Statement on the tenth presidential elections in Iran
The Participation in the Elections is to Legitimize the Regime of the Islamic Republic!
(Excerpt)
The tenth presidential elections of the Islamic Republic of Iran will be held on June 12, 2009. The two factions of the regime, Conservative and Reformist, are trying their best to warm up the electoral campaigns. The heated debates between the factions are influenced by world crises and events. The US and European countries are watching the campaigns closely and are hoping that the incumbent president Ahmadinejad loses to his opponent, Reformist candidate Mussavi. The imperialists try to influence the result of the election by propagating an idea that if the Reformist candidate wins the election, the negotiation between Iran and the US could start very quickly and the economic blockade of Iran could be lifted. Through these kinds of involvements, the imperialists will have indirect influence on the results of the elections. In Iran, this political involvement may have the opposite result. The fact that the people of Iran are opposed to the regime of the Islamic Republic does not imply that the people are ready to overthrown the regime or even actively participate in the actions to change the government. After 1979 revolution in Iran, the struggle for freedom and democracy has continued unabated. Despite the protests by workers, students, women, and civil institutions, we cannot yet talk about a revolutionary situation in Iran. Presently, the Iranian masses are indifferent toward the presidential elections. The present situation is very different than it was twelve years ago when the people had hopes for change through reform movement and participated en masse in the elections. At that time, their participation in the presidential elections was a big blow to the regime.
Today, there is no pressure from below to frighten the top leaders of the regime into a forced retreat. The Iranian masses are disillusioned with and disappointed by the Reformers. Today, every major decision is made by the top leadership, and the people feel their participation in the elections will not influence the development of the events or their destiny and that none of the four candidates introduced by the regime represents their interests. The indifference of the masses towards the elections has alarmed the Islamic regime as it tries to pretend to the outside world that it has the support and confidence of the people.
The "Guardian Council" of the Islamic Republic has chosen four candidates among many hundreds, two from the Conservative faction and two from the Reformist, to run for elections. The "Guardian Council", not the people, has made decisions regarding the qualification of the candidates. In this situation, how can people trust and have confidence in these four candidates? The Iranian people do not recognise the qualifications of the council in the first place! This is a council to filter out the opponents and critics of the regime. The regime of the Islamic Republic knows that its election is fake and has no shame about it. However, the regime is fearful of the indifference of the masses toward the elections. The Islamic authorities try through propaganda, deception, and intimidation to force the people to go to the polls.
There are also reports that the regime is trying to lower the voting age to fifteen years. The regime is concerned about its legitimacy abroad. The regime of the Islamic Republic does not respond to the demands of the people, does not value human life, does not end the suppression of dissidents, and does not eradicate superstitions. Instead, it tries to paint its façade to show the imperialists that it has legitimacy at home. The regime has no powerful social base at home to stand up against the
imperialist-Zionist threats and aggression against our people.
Today, two main factions of the Islamic regime are quarrelling in the elections, and both are the defenders and protectors of the Islamic Republic. This quarrel is about who can protect the Islamic
Republic better. At the same time, both factions are fighting to seise and benefit from the country’s vast resources. Both factions cooperate in preserving the political and class power of the Islamic Republic.
The masses are disillusioned with the so-called the Reformist faction. The Reformers have shown that they are incapable of fulfilling the demands of the masses, and that they are more frightened by the demands than by the noise of the rival faction. When they had the support and votes of twenty million people twelve years ago, they did not even legalise the right to form trade unions. How could they now gain the support and the trust of the public and take them to the polling stations again? The former ever-smiling President Khatami played the role of a fireman when the demand for change was burning in millions of the Iranian masses. The Reformers support the economic liberalism of the World Trade Organization, International Monetary Funds, and the World Bank, and they strongly supported the privatisation of major sectors of the economy as they tried to attract imperialist investments in Iran. The Reformers signed the traitorous "Additional Protocol" of International Atomic Energy Agency on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
The government of Ahnadinejad was a response of the Iranian ruling circles to the threats of the US imperialists, to economic sanctions, and to the acts of sabotage of the imperialist agents in Iran. The Ahmadinegad government placed significant importance to both domestic suppression and increased military capability. The Conservative faction based itself on the policy that foreign threats strengthen domestic unity, and they implemented this policy skillfully.
The Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan) believes that the participation in the tenth presidential elections in Iran will be in the service of the policies of the Islamic Republic and will strengthen its unpopular regime. In the situation in which despotism rules the country, which the political organisations are
illegalised, which free presses are banned, and in which the political and labour activists are tortured and imprisoned, the talk about a free election in Islamic Republic is cheap. The rule of the Islamic Republic serves as an impediment against any democratic development in Iran. In this situation the correct policy is to actively boycott the tenth presidential elections. This policy is a principled tactic to further discredit and ill-legitimise the murderous regime of Iran. This tactic is to intensify the intercontradiction
of the regime and to weaken the Islamic Republic in its totality. Our supporters are actively agitating against the participation in the elections. We mobilise the people and convince them that this election is not free, etc. The movement to boycott the tenth presidential elections in Iran is an active movement to further expose and isolate the regime of the Islamic Republic.
The Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan)
May 2009
WWW.Toufan.org
Toufan@toufan.org
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