Since the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the post of the President of the Islamic Republic over a year ago, there has been a move towards even harsher and heavy handed policy to deal with discontented and defiant people. Following the failure of the so called moderate faction of the Islamic establishment to quell the growing defiance and the escalating movement to oust the entire Islamic state, the current wing of the Islamic regime has sought its survival in pursuing an open and nakedly aggressive policy against the population. Ahmadinejad and its cabinet, composed of ardent and zealous Islamists, all involved in bloody extermination of opponents and dissidents, and individually known for murders and criminal acts committed against innocent citizens, have realised that the survival of the entire Islamic state depends on terrorising people and scare them off to abandon their struggle to oust them.
The recent escalation of oppression, covering all aspects of life from imposition of harsher dress code to arbitrary arrests of student and dissident activists, crack down on social gathering of young people and dismantling and confiscation of satellite dishes and more importantly an escalation of the nuclear crises and spread of threat and fear of war are all part and parcel of a policy to contain and push back the public anger and defiance against the regime.
The Islamic Republic has exploited the failure of the US in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East and the fact that the US and the West to their advantage. Confident of the lack of resolve and inability of the US and its allies to impose an economic sanction and let alone carry out a military offensive, The leaders of the Islamic Republic are fanning the nationalistic fervour and exploiting this situation to terrorise the population and pacify voices of dissent.
The death of Akbar Mohammadi, a well known student activist and a political prisoner, in July 2006, the re-arrest of a number of former political prisoners and the confirmed reports of worsening prisons condition, and the recent comments by Ahmadinejad that they are planning to purge the universities and academic institutions of all the secular lecturers and launch a crack down on students are worrying developments.
Worsening economic situation and a steep rise in the price fuel, petrol and some basic provisions and attempts to surge ahead with a planned privatisation plans across the remaining publicly owned industries and enterprises constitute a major onslaught against the people of Iran that requires an effective opposition and fight back.
Economic deprivation, unemployment and ever increasing cost of living, crack down on media and access to news and information, detention of dissidents and student activists and finally the militarization of the society and the threat of war are very serious issues and challenges that face the Iranian society.
The only way out of this miserable situation is through a consorted and robust popular counteract against the Islamic regime. The right wing opposition forces are alien to the real needs of the masses and in fact are more fearful of a popular defiance and intervention by the people than the ruling regime itself. They are well aware that they can not rule over a people who have risen and taken the initiative into their own hands to challenge the Islamic regime. And the rest of the so called leftist organisations and Parties far too marginalised to even be bothered about realising the magnitude of the task before them let alone attempting to address the challenges ahead.
There are no magic formulae to offer a solution and way forward. Slogans and cursing from afar does not work. There is no solution except for the working classes and masses of people to close their ranks and put up a fight; in every arena, in the workplaces and neighbourhoods. Workers and people must unite and organise and repel the regime’s attacks. People in the neighbourhoods can and should take on the Islamic thugs and make them regret their actions. Failure to put up an effective fight at this stage will lead to an even vicious onslaught on the part of the authorities. This situation is calling on the Hekmatist Party to rise to the occasion and challenges facing the society.
This calls for a resolute fight back on part of all the activists, the Party leadership, the “Communist committees”, the units of the Freedom Guards and the Party activists in the neighbourhoods to organise people to offer a resistance. Such a resistance can not be organised by decrees, terrorist actions or armed struggles. Such a resistance can only be organised by the local activists and the “Communist Committees”.
In the Kurdish regions where the Freedom Guards enjoy popular support the level of expectation and the need to intervene is greater. In this part of the country the Freedom Guards face a massive challenge. The Freedom Guards must put up an effective resistance to the regime’s assaults. In factories and workplaces too our comrades must organise the workers to defend their rights and forge workers unity to fight against unemployment.
Organising and mobilising a decent opposition, by the people, against the regime’s attacks will pave the way for sweeping aside the entire Islamic Republic.