At the end of July 1988, a great massacre of political prisoners began throughout Iran. Why did the Islamic regime and its supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, decide to commit this crime against humanity? In what context? For what purpose?
The Streets and the West Drive Out the Shah
In late 1978, Iran was on the verge of a social and political revolution: the working class joined the students and the middle class, and more than two million people marched in Tehran against the policies of the Shah (King in Farsi). Fearing that Iran would become a new satellite of the Soviet Union, U.S. President Jimmy Carter sent General Robert Huyser on January 4, 1979, to convince the Shah to leave the country. He stayed for a month to get the Iranian generals to stop the bloody crackdown on protesters and to facilitate the transfer of power.
At the Guadeloupe Conference, January 4-7, 1979, Carter persuaded his allies Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Helmut Schmidt, and James Callaghan to drop a regime that had until then enjoyed their unreserved support.
Thus supported by Western leaders, Ayatollah Khomeini landed in Tehran on February 1, and the “Supreme Revolutionary Leader” imposed the Islamic regime.
The repression of the opposition was very rapid: Since the priority was to gag the most resistant and militant regions, Kurdistan, which demanded more freedoms, was targeted by an order from Khomeini on August 19, 1979. Newspapers headlined, “Forty people shot dead in Sanandaj, Marivan, and Saqqez.” As resistance continued, the air force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard bombed bases of Iranian Kurdish groups in Iraq on September 9, 1979.
Women were among the first to resist the Islamic regime's regressive restrictions. They took to the streets to protest the compulsoryhijab introduced in March 1979: "We did not make the revolution to turn back time." Saba Kord Afshari, born in 1998, was recently sentenced to 24 years in prison, 7.5 of them suspended, and is currently in Islamic prisons. Her crime: walking on the street without a hijab and sharing a video on social networks.
When the wind of freedom blows
Workers in various sectors of the economy, especially in the oil industry, formed strike councils and committees during the revolution. They now wanted to manage the production units themselves. The first president of the Islamic Republic rejected this: “There will be no more workers' councils.” A myriad of political groups and parties re-emerged, once banned because the Shah recognized only one party, his own. A multitude of books and newspapers, previously banned, were freely published. Political gatherings took place everywhere, including schoolyards and university lecture halls. Young people as young as 14 or 15 became politically active.
Women increasingly mobilized against the hijab mandate and against proposed laws that considered them to be half of a man. Turkmen peasants formed their own councils and implemented their demands: “The land belongs to the one who works it.”
So we witnessed the radicalization of the revolution after the mullahs came to power. Unfortunately, the leaders of the Western powers were right, because no one but the Islamists could have extinguished the revolutionary flame so well. The Islamic regime began repression immediately after taking power, but the era of freedom held relatively well until June 1981, thanks to the fighting spirit of regions such as Kurdistan, Khuzestan, Baluchistan, and the Turkmen Sahra, as well as the social movements, women, and workers who wanted to maintain their factory councils against the “Islamic labor councils” imposed by the regime.
But one historical fact helped the capitalist mullah regime to suppress these movements: war.
War as “heavenly food”?
The Ba'athist regime of Saddam Hussein officially declared war against Iran on September 22, 1980. He wanted to occupy Khuzistan, which he called “Arabistan” because a large Arab population from Iran lived there. Khomeini and his regime, which was totally incapable of responding to the social, economic, political, and cultural demands of the social movements, welcomed this war with open arms: Khomeini wanted to “export” the Islamic revolution, since the majority of Iraqis were Shiites. While there were already numerous political prisoners, from now on any movement would be stifled under the pretext of war.
In 1982, Saddam Hussein proposed ending the war without demanding the annexation of Khuzistan, but Khomeini continued it for another six years, claiming, “To get to Jerusalem, we have to go through the Iraqi Shia towns of Najaf and Karbala.” On July 20, 1988, Khomeini accepted UN Resolution 598 to end the war, declaring that he had “drunk a bowl of poison.” This ended the longest conventional war of the 20th century, with 262,000 military and civilian casualties on the Iranian side and 105,000 on the Iraqi side.
