The end of 'reformism', what now?
On Sunday 2 March 2003, after the majority of votes in the local elections in Iran's cities, towns and villages, had been counted in most places, it became clear that only about 39 percent of the electorate took part in the elections. In Tehran just 12 percent of those eligible to vote took part.
It is obvious that this is the lowest level of participation of the Iranian people in various elections in recent years, especially since 1997 when according to the regime Mohammad Khatami was elected as President with more than 70 percent of the votes cast. Mohammad Reza Khatami, the General Secretary of the Islamic Iran Participation Front and the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, in a speech in Parliament on the level of participation by the people, said: "The main message of these elections is that we became faced with a significant reduction in people's participation in the cities." He went on to say: "We have to contemplate and think about the different problems that exist and try to understand why 25 million people did not take part in the elections."
"Understanding" the reason why the people did not take part in the elections is very clear. Only naive people, or those with a motive, are incapable of understanding this process. The reason is that in previous elections, to oppose the 'absolutists', the toiling people of Iran turned to the 'reformers' and chose 'the lesser evil'. But gradually their trust in 'the lesser evil' has also disappeared. This is because the people of Iran have in practice learnt that not only were the 'promises' of this faction baseless and empty; but that this group, even with their differences, are themselves also part of the ruling elite. They, like the other faction, are also in favour of repression and intimidation. The people have therefore in practice learnt that electing 'the lesser evil' means preparing the ground for it to become a 'greater evil'. In the past they voted for the enemy of their enemies, but this time they boycotted both enemies.
The exploited and oppressed masses of Iran have been kept waiting by the 'reformers'. On the one hand, after six years of 'thirsting' for improvements in the situation of the most basic democratic rights and freedoms, they have witnessed the steady growth in their distance from, and then disappearance of, the 'mirage' of political 'reforms', and have now abandoned this 'solution'. On the other hand, every indicator of economic and social problems - unemployment, inflation, unpaid wages, child labour, street children, prostitution and so on - has become much deeper and more widely spread than six years ago. The masses feel that the long-running puppet show of 'elections' and 'clashes' between 'reformers' and 'absolutists' is merely aimed at keeping them busy so that the capitalists, whether 'modern' or 'traditional', can go on robbing and making profits. At the end of this six-year process the masses have become poorer and the capitalists have become richer!
But what has still not been clarified is whether the 'reformers' have any policies that can take them further than these elections. In fact, through behind the scenes negotiations with western capitalist states, this faction is preparing the ground for a period of super-exploitation of the people, under the guise of 'democracy' and 'reforms'. This faction will not stop at any measure that deceives the people so that the interests of native and western capitalists can be preserved. They are preparing a 'soft' way of repressing the people of Iran.
The result of these elections have also shown that analyses and theories that have justified support for the 'reformers', under the guise of defending 'democracy' and the 'democratic revolution', are totally baseless.
The people's non-participation is the beginning of preparations for the creation of an alternative government of a fundamentally different type. A government that aims to get rid of private property and exploitation. The struggle for forming independent organisations of workers, students and women, (that are independent from the state and all political parties) can lay the groundwork for preparing the replacement of the whole system. The forming of these organisations is tied to the creation of a revolutionary vanguard party.
Iranian Revolutionary Socialists' League
4 March 2003
Iranian Revolutionary Socialists' League