28.01.2010

There is a duty to form a vanguard party

An organisation called Communist Workers of Iran has produced this document, entitled 'Proposed charter for a party of the working class'

Capitalist domination over human society, as well as the globalisation of capital and the concentration and control of the means of production by imperialist groups, is precipitating human society towards class-based polarisation. On the one hand, the competition between rival groups under world capitalism means that the wealth produced by the working class and other layers and classes is concentrated in few hands. On the other hand, capital's need for increased accumulation and domination of human society (a prerequisite for its continued existence) compels it to push billions towards poverty, hunger and annihilation. Inevitably such conditions compel larger sections of the working class to resist and fight this order.

To keep control and maintain its domination, international capitalism (imperialism) has no alternative but to rely openly on regional capitalist states and their organs of repression. World capitalism (imperialism) attempts to do this at a time when the international working class is facing dispersion and lacks consciousness as a consequence of the defeats of treacherous organisations and parties in the last century following the victories of the latter part of the 19th century and the Russian Revolution in October 1917.

Now that the struggle against capitalism has reached a new stage, the necessity for the formation of working class parties based on Marxist concepts of class struggle, in order to lead the revolutionary movement, is felt more than ever before. Throughout the world, revolutionary communists have a duty to form vanguard parties in the areas where they are based, to achieve the independence of the working class in line with revolutionary tactical and strategic goals. This is a necessary prerequisite for the creation of a united international body capable of overthrowing the global capitalist order (imperialism).

1. Mode of production and goals

A. Capitalism is the dominant mode of production throughout the world. The two antagonist classes confronting each other are the proletariat and the bourgeoisie.

B. The bourgeoisie wants to maintain the capitalist system and existing social and economic relations, as they serve the interests of this class. This implies keeping the current relations of production, exploitation of human beings and destruction of nature by a very small section of the population. This will only lead to the impoverishment of the majority of the population, the persistence and expansion of unjust relationships and the destruction of the environment.

C. The bourgeoisie keeps this mode and existing relations of production by imposing the dictatorship of its class over the proletariat through capitalist regimes and in some cases through coalitions with other reactionary classes worldwide. Since this mode of production is based on the contradictions of social production, on the one hand, and private ownership and control over the means, process and distribution of production, on the other hand, it will ultimately result in its collapse and downfall. The international proletariat has no choice but to struggle for the overthrow of these regimes, aiming to replace them with the only form the dictatorship of the proletariat can take: namely, the establishment of the direct rule of people's councils (soviets). If this attempt fails, human society will fall back into barbarism.

D. After the land reform during the rule of the shah of Iran, the collapsing feudal system was replaced with a capitalist mode of production. Its development had been prevented by imperialist forces in the preceding century and because society was ready for this transition capitalist production in Iran developed rapidly, both for the natural process of capitalist development and in particular within concrete conditions that are founded for pursuing imperialist interests and the goals of international capital. The process of capitalist development has not followed a classical model due to imperialist interests and the intervention of international capital, and this has resulted in uneven development. Iran has been dominated by both of these forces, which have ensured that it relies heavily on a single product, petroleum, alongside financial trading. The Iraq-Iran war and the sanctions regime spurred on the development of industry by the bourgeoisie.

E. The main antagonistic social classes at present are the proletariat and the bourgeoisie.

F. The final goal of the Iranian working class, along with the working class of the world, is the overthrow of bourgeois states around the world. This is a necessary prelude to a global socialist revolution. The aim is not only to destroy capitalism, but to destroy all class systems and to build a communist society without classes and exploitation.

2. Strategy

The global conditions for capitalism and attempts by native capitalists to merge more thoroughly into the world economic mainstream through neoliberal policies, privatisation and opening up large areas of production to foreign capital have resulted in poverty, unemployment and bankruptcy on an ever increasing scale. The current conditions facing the working class have been caused by the severe financial and social crisis, which is forcing struggles to escalate and creating the conditions for revolutionary upheaval.

A. The working class of Iran is not cowed by such conditions, but welcomes the opportunity to overthrow and annihilate the bourgeois ruling machine and establish a proletarian dictatorship through direct democracy and people's assemblies (soviets). People's assemblies are the only form of state in class society that can take away the political and legal privileges of the bourgeoisie and act as a key change to end relations in society which are based on prejudice vis-à-vis sex, class, nationality and religion.

B. Communists reject all liberal and revisionist views of socialism which try to maintain pyramidal and parliamentarian bourgeois power using deceptive terms, such as 'democratic republic', 'people's democratic republic' or 'new democratic republic' even in the name of socialism, as opposed to the direct rule of the people through people's assemblies. They try to equate 'bourgeois representation' or 'party dictatorship' with proletarian class dictatorship. The communists believe that the only form of state the proletariat can use to establish its class dictatorship is based on people's assemblies, following from the model of the Paris Commune (1871) and relying solely on the volunteer military forces of the people against any standing army.

C. Communists also reject any opportunistic standpoints that call for the vague strategy of establishing a 'workers' state' without any definition, which leave the door open for revisionist and non-communist interpretations.

D. Communists reject anarchistic interpretations that deny the necessity of forming a working class party to lead and guide the revolutionary struggles of the working class. It is necessary for the working class to be armed with such an organisation, an organisation that assembles the most conscious strata of the working class and communist revolutionaries to be able to get to the point of establishing a classless, communist society.