States often wage wars to respond to a crisis with an even more colossal crisis. Unable to provide an answer to the social and societal crises, the Islamic State in Iran thought the war was “heavenly food” to prevent society from evolving toward greater freedom. This calculation turned out to be completely wrong: The many problems brought about by the war were added to the existing demands that had accumulated over eight years.
The “Commission of Death”
How do you deal with such a situation when you are at the head of a very authoritarian theocratic state? The answer lies in Khomeini's fatwa (religious decree) that ordered the massacre of political prisoners that would last throughout the summer of 1988.
Historian Ervand Abrahamian writes, “On July 19, 1988, prison doors were closed and televisions were turned off. Letters and packages were no longer distributed to prisoners. Visits from prisoners were stopped and even their family members were removed from the vicinity of the prisons. Prisoners were ordered to stay in their cells and to stop going to the infirmary, workshops, etc.” For the fatwa to be implemented, the “Commission of Death” was formed. One of its four members, Ebrahim Raissi, then a deputy prosecutor in Tehran, is now the sitting president of the Islamic Republic. It was these four who would decide the lives and deaths of several thousand women and men, who were imprisoned primarily for their political activism. Young people that had been arrested for handing out leaflets in the streets or selling political newspapers. Many political prisoners who had served their sentences remained in jail: some were questioned again by the “commission of death” and sentenced again. Cruelties were committed against women; cases of rape of political prisoners before their execution became known. Unmarried women were considered virgins, and since Islamic laws dictate that a virgin woman goes to paradise in any case, agents of the regime raped them before hanging them.
The “Corridor of Death”
To implement Khomeini's fatwa, the commission surrounded itself with nefarious enforcers. One of them is named Hamid Nouri. In recent years, he has travelled to and from Sweden, where the vigilance of activists of the Swedish Iranian diaspora bore fruit. He was arrested on November 9, 2019, upon his arrival at Stockholm Airport. His trial began on August 10, 2021, and is expected to last eight months. Political prisoners massacred in the summer of 1988 were entitled to a “trial” that lasted no more than five minutes. He is being tried for “premeditated killing,” “violation of international law” and, most importantly, “crimes against humanity.”
Hamid Nouri worked in only one prison, Gohardasht. About 100 survivors were able to testify against him. They described the fears of prisoners in the “death corridors.” Nouri and his colleague Nasserian picked them up so that the “death commission” could decide their fate. One witness testified that he saw an officer of the firing squad driving around with a wheelbarrow full of nooses. Another saw a large stack of shoes, which had previously belonged to executed prisoners. One survivor reported that the number of political prisoners hanged was so great that large refrigerated trucks drove into Gohardasht Prison to pick up the bodies. Most were hastily buried in mass graves. One surviving prisoner reported that Hamid Nouri distributed cakes to celebrate the executions. Surviving prisoners reported that they were blindfolded while waiting in the “death cells,” and then when Nouri and Nasserian came for them, they removed their blindfolds. When the prisoners came out of the courtroom, they were escorted either to the left side of death row or to the right side, with the left side meaning they would be hanged. Hamid Nouri often appeared before the Swedish court with a smile on his lips. He appeared confident.
State Terrorism
Let us cite some examples of the Islamic Republic's state terrorism.
Who were the thousands of political prisoners, women, and men, massacred during that long summer of 1988? Many regime leaders continue to support this massacre to this day, claiming that they were merely responding to armed attacks by the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI). Founded in September 1965, the PMOI is a leftist political organization that practiced urban guerrilla warfare during the Shah's reign. It participated in the 1979 revolution and supported the Islamic regime in its infancy. However, Khomeini considered it “heretical” and so it was pushed aside by the regime. In June 1981, when the last free spaces had disappeared, the PMOI resumed its urban guerrilla activities again. Having regrouped during the war in Iraq, they supported the regime of Saddam Hussein in the repression of the Kurds and the Shiite population. With the support of the Iraqi regime, the People's Mujahideen launched an attack on July 25, 1988. Their leader believed he had enough support from the Iranian population to reach Tehran in a few days. But it was a total failure: within four days, 2506 mujahideen were killed and 531 captured.
