Criminal, Inhumane, Warmongering, and Illegal Sanctions on Iran

Statement by the Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan) on The Criminal, Inhumane, Warmongering, and Illegal Sanctions on Iran

On Monday January 23, 2012, the foreign ministers of the imperialist European Union countries decided in Brussels to extend the economic sanctions on Iran by putting sanctions on Central Bank of Iran and by freezing the assets of the Iranian people in Europe. In order to inflict a heavy damage on the economy of Iran, they decided to place an embargo on the export of the Iranian oil to Europe.

To impose economic blockades on and to cause hunger in Iran are acts that are internationally illegal and are crimes against humanity.  Imperialists want to impose their sinister, plundering, and domineering intentions on Iran and on their “axis of evils” by creating another Iraq and a second Gaza Strip. By punishing Iran, the imperialist countries want to teach a lesson to Non-Allied countries and to those who do not submit to their dictates.

In the past, the imperialists try to justify their crimes by passing illegal resolutions in the UN Security Council. But they imposed sanctions against Iran today without any UN authorization.  The sanctions are plots by a gang of international plunderer against a UN-member state and are against the UN Charter.  The US and EU sanctions against Iran lack any legal basis on the international arena. The US imposes on countries of the world the decisions made in the US Congress and pretends that the decisions are made by the international community. The illegal and bullying actions against Iran show the hegemonic and despotic nature of the US imperialism.

While the foreign minister of Russia, Sergei Lawrow, stated that the “unilateral actions are useless”, he added that there was no reason to make any decision in addition to collective decision by the UN Security Council. The deputy foreign minister of the racist government of Israel, Danny Ajalon, claimed in a press interview that “These sanctions have reduced the threat of war”.  Coming out of the meeting that made warmongering and threatening decisions on Iran, Ms. Catherine Ashton who is in charge of the EU international relations and the foreign minister of Sweden Mr. Carl Bidlt claimed that the basis of their work was to appeal to diplomacy and negotiation!

The imperialist powers clearly lie when they claim that they recognize the legal and indisputable right of Iran to enrich uranium. The fact is that they have monopoly in producing nuclear energy.  The recognition of Iran’s right to produce nuclear energy is to break the imperialist monopoly.  In a deceptive psychological war, the major powers warn the world about Iran’s nuclear bomb, but they have not disclosed any document to show the existence of this bomb. German foreign minister Guido Weserwelle shamelessly said that “We cannot accept Iran developing nuclear weapons” and that “This is not a security problem for region only but it will disrupt the world security”.  Wow! The non-existence Iranian nuclear bomb disrupts the security of the entire globe but many hundred known or secret warheads in the hands of American, British, French, and Israeli warmongers are nor dangerous for the world security! Apparently, there are good and bad atomic bombs! The arguments given by the representatives of the imperialist powers are fierce, threatening, and sickening.

The history of economic sanctions shows that the ordinary people of the countries on which the sanction were imposed suffered the most by the sanctions. In Iran, the inflation is rapidly rising, shortage of medicine and medical equipments is already felt, and particularly the patients with heart problems are under attack because the companies making the equipments are under the US sanctions and cannot export their products to Iran. This is not a concern for the imperialist powers. It is not important to the US President Obama and his Iranian allies if millions of people are slaughtered in the war. Also, the sanctions on Iran give an excuse to the authority of the Islamic Republic to increase the suppression of the anti-imperialist and democratic forces in Iran.

The imperialist powers think that if their sanctions cause widespread hunger in Iran, then the people will rise up and install a Western puppet regime. This is a miscalculation because the history of the Iran shows that Iranian people have always rejected submission to any forces allied to foreign imperialist powers. The Iranian masses have no feeling except disgust and hate towards sellout, spies, and for those who carry out terrorist operations in Iran.

The fact is that the imperialists’ actions against Iran are not for eliminating the Iranian nuclear bomb. Such a bomb does exist. Iran holds a key geo-political position in the Middle East region and is the center of entangled world contradictions. To control Iran is to control an entire strategic region with enormous energy resources that the US desire to plunder for decades. Strait of Hormuz is a valve for export of oil to four corners of the globe. The US imperialists wish to have control over this oil valve. The presence of the US forces in the region is a danger for the world security and is a threat particularly to the security of the Middle East. The propaganda about Iranian atomic bomb, the bomb that does not exist, is justification for aggression on Iran and for domination of the region, and Islamic Republic’s capitulation to imperialists’ demands will not change the imperialists’ nature of following their domineering goals.

The Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan) believes that the economic sanctions on Iran act against the masses and are inhumane. We take the imperialists, particularly the US imperialists, responsible for the suffering and misery these sanctions will cause. The sanctions on Iran are illegal, warmongering, and unjustifiable.  Our Party strongly condemns the imperialist sanctions, embargoes, and threats against the Iranian masses.  We believe that every progressive, human-loving, and patriotic Iranian must take stand against the sanctions and against the imperialist-Zionist warmongering threats, and must draw a sharp line to separate enemies from the people.

The regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran is a reactionary and Mafia-style capitalist regime. The regime of Iran has lost all its legitimacy, and the overwhelming majority of the Iranian masses are disgusted by the regime. The task of overthrowing this criminal regime is on the shoulders of the Iranian masses. The regime change by the imperialist invading forces will be for the purpose of colonizing the country and looting the resources of the nation. The imperialist powers have never supported and will never support the freedom-loving and democratic forces anywhere in the world. Their talks about freedom and human rights are nothing but smokescreens for their criminal actions, and Iraq, Libya, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan … are testimonies to this. Hypocrisy is written on their foreheads.

The Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan)

January 23, 2012.

Present International and National Situation and Our Tasks

Present International and National Situation and Our Tasks  

• Deficit reduction has become the mantra for big finance and the super monopolies since they were bailed out after 2008 by huge state funds, causing the huge deficits in the first place. This has resulted in drastic and inhuman cuts in welfare and large-scale and rising unemployment. Health, education, food availability, pensions and other welfare measures have been badly affected. In plain terms it means that the burden of the crisis caused immediately by deregulated finance has been pushed on to the shoulders of the working and middle classes. This story repeats itself all over the US, Japan and Europe, the core area of world capitalism. Nowhere in this area will finance capital allow the reinstatement of regulations that were in place before the triumphal march of finance capital. The sharp decline in the rate of profit in manufacturing forces capitalism to financialise and more unbridled speculation will hasten it to its doom sooner than later.
• Core capitalist countries and their multinational monopolies still control world production by producing very high-tech items and designs in their own countries. The rest of production is contracted out to peripheral countries according to the availability of cheap unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled labour. Eastern Europe and the leading ASEAN countries have the skilled and semi-skilled labour to produce the intermediate products that are then sent mainly to China to become finished products through largely cheap and unskilled labour.
• Although the lion’s share of the profits from such a process goes into the coffers of the multinationals, the monopolies have also to share a part of the profits with powerful peripheral (national-comprador) monopolies. This has given rise to strong middle income countries such as China, India, Brazil, South Africa, etc. These countries have more or less small home markets and depend on cheap labour to export raw materials, services, and manufactured goods. The shrinkage of markets due to the crisis has affected these countries in accordance with how much they have opened up to foreign capital and its commands. The Chinese and the Indian state still retain some restrictions on foreign capital and have saved themselves to a certain extent from the full impact of the crisis. But their GDP growth and, especially, their growth in manufactures have slowed down.
• In India, the ruling classes appear divided over what is termed “the next generation of reforms”. The dream team of the Bretton Woods twins (i.e. US imperialism) headed by Manmohan Singh and its cohorts consisting of Pawar and others are trying to press full steam ahead towards deregulating the entry and exit conditions of imperialist capital, changing the labour laws for such entry, curtailing the social wage and privatisation. On the other hand, there are forces that would appear against such moves or at least to be more cautious about them. This division is also reflected to some extent in foreign policy initiatives such as on Iran, China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Doha round, etc.
• The world economic crisis and the shifting of its burden onto the working people throughout the world have provoked widespread resistance struggles. In countries such as the US, Spain, Greece, Italy and France, these struggles have achieved a qualitatively new dimension by bringing forward capitalism as the enemy, a position that is unprecedented for the last half century or so. The OWS in the US is in the forefront of this development, but the Greek and Spanish movements are not very far behind. The working classes in these countries are yet to fully mobilise behind this development, but the struggles in Wisconsin, Oakland and New York promise greater things to come. But as of now, the anti-capitalist struggles are the arena for ideological struggle on what is to be done and how. The failures of the actually existing socialisms of the last century are still roadblocks on the way to clear understandings. Without a thorough overhaul of our ideas on socialism, the working class movement cannot move forward towards world-wide victory.
• In India, the contradictory tendencies within the ruling classes have not proceeded to the extent of any splits or even the full identification of specific forces in contention. But it is clear that in the political arena, these tendencies and the rise and consolidation of various kinds of regional forces have weakened the ruling class parties, mainly the two big ones, considerably. This has created grave instability and opened up spaces for the workers and the poor and lower middle classes to consolidate the innumerable ongoing struggles against, in essence, capitalism and imperialism.
• With its limited strength, the party and other unofficial left parties and formations, must abjure the kind of left adventurism practiced by the CPI (Maoist) and lead mass struggles on class and identity issues while uniting as and when possible with all forces, including regional forces and parties, NGOs and others. Imperialism must be the focus of our struggles and all forces which oppose particular imperialist policies without being against all such policies in any thoroughgoing manner should also be united with on issue to issue considerations. Only such a policy can unleash the mass struggle on a national scale.
• All forces to the left of the official left parties must build up close unity leading to possible mergers. But such mergers are still quite rare and unstable. While our unions and unions in which we work have begun to federate with the NTUI, we have discovered that this federation is a heterogeneous body combining industrial workers, rural and informal workers. Large non-party left forces are active in it, although some undesirable NGO-type elements are also there. Mutual learning among these powerful working class forces and struggling steadfastly against alien elements could deliver both a strong working class movement and a firm left unity.