Tudeh Party of Iran, Statement on the electoral Coup d'etat in Iran!

[IndianaGreen]

Tudeh Party of Iran, Statement on the electoral Coup d'etat in Iran!
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From: Tudeh Party of Iran
http://www.tudehpartyiran.org/english.htm
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Dear comrades

Please find attached the statement of the CC of Tudeh Party of Iran on the regime's attempt to steal the presidential elections. The election on 12th June returned a decisive victory for the reform but the regime has refused to accept the popular verdict. Iran has been plunged in an unprecedented political crisis by the reactionary regime. Tudeh Party of Iran is calling for international solidarity with the Iranian working people in these desperate hours a very complex struggle for peace, democracy and social justice.

We will forward to you later today the translation of another statement from the Tudeh Party of Iran about the wide spread wave of arrests of reformist and opposition leaders and activists of the movement.

We appreciate it if you are able to give widest possible coverage to the analysis of our party in the public press and media in your country and also your own party
publications.

In solidarity

Navid Shomali
Secretary
International Department
CC, Tudeh Party of Iran

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Statement of the Central Committee of The Tudeh Party of Iran on Coup d'etat of a deceitful and backward regime against the will of millions of Iranians

Millions of rigged ballots for Ahmadinejad

To our vigilant compatriots!

Your great participation in tens of millions has once again turned the tenth presidential election into a referendum against the backward-looking and deceitful regime. Millions of Iranians stood in long queues holding green flags as a sign of protest against the bankrupt despotic rule of the Spiritual Leader and his cronies. This has shaken the mendacious regime to such an extent that its leaders, fearful of the repetition of 2nd Khordad (Khatami's election in 1997), have ordered their repressive forces in the major cities to crush the will of the majority by organising a quasi-military coup. The attacks by the security forces against the thousands of young people ppouring into the streets protesting against the regime's charade, along with the forced closure of Mousavi's campaign headquarter and combined with the threats issued by the Revolutionary Guards to suppress any protest, are all indicators of a heavy defeat suffered by the regime's leadership on the 12th of June.

Both presidential candidates, Mousavi and Karroubi, have declared the poll's results as null and void, stating that they will not leave the stage. The obvious poll rigging and fixing of millions of ballots in Ahmadinejad's name which was followed by Khamenei's confirmations of the election results shows that the spiritual leader and his armed militias are the organisers of the state sponsored violence against the will of millions of Iranians. This electoral charade indeed points to a turning point in the way the regime intends to deal with its opponents and it clearly demonstrates that even the so-called "insider critics" will not be allowed even limited political activities.

Khamenei's threatening statement is effectively a warning to the presidentialcandidates, demanding their surrender in the face of the reaction and to abandon the arena.

In recent weeks the Tudeh Party of Iran has repeatedly warned against the sinister plans of the repressive forces preparing to crush the people's will. We asked all national forces and those struggling for liberty to unite in a common cause in opposing the regime's plans.

We must not let the powerful might of the people, which has enraged and petrified the reactionaries, to be eroded and must prevent people's retreat in disillusionment, giving the arena back to the reactionary forces. All social and political forces of the country should declare the poll's results as void and use all means to voice their protests against this deception perpetrated by the Spiritual Leader and his armed cronies. By broadening and organising the struggle we must put the ruling regime under pressure. Accepting these election results would be a betrayal of the people's vote and would be tantamount to collusion with a deceitful and backward regime.

Our vigilant Compatriots!

The leaders of this regime have ruled by brute force and by betraying the goals of the Revolution, now they are about to carry out a coup d'etat against the people. The powerful presence of millions of Iranians and their protest can thwart this disgraceful machination and save our country from a serious danger.

Central Committee of Tudeh Party of Iran
13th June 2009


*End*

http://www.solidnet.org

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[Richard D]

1. These kinds of things are so much fun . . .

. . . to show to wing-nuts who have been chastising Obama for not taking sides.

[billyoc]

2. Wow, talk about "forgive and forget". After what Mousavi did to them in the '80s?

I guess they really are the party of the masses.

I just heard a radio interview with Hamid Dabashi saying that Mousavi had some sort of Road to Damascus conversion to socialism, and that now he wants to undo some of the damage that he's done to Iran.

Who knows.

