It is now five days since people’s mass protests in Tehran and some other Iranian cities against the electoral coup of Khamenei-Ahmadinejad faction took place. A coup to put aside government reformers, and humiliate the people who had gone to ballot boxes based on illusions and wishful thinking.

Regime’s repressive apparatuses have not spared people’s peaceful protests from barbarism and homicide. Up to now 8 people have lost their lives in the Monday protests after the attacks on protestors. There have been also fatal casualties and a high number of people have been wounded and imprisoned following the attacks on the universities and on the demonstrators.

Looking at the news and the protesters’ demands and central slogans and the prevention of any other slogan that could express people’s true demands, all point to fact that the reformers in the government have complete control and guidance over these protests.

This bitter reality is the primary weakness and Achilles’ heel of people’s mass protests. So far reformers have used people, -whose participation in the elections was based on their pent up fury against the regime and all the suffering and afflictions of the past 30 years-, as cannon fodder for settling accounts with the Guardians Corps and Khamenei’s faction.

Reformers aim to narrow down people’s fury, protests and demands which stem from people’s real life, into a limited demand for “Annulment of Elections.” Mousavi has recommended protesters to not chant “Death to Dictator”. Karoubi has called the black-dressed protestors on Friday to end their march at the Friday’s mass prayer, which is led by Khamenei, to once again demonstrate his loyalty to him.

The nature of reformers’ goals and the demands that they have set for people during their protests and the reformers’ past experience show the reformers’ incompetency and inability to lead the people’s struggle. These reformers themselves are a part of the Islamic Republic’s establishment, and to protect this establishment they would make compromise over their even limited demands with other faction at any moment.

In such a context and regardless of how a compromise is reached, suppression and putting an end to people’s protests will make one central component of this compromise. The Iranian people and the masses who have poured on the streets should not allow any of these factions to use them as tools for settling their factional accounts and get slaughtered because of such a compromise.

In these circumstances where the political crisis is escalating and where the Regime’s political record has been exposed to the society, all socialist activists and progressive and vanguard individuals are to optimally utilize this provided opportunity. In addition to enlightening on the sensitive situation at hand, activists should also promote the necessity of forming a revolutionary alternative and building their independent movements far away from any factional fight inside the ruling class. Activists should intensify their efforts to create labor councils and other forms of workers organizations as well as help other vanguard social movements to organize themselves.

It is vital for the existing worker organizations, left and socialist women and students to inform the public of their evaluations of the current situation.

The struggle to fulfill people’s tangible demands, - based on the living conditions of the suppressed majority of population-, and the primacy of this task should be implemented within people’s movement. Separation of religion from state, unconditional political freedom, freedom for all political prisoners, guaranteeing the equality between women and men in all fields of social life, abolition of forced veils for women, freedom of self-organization, salary increase proportionate to the inflation rate, securing the individual liberties, end to national oppression, abolition of death penalty, etc must become the demands of people’s protests and struggles.

Down with the Islamic Republic!

Long Live Freedom, Equality and the Workers’ State!

Long Live Socialism!

18 June 2009