotiations with the Islamic Republic [like leverage].  Implicit opportunistic support of [sections] of the ‘Left’ forces for this type of “opposition”, which is reliant on the foreign governments, either via participating in their televised roundtable discussions or joining their street demonstrations, is detrimental to the image and integrity of the ‘Left’ and certainly does not help the anti-dictatorship struggle [in Iran].

The place of the Left and progressive parties and organisations is not at the side of those “opposition” elements that have close ties to the neo-conservatives and Trumpists and that are [ultimately] aiming to set up an “alternative” to bring back a dictatorship [under the banner] of an “elected monarchy” along with the revival of the SAVAK.

The place for the Left parties and organisations whose aim is to promote the struggle to free [the country] from the current political crisis and improve the lives of the majority of its people, along with the defence of peace, democracy, and the right to national sovereignty, is to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with other progressives and nationalist forces that have their popular roots within Iran.

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For the statements of the Tudeh Party of Iran and its analysis of major developments in Iran Please vist:    www.tudehpartyiran.org