Most of the political prisoners massacred in the summer of 1988 were members of the PMOI, but if one analyzes the dates of the events leading up to the first executions on July 28, 1988, one can see that the massacre had been planned long before the attack by the People's Mujahideen on July 25, 1988. On the other hand, several thousand of the executed prisoners were activists of Marxist and Maoist organizations, including the pro-Soviet Tudeh Party, who opposed armed struggle. The Tudeh Party had even supported the regime for three years after the fierce repression of June 1981: it considered the mullahs “anti-imperialist”, heading towards a form of state socialism!
Fear mongering!
Why did the Islamic Republic regime and Ayatollah Khomeini decide to kill several thousand political prisoners in such a short time?
We have pointed out that the seizure of power did not lead to the revolutionary demands being withdrawn or forgotten. They even increased while the Islamic regime suppressed individual freedoms that had existed at the time of the Shah, such as the freedom to wear or not wear the Islamic hijab, to consume alcoholic beverages or to engage in artistic activities such as dancing. The imprisoned political activists supported these demands through their actions. The Islamic regime believed that if it silenced these activists, it could then silence their demands and consolidate its regime. The killing of thousands of women and men was meant to instil fear in the entire society that was struggling for freedom, equality and social justice. This tactic may be successful for some time, but sooner or later it gets cracks. That is why in November 2019, during a scant week of protests and uprisings, the Islamic regime killed at least 1500 protesters, again to spread fear. It will decidedly not stop until a final shock comes and destroys it forever.
Fear is a politics of failure. ■
Nader Teyf
Leila Hosseinzadeh, a well-praised Iranian student activist was brutally arrested in Shiraz on December 7th, 2021, and forcefully sent to detention in Shiraz Prison before she was stealthily transferred to 209 Ward of Tehran's Evin Prison. Her whereabouts were not announced by the intelligence agents of Iran for two weeks until after she was eventually allowed to speak to her parents who had been desperately looking for her.
Born in a working-class family, Hosseinzadeh's student activism was tied to the workers' unions and student unions' demands which made her a popular pragmatic figure among both leftist intellectuals and laborers. It is not her first time to become a subject to brutal arrests and imprisonment. Hosseinzadeh was first arrested amid her partaking in the December 2017 protests. She was released on bail after having spent 16 days under interrogations in detention. On July 28, 2019, she was again arrested by the intelligence service agents and sent to Evin Prison Women's Ward to serve her 30 months' prison sentence.
After each arrest, she was sent to the Revolutionary courts of Branch 28 and Branch 26 to receive sentences for her partaking in the birthday party of the Dervish activist Mohammad Sharifi Moqaddam and singing the revolutionary song of "the blood of Judas trees" in public. She was allegedly charged with "conspiracy against national security", and "assembly and collusion against national security".
She was ultimately sentenced to a 5-year imprisonment, a 2-year ban from social media activism, and a 2-year deprivation of leaving Iran. She served 2.5 years of her sentence before she was released in accordance with the decision of Tehran Province's Appeals Court on June 24, 2019. The master graduate of anthropology from Tehran University, Hosseinzadeh has been actively involved in students' demands such as the student movement against privatization of education.
A few days before her latest arrest, she was sentenced to imprisonment and social deprivation by the Tehran Appeal Court Branch 36. However, she was arrested at the presence of 15 intelligence agents while she was on vacation in Shiraz. She was extremely beaten under an aggravated mayhem by the agents. Her family have reported that she was prevented from taking her medications which are necessary for her serious illness and is now in a physically critical situation.■
Written by a collective of Iranian comrades.
You can keep up to date on twitter by following @Sanazactivist
Update: Leila Hossein has been transferred to Shiraz again and applied for 1.5﷼ billion (£25K) bail for her release.
Update 2: Leila Hosseinzad was released on bail on the second.
For 16 days, the people of Isfahan protested the drying up of the Zayanderud River. Lack of water and lack of access to historical waterways, as well as the evaporation of the Zayanderud and Gavkhouni wetlands have destroyed Isfahan’s ecosystems. The development of industry in the city has even caused soil subsidence and threatened various buildings. In short, the water crisis is the result of the deliberate destruction of the environment.
