Only unity and class struggle for the proletariat of Iran and the whole world!

The bourgeois apparatus in power in Iran, following the military escalation with Israel, which seems to be aimed not only at the destruction of Tehran’s nuclear programme (which appears rather to be the casus belli of the first attack at dawn on Friday 13 June) but also at taking advantage of the destabilisation triggered in the country ruled by Shiite religious authorities since 1979 to provoke a change of political regime, is launching a heartfelt appeal to all its people, who, the atrocities committed for decades notwithstanding, should rally under its banner and “with unity and cohesion, forcefully confront this criminal and genocidal aggression”, adding, through President Pezeshkian, that today “any disagreement, dispute or problem must be put aside”.

As always in times of war, the bourgeois state, whatever government is in power, calls for national unity against the enemy who has become, only apparently and tendentiously in its proclamations, common to the entire “population” and therefore invariably to the bourgeoisie and the proletariat; it demands that what it calls ‘disagreements’ and ‘controversies’, but which in reality are nothing more than irreconcilable and conflicting class interests, be appeased in the name of social peace, social peace which, as we well know, serves only to keep at bay the mood of the proletariat, which the war further incites: we know very well that after being used as cannon fodder, suffering death and misery, the workers must also bear the burden of post-war reconstruction with the call for further ‘sacrifices’ (the “spirit of sacrifice” permeates bourgeois language without specifying, however, that it is proletarian sacrifice) and this could reawaken their class hatred and set them marching once again towards revolution and the destruction of the now rotten capitalist system, which, in its increasing crisis, resorts with ever greater frequency and atrocity to war and destruction in order to then attempt to be reborn on the proletarian ruins.

The bourgeois press is pleased for the support the list of signatories to the appeal by Iranian intellectuals, writers and filmmakers is receiving, which calls for an end to the regime and with it the end of the uranium enrichment programme to produce nuclear weapons (as if uranium were of exclusive interest to autocracies – whether disguised as a republic or not and did not affect the innocent dove of democracy); and, at the same time, an end to hostilities. But as proof of the total divergence of interests between the bourgeois and proletarian classes, we read the following passages:

“Emphasising firmly the preservation of Iran’s territorial integrity and the genuine right of the people to sovereignty, we call for the cessation of uranium enrichment by the Islamic Republic and the immediate end of the devastating war between the Islamic Republic and the regime in power in Israel: a war that not only destroys infrastructure and civilian lives in both territories, but also represents a clear threat to the foundations of human civilisation‘.

“Territorial integrity”, “the right of the people to sovereignty” and “the foundations of human civilisation” echo concepts so dear to the bourgeoisie (even that part which still calls itself “liberal” and opposes the Ayatollah regime) clinging to power tooth and nail.

‘Iran and its people,’ the motion continues, ‘must not be sacrificed for uranium enrichment and the ambitions of the Islamic Republic.’ ‘In our view, the authorities of the Islamic Republic have neither the capacity nor the will to resolve Iran’s internal and external conflicts; the best way to save the Iranian people and this land is for the authorities of the Islamic Republic to resign and facilitate a transition from the Islamic Republic to democracy.’

The bourgeois voice therefore calls for a transition to democracy, without mentioning that this would be nothing more than a transition within the national sphere from the dictatorship of one faction of the ruling class to the dictatorship of another faction through the use of an institution designed to safeguard capital.

For its part, the Israeli national bourgeoisie, in the guise of the current Prime Minister Netanyahu, has not missed the golden opportunity to stir up the already restless population of Tehran (which has been the protagonist of interclassist uprisings over the last two years, with the bourgeois slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom”) by calling on them to unite “against the evil regime”: the bourgeoisie would be ridiculous if it weren’t for the fact that the atrocities taking place in Gaza inspire nothing but a grimace of proletarian rage.

And to conclude the parade, there was no shortage of what the bourgeois press calls the “availability” of Reza Pahlavi (crown prince of Tehran and son of the last Shah Mohammad, who was in power until the fundamentalist coup of 1979), who from his gilded Parisian exile proposes to contribute to the country’s escape from the “climate of destabilisation”. The bourgeois press is now wondering whether the Iranian people will welcome this generous offer or make the “democratic choice of representative institutions of another kind”.

We, the International Communist Party, cannot fail to remind the Iranian proletariat and the working class throughout the world that there is no peace, no dignified material and emotional existence, no proper use of resources within bourgeois institutions. That there is no social peace that can free them from the yoke of Capital. That the only real place for the fulfilment of the human species is Communism and that the only viable path to achieve it is the international union of workers: without united fronts with the bourgeoisie, without national-patriotic wars, but pursuing revolutionary defeatism and recognising each other as brothers in struggle (class struggle!) on both sides, without waving any flag but the red flag of the proletarian state!