On May 6, a program was held in Clubhouse [online chat] in collaboration with the "Burn the Cage, Free the Birds" (BTC) movement in Europe, and supporters of the International Emergency Campaign to Free Iran’s Political Prisoners Now (IEC).

Somayeh Kargar, a former political prisoner, was the featured speaker.  Somayeh was arrested in October 2020 (just before the first anniversary of the November 2019 uprising).  She was charged with establishing and running the Osyan Women's Collective¹ and acting for the Communist Party of Iran (MLM).  Her co-defendants had included Nahid Taghavi, Mehran Raouf, and Bahareh Soleimani….She was in solitary confinement in Evin Prison [for months] and then transferred to Qarchak Prison. Eventually, as a result of her lawyers' vigorous activity and proof that she could not physically tolerate imprisonment due to acute illness, her case was closed and she was released. Below are excerpts from her speech, edited for publication.

Somayeh’s speech:

Today's program should begin by remembering the dear Baluch souls who were recently executed. But remembrance alone is not enough. The Islamic Republic took vengeance on the freedom fighting people of Baluchistan because of their bravery.  We all must wage every kind of protest within our power to expose this genocidal trend.  By imposing a high cost [on them], the Islamic Republic is trying to create a stifling atmosphere in order to intensify repression on all expressions of dissent.  But when we intensify protests of every sort and shape, we impose a cost on the Islamic Republic instead, showing them that killing Baluch youth and our people in other parts of [Iran] is not a low-cost option for them.

The [recent] murders-by-execution are a continuation of the kill-and-repress operations the Islamic Republic carried out in Baluchistan at the beginning of the Jina movement. During the first two weeks of the nationwide uprising to overthrow the Islamic Republic, the Islamic Republic's military and security forces killed at least 100 people in Baluchistan. This was nearly half of the total number of people who gave their lives, during that period of the nationwide uprising. It was as if Khamenei's military thugs in Baluchistan already had their fingers on their triggers!

For the Islamic Republic, Baluchistan is a "super-security" zone, and not just because it is in a border area. This region lies in the path of China's key economic [new Belt and Road] railway. The Islamic Republic's oppressive apparatus is determined to “secure” Baluchistan for Chinese imperialism's train to have safe passage. This dirty mission is a part of Khamenei's policy of  "pivoting to the East" or, more plainly, his subservience to the new Chinese imperialists.

The executions of recent days, recent weeks, and recent months clearly show what we are up against, and why it is so important to fight for release of the political prisoners. I should point out that there is a direct connection between the current executions and repression of political prisoners,  the massacre of political prisoners during the 1980s and in the summer of 1988, and the massacres of December 2017, October 2019. The Islamic Republic inherited the Shah's system of repression, and added Sharia [religious] law and the rule of the Islamic jurists as icing on the cake.

As mentioned in the [CPI-MLM’s] Programme and the Manifesto of the Communist Revolution in Iran, (page 46), the military-security apparatus is the backbone of the government.  It perfected the fusion of executioner and mullah, increasing the terrifying scope of the security apparatus. They claim that, according to Sharia law, the interrogator-torturer and the entire repression system of the Islamic Republic, are officials of “God” who has given them divine responsibilities that justify the torture and the murder of the dissidents under the precepts of Sharia.

In this context, the struggle for the release of political prisoners is not only a struggle to free those [individuals] held captive, but also a struggle to liberate a society held hostage by the Islamic Republic.

Despite widespread arrests and the execution of political prisoners who were arrested during the Jina uprising, the struggle for the immediate and unconditional release of political prisoners has been limited and inadequate. If the struggle for the release of political prisoners were to become a social movement, it could become the largest social movement in Iran. As we know, the prisoners, their families, friends, and all those around them encompass a wide spectrum of society….

Moreover, the "immediate and unconditional release of political prisoners" is a framework for what has the potential to become a broad internationalist battleground against a system that requires repression and imprisonment on a world scale to silence the voices of its opponents.  Just look at the situation of Black people in the United States, of Arabs in Israel, the Uighur minority in China, the [political] opposition in Russia, the protesters in France, and on and on.

