THE INVASION OF THE IRAQI REGIME
AND OUR TASKS

2) The practical content of the policy of the Ba'ath regime of Iraq, as a capitalist state and the representative of the interests of monopoly capital, is generally as follows:

(a) To cover up the internal contradictions of Iraqi capitalism and to prevent the upsurge of the flames of mass revolution within the borders of this country;

(b) To revive the stability of the imperialist security of the Gulf, upon which effective blows have been delivered as a result of the Iranian revolution, and to secure and protect the interests of the oil monopolies in the Gulf, thus serving in practice the consolidation of the domination of U.S. imperialism over the Gulf region.

The facilitation and speeding-up of the consolidation of the monopoly bourgeoisie's hegemony in the ranks of the Iranian bourgeoisie in general, and the substitution of the Islamic Republic regime - which is losing more than ever before its capacities in the suppression of the Iranian revolution - with a government of the direct and active representatives of the monopoly bourgeoisie of Iran and u.s. imperialism (the imperialist opposition of Bakhtiar, Palizban, Madani, etc.) in particular.

The invasion of the Ba'ath regime of Iraq into Iran, in its continuation and depending on definite circumstances, has the possibility of becoming a war of annexation (in the form of the division of Iran, the military occupation of Iran, annexation of regions of Iran into Iraq, etc.). This invasion is in reality in the service of providing grounds, facilities and help for the bourgeois-imperialist counter-revolution in accomplishing its final assault on the Iranian revolution, and thus is in its nature against the revolution of the workers and toilers of Iran.

3) The Islamic Republic regime, since it is a capitalist government and has acted and acts as the active component of the bourgeois-imperialist counter-revolution in the service of the suppression of the Iranian revolution, in the face of the invasion of Iraq, defends, by virtue of its nature, not the revolution of the workers and toilers of Iran but merely its own existence. This regime neither wants nor can rely on the masses and their arming and in the light of the war with Iraq and under the cover of the existence of emergency conditions, the assault by a foreign enemy, the necessity of "defending the Islamic fatherland", etc, it shall try, by relying on its organised military forces, to:

(a) Pursue its policy of wresting political freedoms and suppressing the communists and other revolutionaries, more actively;

(b) Intensify the attacks on militant workers and trade-political workers' organisations; pressurise the workers more than before for increasing production; and militarise the work-places;

(c) Establish semi-martial law conditions and regulations over the country and place the military forces more actively and more directly in the service of the suppression of the revolutionary opposition and the annihilation of democratic rights;

(d) Increase its demagogic propaganda as much as possible and, by pretending to be anti-imperialist, retard the process of turning away of workers and toilers from the government;

(e) . . .

Firstly, the revolutionary workers of Iran have no animosity and difference of interests with the workers and toilers of Iraq;

Secondly, workers and toilers of Iran assess the present war, a war between two capitalist governments whose consequence is in the service of suppressing and preventing" the escalation of the Iranian revolution; and hence they defend the revolution and its gains against the war of the capitalists.

From the viewpoint of the workers and toilers of Iran, the invasion of Iraq is another manifestation of the attempts of the bourgeois-imperialist counter-revolution in preparing and creating the grounds and conditions of its final assault on the revolutionary workers and toilers of Iran. Such attacks whether they are carried out by the Palizbans, Bakhtiars, Madanis, etc., or by the Islamic Republic regime or by the armies of the countries of the region or by the army of U.S. imperialism, can be answered in a revolutionary manner only through the creation of a revolutionary front based on armed workers and toilers and under the leadership of communists. Attempts towards the organisation of this front regardless of the imminence of this or that certain attack, is at this moment the task of the communist movement of Iran. (The outlines of this matter, which we have put forward in our proposed platform against the coup, still holds true).

The tasks, which are placed on the shoulders of communist forces in connection with this specific invasion, are as follows:

1) The communists of Iran must resolutely struggle against the tendencies and trends which:

(a) On the attitude towards the present war, invite the proletariat to support the Islamic Republic regime or a faction of it,

(b) Advocate indifference and pacifism on the attitude towards this war under the pretext that this war is not related to the proletariat,

(c) Merely advocate the struggle against the present regime and overlook the Iraqi war and the politics, which are followed by it.

(a) The all-sided exposure of the bourgeois nature of the war and the counterrevolutionary aims, which are pursued through it.

(b) The exposure of the anti-democratic activities of the regime, which are carried out under the cover of the war with Iraq and the agitation and organisation of the defence of democratic liberties as a necessary grounds for mass mobilisation against the entire forces of counter-revolution.

(c) The agitation and organisation of workers and toilers against the measures and attempts of the regime for the militarisation of the work places.

(d) The exposure of the policies and operations of the two factions of the government towards the war and their' attempts to utilize the present circumstances for gaining concessions from one another.

(e) The exposure of the reactionary nature and the counter-revolutionary policies of the imperialist Opposition (Oveissi, Palizban, Bakhtiar, Madani, etc.) and its activities in taking advantage of the conditions that the war is creating.

(f) Agitation for the independent arming of the masses and the necessity for the masses and the revolutionary organisations to be permanently armed.

(g) The agitation and organisation of defence committees in factories, localities, schools, offices, etc, independent of the government and bourgeois parties.

(h) Agitation about the legitimacy of the revolutionary movement of the Kurdish people and the courageous struggles of the toilers of Kurdistan, as an example of independent and consistent mass resistance against the assaults of the different trends and forces of the counter-revolution.

(j) The agitation of masses by historical examples of victorious mass resistances under the leadership of communists (examples such as Vietnam, Korea, Albania, etc.)

(k) The agitation and organisation of mass resistance in the probable occupied zones with the purpose of expelling the occupying forces.