Stop Iranian pogrom

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IN ONE of the most cold blooder declarations to be made by on‹ of the most cold bloodedl repressive regimes in the world the commander of Iran's 'revo lutionary guards' has announcer the intention of executing lead ers of the Tudeh (Communist Party, and torturing 1,000 o: its members, now under arrest.

Mohsen Rozai told reporters in Teheran that the Islamic regime, which has dissolved the Tudeh Party and demandec that its members surrender to the authorities, was 'not in any rush' to deal out death sen. tences.

After torturing 'confessions' of 'treason' from Tudeh General Secretary Noureddin Kianouri, they were hoping to procure similar declarations from others. The statements he and others have made have 'signed their executions' . The newly arrested Tudeh members, he claimed, 'have only given us one hundredth of the information they could give us, and will be further interrogated.

Nothing could more clearly confirm that beneath its thin veneer of anti-imperialist rhetoric, Khomeini's Islamic regime has always been in essence a viciously anti communist movement, ruthless in its repression of the working class and its organisations.

The regime's turn against the Tudeh Party serves a dual purpose. firstly, it strikes a further blow against any working class resistance to the regime, following on the repression of the left wing forces of the Fedayeen, and of the Mujahedeen.

In addition, by publicly humiliating and crushing the political party identified with the Soviet bureaucracy, extorting 'confessions' that Kianouri and others were spies for the KGB, and expelling 18 Soviet liplomats from the country, he Khomeini regime is declarng its alignment with the Cold Warriors of the imperialist lations, and putting out the velcome mat for American trade lelegations.

Reagan will be well pleased with these moves - and with he growth in Iranian support or the Islamic guerrillas seeking • overturn the Soviet-backed egime in Afghanistan.

The main US concern over Shomeini had been that under ›ressure of the mass movement inleashed in the struggles to ›ust the Shah he would break ompletely from the control Khomeini of Western imperialism and realign Iran with the Soviet bureaucracy. This worry reached its highest point during the early barrage of anti-imperialist rhetoric, the US embassy occupation, and the conflict over Iranian debt payments.

At no point have the imperialists been at all concerned for the 'human rights' of the Iranian working class or national minorities, which have faced a draconian repression that has intensified under cover of the war effort against Iraq.

Indeed the repressive apparatus of the Shah's regime -the SAVAK Secret Police -remained intact after the Islamic revolution and is now being used by Khomeini to continue the attack on the left.

Now; overjoyed at the Iranian break from Moscow, American businessmen are scampering around Teheran in search of new contracts, US bankers are coining in the cash as tran settles its debts, and US oi companies have been meeting with Iranian oficials to discuss new deals for the future. executions, and the repeated evidence of the reactionary character of the Khomeini regime, the Tudeh Party has clung throughout to the notion that it is a 'progressive', 'antiimperialist' regime and supported its jailings and executions of left wing oppositionists.

Even now the British Communist Party, opposing the frame-up and murder of its Tudeh 'comrades' limply queries whether or not the regime is reactionary:

'The Iranian Islamic leadership is now in a critical position.: Having been in the vanguard of the revolutionary movement which mobilised the whole people to overthrow the Shah and his supporters, they now have to face the testing of their philosophy and policy: will it advance the interests of the people, or mean retreat in face of the contradictions and powerful pressures within Iranian society?

(Morning Star, May 7)

There is no doubt: the Islamic regime in Iran is a ghastly, grisly regime currently engaged on a pogrom of Communist forces and committed to the destruction of any independent organisations of the working class.

To revive the revolutionary movement that ousted the Shah is to prepare the Iranian workers' movement, the oppressed minorities and the countless women and gay people intimidated by the regime, for a struggle against Khomeinis Islamic republic and for a workers and peasants' government.

In the meantime, however, every trade unionist and socialist should raise resolutions throughout the British labour movement demanding an end to the pogrom against the Tudeh Party, the release of Kianouri and the imprisoned Communists, and full freedom of organisation and expression for organisations of the Iranian working class.

Address: Ambassador Ali Reza Farrokhrouz, Iranian Embassy, 27, Princes Gate, London SW7. Assad (right) has blocked the sche

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By Harry Sloan