[IndianaGreen]

4. The Tudeh Party's history is interwined with imperialist designs on Iran. Yes, OIL!

Remember the American neocons arguing early this week for the return of the Shah's family to power? Here is why:

The Formation of the Tudeh Party of Iran

Reza Shah had entered into a secret alliance with Nazi Germany, giving Hitler bases in Iran for an attack on the Soviet Union and had turned down allied requests to close down these bases. On 25 August 1941, the Allied Forces entered Iranian territory. Reza Shah was forced to flee and the British succeeded in bringing his son, Mohammad Reza to power. Taking advantage of the vacuum created after the events of August, the Tudeh Party of Iran was formed in September 1941 to continue the work of the banned Communist Party of Iran under conditions of open activity. Following the collapse of Reza Shah's dictatorship, with the new conditions prevailing, a large group of political prisoners were released. These included Dr. Arani's group (known as the Group of Fifty-three) who adhered to the communist ideology. The first foundation stones of the Tudeh Party of Iran were laid by these communists. On 29 September 1941, the founding conference of the TPI was held in Tehran under the chairmanship of Soleiman Mohsen Eskandari, one of the renowned combatants of the national liberation movement. This gathering elected a provisional committee of fifteen members which issued a declaration outlining the Party's programme in principle and announced that the Tudeh Party of Iran was being formed in order to achieve democracy, safeguard the independence and national sovereignty of Iran and to endeavor to bring about urgent reforms in the interest of the people.

The Tudeh Party of Iran, in keeping with its name (the People's Party of Iran), aimed to mobilise broad sections of the working masses behind a clear outlook for struggle, using all means of open activity. To this end it aimed to put forward correct tactical slogans reflecting the urgent demands of the time and to bring together all progressive forces in a united front, based upon the common interest of all. At a time when the dictatorship was the most immediate threat, the newly-formed party put forward the slogan of common struggle of all freedom-loving classes and strata against the reactionary dictatorship. For this purpose, the provisional committee ratified the following programme in eight articles outlining the party's political principles:

1. To safeguard the independence and sovereignty of Iran;
2. To form a democratic regime guaranteeing individual and social rights such as freedom of speech, opinion and association;
3. To struggle against all forms of dictatorship;
4. To carry out urgently needed land reform and improve the life of peasantry and other toiling masses;
5. To reform the education system to provide compulsory and free education for all. To make provision for a free national health service;
6. To reform the tax system in the interest of the masses;
7. To carry out reforms in the fields of economy and commerce, to expand industry and mining, to improve transport facilities through construction and maintenance of road and railway networks;
8. To confiscate the property of the ex-Shah in the interests of the people.

Many other parties were formed in the aftermath of Reza Shah's downfall, but they either soon disappeared or remained isolated political groups. It was only the Tudeh Party of Iran which functioned as a party, grew rapidly and turned into a significant and influential political force. This growth was a result of the TPI's understanding of the specific conditions of the moment and its ability to respond to the demands of the masses. As the Party had been formed by the former members of the Communist Party, from inception it enjoyed the trust of the politically aware strata of the working class. Soon other strata within the working people, longing for organisation and ready for the struggle gathered around the party. The history of the TPI is enriched with significant political and organisational experience. The Party's ranks were consolidated in the struggle against internal reaction, all forms of colonialism and imperialism. Different conditions called for different forms of struggle. The Party used initiative to find the best means of struggle at any time, but at times it also made mistakes. Both the advance and the mistakes of the Party have served as guide for later combatants in its struggle.

The TPI was the first political party to realise the necessity of the formation of a united front of progressive forces to struggle against reaction and imperialism, and to take the practical initiative in this respect.

http://www.tudehpartyiran.org/history.htm

As we see the health industry, and their paid lapdogs in Congress, sabotage every attempt to bring Single Payer to the American people, there is a lesson to be drawn from what Tudeh Party of Iran has done: the formation of a united front of progressive forces to struggle against reaction and imperialism, and to take the practical initiative in this respect.

[11cents]

3. No shit! There's still a Tudeh Party?

I guess they're the last to notice that they've been irrelevant since the 70s, at least. Sounds like they haven't changed in the intervening decades.

[IndianaGreen]

5. Capitalism is the one that is irrelevant.

Do you enjoy getting fucked in the ass by the American health care industry? They and their paid lapdogs in Congress (from both parties) will keep you and your family from enjoying the same health benefits as members of Congress enjoy.

The American Dream: Socialism for the rich and capitalism for everyone else.

BOHICA!

[11cents]

6. You were serious!

Here's the thing. Lack of interest in a "declaration" issued by the aged remnants of the Soviet Union's former Puppet Party of Iran, couched as it is in comically antique rhetoric, does not imply support or respect for corporate capitalism. It just implies a non-embalmed mind.