The protests against these fundamental issues and the basic right to life have been met with gunfire and tear gas. According to official statistics from the Isfahan police force, more than 67 people have been arrested in these rallies. However, unconfirmed reports put the number of detainees at more than 260. More than 30 protesters were injured in the eye and some have lost their eyes. Among these people are 15 and 16 year old teenagers. Thirteen of the detainees are children. Security forces even evacuated the injured from the hospitals to the detention center.
It's clear from the impact wounds that people have been shot at very close distance with shotguns, likely within 30 meters. These have been load with shells containing lead shot, which isn't easily removed and can have irreversible effects to peoples health.
Of course, the security forces have used shotguns to suppress protesters before. During the protests known as Golestan 7, which started at midnight on February 5, 1996, bullets were used by the large presence of security forces around the house of Dr. Noor Ali Tabandeh, the Gonabadi dervishes' hub. A number of citizens responded in solidarity with the injured protestors, by posting pictures of themselves on social media with their eyes closed, protesting against the violence of the security forces in the suppression and their use of weapons such as shotguns that caused irreparable damage to the protestors’ eyes.
What stood out most in these protests was the strong presence of women, who showed up to chant slogans and confront their oppressors, causing a great deal of concern and protest by religious extremists. As always, Iranian state-run news agencies have released their own images to discredit the images of the protesters' horrific repression and the burning of their tents, linking them to people other than the security forces. One such image was of a woman in front of the camera saying "set fire to tents" and "provoked" farmers. He also staged a picture of a man talking in front of the camera. Of course, the circumstances under which these confessions were confiscated are not clear, and human rights organizations have repeatedly accused the Iranian government of disseminating forced and false confessions.
What was the reason for these protests? Various factors such as the drought of Zayanderud, mismanagement of the water crisis in Iran and protests against the Islamic Republic have been among the reasons and motives of the Isfahan protesters. In the summer of 2021 (1400), this year’s rainy season, rainfall in Iran reached about fifty percent of what it was a year ago, and 40 percent below the long-term average, making it one of the driest years in the last half century. In Eastern and South Eastern provinces such as Hormozgan, Sistan and Baluchestan, Fars, Kerman, Razavi Khorasan and South Khorasan, the drop in rainfall has been reported between 50 and 85%. On the other hand, in the western and southwestern provinces of Kurdistan, Kermanshah, Ilam, Lorestan and Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, the decrease in rainfall is quite noticeable. Also, the temperature in the spring of 2021 (1400) was about two to three degrees higher than the long-term average of the country. This drought has caused crises in drinking water supply, agricultural production and electricity generation in Iran. ■
Written by a collective of Iranian comrades, edited by Organise.
You can keep up to date on twitter by following @Sanazactivist
There is open revolt in Iran and for some reason and no one seems to be talking about it.
Protestors first hit the streets over the issue of rising fuel prices and they met with a brutal crackdown by the Iranian regime. The situation escalated at an alarming rate with an internet black out starting on the 16th of November near masking the news while comrades international were focused on Hong Kong, Bolivia and Chile.
By the 19th, Amnesty International said that at least 106 people had been killed and that the number may be much higher, Iran's government called it “baseless allegations and fabricated figures.” Meanwhile a UN agency said that it was looking to be more like 200 and Anarchists on the ground put the figure closer to 3/500.
It's was hard to pin a figure on the dead with only the broadcasts of the Iranian government to turn to and they were pouring out a mixture of protestors burning Qurans in Tehran and pro-government rallies in an attempt to alienate the protestors from their communities. Through VPN's and the occasional bit of signal the odd status update or picture leaked out, however these calls for support seem to have been drowned out in the reams of shocking footage coming from elsewhere.
So here is the situation.