3. Tactics

The peculiar conditions of capitalist development in Iran, and consequently the totalitarian state, have caused parts of the capitalist class - namely the industrial bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie - to be kept away from the centres of political power and wealth. For this reason they wish to replace the current ruling hierarchy with a more liberal balance of power in order to prevent the downfall of the bourgeois state.

This radical liberal bourgeoisie, which represents the strata that have been kept away from political and economic power, is more afraid of mass struggles and a workers' revolution than the totalitarian bourgeois state. However, since they possess no instruments of state power they have resorted to using the power of mass struggle and the revolutionary proletariat to compete with the ruling circle.

In order to use this power to achieve its goals they have put on a 'revolutionary' mask and stripped proletarian slogans of their revolutionary content, replacing them with liberal and compromising elements in order to divert revolutionary struggles into their own controlled channels and domains. They are using this power as a lever to gain more compromises from the ruling sectors and get a bigger chunk of workers' exploitation and the people's resources. Thus:

i. The current tactic of the proletariat in Iran is to expose and reject any compromising policies of the reformist bourgeoisie that divert popular potential, revolutionary organisation and institutions away from a communist working class strategy towards the goals and interests of the bourgeoisie.

ii. This tactic must be carried out through the propagation and cultivation of scientific socialism and the short- and long-term goals of the revolutionary proletariat; through organising the class struggles of the proletariat and social movements and forming communist cells all over Iranian society, in workplaces and communities, to build the leadership of the working class party over all social movements, and direct them to fulfil the strategic goals and slogans of the revolutionary proletarian movement.

iii. Iranian communists reject all petty bourgeois understandings of revolution that believe a group of vanguard 'representatives' of the working class can directly and without relying on the conscious, strategic and organised struggle of the working class to reach the final goal of working class revolution.

iv. The communists, while insisting on the inevitable use of antagonistic armed methods by the working class to break down bourgeois resistance, draw a line against any illusion in armed guerrilla or terrorist struggle that is put forward under the banner of 'breaking the totalitarian dictatorship' or 'agitation of the masses'. Communists do not participate in or endorse such actions. The arming of the masses and organising them into volunteer armed bodies is to be done under the direct leadership of the people's assemblies (soviets).

4. Organisational steps

A task of the working class party and active workers is participation in popular and, in particular, proletarian organisations and institutions for the propagation and cultivation of scientific socialism and the execution of tactical and strategic goals through the formation of communist committees and nucleuses in workplaces and communities. In organising and leading mass organisations, opportunities must be used to strike at the ruling machine and the capitalist system.

A. Communist nucleuses and committees are the basic party units and their goals are those mentioned in parts 1, 2 and 3 of this charter.

B. These nucleuses must apply the party programme through participation in institutions, assemblies, public gatherings, syndicates, unions, councils and any sort of organisation in which the masses come together to pursue their everyday social struggles in order to lead them towards the goals and interests of the revolutionary proletariat.

C. The working class of Iran does not need the communists in order to lead them in the struggle for their basic economic goals. The goal and purpose of the participation of the communists in such gatherings and struggles is to develop and educate the workers in order to organise and prepare the class for the overthrow of the capitalist political system and its replacement by the dictatorship of the proletariat through the establishment of the state of people's assemblies (soviets). Here the communists must reject various reformist, revisionist and opportunist tendencies that try to limit the level of workers' struggles to the economic level, and divert its political struggles into reformist forms. Communists must also reject their compromising theories which, using excuses such as the 'lack of working class readiness' or 'unpreparedness of the society's foundation', try to reduce its class goals to a level acceptable to the bourgeoisie. The proponents of these lines must be exposed and isolated within the ranks of the proletariat and revolutionary communists.

D. Communists always respect the internal democracy of the workers' mass organisations, as long as these groups are not tied in any way to the capitalist state machinery. In such organisations they will achieve the party's leadership through education and organisation of the revolutionary elements, through the propagation of the party charter and of scientific socialism, and through attracting the majority of votes from their members.

E. Through the active participation of members of communist nucleuses and committees in everyday struggles of the workers and other oppressed and exploited layers of society the leadership of the working class party is facilitated and guaranteed.

F. Some of the demands of workers and other exploited and oppressed layers and social classes that can be used in organisational work are (but not limited to) the following:

• Freedom for workers' political and trade union assembles and freedom to participate in party activities, to form unions, syndicates and assembles and participate in decision-making. The right to plan and carry out programmes for political, social and economic change within workplaces and communities.
• The right to strike and freedom for political and union protests
• The democratic right of freedom of assembly, freedom of expression and freedom of the press, etc.
• Equal economic, political and social rights for women and men and a ban on child labour.
• Paid maternity leave for working women during their pregnancy and the establishment of free childcare at workplaces.
• Free schooling until higher education and the attainment of proficiency. The general right to learn in one's own language.
• The fixing of a minimum retirement age and provision of a lifelong pension for the retired that is not less than the level received at their last employment.
• Free healthcare, including hospital expenses, treatment and medicines.
• The revoking of inheritance laws.
• The revoking of current tax regulations.
• The revoking of laws that discriminate on the basis of sexuality, nationality and religion.
• The freedom to engage in the ideological and religious ceremonies of all faiths, religions and beliefs.
• Equal divorce rights for women.
• Childcare to be based upon a standard of living beneficial to both children and parents (...)

Finally, we look forward to any suggestions or critiques of this charter as part of the struggle for the unity of the revolutionary communists and the working class of the world