Iran Crisis here ♦ Letter: Red Flag Readers in Iran here ♦
February 16 — Red Flag readers in Iran report that some Iranian oil workers went on strike last month after the rial (Iranian currency) was devalued. Most are contract workers. They resented the contractors’ direct connection to the Iranian military. At the peak of their walkout, the government gave them a 43% pay increase.
An oil workers’ strike in 1978 brought the US-backed Shah’s regime to its knees. Another massive nationwide oil workers’ strike rocked the Islamic Republic in 2021.
When oil workers fight to end wage slavery, raising the red flag of communist revolution, real change will not be far off.
Iranian Capitalist Crisis: Huge Global Implications
Israeli military attacks last June hit the economy hard. So did fall’s renewed UN and US sanctions. Caught between profit-hungry imperialists and local bosses, Iranian workers’ purchasing power has dropped by 90%. That, and more, brought angry millions into the streets in January.
Iran’s rulers harshly repressed the protesters, killing thousands. They blocked the internet and banned international journalists. They blamed US and Israeli provocateurs – and not without reason. The Israeli rulers are scheming to bring back the monarchy. They invite Iranian dissidents to contact the Israeli military. Israeli intelligence agents infiltrated the protests.
Iran is Israel’s main regional rival. Since last summer, leading Israeli politicians and the Jerusalem Post have spoken openly about dismembering Iran along ethnic lines. Like Syria.
Other capitalist powers are taking this possibility seriously. For example, India invested heavily in the strategic Chabahar Indian Ocean port in eastern Iran. Indian capitalists recently discontinued that financing. It’s not clear how Trump’s last-minute tariff reductions might affect this.
Why Iran Matters to Imperialists
Oil, clearly. Despite sanctions, Iran is a major oil exporter – mainly to China. US imperialists want to destroy that relationship. But Iran supplies under 15% of China’s oil.
There are bigger issues.
Iran is a gateway to central Asia. This matters to Chinese and Indian capitalists who want access. It matters to the Russian rulers. Controlling Iran would strengthen their grip on the former Soviet republics. It matters to US imperialists, who are desperate to slow the unstoppable rise of their rivals.
US imperialists are eager to end Iran’s nuclear program. Two US aircraft carrier strike groups are in the Persian Gulf. More could follow. Meanwhile, a second round of talks are slated for Geneva.
Will There Be War?
Sooner or later, yes. Civil wars. World war. But there are too many contingencies to have a clear picture.
Iran’s 86-year-old leader seems willing to curtail the nuclear program in exchange for lifting sanctions. But Trump has said that regime change in Iran would be “the best thing that could happen.”
Melik Kaylan, writing in the Wall Street Journal and Forbes, advocated the ethnic partition of Iran. The “fragmentation” of Iran, he says, would be “for the benefit of people being massacred.” Oh, sure.
Another US imperialist analyst called fragmentation of Iran “dangerous nonsense” that would “accelerate the very threats it’s meant to neutralize.” He compared it to US imperialism’s setbacks after its war on Iraq.
Kaylan’s real concern was that “Iran is too important geopolitically” to be left to the Iranian masses.
A recent Foreign Affairs article, in contrast, takes those masses (“the fragmented opposition movement”) very seriously. It advises the US rulers to encourage the monarchists, college students, ethnic minorities, feminists, trade unions, and others to agree on a common program like elections for a constituent assembly.
Many Iranian leftists learned a bitter lesson after the 1979 revolution that deposed the US puppet Shah: The enemy of your enemy isn’t always your friend! After they helped Islamic fascists take power, the new regime turned on them. Tens of thousands were executed, jailed, or forced into exile.
Let’s remember that lesson now as US imperialism promotes broad anti-Khamenei rallies in the US, Canada, Munich, Melbourne, Athens, Tokyo, and London.
There are no “lesser evil” imperialists or capitalists. All are enemies of the working class.
Iranian oil workers: Help mobilize the Iranian masses for communism and nothing less.
Communism will transform the material basis of society. It will end capitalist relations of exploitation for profit. It will reorganize production and distribution based on collectively meeting the masses’ needs.
Unity based on our shared interest will replace division based on language, religion, or culture. No nations, no borders. All vestiges of privilege, inequality, and gender discrimination will be struggled against and eventually eliminated.
The Iranian working class has a proud communist history. We invite readers there (and everywhere!) to build ICWP collective. Find ways to bring communist ideas and organization to the masses! Oil workers and rebellious soldiers must lead the only war workers should fight: communist revolution.
Learning from Red Flag Readers in Iran
I recently talked with Red Flag readers in Iran. I should have been in more frequent contact with them. They were asking about articles in our paper. Particularly Minnesota and ICE. And everything about Palestine.
They think that war is imminent. But everyone thinks the system needs a change.
Some of the poorest oil workers come from the Azari and Baluch areas. They have not been paid for months. People associated with the government get permanent jobs in the oil sector.
Our readers know some oil workers. They agree there is a huge need for the communist alternative. There are some underground socialist groups, but they don’t have an outlook of building a mass base. They mostly identify with a cadre model.
The idea that we are building a mass communist party appeals to our friends. One problem is the language barrier. We need help translating Red Flag into Farsi. But they also said that they were afraid of severe repercussions if the secret police found out.
A bigger obstacle than language is that our friends need to find ways to really get to know the oil workers better so they can show them Red Flag electronically. And interpret it into Farsi for them.
They said the government is constantly telling the masses that it is negotiating with the US to lift sanctions. They said there is even a possible deal with the US. Joint mining in Iran is possible, as Iran has rare-earth minerals. And that the Iranian rulers are looking at a large purchase of Boeing airplanes.
I asked them about China and Russia. They said the masses are extremely wary of them and view them with suspicion. They pointed out that during the Bolshevik Revolution, a northern province of Iran came close to becoming a Soviet Republic. I will continue to discuss with them whether a split in the Iranian ruling class is possible between pro-West and pro-China/Russia factions.
They said that our talk has opened up more ways to discuss Red Flag with friends they trust. I feel that they are open to the mass line of building for communism under severe fascism and the possibility of war. We can all learn something from them about how to advance the line.
—Comrade in the USA
Read our pamphlet Soldiers, Sailors, Marines: Crucial to a Communist Workers’ Revolution here