Toufan: The worker-activists must be released immediately and unconditionally from the prisons of the Islamic Republic of Iran!

To: The International Conference of the Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organisations, labour-activists, progressive organisations, and freedom loving people of the world

Dear comrades,

The criminal regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran has recently intensified the repression of the labourers and worker-activists. In the past few months, many labour-activists have been detained, imprisoned, and tortured by the security forces of the Islamic Republic.

Shahrokh Zamani, a house-painter and decorator has been in detention since June 7, 2011. He was arrested while traveling from the city of Tabriz to the Capital Tehran by a public bus. Shahrokh was involved in establishing the independent trade union “Painters’ Syndicate” and he is a member of the “Committee to Form Independent Worker Syndicates”. Shahrokh Zamani was kept in solitary confinement for more than a month. He went on hunger strike for a week to protest his detention and mistreatment. The regime of the Islamic Republic has transferred him to Tabriz prison. No official warrant for the arrest of Shahrokh was issued and no charges are filed against him.

The capitalist regime of the Islamic Republic is fearful of the formation of independent worker-organisations and of the unity of the workers with other sections of the society. The Islamic regime sees its end by the united and nation-wide strikes and protests of the labourers and is trying to suffocate any attempt to build independent and democratic workers’ organisations. Following this policy, the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran has harassed, tortured and imprisoned Mansour Ossalou, Ali Nejati, Ebrahim Madadi, Torabian, and other prominent trade union activists for several years. Shahrokh Zamani, together with his comrades, Mohammad Jarrahi and Seyed (both are labour activists), and two university students Nima Pourhemmat and Sassan Vahhabi are the latest known victims of this criminal policy.

Our Party believes that repression of the workers and toilers by the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran also serves the interests of imperialism and the world reaction. We strongly condemn the repressive actions of the Iranian regime.

The Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan) supports the just struggles of the labour-activists for a better working condition and we praise their attempts to form independent trade unions. We call on all fraternal Parties and the Marxist-Leninist Organisations, all worker-activists, and all progressive minded individuals of the world to express solidarity with the struggles of the Iranian worker-activists. The people of the world should be outraged over the imprisonment and treatment of the Iranian masses and labour activists and to demand the regime of Islamic Republic to free all political prisoners immediately and unconditionally. Only the intensification of the just struggle of the Iranian labourers and of the genuine international support for masses can force the Islamic regime to retreat and to stop the repression of the Iranian people.

Release Shahrokh Zamani and other worker-activists immediately and unconditionally!

Long live the struggles of the Iranian working class!

Down with the capitalist regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran!

The Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan)
July 16, 2011

http://www.Toufan.org
Toufan@toufan.org

Coca-Cola & KFC to be introduced to the DPRK

PYONGYANG – Coca-Cola and Kentucky Fried Chicken are to be supplied to Pyongyang by end of this year, according to YTN.

Representatives from the two companies paid a visit to North Korea last week, invited by a domestic government-owned company that specializes in hosting foreign investments.

Although Pyongyang has introduced foreign food like pasta or hamburgers to its citizens, this would be the first international chain to open a branch.

The first chain is to be opened by this autumn, along with official supply of Coke.

North Korea is hastening the relaxing of its relationship with the western countries, allowing foreign news agencies like the Associated Press and Reuters to open branches in the capital.

As Coca-Cola and KFC are often referred to as symbols of global capitalism, not to mention American culture, the North’s intention brings about controversies concerning acceptance of the market system.

Source

Congress of the Communist Workers’ Party of Tunisia

by Wilhelm Langthaler

Hammami: revolution against old system must continue

In the large palace of sports of Tunis several thousand people participated in the first congress of the PCOT after decades of underground existence. It was first of all an event to show strength and give a signal to society that the PCOT is a significant political option. This certainly was achieved.

One is, however, inclined to wonder whether this displayed identitarian spirit might also turn into a problem to obtain wider consensus. While the overwhelming support for the revolution in society is undeniable and thus the central demand for a constituent assembly rallies a clear majority, this will certainly not be true for the communist symbols let alone for the specific Stalinist-Hoxhaist denomination. It is not by accident that some within the party proposed to change the name into Workers’ Party.

After a cultural program which not only stressed the communist heritage but also repeated the support for the Palestinian cause, came the central speech of Hamma Hammami, the leader of the PCOT, former political prisoner and widely recognized front figure against Ben Ali’s dictatorship. It touched central points of the current conflicts in Tunisia:

He insisted that the democratic revolution cannot be fulfilled if it does not become a social one, an anti-Zionist, an anti-imperialist one. Actually the movement did head in this direction as it was not by accident that the miners paved the way for the toppling of Ben Ali.

Hammami remembered, however, that the old elites still control the regime and that the old system so far has not changed much in terms of the societal structure. The poor continue to remain poor.

Actually we are faced with a counterrevolutionary regime which tries to stop the revolution by all means; Hammami said. For example the provisional government is reluctant to prepare the elections for the constituent assembly tacitly even trying to derail it. At this point Hammami called upon his people to register for the election and thus to help to transform the assembly into a revolutionary one.

Also at this point questions arise. While the inscription process is scheduled to be closed with the beginning of August, for the time being only a tiny percentage has registered. Certainly it is also possible to vote only by producing the identity card – as both PCOT and Ennahda demand. But the regime is likely to use this low inscription rate to delegimise the assembly. Some people think that the regime will even try to abort the elections. Under these condition the mere holding of the elections with strong popular participation is an act of continuation of the revolution. To achieve this, a co-operation with the Islamic forces seems necessary who also want the assembly to take shape.

Although Hammami in his speech defended Ennahda against the regime’s accusations to be behind some violent incidents, he nevertheless strongly lashed out against them on the question of the Islamic state and the Sharia laws. Given the fact that Ennahta has embraced a democratic state and thus the sovereignty of the people over legislation the attacks seems to echo the secularist sentiments – which apparently are also strong among the base of the PCOT. But these today play for the old regime who used to display itself as the saveguard for a secular state and continues to do so. Actually the main danger for the constituent assembly and the continuation of the revolution is exactly this secularist bloc which might even lead to abort the elections – remember the Algerian precedent.

Hammami closed with denouncing the NATO intervention in Libya and refusing any Imperialist intervention even under Arab disguise. He reiterated the support for the liberation of Palestine against Zionism.

Tunis, July 23, 2011