Stockholm Conference StatementA Socialist Alternative Is Necessary and Possible

Stockholm Conference Statement

A Socialist Alternative Is Necessary and Possible

The people of Iran once again stand on the threshold of a decisive political transformation. Mass and workers’ protests are erupting across the country, pushing society toward a full-blown revolutionary crisis. The Islamic Republic, as the regime of the capitalist class under religious rule, has placed working people in a condition where, more than ever before, they truly have “nothing to lose but their chains.”

The events of December 2017 marked a turning point in the trajectory of political and class struggle in Iran, and their continuation is now embodied in the new wave of popular and workers’ protests. Today, every force and movement of the contending social classes recognizes that the present situation is untenable. For a vast section of Iranian society, the Islamic Republic has already collapsed in legitimacy; the question of its replacement is now firmly on the agenda.

The ruling classes—ranging from the regime’s tolerated opposition to the political representatives of the bourgeois opposition—are attempting to orchestrate a transfer of power within the bourgeois order with the least possible involvement of working people. The bankrupt discourse of Islamic reformism, calls for referendums, national reconciliation, and “alternative-making” are nothing but efforts to safeguard the bourgeois state machinery and its organs of repression from the revolutionary action of the working class and the socialist left.

We, in the present struggle for the revolutionary overthrow of the Islamic Republic, fight for the smashing of all institutions and foundations upon which the rule of the dominant classes rests. For us, the overthrow of the Islamic Republic must culminate in a social revolution, in the complete political and economic expropriation of the bourgeoisie, and in the establishment of a new workers’ and socialist order. The government corresponding to this new order must be one of the types of the communes and workers’ councils: the rule of the vast majority over the vast majority. Such a government, by abolishing class antagonisms, removes the very conditions for the existence of classes, and thereby its own existence as a ruling class. In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and class antagonisms, there shall arise a society in which the freedom and flourishing of each individual is the condition for the freedom and flourishing of all.

In today’s conditions, where the demand for overthrow has become the principal axis of politics in Iran, the fundamental question is how to settle accounts with the Islamic Republic and resolve the issue of political power. Distinct social classes and their political movements offer divergent visions of overthrow and of the future state and system. For bourgeois currents and the pro-Western right—ranging from monarchists to the Mojahedin-e Khalq, nationalist forces reliant on the United States and its allies, and centrist republicans who have long supported one faction of the regime but are now bankrupt—the meaning of “overthrow” is compromise from above: preserving the repressive apparatus, reconciling with political Islam and its clerical institutions, keeping workers away from political power, cutting off mass protest from politics, promising minor reforms, and reconstructing the capitalist state.

We, the forces convening this conference and representing a section of the camp of workers and socialism in Iran, declare that we stand firmly against all bourgeois deals and all alternative-building from above the heads of the working class. We will not recognize any bourgeois government whose essence remains exploitation, repression, and contempt for human dignity.

This conference proclaims that a socialist alternative is possible, necessary, and urgent—and that we are committed to building it. The forces of this alternative are broad: workers and toilers exhausted by exploitation, poverty, subjugation, and repression; women who have risen en masse against gender apartheid and patriarchal discrimination; youth suffocating under unemployment and hopelessness; people who have mobilized against environmental devastation and the regime’s failure; freedom-seekers demanding unconditional liberty of thought, expression, and association; and all who struggle against oppression and inequality. This vast multitude can and must find its place within the camp of the socialist alternative.

We are convinced that the advance and council-based organization of the working class, the growth of independent workers’ organizations in the course of strikes and expanding protests, and their unity with progressive social and protest movements on the basis of a socialist perspective and strategy, constitute the only path to guarantee the revolutionary overthrow of the Islamic Republic and the class order it upholds. Only thus can the horizon of liberation from all the miseries of the capitalist system be opened to society.

Accordingly, the state born of the revolution—one that must be a workers’ and council-based state—will: dissolve the army, the Revolutionary Guards, the police, and all organs of repression and bureaucracy; abolish the constitution and all inhuman laws of the Islamic Republic; dismantle its ideological and propaganda institutions; arm the workers and the revolutionary people to defend freedom, suppress counter-revolutionary resistance, and repel any assault on the rights of the people. Such a state will proclaim the overthrow of the Islamic Republic and guarantee the advance of the revolution through fundamental measures, including:

1. Establishing the rule of workers and toilers through organs of direct popular power: the expansion of councils at workplaces, communities, cities, regions, and nationwide, with universal, equal, free, and secret suffrage, alongside all forms of direct mass participation. The right of every person over sixteen to run for and hold office. The right of electors to recall their representatives at any level, at any time.
2. The arrest, public trial, and punishment of the leaders of the Islamic Republic.
3. The release of all political prisoners; abolition of the political “crime”; closure of political prisons; abolition of the death penalty; prohibition of torture.
4. Complete separation of religion from the state and from education. Freedom of religion and of irreligion. Abolition of all religious laws. Dissolution of state religious institutions and confiscation of their wealth for immediate public needs.
5. Workers’ control over production and distribution.
6. Guaranteeing livelihood and welfare for all citizens at contemporary standards through workers’ councils and elected institutions; adequate unemployment benefits for all able-bodied persons over sixteen and all unable to work due to disability; free education and healthcare.
7. The complete abolition of gender discrimination through the abolition of gender apartheid, repeal of all anti-woman laws, and the proclamation and enforcement of full and unconditional equality of women and men in all spheres of individual and social life, with equal opportunities in every field.
8. Prohibition of child labor; provision of education, healthcare, safety, and joy for all children; criminalization of all forms of sexual abuse of children; state protection of children.
9. Abolition of all forms of discrimination based on gender, religion, nationality, race, or citizenship; recognition of the right to self-determination, including secession, through referenda of the oppressed nationalities. At the same time, we call for the voluntary and free union of all the inhabitants of Iran, convinced that such unity is in the interest of the working class and toiling masses.
10. Proclamation and enforcement of unconditional freedom of belief, expression, press, assembly, association, political party, and strike. Prohibition of ideological inquisition.
11. Abolition of commercial secrecy. Abolition of secret diplomacy.
12. Immediate measures and long-term planning to protect the environment and vital resources of water, soil, and clean air.
13. Establishment of social ownership over the key sectors of industry, banking, services, and commerce during the revolutionary transition.

These measures define the meaning and content of the revolutionary overthrow of the Islamic Republic for socialists, for the working class, and for the left camp of society. We call upon workers and toilers, communists and left revolutionary currents, labor and mass organizations, the women’s equality movement, and all progressive forces to unite under the banner of socialism for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. It is essential that this camp popularize the socialist vision of overthrow, and in every phase of the struggle and in every balance of political forces, make this horizon its compass.

The Stockholm Conference calls upon communists, workers, toilers, and freedom-seekers to join the socialist alternative, to shape and advance it, and to raise its banner in the ongoing struggle. We have entered a decisive era that will determine the destiny of generations. The will, determination, and revolutionary practice of today must shape this period and the future. The socialist alternative is urgent and possible, and in the struggle to overthrow the Islamic Republic and beyond, must put an end to the miseries that capitalism has imposed until now.

Down with the capitalist Islamic Republic!
Long live freedom, long live socialism!
Long live the unity of the camp of socialist alternative!

Stockholm – September 2018

Signatories:

1. Communist Fedayian Union
2. Communist Party of Iran
3. Worker-Communist Party of Iran – Hekmatist
4. Organisation of Revolutionary Workers of Iran (Rahe Kargar)
5. Fedayian Minority Organisation
6. Minority Cell