The immediate release of political prisoners must become an important social issue, not only in Iran but all around the world. The experience of the Jina movement has shown us that shouting and fighting can draw the attention and support of the people of the world. We must go beyond borders, and ask everyone who wants a better world to support the Iranian people's resistance to oppression and repression. In taking this path, our orientation is to rely on the people all over the world.

The way to counter the climate of fear that the Islamic Republic intends to impose on society is to unite  the masses of people from different strata and social movements behind this demand.  The demand is not random, and this unity has a material basis:  poverty, Sharia law, political tyranny, the compulsory veiling and oppression of women, reactionary wars in the region, the oppression of national minorities, and the destruction of the environment are the pillars that prop up this capitalist-theocratic state. The very existence of this government is intertwined with all these contradictions which arise from reality and are interconnected in the real world….Especially in the current situation, [broad] unity is essential to overthrow the Islamic Republic, and uniting to demand "immediate and unconditional release of political prisoners" is an essential step.

We revolutionary communists do not carry out struggle for its own sake. It is scientifically clear to us that the final elimination of the oppressions that our people suffer in various ways will not be achieved solely by overthrowing the Islamic Republic. The final obliteration of these oppressions depends on the victory of the communist revolution and the establishment of a new socialist republic. The overthrow of the Islamic Republic is only the first step, and we must take this "first step" on a path that can achieve the ultimate goal of eradicating all oppression and exploitation in Iran and the entire planet.

Discussion:

[An activist from BTC provided a summary of some questions and comments in the Q&A after her speech –ed.]

Many of the questions and comments were on two topics…One was that, “along with our own struggle for the release of political prisoners and abolition of the death penalty, we should rely on the governments and countries of the West for help and support.  Given pressure of public opinion has an effect on governments, they can be moved to change their position.”  Another was that "since political prisoners have different class positions with differing ideologies and opinions, one must make a distinction between them, and not defend prisoners with bourgeois and liberal ideas. They have their own defense groups. We should only support the revolutionary and radical political prisoners." 

In my opinion, both are wrong, and it is good that they were thoroughly debated.

One response put it this way: "Governments act according to their own interests, and we the people of the world have our common interests.” We need to persist in our anti-imperialist stance, specifically we need to persist in our understanding that none of the governments around the world are our friends in this important struggle. We will not allow the necessity of fighting and overthrowing the Islamic Republic to put us on the side of imperialist governments. Those governments exploit our struggles for their own global advantage. We will not allow the Islamic Republic to cover up its atrocities under the guise of opposing the US. These are two decaying systems that belong to the past. Any kind of alignment with either one of them will strengthen both of these historically obsolete systems.

Another comrade said: When we speak of political prisoners, we mean all those who have been arrested and charged [by Iran’s regime], regardless of their beliefs and ideologies, regardless of whether we agree or disagree with them. This is the correct way to fight against a criminal system whose existence is fundamentally unjustifiable and must be overthrown. The first step in this activity is to make the voices of Iranian political prisoners heard, in any way possible and in conjunction with other organizations and groups that are defending political prisoners. We need to engage important groups of people who are influential inside Iran and internationally.

Our message to the people inside and outside of Iran, to people of all countries is this: We, the people of Iran, share common interests with the people of the world, and as part of reaching a better world and liberating humanity, we need to come together to defend Iran's political prisoners and make our cry for “the immediate and unconditional release of Iranian political prisoners” echo powerfully all around the world.

By suppressing and imprisoning the freedom fighters, the Islamic Republic intends not only to push back the current struggles, but also to prevent future struggles by fueling fear. It wants to send the message that the only future awaiting bravery is death!  But in Iran's contemporary history one thing clearly stands out: the heroic and unbreakable spirit of generation after generation of people in confronting oppressive regimes. We are clear that, as the saying goes, "either we bash the enemy's head on a rock, or it will put a noose around our necks!” The fight to free political prisoners is a step towards the overthrow of the Islamic Republic.