For Principled Solidarity with Working Class and Left Revolutionary Democratic Forces in Iran
June 19, 2009
Don Currie, Chair, Canadians for Peace and Socialism

Read the �Nameh Mardom� (�People�s Letter�) Interview with Comrade Ali Khavari on the occasion of the Tudeh Party of Iran�s 56th anniversary. This interview was conducted in May 2007
The Communiqu� of the Central Committee of the Tudeh Party of Iran - Number 5 (June 19, 2009), The language of force and threat will not stop people in their rightful struggle!.

Dear Comrades and friends
There is confusion around determining a principled stance on events in Iran. What is the basis for determining solidarity with the working class and left revolutionary democratic forces in Iran? To limit the assessment as to which forces obtained a majority of votes in recent elections is not unimportant but neither is it decisive. Reactionary forces often win electoral majorities while the revolutionary forces languish in prison, are denied basic democratic rights and their programs deliberately suppressed and distorted. Conversely revolutionary forces often win majorities and are attacked by imperialism and reactionary campaigns organized to overthrow the revolutionary forces, including direct intervention and the use of military power.
Iranian trade unionists are in prison and after today's ominous statements from the supreme leader in Iran; we cannot be indifferent about what might be in store in the form of repressions of the left and in the first place the Communists. The Iranian Communists were tortured and executed by the Pahlavi regime and by every regime since. One thing all of these regimes shared was their anti-Communism.
To inform our supporters that there is a "variety" of standpoints on events in Iran and circulate that information and leave it at that is an invitation to cherry pick what seems to be the most plausible explanation. That abandons a collective appraisal to subjectivity and individualism; all of course in the name of "making up one's own mind" a convenient cop out for neglecting applying togetherour science of Marxism to determine our understanding of political reality.
The above statement by the leader of the Tudeh Party taken from their website where their position is stated and elaborated, is an example of how a Communist leader deals with notions of individualism and of "leadership infallibility" and what real collective leadership means in the Leninist sense. We need to look closely not only at the content of his remarks but also at the highly principled Communist attitude to leadership it represents. After 52 years in the struggle in Iran his attitude merits respect and study.
Intellectual conceit and eclecticism which abounds on the left in North America and dominates the movements of labour and the people in Canada is not Communist. We get up in the morning and are deluged with a variety of points of views all claiming to be authoritative and many claiming to be Marxist even Leninist.
Our appraisal can be considered to be principled and Marxist-Leninist, only if it starts with appraising what the Communists of Iran are saying. To consciously evade critical evaluation of the assessment to the Tudeh Party at this juncture is the worst kind of opportunism and panders to what is popular. Moreover picking the analysis that lends weight to and choosing it one-sideely to curry favour and supports an appraisal of politics in our own country is deplorable.
Do we agree or disagree with what the Iranian Communists are saying? If we disagree and accept what the reactionary clerics are saying we are duty bound to say so and why? What is our standpoint on the anti-imperialist struggle today, the stance of the international communist movement as it is being developed at international meetings and circulated through Solidnet, or do we adopt the standpoint that there are a variety of views of the anti-imperialist revolutionary process and they are all valid.
Nor do we accept uncritically the statements of respected revolutionary leaders however prestigious and courageous their contributions to the anti-imperialist struggle might be. We are Communists and we start with what our movement is saying and go from there. Otherwise we should step out of the Communist movement and declare ourselves to be neutral and above class "free spirits" as it were.
We are not neutral! As a minimum we are duty bound as Communists to state our view about what the Tudeh Party is telling the world, first of all. Then we are duty bound to proceed from there to substantiate an alternative point of view.
Comradely
Don Currie. Chair Canadians for Peace and Socialism

This commentary has been bcc'ed to a list of known Canadian and US Communist organizations and some international friends obtained from the internet and by personal contact at international anti-imperialist meetings for peace.
Canadians for Peace and Socialism is now in its 31st year of Communist action and analysis in the struggle for peace and socialism. Our standpoint can be viewed at www.focusonsocialism.ca