This cry is not a lament – it is the cry of a courageous popular uprising

A young Kurdish woman, Jina Mahsa Amini (age 22), died in police custody in Tehran at the hands of Iran's morality police on 16 September. The pretext for her arrest was the alleged violation of the law to wear the Hijab. She was from Saghez, the Kurdish part of Iran.

Since then, the mass protests in Iran do not stop; day and night the streets are dominated by the protesters, in the Kurdish province, but also in all big and small cities of Iran. Gina Amini's death has again ignited the fire of a revolutionary ferment throughout the country, which had been glowing among the masses for a long time and expressed itself above all in an unprecedented accumulation of workers' struggles.

At first glance, the protests seem like a spontaneous uprising of anger. But it is much more and has a long history. Already last year, inflation of 55 up to 130 percent was becoming unbearable for people, and workers with experience of struggle were organizing in the factories. From March 2021 till March 2022, there were 4000 workers' struggles, from industrial sectors such as oil, gas, petrochemical, in steel plants, from sugar cane workers at Haft Tapeh to truck drivers, nurses and teachers. Trade union demands were raised in the protests, as well as demands directed against the privatization of factories, educational institutions and basic urban services.

From these struggles the force developed that gives today's mass uprisings their nationwide breadth, their consistency, and directs their resistance against the regime.

"The people have simply had enough! The many workers' strikes; the women are in the streets; the teachers have been fighting for months, the pensioners. Everyone is fighting against the unbearable life full of poverty, inflation, hunger and oppression. The protests bear clear signs that the Kurds and all other peoples in Iran stand together in great solidarity." says Iranian Zaman Masudi, activist of the international militant women's movement.

People are losing their fear. Despite brutal repression and violence with thousands of arrests and 133 deaths so far, women and men, workers, young people, students are standing up against the hated theocratic, fascist regime. Women shed their hijabs, police stations, religious centers and public offices go up in flames. The cry "Woman, Life, Liberty" rings out. And for the first time in 40 years, the slogan "Long live socialism, long live socialism" can be heard.

As early as mid-July 2022, Nosrat T., CP Iran, said in an ICOR webinar, "I would like to say that society is moving at high speed toward revolutionary conditions." This is now proving true as economic and political demands, struggles interpenetrate and insurrectionary goals revolutionize. Organizers of the mass uprising in Marivan (near the Iraqi border) said in a call, a day after Gina's murder, "The reason for the degradation of women is capitalist culture, laws, and reactionary and patriarchal traditions." And several trade unions called for a strike under political slogans; the Coordinating Council of Oil Contract Workers wrote: "The increasing intensification of the cycle of oppression and brutality in the life of the government has put society in a state of rebellion today, highlighting the need for unity among permanent oil workers and short-time workers, and for practical solidarity to end this hellish situation."

Organizations such as the Organization of Fadaiyan (Minority)/Eastern Kurdistan are calling for a general political strike and a nationwide uprising.

Courage and will for societal change of the workers and popular masses are the potential for a victorious struggle. In order that their way does not suffocate in resignation or blood, a nationwide united leadership and a revolutionary party are necessary, which is respected among the masses and gives them orientation and organization. Above all, no struggle in any country today must remain alone and isolated. Therefore, the ICOR declares itself in solidarity with these struggles all over the world and sets itself the task to organize consciousness and support in worldwide solidarity activities. Imperialists and fascists are connected worldwide and the counterrevolution acts in a cross-border way. Therefore, national party building and the strengthening of international forms of organization such as ICOR or the anti-imperialist and antifascist united front must be resolutely pursued.

Long live the struggle of the Iranian masses for freedom and democracy!

Let's organize solidarity! Let's break Internet blocking and censorship!

Down with the theocratic, patriarchal and fascist regime!

Long live freedom - long live socialism!

Forward with the ICOR!

Strengthen worldwide the antifascist, anti-imperialist united front!

Signatories (as of 07 October 2022, further signatories possible):

1. PCPCI Parti Communiste Proletarien de Côte d'Ivoire (Proletarian Communist Party of Ivory Coast)

2. UPC-Manidem Union des Populations du Cameroun - Manifeste National pour l’Instauration de la Démocratie (Union of Populations of Cameroon - National Manifesto for the Establishment of Democracy)

3. CPK Communist Party of Kenya

4. MMLPL Moroccan Marxist-Leninist Proletarian Line

5. CPSA (ML) Communist Party of South Africa (Marxist-Leninist)

6. PCT Parti Comuniste du Togo (Communist Party of Togo)

7. PPDS Parti Patriotique Démocratique Socialiste (Patriotic Democratic Socialist Party), Tunisia

8. MLOA Marxist-Leninist Organization of Afghanistan

9. CPB Communist Party of Bangladesh

10. SPB Socialist Party of Bangladesh

11. CPI (ML) Red Star Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Red Star

12. NCP (Mashal) Nepal Communist Party (Mashal)

13. NDMLP New-Democratic Marxist-Leninist Party, Sri Lanka

14. CPA/ML Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)

15. БКП Българска Комунистическа Партия (Bulgarian Communist Party)

16. PR-ByH Partija Rada - ByH (Party of Labor - Bosnia and Herzegovina)

17. MLPD Marxistisch-Leninistische Partei Deutschlands (Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany)

18. UC Unité Communiste (Communist United ), France

19. UPML Union Prolétarienne Marxiste-Léniniste (Marxist-Leninist Proletarian Union), France

20. BP (NK-T) Bolşevik Parti (Kuzey Kürdistan-Türkiye) (Bolshevik Party (North Kurdistan-Turkey))

21. KOL Kommunistische Organisation Luxemburg (Communist Organization of Luxemburg)

22. RM Rode Morgen (Red Dawn), Netherlands

23. UMLP União Marxista-Leninista Portuguesa (Portuguese Marxist-Leninist Union)

24. RMP Российская маоистская партия (Rossijskaya maoistskaya partiya) (Russian Maoist Party)

25. MLGS Marxistisch-Leninistische Gruppe Schweiz (Marxist-Leninist Group of Switzerland)

26. TKP-ML Türkiye Komünist Partisi – Marksist-Leninist (Communist Party of Turkey – Marxist-Leninist)

27. MLKP Marksist Leninist Komünist Parti Türkiye / Kürdistan (Marxist Leninist Communist Party Turkey / Kurdistan)

28. KSRD Koordinazionnyj Sowjet Rabotschewo Dvizhenija (Coordination Council of the Workers Class Movement), Ukraine

29. PCC-M Partido Comunista de Colombia – Maoista (Communist Party of Colombia - Maoist)

30. PCP (independiente) Partido Comunista Paraguayo (independiente) (Paraguayan Communist Party (independent))

31. PC (ML) Partido Comunista (Marxista Leninista) (Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist)), Dominican Republic