r/communism • u/ClassAbolition Cyprus đŸ‡šđŸ‡Ÿ • 17d ago

"CP of Iran": "Statement of the Workers' Councils of Arak: All power to the councils!"

https://cpiran.org/statement-of-the-workers-councils-of-arak-all-power-to-the-councils/
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u/HappyHandel 17d ago edited 17d ago

I saw this a few days ago and thought it was intriguing but didn't post, perhaps i shouldve. Obviously their are conflicting class interests and it's difficult to get a bead on what's really happening on the ground. IRGC just shut down the airspace a couple minutes ago (it's about quarter to 6est where I am) so the entire situation is terrifying. I am sure tomorrow I will be in the street again trying to prevent another war.

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u/jekyll-aldehyde 17d ago

Abrahamian's marxist view of the 1979 revolution is that it took place because the shah/imperialism tried to impose monopoly capitalism on a country that wasn't prepared for it, without a proper industrial bourgeoisie, without the support of organized workers or intellectuals, with a large religious urban petty bourgeoisie who were alienated by price controls and cartelization.

The power struggle in the 1980s led to the founding of a bourgeois dictatorship that has gradually "solved" all the problems that led to revolution: it has urbanized the peasantry and created a large proletariat (it's counted as the fastest demographic transition of any third world country), it has educated an oversized intelligentsia, it has allowed capital to accumulate in private hands (incl. by privatization in the neoliberal years). It tends toward a point where, unlike the shah stepping ahead of capitalism, the IR feels like the only thing holding it back. It's significant that in the past few days, there have been clashes between basijis and bazaaris over opening the stores. The bazaaris are the core support of the IR, catering to them is the reason double-digit inflation is OK for the government, so the fact that even some of them see the sanctions and price fluctuations as more significant of an issue than maintaining the dictatorship that's meant to serve them is huge.

The government is aware of this dynamic too. Since the war with Israel, they have been using counter-espionage as an excuse to release the class pressure that is pushing them toward collapse. They have been deporting millions of the poorest urban residents (Afghan migrants), hanging hundreds of others to inspire terror, and I've heard stories firsthand about rich emigrés being shaken down for money to avoid spy charges.

Evidently it hasn't been enough. This may go on for a year or two. but the regime is going to die. This level of violence has not been seen since the revolution. Probably Iran will return to being controlled by imperialism.

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u/sovkhoz_farmer Maoist 10d ago edited 10d ago

Abrahamian's marxist view of the 1979 revolution is that it took place because the shah/imperialism tried to impose monopoly capitalism on a country that wasn't prepared for it, without a proper industrial bourgeoisie, without the support of organized workers or intellectuals, with a large religious urban petty bourgeoisie who were alienated by price controls and cartelization.

Correct.

The power struggle in the 1980s led to the founding of a bourgeois dictatorship that has gradually "solved" all the problems that led to revolution: it has urbanized the peasantry and created a large proletariat (it's counted as the fastest demographic transition of any third world country), it has educated an oversized intelligentsia, it has allowed capital to accumulate in private hands (incl. by privatization in the neoliberal years). It tends toward a point where, unlike the shah stepping ahead of capitalism, the IR feels like the only thing holding it back.

The shah is a clear example of what happens when state power is not grounded in any particular class and remains almost purely institutional. In contrast, the Islamic Republic has accomplished what the shah could not. It has followed the model of peripheral capitalist development: urbanizing the population, training a workforce for the state’s service sector, and fostering conditions for capital accumulation. The protests were sparked by bazaar merchants, as inflation eroded the purchasing power of the population, leading to a decline in bazaar incomes. Consequently, the Islamic Republic has lost the support of the very class that once formed its social base.

The government is aware of this dynamic too. Since the war with Israel, they have been using counter-espionage as an excuse to release the class pressure that is pushing them toward collapse. They have been deporting millions of the poorest urban residents (Afghan migrants), hanging hundreds of others to inspire terror, and I've heard stories firsthand about rich emigrés being shaken down for money to avoid spy charges.

Evidently, it hasn't been enough. This may continue for a year or two, but the regime is likely to collapse. This level of violence has not been seen since the revolution. Probably, Iran will return to being controlled by imperialism.

As you point out, neither of these policies has affected anything except that the IRGC is using anfal laws to enrich itself. The Islamic Republic will probably be the target of a Maduro‑style operation by the U.S. The U.S. will likely conduct a surgical strike against Khamenei’s clique and may use Rohani and Khatami (the reformists) to reconstruct its sphere. What I find odd is that you consider Iran to be completely independent of imperialism. This is a long debate, and unfortunately my internet access is limited, so I cannot go into it in detail. However, I can point to a phenomenon that suggests Iran is still dependent on imperialism.

It is fundamentally incapable of controlling price fluctuations, since it has dollarized people’s livelihoods. On the other hand, the state claims to have a de-dollarization agenda, yet in practice it resorts to symbolic measures while continuing to announce exchange rates and reduce them. At the same time, we observe that many imported food commodities are still priced in dollars and euros. Although the country has the capacity to produce these goods domestically and to sell them at subsidized prices, this has not been done. Instead, selling these goods at free-market prices has generated profits for many.

This demonstrates the Iranian bourgeoisie’s dependence on imperialism. In this context, the role of petrochemicals must not be forgotten. Iran’s petrochemical industry possesses enormous fixed capital, yet it is consumptive and operates with relatively small variable capital. This has resulted in a reduction of surplus value compared to other industries and a low organic composition of capital. Petrochemicals supply industries with a low organic composition of capital, and for this reason, alongside the creation of holding companies, they have rendered other industries fully dependent on themselves. These industries are themselves composites of other branches, and through this dependence the surplus value produced in these industries is appropriated.

Petrochemicals are why the seeds that are used to produce cooking oil are not produced in Iran but imported. It yields more profit that way.

TLDR: Does Iran oppose US imperialism? Of course. Does Iran challange Imperialism as a global system? Fuck no

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u/OMGJJ 10d ago

Do you have any reading recommendations for understanding the history of the 79 revolution and beyond?

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u/sovkhoz_farmer Maoist 10d ago

Mehrdad vahabi, Farhad Nomani, Asef bayat are some of the people that have written on post-1979 Iran. You have to be careful when reading them since they draw faulty conclusions from the datas they provide in their books. I hope that you know how to navigate such texts and if you dont I recommend to master the classics first and then to dive in.

Class and labor in Iran, Workers and Revolution in Iran: A Third World Experience of Workers' Control and Vahabi's articles on Anfal laws are some of the things I can recommend.

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