Editors’ Note for New Readers: As this update from our volunteer correspondent notes, hundreds of thousands of Iranians, especially women, students, and youth, are continuing to demonstrate remarkable courage, creativity, and growing determination in the face of the Islamic regime’s seriously escalating repression, with whole sections of people calling for an end to the regime.
In this context, the orientation of the statement by the Communist Party of Iran (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist), People of the World: Take up the Cry of Revolution from Iran as Your Own!, is of heightened and decisive importance, and we draw our readers’ attention to it. This was issued for the occasion of the worldwide protests in support of the uprising in Iran on October 22. As the CPI (MLM) has written:
To finally put an end to the seemingly endless suffering of Iran’s people requires a real revolution, made by millions of people and led by a revolutionary vanguard with the aim of overthrowing the Islamic theocratic fascist regime and liberating Iran out of the murderous fabric of the capitalist-imperialist system. This requires a communist revolution and establishing a “New Socialist Republic.”
At this decisive moment, it is even more critical for growing millions around the world to support the righteous uprising in Iran. At the same time, it is also crucial to oppose imperialist efforts to take advantage of the situation to advance their reactionary agendas, especially that of the U.S., which has caused so much suffering and death in Iran and the Middle East. The U.S. imperialists are not and will never be a force for good in the world! And all calls for U.S.-backed intervention need to be opposed, along with the lackeys of the U.S. like the monarchists and so-called “liberal-democrats.”
Instead, we need to help direct this mass uprising toward a truly emancipating revolution, as the Communist Party of Iran (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist), basing itself on the new communism brought forward by BA, is striving to do.
News Flash: As we go to press, there are reports that a top official of the Islamic Republic stated that its “morality police” are being abolished. Revcom.us needs to learn more about this situation and what it means. Readers should continue to come to Revcom for further news and analysis.1
“Death to the Dictator... No to the Islamic Republic”
The current uprising in Iran, now entering its 12th week, was sparked in mid-September by the Islamic Republic’s murder of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman, for “improper hijab” – in other words for having a lock of her hair showing. Mahsa’s death unleashed a battle cry for “Woman. Life. Freedom” that resonated throughout Iran, with women and men.
Thousands upon thousands of women continue to take off their hijabs in public, and wave them or throw them in bonfires before cheering crowds. As the uprising has developed, mass sentiment has grown and chants have become much more common across Iran that the whole regime must go—“death to the dictator” (i.e., Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader) and “no to Islamic Republic.”
Over the past 80 days of this ferocious uprising, many diverse sections of the population have joined in, including oppressed nationalities like the Kurds and Baloch peoples, and notably high school and college students. As of December 3, there have been some 1,129 protests in 150 cities and 143 university campuses, including elite campuses like Sharif University in Tehran.2
This includes protests by doctors who were some of the first to question what happened to Mahsa Amini, which the authorities were trying to cover up. The regime’s brutal response has included beating, gassing, and shooting down protesters, carrying out mass arrests, torturing prisoners, and threatening whole families. To date, some 470 protesters have been killed and 18,210 arrested. The youth, students and faculty haven’t been spared – 64 children have been killed and 584 students arrested – shocking Iranian society and the world.
Cruel Attacks on Doctors and Others
In this picture people are making human chain to protect injured people in hospitals! The government is attacking hospitals and using ambulances to arrest and attack people. Photo: Twitter @AMIRtheDARK
The regime has also trained its lethal state repressive apparatus on doctors. In late October and early Novembers, reports emerged of growing involvement by medical professionals in the uprising, and growing attacks on them. The Islamic regime’s police and plainclothes militia often use ambulances to disguise their deployments as well as to hold arrestees. They roam and occupy hospitals looking for protesters and pressure medical staff to snitch them out and turn them in. Injured protesters have avoided hospitals and have resorted to self-care at home or even going to veterinarians for treatment.
Plainclothes cops have staked out pharmacies looking for anyone buying sterile gauze, then accosting or following them to find, brutalize, and/or arrest the injured person. Using a code system, protesters have created online networks – like an online underground railroad – to provide advice, needed medicine, or even instructions on how to treat injuries from tear gas or pellet wounds. A Twitter account was set up called “Aid Workers of the Revolution.”3
In early December, in an attempt to thwart such efforts and clamp down on the uprising overall, Iran’s chief prosecutor Mohammad Montarzeri called for a complete shutdown of the internet. This would include blocking mobile data and individual users, as well as popular apps among Iranians such as Instagram and WhatsApp. Facebook, Youtube and Twitter which have already been banned.4
On October 26, hundreds of doctors rallied in front of Tehran’s Medical Council against any police presence inside hospitals, and against arrests and threats on their medical colleagues. They were met by Islamic police thugs opening fire using shotguns (with pellets), and dragging doctors to the ground, beating and arresting them.
