The revolution in Iran has been going on for three months now, and while the overthrow of the Mullah’s regime seems more and more tangible, the Women Life Freedom movement has long become a beacon of hope for emancipatory forces worldwide. The Islamic Republic is responding ambivalently with timid attempts to appease the protests and methods of intimidation through brute force, such as the current wave of public executions. More than 18,000 imprisonments and over 500 assassinations speak the ugly language of a frightened state power. But the revolutionary upsurge of youth, women and queers, and workers can no longer be stopped, and is steadily growing in its intensity and diversity.

Better late than never, we hereby declare the formation of an internationalist committee to support leftist revolutionary forces in Iran and strengthen international connections.

We see the necessity to amplify radical left and anti-authoritarian voices, and thus counteract the appropriation of the revolution by liberal forces. We are concerned by the tendency of radical left organizations and individuals to reiterate arguments of the mainstream discourse, a discourse that calls for neoliberal reforms in the Islamic Republic of Iran, sanctions, and intervention by the international community. One reason for this might be the lack of analysis from a revolutionary perspective, and the fact that regular news updates from Iran are not sufficiently accessible for the English- and German-speaking media. We aim to fill this gap.

In order to strengthen the part of the movement in Iran that particularly fights for liberation and for building a classless society, we will support not only a leftist discourse but also meet the material needs of the movement as best as we can. We will be transparent about where we send the donations we collect, as long as it does not endanger the safety of the people on the ground. We will focus on the support of self-organizations, which pursue the goal of building alternatives from below.

Our political position

We are fighting to build a classless society organized through councils – in Iran and beyond. In our view, there is no revolutionary potential in building a new state or state-like entity based on the permanent concentration of power among a small group of people – on the contrary, this must be prevented by all means. We see on the one hand, as in every revolution of the 21st century, the danger that a new (bourgeois) elite will be established, and on the other hand that states or organizations close to the state, such as NATO or the IMF, will use the situation to push through their geopolitical, imperialist interests. Therefore, we consider it as our responsibility as internationalists to expose the role of Western states in their cooperation with the Iranian regime or counterrevolutionary forces there, and to be engaged in the struggle against them.

Our only demand towards the German state and other states is to keep their hands off Iran. We will not applaud a government that represents capitalist oppression – even if some individual actions of that government may seem helpful. For that aim our local struggles here must continue and intensify.

The revolution in Iran is a feminist one whose power lies, among other things, in fighting the oppression of women and queers, which we understand as the basis for the oppression of society as a whole – as well as the oppression of minorities and the wage-labor classes. For us, this means that we must overcome patriarchal, classist, and racist behaviour among ourselves. Otherwise we cannot fight for the liberation of society.

The focus of the Mahabad International Committee is on the struggles in Kurdistan, because we perceive the society there as one of the driving forces of this revolution. However, our focus is not limited to this region – as people are organizing and striking all over Iran, and other regions are also centres of protest, such as Baluchistan.

Who are we

We are a small group of internationalists with different social positions and experiences. Among others, people who are active in the committee

• were born and raised in Iran and are now living in political exile in Germany 
• are second-generation migrants in Germany
• were born in Germany and have parents who fled to Germany as political exiles
• have an East German socialization.

Our group represents different gender affiliations and we all belong to the working class. We support the movement in Iran not only out of solidarity and political interest in its revolutionary power and its visionary teachings about resistance. We have also joined together in this committee because we are concerned and personally affected in different ways: We strongly condemn the murderous regime in Iran and the human rights crimes it has committed! These include, in particular, the brutal suppression of the revolution through the kidnapping and killing of protesters in the streets, and the torture and execution of detainees in prisons.

Down with the Islamic Republic of Iran! Long live the revolution!