In 2015 the US imposed crippling economic sanctions on Iran and there was a subsequent economic collapse. This ofcourse overwhelming affected the working class Iranians, the parasites in control remained quite comfortable. President Hassan Rouhani's solution was to raise the fuel price (as opposed to say increasing the taxation of the economically wealthy and this saw an explosion of civil unrest. Iran has the cheapest petrol prices in the world, sitting on top of the fourth largest oil reserves . Petrol is seen as a something which should be accessible to all in abundance. A rise of near 200% was simply intolerable to working class Iranians.
However the fuel price increase is simply the straw that broken the camels back as the people face a constant waves of government corruption and wide spread poverty which sees millions unemployed or living extremely precarious lives, depriving them education, healthcare, food, and housing.
Protestors were initially met with water cannons and tear gas. This quickly escalated to live ammunition and local Anarchist comrades reporting tanks on the streets and people being shot at from helicopters.
On the 25th, the internet was restored. Reports came out indicating at the very least there were 400 deaths, 4000 injuries and some 10,000 arrests. Anarchists comrades report protests in 170 cities being composed of a mixture of workers, students and homeless, identifying it as a class war. The protesters were now demanding the overthrow of the Iranian regime, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, President Hassan Rouhani and the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) due to their corruption and the plague of economic problems and the lack of freedom and fundamental rights.
A statement by The Iranian leftist diaspora in the United Kingdom, France and Germany, formed by a loose coalition of academics and militants calling upon the global left to express solidarity with those struggling in Iran was issued later that day:
“Our
world is on fire. Not only forests but also cities are burning all
over the world. Social conflicts of all sorts are erupting, spreading
their flames across the planet: Algeria, Chile, Ecuador, Haiti, Hong
Kong, Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan, you name it. Located within this global
context of struggles against the social hell of neoliberal,
financialized capitalism, there has been another mass uprising in
Iran since November 15 ...
…. There are many videos showing the police shooting demonstrators in the head and chest — as we observed before in the case of Iraq. This happened mainly in the Kurdish and Arab provinces whose discriminated people are once again at the very forefront of the uprising and have paid the highest price....
… The left needs to learn from the oppressed classes to simultaneously oppose US imperialism (especially US sanctions) and the Islamic Republic’s interventions in the region.
We, the undersigned academics and militants, urge the global left to break its silence and express its solidarity with the people of Iran and their resistance.
It is pointless for us to demand anything from the Islamic Republic, but we will demand from our comrades and progressive forces all over the world to be — in any possible form — the voice of the oppressed people in Iran suffocated by the forced isolation. We also call on the international left to condemn the atrocities of the regime against its own people.
Finally, we stand in solidarity with the Iranian protesters who are reclaiming their dignity by refusing austerity, authoritarianism, militarization of society, as well as any other form of domination that stifles their autonomy and freedom.”
Here is a link to those who have signed.
The full text and the contact to add signatures can be found on ROAR
This was subsequently followed by The Anarchist Union of Iran and Afghanistan issuing a statement for a call to arms on the 26th:
“The Anarchist Union of Iran and Afghanistan believes that the Islamic Republic of Iran’s regime will not hesitate to massacre millions of Iranians, like it has done in Syria and Iraq as well as in Iran these these last few days. Therefore, the Anarchist Union of Iran and Afghanistan is prepared to declare that it will cooperate with all Kurdish, Arab and Baloch armed opposition forces. With respect to the widespread repression of defenseless people in Iran, we must be able to provide them with the right tools to defend themselves, before there are more dead and the people’s movement has been permanently suppressed. Therefore the need to form an armed revolutionary front to support and defend the people against the Islamic regime’s executioners is urgent and necessary. If it is possible to transport weapons to people inside Iran, you should not hesitate for a moment to prevent more people from being bled and buried. The duty of the revolutionary and radical opposition outside of Iran is to provide logistical and strategic support to the struggles and resistance of the people inside Iran”
These statements come just days after President Hassan Rouhani celebrating on the 20th remarked "our people have been victorious against... the enemy's conspiracy” stating that “Those anarchists who came out onto the streets were few in number," he said, insisting "this is the biggest display of the power of the nation of Iran”.
Two days later protestors burnt down a bank in Behbahan.
It would seem he is wrong.
It would seem that Iran is gearing up for a revolution.
Express your solidarity.
