Portside

Dear compatriots,

Your revolt in recent days against oppression, poverty, deprivation, injustice and the tyrannical regime ruling our nation, has grown further and has spread to many cities throughout the country. At the same time, in the past two days, we have witnessed the organised violence of the suppressive forces of the ruling theocratic regime who have been sent into the streets to intimidate the people and clamp down upon their legitimate protests. The murdering of a number of demonstrators in the city of Dorood and the injuring of a number of demonstrators in Tehran and other cities, demonstrate the regime’s plans to push the popular protest towards violence, brutally suppress it and drench it in blood.

As stated before, the Party believes that the people’s protest against the continuation of the anti-people and reactionary rule of the Supreme Leadership regime has objective foundations in the socio-economic crisis in the country, the crisis of the legitimacy of the regime - whose levels of corruption and incompetency is revealed more and more with every passing day - and the growing poverty and marginalisation of millions of our fellow citizens. The continuing suppression and crackdown and depriving the people of their basic human rights should also be added to these grievances. That is why today we witness the people - frustrated, dismayed and disappointed with those who kept talking about reforms and a so-called supposed “religious democracy” - now seeking other clear and robust solutions so as to move beyond the current unsustainable situation.

Dear compatriots,

Based on the received information, the regime is rapidly preparing for a brutal and bloody suppression of the people’s movement. The only effective way to confront this approach of the tyrannical regime is to widely mobilise the popular forces, the workers, the working people and the militant youth, students and women of the nation. The experience of the 1979 Revolution and the overthrow of the police-dictatorship Pahlavi regime proved that dictatorial regimes could not be toppled through street demonstrations alone. What broke the back of the puppet regime of the Shah was the million-strong demonstrations of the masses alongside the general strikes and the active participation of the workers and working people - particularly the oil workers - in nationwide strikes that made it impossible for the tyrannical regime to continue. For this to happen, there is required a thoughtful nationwide organisation and the selecting of appropriate popular slogans. The slogans of the students at yesterday’s clashes calling for the united action of students, workers and other social strata, counted as one positive indication of such an understanding and the realisation of the urgency of the current critical situation. Without the united action of various social strata that are dissatisfied with the current situation, it is not certain that the brave street protests of the people - and particularly the younger generation - will achieve its ultimate success. At the same time, the exploitation by both domestic and external reactionary forces, whose goal is to spread misleading slogans and robbing the masses of their true protest movement, must be prevented and clearly confronted. The misleading slogans of such forces - including persuading those protesting to resort to violence - will only benefit the suppressive forces of the regime and the opponents of the popular movement.

Dear compatriots,

The Tudeh Party of Iran, in standing with your struggles, considers itself an inseparable part of the popular protests against the continuation of the tyrannical regime. Once again, we call upon all the freedom-loving and progressive forces of the nation, the workers and working people and the militant students, youth and women of the nation to fight in a united front for:

• Putting an end to the despotic regime,
• The unconditional and immediate release of all political prisoners,
• Putting a stop to the atmosphere of repression and suppression and the returning of all suppressive forces to their garrisons,
• Putting an end to the poverty, marginalisation, high prices, economic hardship, corruption, and oppression of the ruling regime,
• Creating the conditions for the people to determine their own destiny, organising the great nationwide movement of the people patiently and the utilising of appropriate slogans,
• Preventing the suppression of this growing movement of the masses by the regime through its employing of extensive violence and a bloody attack on the movement in the hope of dissuading the people from continuing the struggle.

Victory to the united struggle of the people of Iran against the ruling dictatorial regime!

The Central Committee of the Tudeh Party of Iran

31 December 2017