Iranian and Sudanese communists on Iran protests: `A deeply genuine struggle for democracy'
Joint statement by the Sudanese Communist Party and the Tudeh Party of Iran
Recently, representatives of the central committees of the Tudeh Party of Iran and the Sudanese Communist Party exchanged views and consulted on the political situation unfolding in Iran, in light of the rigged elections of June 12 and the mass protests that quickly took place and began to gain momentum shortly thereafter. The two parties discussed the political situation in their respective countries and the conditions in which the struggle for peace, human rights, democracy and social justice is taking place. Based on their discussion and deliberations the leaderships of the two fraternal parties hereby issue the following statement:
The existing electoral process in Iran is a mockery of democracy, designed to disenfranchise the Iranian electorate. Its entire se- up is not related to the pursuit and furthering of democracy or any concept of progress within Iranian society but to keep the reins of power firmly in the hands of the despotic theocratic regime regardless of the wishes and aspirations of the Iranian people. Despite using every method to orientate the electoral process in their favour, the ruling guard of the theocracy still sought fit to directly rig the outcome of the ballots cast on the day of the election.
The two parties observed that the Iranian people have demonstrated their revulsion towards this dictatorship through the ballot box and then further with widespread peaceful protests in the wake of the news of the fraudulent result.
Both parties strongly condemn the sham re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad which has been directly supported and ratified by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. The clerical regime has demonstrated the depth of its bankruptcy by mobilisation the state security apparatus including the vicious and feared paramilitary forces against peaceful demonstrators. Representatives of the Iranian and Sudanese Communist Parties condemned the killing and injuring of hundreds of innocent citizens and arrest of more than 800 activists including leaders of the reform movement.
Representative of the Sudanese Communist Party stated that the party “shares the analysis of the Tudeh Party of Iran that the struggle currently being waged by large sections of Iranian society for the fair and due processing of their votes is a deeply genuine struggle for democracy and must be respected. Sudanese Communists join their Iranian counterparts in expressing their serious concern and alarm over the obvious falsification of the election results and the brutal treatment of those protesting against this shameful policies and actions of the Iranian regime. We condemn the brutal and violent suppression of the Iranian people’s democratic rights to protest against what they perceive to have been an unfair and fraudulently conducted election. These events have once again exposed the brutal and reactionary nature of the Islamic republic.”
The two parties support the demands of the mass popular movement and its leadership for the continuation of the people’s exercise of their right to demonstrate peacefully and the nullification of the rigged June 12 ballot and holding of fresh elections.
We demand the release of all political prisoners and those arrested over the recent weeks. We call for all those responsible for the rigging of the election and subsequent suppression of demonstrators to be tried in open courts of law. We stand in solidarity with Iran's trade unions, working people, women, students and all of Iran's democratic forces in their brave and unflinching struggle for liberty and democracy.
The Sudanese Communist Party firmly reiterate its support and enthusiasm for the major part that the women’s movement in Iran have played in the recent popular movement in their pursuit of equality, a better position for women in Iranian society and for an end to stifling traditional patriarchy.
The Sudanese communists also support and applaud the struggle of Iran’s progressive intellectuals, artists and journalists against censorship and for freedom of expression and right to be published.
They join the Tudeh Party in steadfastly condemning the limitations placed by the Islamic regime on the Iranian population, its repression of any dissent and the brutal tactics it has employed to put down any sign of opposition.
The representative of the Central Committee of Tudeh Party of Iran expressed support for the struggle of the Sudanese democratic forces and communists against repression, reactionary and dictatorial laws of censorship, and for democratic rights including the right to freedom of expression, assembly, and freedom of the press. Tudeh Party of Iran supports the struggle to achieve a democratic and peaceful solution to the Darfur problem with the active participation of the people of Darfur and their political organisations as well as all the Sudanese political parties and interested civil society organisation.
Both the Tudeh Party of Iran and the Sudanese Communist Party believe that respect for human rights and democracy are the fundamental prerequisites in any society for the development of social justice.
Sudanese Communist Party
Tudeh Party of Iran
[This statement was first posted at the Communist Perspective website on July 3, 2009.]
Elections are not about popular power
The joint statment claims == "The existing electoral process in Iran is a mockery of democracy, designed to disenfranchise the Iranian electorate. Its entire se- up is not related to the pursuit and furthering of democracy or any concept of progress within Iranian society but to keep the reins of power firmly in the hands of the despotic theocratic regime regardless of the wishes and aspirations of the Iranian people. Despite using every method to orientate the electoral process in their favour, the ruling guard of the theocracy still sought fit to directly rig the outcome of the ballots cast on the day of the election."
This of course is true of all nations, not the least of which is the United States and all of Europe. If elections could change a nation's political nature, they would be banned. Here in the US, the ruling party or elite has been in control of the central government for more than 200 years. It's agenda has always been military imperialism; first the conquest of the north American continent and then after WW II, the world. Elections are always rigged, offering voters the choice of two representatives of the military-corporate elites.
Only revolution changes the political control. What happened in Iran is not a revolution. Mousavi's forces were managed by the CIA and if they had been successful Iran would be on the way to a return of the monarchy with Resa Pahlavi waiting on the sidelines for the moment to strike.
There is no doubt that most nations need revolutions in order to free themselves from their ruling elite class. But supporting Mousavi is not the way to that end.
R.M. "Elections are not about popular power
While it is true that bourgeois elections are never about popular power it is wrong to ignore differences between them. Generelly imperialist countries allow more democratic elections since they know that the "people" including the working class will not try and do away with the power of the bourgeoisie and with capitalism. But elections, if they are as democratic as possible in a bourgeois society, allow for working class organizations to educate the working class and the people politically. That's why communists with the exception of some "left-wing" communists, have always taken interest in even that kind of elections. In Iran the degree of democracy in elections is much lower and the outcome reflects the wishes of the people even less. But the process itself and the struggle between the various factions of the ruling class has always be seized by working class revolutionaries to foreward their own aims and to try and organize the people against the regime and in final analysis the system as a whole. This is why revolutionaries in Iran do not stop from standing by the protesting masses when they see that a popular movement starts under the official leadership of one of the regimes factions. They on the contrary seize the opportunity of a developing popular movement to intervene and try to change its political program if necessary. In Iran the popular movement brought about by the way the Ahmadinejad faction has handled the fake elections has gradually turned away from just supporting Mussavi and the likes to expressing its opposition to the regime as a whole. Obviously this is not the US/Israeli agenda because the chances that the royalists will benifit from it are really small. With the logic of the argument that you cannot support a legitimate movement against a bloody bourgeois dictatorship such as the present one in Iran because the imperialists are also against it (however for all pretty much different reasons) you would also have had to support the Kerensky govenment in Russia in 1917 against the Bolsheviki on account of the German Reich being against the Russian Provisional Government, and that so much that they even organized Lenin's entry into Russia.