Peter Ó Máille
(فارس زیر)
The most beautiful news to the ears of Internationalists is the stirrings of revolution and Anarchism around the globe. Other the past few years we've several groups become more visible and active, from union organising Bangladeshi Garment workers to mayday marches revolution minded Indonesians. Recently we’ve seen folk come together to form “the Anarchist Union Of Afganistan & Iran” who along with other groups and individuals are urging all blocks of Socialist, Communist and Anarchist to join a “United Front for Freedom, Fairness and Equality” against the fascistic Islamic Regime of Iran.
STATEMENT ON THE FOUNDATION OF A UNITED FRONT FOR FREEDOM, FAIRNESS AND EQUALITY (Original here)
Invitation to Co-ordination and Cooperation to Overthrow the Islamic State of Iran. In view of the fact that:
•The Islamic fascist regime in Iran quite correctly considers the progressive/Libertarian and left wings movements as one of its most active enemies, and did/do execute, imprison and torture our comrades.
•On the other hand, right-wing ringleaders from all sides, and with the racist propaganda and the prospect of the continuation of the tyranny cycle, suppress any voice of freedom, equality and fairness, through their mass media.
•This common pain will never be healed without organization, coalition, synergy and harmony. We should learn from the Spanish Civil War experience where Left blocs and the Republicans formed alliance as a campaign plan, in accordance with the specific circumstances of Iran and its political forces, to coordinate the fight for freedom, Fairness and Equality. Another example that can be mentioned is the community of Rojava's popular democratic autonomy, which has been able to coordinate various political from all over the world to combat the tyranny regimes of the region. Thus, it is possible to create a network of pioneers of variety of political with libertarian, equality and fairness tendencies, including women movements, farmers, workers, students and other progressive radical that aims to overthrow The Islamic Regime of Iran under the umbrella of the United Front for Freedom, Fair and Equity.
Hereby by publishing this statement, as a group of individuals and political groups, take the first step in founding this “United Front”, and we invite you to join us in this battle against the “Islamic Republic of Iran”.
Long live: Freedom Fairness Equality Solidarity
This stirring of revolution isn't coming out of thin air either, back in 2009 there was a movement called “The Anarchist Network” which was growing in popularity amongst workers and students before is was “destroyed due to the betrayal of a member”. The organisers however bounced back in by establishing “The Anarchist Era”, who place focus on the struggle for freedom for the working class with members in Iran and Afghanistan.
This new network has been active ever since, starting small with secretive meetings and sharing their ideas in a clandestine manner, utilising what little power they had to share information with like minded comrades. They have slowly become a more public presence on the Anarchist scene in Iran and international. These slow steps are no mistake, Iran is a very dangerous place to be an Anarchist. In 2013 Soheil Arabi an Anarcho Syndicalist was arrested and sent to Tehran Prison where he has been since reportedly held in solitary confinement and faces regular torture with the soldiers who act as screws beating him and other prisoners up and then refusing medicinal attention.
There is also the case of Abtin Parsa who was arrested in 2014 at the age of 16 and sent to "the IRGC secret prison of Zarghan city" for 18 months, during which time he was tortured by a man named Seyed Jaáfari and was left in horrific conditions in a cell which often rang with the appalling sound of The Revolutionary Guards officials raping inmates. Thankfully he was released on condition that he stopped political activity. He however fled from Iran to Greece on 2016.
In the Uk, watching activists gleefully line up to do a few hours in the cells before sleeping “the sleep of the just”, it's often easy to be complacent with the struggles of our comrades in distant lands suffer under an authority with no need of a liberal mask.The formation of a union of Anarchists present unparalleled danger to our comrades and yet here they are sharing seditious material and fighting against the state and fanatically religious authorities which seek to suppress freedom.
The “United Front” is a call to action from individuals from across the left wing and “The Anarchist Union of Afghanistan & Iran” which itself formed in 2018 out of three revolutionary groups;
1-The Anarchist Era Collective (a community of
anarchists from Iran and Afghanistan operating both inside and
outside their countries)
2-The Anarchist group “Aleyh” (based
in Afghanistan)
3-The Revolutionary Radical Anarchist Front
(based in Iran)
They are expanding and building links with Anarchists around the world. If you are Iranian, Afghani or from any of the numerous communities who call the region home, get in contact. Comrades and allies globally step up and share solidarity and together we can work towards a truly global revolution of the working classes.
