Tudeh Party of Iran’s Central Committee Statement on the occasion of International Workers’ Day (1st May)! (Abridged version)

Hand in hand for eradicating poverty and deprivation, for social justice and trade union rights, and to intensify the struggle against the despotic theocratic regime of Iran!

Workers and toilers,
The Central Committee of the Tudeh Party of Iran extends its sincere greetings to you on the occasion of May 1st, the international day of solidarity with the tireless struggle of the working class and its allies, and reaffirming the commitment to fight for emancipation from the shackles of exploitation and oppression of capitalism, and for achieving real freedom and social justice.
…This year the workers and working people around the world celebrate the May Day under such circumstances that the unleashed aggression of monopoly capital to restrict the rights of working people and intensify the fierce exploitation of disadvantaged masses continues… The neoliberal policies prescribed by the global institutions of capitalism such as the IMF and World Bank, have driven a number of EU countries such as Greece, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus and Italy into deep economic crises and deepened poverty and destitution in those nations. By imposing ruthless policies of austerity, labour force “adjustment” and deep cuts in social services, capitalism is in fact putting the burden of the bankruptcy crisis of financial capital on the back of the working class and working people… In recent years, militarism and resorting to an ever increasing intervention of imperialism [in the domestic affairs] of nations around the world- one of the most recent ones being the dangerous events in Ukraine- are threatening the historical achievements of working peoples and nations globally… However, the passionate struggle of working people and their political representatives around the world is a positive sign of the re-escalation of a fight whose objective is to establish “another world” free from exploitation, poverty and deprivation, and based on the human values of equality and justice.

Workers and toilers,
This year, with the initiatives of a number of independent labour and trade unions in Iran, the working class of Iran is determined to celebrate May 1st as a clear sign of solidarity among workers, in their struggle to eliminate poverty and destitution, and to realize social justice and achieve union rights and move towards discarding the theocratic regime of Iran. After almost a year since the government of “hope and prudence” of Hassan Rouhani took office, the performance of the Rouhani administration indicates that the same destructive policies of the previous governments are followed but this time with a milder appearance than in the past.
The undeniable fact is that in the past decade, as a result of devastating and anti-national socio-economic policies that have been dictated as macro policies by the office of the Supreme Leader to its puppet governments, our country is struggling in a broad economic crisis. Reckless and tension-creating international policies during Ahmadinejad’s terms with the wholehearted support of the Supreme Leader, Khamenei, and military commanders, in addition to continuation of the neoliberal economic policies such as increasing privatization, concentration of the major economic activities on the “mercantile economy” and renting economy, with a complete lack of attention to uncontrolled inflation and sharp fall in the purchasing power of working people, despite the $600 billion oil income during Ahmadinejad’s terms of office, have combined to turn Iran into a poor and bankrupt country that is in need of foreign aid.
The working people of Iran feel the back breaking pressures more than any other sector of society. The risk of losing jobs, working in companies that cannot afford to pay you, lack of a comprehensive and fair social system, lack of modern, all-inclusive and democratic labour laws to protect the rights of workers, lack of proper rules and regulations to bound employers to comply with health and safety principles, child labour and all kinds of restrictions against working women, are all just a small list of the problems that Iranian working people face in the framework of the Supreme Leadership (theocratic) regime… Maneuvers of the Rouhani government in various areas such as establishment of a minimum wage for the new year, which was opposed by the overwhelming majority of progressive forces and workers and working people of Iran, continuance of the anti-people policy of elimination of subsidies, and emphasizing on the notion that government has no choice but to follow the same policies, along with macroeconomic policies dubbed “resistance economy” by Khamenei’s office, reaffirming the same disastrous policies of the past and austerity for millions, all indicate the fact that nothing but anti-labour policies and programs can be expected from this government.

Militant workers and toilers of Iran,
The experience of the February 1979 revolution proved that you have the power to remove any barrier on your path through your joint, unified and organized struggle. The national strike of workers and public employees, particularly that of the workers of the oil industry and the shutting off of the oil valves, ultimately broke down the fully-armed monarchical regime. We are certain that this time, too, the collapse of the despotic theocratic regime of Supreme Leader will happen through the planned movement and action of working people. We must be ready for this fight. The deep social, political and economic crisis that has encompassed our society, and the re-escalation of the struggle of social forces, indicates the onset of a process which, if organized, could open the way for the establishment of democracy, freedom and social justice in our country.
…On the eve of the International Worker’s Day, and in coordination with the global union movement, let us call for decent wages and benefits for all workers, for union freedoms and the right to form independent labour unions, for a world free from exploitation, for an immediate halt to killing and prosecuting union activists, for the freedom of all political prisoners and for peace, progress and international solidarity.

Working people of Iran,
Let us hand in hand establish the broad anti-dictatorship front against the united ranks of reaction, despotism and backwardness, and open the way to achieve democracy, freedom and social justice. The almost a hundred-year history of the heroic struggle of the working class of Iran and its achievements, promises the victory of people over reaction and dictatorship.
Long Live 1st May, the International Worker’s Day, the day of militant solidarity of all workers around the world!
Immediate and unconditional freedom for all imprisoned labour activists and all the political prisoners and prisoners of conscience!

We salute the workers and working people of Iran!
We salute the glorious memory of the martyrs of the workers’ movement and all the martyrs of freedom!
Victory to the struggle of the people to throw off the Supreme Leadership theocratic regime of Iran, and for freedom, peace, sovereignty and social justice!

Central Committee of the Tudeh Party of Iran
21 April 2014