With massive involvement of the proletariat, a rebellious momentum is gathering in Iran, questioning the reactionary regime in reference to social inequality. Across cities, slogans like “Capitalist Mullah, give us our money!” or “Bread, work, freedom!” bear witness of resistance against neoliberal capitalism, putting the famished people in a strangle hold. What is happening in Iran is to be labled as obvious class struggle from below. Thus, we from FOR-Palestine stand in unconditional solidarity with the uprising against the repressive Iranian regime.
Beyond a proletarian mass basis we do not fail to recognize the dialectic character of the protest movement as well which manifests in any mobilization of such dimension. Imperialist interventions by the regional power Iran are not only named and denounced by the left. Racist, nationalist slogans such as “We are Aryans, we do not worship Arabs!” or “’Not Gaza, Not Lebanon, I give my life for Iran!” are also being chanted by the right wing. The latter even during a rally in front of the – already closed – Iranian embassy in Berlin – organized and published by right-wing fans of imperialism who like to fancy themselves as “anti”nationals and “anti”Germans. Their attempts to move the protests to right-wing nationalism and to exploit them for their racist world view have not sprung from nowhere. Leading the way, Western imperialism in the guise of Trump and Netanyahu had already made hypocritical avowals before.
The exploitation by the right increases the importance of supporting and strengthening the progressive elements directed against neoliberal capitalism existent in the Iranian protest movement. Likely, potential for left-wing criticism against the intervention policy of the Iranian regime exists. If the protest movement is able to expand its internationalist tendencies, it can have a catalytic effect on the region: Only a proletariat united in solidarity will be able to break with the sectarian separation fabricated from above, to act as a counterweight to the imperialist power blocs and inspire united class struggle. Just like the Iranian working class, the Saudi-Arabian proletariat is suffering more and more under unleashed neoliberalism. Resistance against capitalism taking the centre stage of the struggle can connect the mutual interests against the respective ruling class. A victory for freedom and justice can only be won by a socialist and internationalist class struggle!
Likewise, Iranian socialists are connected to the anti-colonial liberation movement of the Palestinians by such a tradition of international solidarity. This finds expression in theoretical as well as practical action taken in the active struggle alongside the Palestinian resistance. We should model our support for a revolution from below directed against the Iranian regime on this internationalism. Doing this, we should not be blinded by the propaganda of the capitalist mullahcracy: At no time has it ever acted as solidary supporter of the Palestinian resistance, but it class interest has always been to exploit the Palestinian struggle for its geopolitical maintenance of power. We support the downfall of the repressive, capitalist regime in Iran and the uprisings by the working masses against its neoliberalism unconditionally! Shifting the justified protests to the left – toward a progressive anti-capitalism and consequent internationalism – remains our objective.