Learn more here:-
gozareshgar.com
asranarshism.com
twitter.com/asranarshism
twitter.com/UnitedFront11
اتحادیه ی آنارشیست های افغانستان و ایران – جبهه ی متحد
خوشایندترین اخبار به گوش انترناسیونالیست ها، جوش و خروش انقلاب و آنارشیسم در سرتاسر کره ی خاکی است. طی چند سال اخیر ما شاهد ظهور و تشدید فعالیت های چندین گروه بوده ایم، از اتحادیه ی سازماندهی کارگران پوشاک بنگلادش گرفته تا راهپیمایی های روز کارگر که از سوی اندونزیایی های انقلابی برگزار شد. اخیرا هم شاهد گرد هم آمدن شماری از رفقا برای تشکیل "اتحادیه ی آنارشیست های افغانستان و ایران" بودیم که در کنار سایر گروه ها و افراد، خواستار پیوستن تمامی گروه های سوسیالیست، کمونیست، آنارشیست و جمهوریخواه به یک "جبهه ی متحد برای آزادی، عدالت و برابری" در برابر رژیم فاشیست و اسلامگر خواستار پیوستن تمامی گروه های سوسیالیست، کمونیست و آنارشیست به یک “جبهه ی متحد برای آزادی، عدالت و برابری” در برابر رژیم فاشیست و اسلامگرای ایران هستند
· رژیم فاشیست و اسلامگرای ایران به درستی جنبش های پیشرو/آزادیخواه و چپ گرا را به عنوان یکی از فعال ترین دشمنان خود به حساب می آورد و رفقای ما را اعدام، زندانی و شکنجه کرده و میکند.
· از سوی دیگر، رهبران راست گرا از تمامی جناح ها، با بهره گیری از تبلیغات نژادپرستانه و با چشمداشت به استمرار چرخه ی استبداد،از طریق رسانه های جمعیِ خود مشغول سرکوب هرگونه ندای آزادی، برابری و عدالت می باشند.
· این درد مشترک هرگز بدون سازماندهی، ائتلاف، اشتراک مساعی و هماهنگی درمان نمیشود. باید از تجربه ی جنگ داخلی اسپانیا درس بگیریم که طی آن گروه های چپ و جمهوریخواهان در راستای یک برنامه ی عملیاتی با یکدیگر متحد شدند. باید از آن تجربه بیاموزیم و متناسب با شرایط ویژه ی ایران و نیروهای سیاسی آن، مبارزه ای برای آزادی، عدالت و برابری سازمان دهیم. یک مثال قابل ذکر دیگر، خودگردانیِ دموکراتیک و مردمی روژاواست که توانسته نیروهای سیاسی مختلفی را از سرتاسر جهان به منظور نبرد با رژیم های مستبد در منطقه سازمان دهد. بنابراین این امکان وجود دارد که شبکه ای از پیشگامانِ گروه های سیاسی متنوع با گرایش به آزادی، عدالت و برابری تشکیل داد. این شبکه میتواند در بر گیرنده ی جنبش های زنان، کشاورزان، کارگران، دانشجویان و سایر گروههای پیشروی رادیکال بوده و تحت لوای جبهه ی متحد برای آزادی، عدالت و برابری، معطوف به براندازی رژیم اسلامی ایران باشد.
ما، به عنوان مجموعه ای از افراد و گروه های سیاسی، بدین وسیله و با انتشار این بیانیه گام نخست را در مسیر برپایی این "جبهه ی متحد" بر میداریم و از شما نیز دعوت میکنیم تا در این نبرد علیه "جمهوری اسلامی ایران" به ما بپیوندید. زنده باد آزادی، عدالت، برابری، همبستگی این جوش و خروش انقلابی از هیچ پدید نیامده است. در سال 2009 جنبشی به نام "شبکه ی آنارشیستی" وجود داشت که تا پیش ازآنکه "به سبب خیانت یکی از اعضا"از هم بپاشد، محبوبیتش در میان کارگران و دانشجویان رو به فزونی بود. البته سازماندهان جنبش با تأسیس "عصر آنارشیسم"واکنش نشان دادند، جنبشی که تمرکز خود را بر نبرد برای آزادی طبقه کارگر با کمک اعضای ایرانی و افغانستانی خود گذاشته است.
