Worker-communist Party of Iran’s statement on Iran’s sham elections
The election to Iran’s Islamic Assembly and the Assembly of Experts is drawing near. It is clear that what is called ‘elections’ under Iran’s Islamic regime has nothing to do with people’s free vote and choice. Under the shadow of Islamic repression, a list of the most loyal elements of the regime and the supreme leader, who have been vetted through numerous filters, is put to the people to choose from. Even under such conditions, and despite all the cheating and vote rigging, those who are pulled out of the ballot box are the outcome of the process of internal power struggle, the calculations over saving the system, and, in the end, the decision of Khamenei himself. In fact, election in the Islamic Republic is a mechanism for dividing aspects of the power between the regime’s various factions, and, more importantly, a show for gaining legitimacy for the Islamic dictatorship of capital in Iran. These features make elections in the Islamic Republic a scene of, at times, fierce battles among the ruling factions over power, and rivalry for gaining the votes of a section of the people. However, the people of Iran, who are seeking to rid themselves of the Islamic regime, boycott elections in far greater numbers than what the Islamic Republic’s statistics would show; and whenever they have participated in elections, they have tried to aggravate the internal contradictions of the regime and to turn the elections into a field of struggle against it.
Indications are that in this election both the internal contradictions and the infightings of the Islamic Republic and the confrontation between the people and the regime can emerge much more sharply than in previous elections. The Islamic Republic is at a critical juncture. Its efforts to draw closer to the West and the contradictions that this process brings about, the problem of Khamenei’s advancing age and the issue of his replacement, the defeat of Islamic and state culture in the face of the modern and progressive culture of the people, and the chronic and structural economic crisis, rooted in the rule of the Islamic Republic, on the one hand, and the daily rise in the struggle of the working class and public discontent in reaction to these conditions, have tightened the noose on all factions of the Islamic Republic. Under these circumstances, the elections and the deepening of the regime’s internal divisions, and the whole political climate that is thus created, should be viewed by the people as an opportunity to step up the struggle for their demands, and to organise and unite against the entirety of the regime.
We can and must turn these sham elections into a scene of exposure of the regime and an indictment against it and all its factions. We can and must voice our real choices with more clarity and transparency at every opportunity, at workplaces, at education centres, at protest assemblies and on the streets: i.e., no to executions, no to gender apartheid, release of political prisoners, immediate increase in wages, adequate unemployment benefit and pensions, political, cultural and civil liberties, freedom of dress and abolition of Hijab; in one word, an end to thirty seven years of nightmare of the Islamic Republic. It is not just about voicing our demands. More importantly, it is about organising around a movement against this sham election and building networks to step up the fight against the Islamic Republic for the realisation of the demands of the people. We must come out with all our force and mobilise the “No to the Islamic Republic” movement.
Elections under the Islamic regime in Iran are no more than a mechanism to reassign positions and seats amongst the different bands of the regime. However, for us, the people, elections have always been an opportunity to step up the fight and for challenging the entirety of the regime. In this election too we will loudly vote for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic.
Worker Communist Party of Iran
28 January 2016
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