Salute to the New Communist Party of Iran (MLM)

Message to the Founding Congress
of the Communist Party of Iran
(Marxist-Leninist-Maoist)
from the Committee of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement

Revolutionary Worker #1108, June 24, 2001, posted at http://rwor.org

The Revolutionary Worker has received important and exciting news from Iran--the founding of a new Communist Party of Iran (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist). The following are three statements: statement from the founding congress of the CPI (MLM), dated May 1, 2001; message from the Committee of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (CoRIM); and message from the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA.

Rarely has a vanguard party of the proletariat been so sorely needed or so thoroughly prepared as the newly founded Communist Party of Iran (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist) [CPI (MLM)]. Since even before the formation of the Union of Communists of Iran (Sarbedaran) in 1976, revolutionaries of your country, armed with the liberating ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, struggled mightily for this ideology to take root in the soil of the struggles of the peoples of Iran and to build a proletarian party, which alone can lead the people out of the hell in which they are now trapped by imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism.

We know only too well the history of the last several decades: the protracted struggles carried out against the U.S.-backed regime of the Shah; the struggles within the Iranian revolutionary movement itself, pitting those who sought an easy ride to power by hitching themselves to the Soviet superpower against the Maoists who upheld the road of people's war; and the exuberance of the whole Iranian people when the hated despot was finally chased from his throne.

In that great revolutionary movement the young forces of the Iranian Maoist movement played a vigorous role and their ranks and influence grew by leaps and bounds. But the communist movement of your country had not yet achieved the crucial step of forming a vanguard proletarian party. As a result of this and other factors, the proletariat, while fighting heroically, was not able to take its necessary place at the head of the whole people.

Instead a filthy band of mullahs, representing a reactionary feudal ideology, was able to hoodwink a large section of the people fed up with the Shah's imperialist-sponsored "modernisation." The weakness of the communists, including some ideological and political errors on their part, made it difficult to "go against the tide" that was sweeping the country at the time and the leadership of Khomeini was not sufficiently challenged.

We all know the tragic results of Khomeini's betrayal: the thousands of executions, the abolition of any democratic rights, the trampling of minority nationalities, the barbaric efforts to repress the Iranian women whose revolutionary spirit had so flourished in the revolution against the Shah, and the terror imposed throughout the whole society, which made the repression of the Shah look pale by comparison. Yet at the very height of this fascist, obscurantist assault on the people and on the revolution, comrades of the Union of Communists of Iran (Sarbedaran) raised high the red flag of armed revolution in the city and forests of Amol. Although this uprising was defeated, Sarbedaran wrote a glorious page in the history of the people's struggle, which even the wholesale massacre, torture and long, bitter years of exile could not wipe out.

Throughout the twists and turns of the revolutionary struggle in Iran, in the cruelest moments as well as in times of revolutionary high tide, it has been the Maoists, and only the Maoists, who have represented the long-term interests of the proletariat and the people. And it has been only the genuine communists who have been able to learn from the experience of the people and from their own mistakes to provide clearer and more correct leadership, whilst never renouncing the vision and orientation of fighting to rid the whole world of class exploitation.

The formation of the vanguard communist party in Iran represents a truly great step in the history of the class struggle in your country, which will no doubt have profound ramifications in the whole region and beyond. While the formation of the party alone will not automatically solve all the problems of leading the revolution forward, its formation is the necessary and indispensable precondition for advance.

Mao Tsetung taught that "the correctness or incorrectness of the ideological and political line decides everything." The history of the Iranian communist movement also underscores both aspects of this profound truth. Where are the large opportunist organizations of the past? Their right and "left"-in-form errors have led them into political, ideological and organizational bankruptcy. The future belongs to the vanguard proletarian party built on a solid Marxist-Leninist-Maoist foundation, with a core of tested, trained and tempered cadres wholly devoted to the cause of the people. With such a party, great deeds will be accomplished.

From the very formation of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, the comrades from Iran have played a central role. Despite being severely weakened by the attacks of the enemy, you took upon your shoulders a heavy burden in the fight for the Maoist line internationally, and your class determination and revolutionary optimism added considerable strength to our fledgling efforts to regroup the genuine Maoist forces. We have grown stronger together, learnt from each other, and our unity is unbreakable.

Today the masses in Iran are again awakening to political life. The terror of the enemy, while in no way diminishing, is less capable of intimidating the people. The illusion of "reform" by a so-called democratic section of the ruling class is badly tattered, despite the efforts of many opportunists to patch up these illusions. The conditions of the masses are intolerable, and they yearn for revolution.

But history has shown, in Iran and everywhere, that however heroically the people struggle, it is only under the leadership of the proletarian party that real liberation can be achieved. Only by waging a protracted people's war will it be possible to rip Iran free from the clutches of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism and cleanse the society of the ugly and vicious sores that reactionary rule has produced. We know that the CPI (MLM) has set itself the extremely difficult task of organizing, initiating and leading such a people's war to victory. We are confident that with this Marxist-Leninist-Maoist line in command, the genuine revolutionary elements of your country, and most especially the workers and the poor peasants, will increasingly come to see that this line and no other, that this party and no other, can pioneer the way forward.

Comrades, however difficult and tortuous the road ahead, the formation of your party makes the future that much brighter for the people of Iran and for the whole international proletariat.

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