این شبکه ی جدید که از آن زمان تاکنون فعال بوده است، کار خود را با برگزاری جلسات کوچک و مخفیانه و به اشتراک گذاری عقاید به شکل مخفی آغاز نمود و از همان اندک قدرتی که داشت بهره گرفت تا اطلاعات و اخبار را با رفقای همفکر در میان بگذارد. حضور آنان در صحنه ی آنارشیستی ایران و جهان، به آهستگی علنی تر شده است. این آهسته گام برداشتن کار نادرستی نیست، چراکه ایران برای آنارشیست ها جای بسیار خطرناکی است. در سال 2013، سهیل اعرابی که یک آنارکوسندیکالیست است دستگیر و به زندان تهران فرستاده شد، جایی که بنا بر گزارش ها از آن زمان تاکنون در حبس انفرادی به سر می برد و بطور منظم تحت شکنجه ی سربازانی است که به عنوان زندانبان گمارده شده اند و او و دیگر زندانیان را مورد ضرب و شتم قرار میدهند و از ارائه ی مراقبت های دارویی به آنان سر باز میزنند.
همچنین مورد آبتین پارسا را داریم که در سال 2014 در سن 16 سالگی دستگیر شد و به "زندان مخفی سپاه پاسداران شهر زرقان" فرستاده شدو هجده ماه را در آنجا گذراند. او طی این مدت توسط مردی به نام سید جعفری شکنجه شد و در وضعیتی ناگوار در سلولی محبوس بود که دیوارهایش اغلب با صداهای مخوف تجاوز مقامات سپاه پاسداران به زندانیان به لرزه در می آمد. او خوشبختانه به شرط پایان دادن به فعالیت های سیاسی آزاد شد و در سال 2016 از ایران به یونان گریخت.
وقتی در انگلستان می بینیم که فعالان چگونه شادمانانه صف میکشند تا چند ساعتی را - پیش از آنکه "به خوابی درستکارانه" فرو روند - در زندان سپری کنند، اغلب ساده است که مبارزات رفقایمان که در سرزمینهای دوردست از استبدادی که از نقابی لیبرال بی نیاز است در عذاب اند را وقعی ننهیم. شکل دهی به یک اتحادیه ی آنارشیستی، خطری بی مانند بر سر راه رفقایمان قرار میدهد و با این وجود آنها هنوز در حال به اشتراک گذاری محتواهای شورشگرانه و نبرد علیه حکومت و مقامات مذهبی متعصبی اند که در پی سرکوب آزادی هستند.
"جبهه ی متحد" فراخوانی است برای عمل از سوی افرادی از درون جناح چپ و نیز "اتحادیه ی آنارشیستی افغانستان و ایران" که خود در سال 2018 و از به هم پیوستن سه گروه انقلابی زیر تشکیل شد: 1- جمعیت عصر آنارشیسم (اجتماعی از آنارشیست ها از ایران و افغانستان که درون و بیرون از کشورهایشان فعالیت دارند) 2- گروه آنارشیستی "عالیه" (مستقر در افغانستان) 3- جبهه ی آنارشیستی رادیکال انقلابی (مستقر در ایران) آنها در حال توسعه و شکل دادن ارتباط با آنارشیست های سرتاسر جهان هستند. اگر ایرانی، افغانستانی، یا اهل هر یک از اجتماعات متعددی هستید که در این منطقه مأوا دارند، با ما در تماس باشید. رفقا و متحدان از سراسر جهان، برخیزید و همبستگی خود را به نمایش بگذارید تا با کمک یکدیگر به سوی یک انقلاب حقیقتا جهانیِ طبقه کارگر گام برداریم.