General Strike in Kurdistan!

A big step forward for the people of Iran’s revolution against the Islamic Republic!

Today, people in Sanandaj, Mahabad, Bokan, Kamyaran, Miaandoaab, Oshnavieh, Nowsood, Piranshahr, Saghez, Baaneh, Divaandareh, Dehgalaan, Naghadeh, Sardasht, Javaanrood, Ravaansar, Rabat and all other cities and towns in Kurdistan carried out a successful general strike, despite undeclared province-wide martial law and all other measures the regime had resorted to. Almost all schools, universities and 80% of shopping centers and workplaces were closed. The Islamic Regime found itself, clearer than ever, surrounded by the ocean of people’s hatred! This strike was not just a powerful, magnificent response to the recent cruel execution of 5 political activists. It was not just a crucial step in defeating the regime’s policies of execution and terrorization of the people. It was an act with far-reaching consequences that will radically change the balance of political power against the regime. In a word, it was a significant step forward in the revolution of the people against the Islamic regime and for freedom and equality.

The general strike in Kurdistan on May 13th, 2010, will be remembered as an historic act, and as an historic day, in the process of the Kurdish people’s struggle in the Iranian revolution. People took part in the strike in their millions and broke the wall of the ever-more-severe repression in Kurdistan, thus pushing the Iranian revolution one significant step forward. It will raise the spirits of the people all across Iran and greatly intensify the regime’s desperation and hopelessness. After May 13th, the people in Tehran, Ahvaz, Mashhad, and so on, will feel much stronger in their fight against the Islamic regime!

The mass strike in Kurdistan will also radicalize the current revolution in Iran even further, and swing it more to the left. Kurdistan has always remained the “fortress of the revolution” of 1979. The people in Kurdistan have always said “no” to the murderous Islamic regime. The broadest masses have always shown the deepest hatred towards the regime and all its factions. Now that the people have actively set foot in the arena of political struggle, they show a fact ever more vividly, that is, what goes on in Iran is not a movement to “reform” the regime but a revolution to bury it in its entirety. Meanwhile the “revolutionary Kurdistan”, in general, and the “red Sanandaj”, in particular, have been the stronghold of organized left, revolutionism and communism since the 1979 revolution. The idea of a general strike in Kurdistan per se, the fact that it was called by the communists, the fact that it gained the support of all political forces in Kurdistan, and the fact that it took such huge dimensions in practice, provide yet another air-tight proof that the Iranian revolution turns more and more to the left as it goes further and further ahead.

The general strike of May 13th in Kurdistan showed something else too. It took place following the extensive, vigorous protests by the Iranians living abroad against the execution of five political prisoners in Iran. These protests were supported by the people within Iran. It all goes to prove, once more, that all the people in Iran share the same destiny in their struggle for liberation. The general strike by the people in Kurdistan was a manifestation of our slogan: ‘“No!” to ethnic state! “No!” to religious state! “Yes” to humanist state!’ Right, nationalist forces, as well as the regime itself, i.e., all the forces that seek to divide the people along ethnic and/or religious lines, received a fierce blow in the general strike in Kurdistan.

Finally, the general strike in Kurdistan was a great step forward also in that it promoted the tactics and forms of struggle, and thus contributed to the clearer articulation of the current revolution. It added, in practice, besides street demonstrations, “general strike” to the tactics of revolutionary struggle. At the present moment the adoption of this tactic is an absolute necessity for the revolution to advance. There is no doubt that today’s move by the heroic people in Kurdistan will set a pattern for the revolution across Iran.

The Worker-communist Party salutes the people in Kurdistan and congratulates all freedom-loving people, all the communists and the various political parties who made today’s strike a success.

Down with the Islamic regime of Iran!
Humanist revolution for a humanist state!
For a socialist republic!

Worker-Communist Party of Iran
May 13, 2010