According to Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), at least five doctors from Tehran and Mashhad are known to be imprisoned. In addition, Dr. Parisa Bahmani, a female general surgeon, was shot dead by Islamic police at the October 26 rally. The night before, general surgeon Dr. Hashem Moazenzadeh was arrested by the Islamic “Revolutionary Guard” Corps (IRGC) and went missing.5
Amnesty International reports that 28 people are now at risk of being executed in relation to the months long protests, including three minors. Among them is Dr. Hamid Hassanlou, a radiologist, and his wife Farzaneh who were arrested at their home on November 4 for being part of the protests. Amnesty reports that on November 30, they were part of a group trial of 15 people charged with “war against god” (moharebeh). All 15 were held collectively responsible for the death of a Basij (plainclothes paramilitary police) without specifying any of the defendant’s alleged individual involvement. Farzaneh was also tortured in order to extract forced “confessions” that were broadcast two days after her arrest. On December 1, her husband Hamid was taken from the hospital where he had had surgery for internal bleeding from fractured ribs and punctured lungs, to court while heavily sedated, and then returned to the hospital. Their first two lawyers quit their case after they were threatened by the authorities.6
A Fearless Uprising That Refuses to Quit
Workers at the Esfahan Steel Company (Zob-e-Ahan), one of the biggest metal factories in Iran, went on strike, November 8, 2022. Photo: @MDiraRose
Iran’s uprising has been going on for more than 80 straight days and counting, and despite a terrifying crackdown by the fascist theocrats of the Islamic Republic, it is still continuing fiercely. For example, in November strike waves have increased in major industries, affecting Iran’s economy. Strikers have issued political demands such as freeing imprisoned labor organizers and leaders, and support for oppressed minorities such as the Kurds and Balouch which have been under especially murderous assault. Striking sectors include workers in oil and gas; trucking; public transportation; manufacturing including steel, auto, home appliances, food and snacks. More nationwide strikes are reportedly planned for December 5-7.
As CHRI director Hadi Ghaemi noted, “These workers are the backbone of Iran’s economy. The fact that so many workers are striking even while labor leaders are among the thousands who’ve been arrested since September speaks to the level of discontent against the government.”
This “level of discontent” is also very visible across the diverse sections of Iran’s population that have been protesting for nearly three months now.
International Support Growing—More Needed
On November 30 there were demonstrations at more than 150 universities in solidarity with Iranian students and support of the Iranian uprising, Gothenburg, Sweden. Photo: Twitter @Raamoonaah1
The uprising in Iran is also gaining more people-to-people support internationally – even as much more is needed.
For months, this grassroots solidarity and support has been mainly confined to the Iranian diaspora, but that is beginning to change now, with some artists and academics taking action. Importantly, on November 30, solidarity actions initiated by a group called Iranian Scholars for Liberty took place on over 100 university campuses in several different countries, including 76 campuses in the U.S. and 22 in Canada. Nearly 500 Yale faculty members signed a letter opposing attacks on academic and medical institutions in Iran, and calling for an end to the mass murder, torture and imprisonment of protesters. Other forms of solidarity are also spreading among artists and activists, including those reported in the International Emergency Campaign’s post, Iran’s Torture of Baluchi Dancer Sparks Dramatic Reenactments Around the Globe.
Yet, too many people are still looking to the existing, oppressive powers-that-be for solutions – calling on the “international community” – a codeword for reactionary, imperialist dominated institutions like the United Nations, or the U.S. itself to take action against the Islamic Republic. There is both a long history and the current reality of the enormous suffering inflicted on the Iranian people and people across the globe by U.S. coups, sanctions, and military threats and actions. Ominously, just this past week, it was reported that “Biden Has Agreed To Military Option Against Iran If Diplomacy Fails,” referring to the nuclear negotiations between Iran, the U.S. and other global powers.7
Instead of relying on one or another imperialist power or institution for the uprising to advance and spread, what’s needed more than ever is growing grassroots people-to-people support worldwide.
The Liberating but Tortuous Road Ahead
What is also needed is the leadership of conscious revolutionary forces. In Iran today this means the leadership of the Communist Party of Iran (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist) in order overthrow the hated Islamic Republic through a real revolution, uproot all imperialist and oppressive relations, and build a whole different, liberating economic, social and political system. In order to move forward on this path, we urge readers to study and spread the CPI-MLM’s November 7 dispatch, If There Is to Be a Revolution, a Revolutionary Situation Must Be Created!