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http://revolutionaryflowerpot.blogspot.com/2011/03/concise-look-at-current-political-and.html
Friday, March 11, 2011
A Concise Look at Current Political and Economic Situation
Translation of an article from Raah-e Kargar/Workers' Path.
A Concise Look at Current Political and Economic Situation
by: Yousef Langroodi / March 11, 2011
A look at the current conditions in Iran makes it clear that the Islamic
Republic continues to face unprecedented economic and political crises.
It has not only not been able to take a step toward solving any of the
problems it faces but has been spreading and deepening the dimensions of
the crises with the policies it has pursued.
The Islamic regime, which in previous months had been using all its
capabilities to portray the anti-dictatorial movement as defeated,
suddenly -- and with the advent of the protests and demonstrations on
February 14 and then 20th and then the Protest Tuesdays that ensued --
saw the reality of people confronting it.
On this year's Char-shanbeh-soori [ceremonies held for the last
Wednesday of the year], the Islamic Republic will find out well and
truly where it stands, and to what extent it has been able to control
people's movement and their struggles. This Char-shanbeh-soori, which is
to be held of on the last of the Protest Tuesdays of the current year
[Iranian calendar, which ends March 19], will be another occasion for a
nationwide opportunity for the people to shout, Death to Dictatro!, and
to show this regime of Guardians of Jurisprudence and their planners and
functionaries that the Iranian people most definitely wish to overthrow
the Islamic Republic. On the eve of a new spring and a New Year and the
celebrations for the New Year, people wish to declare the regime as one
of the foulest and a thing to be gotten rid of and thrown into history's
dustbin.
As well, the political crisis in the most central nuclei of the regime
continues; there is not a day that passes that does not witness some
conflict between the executive branch, the parliament, the Guardian
Council, and the Expediency Council. Dragging the Supreme Leader into
political matters, which was used to strengthen Ahmadinejad and his
gang, has now become a routine daily occurrence. The elimination of
Hashemi-Rafsanjani, who used to be the Number 2 in the line of
succession in power, from the chairmanship of Assembly of Experts is one
the last and most notable examples of the deepening of the crisis of the
Islamic regime. The elimination [from that post] of Rafsanjani, who
recently had in any case been sufficiently weakened and was stepping
very carefully in the political arena, while giving more cohesion to the
most central institutions of regime, at the same time exposes all the
more regime's weak points and its [complete] lack of room for flexibility.
In the economic sphere too everything indicates that the economic
bankruptcy is still sinking deeper into a crisis. [Mass] unemployment,
mass lay offs and successive bankruptcies of productive units and
service providers, and the fact of increasing millions of Iranian people
falling under the poverty line have all become real threats and
predicaments, whose dimensions expand daily. Not even the sudden
increase in the price of oil -- due to the recent events in the Middle
East/North Africa -- will be able to lend a helping hand to improve the
current economic and financial situation for the regime. Due to the old
age of [most] refineries and the lack of efficiency of the oil
infrastructure and lack of effective investment in that sector, the
Islamic Republic is effectively unable to increase production and export
of oil products.
Additionally, with pursuing the policy of eliminating price subsidies
[for essential goods], the regime has been and is causing increasing
poverty and misery amongst a majority of the subjugated people in Iran.
The policy of paying out insubstantial cash handouts to compensate for
the elimination of the subsidies and to help people with their bills is
reaching a dead end, due to the emptying of the country's treasury
approaching fast. At the same time, people's grievances due to the
sharply increased fuel costs [by 300-400%] as well as those of other
necessities are spreading ever wider.
Alongside all these, there have been a number of workers' protests and
strikes, including in the oil industry, most of which have been due to
non-payment of wages at times going on for months, and these are
optimistic signs indicating a counter-offensive against the onslaught by
the Islamic Republic and the local capitalists.
We have had many reports of a series of labor actions, such as strikes
and gatherings in different cities in Iran, including Abadan,
Kermanshah, Rasht, Ahvaz, Isfahan and Shiraz. In two of the most recent
labor actions in Iran, 1,800 workers in Tabriz petrochemical plant, in
protests against their horrendous economic conditions, went on an 11-day
strike. One of the workers' demands is to be contracted officially. The
strike did come to an end eventually after the Azerbaijan provincial
authorities, as well as the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs,
accepted the workers' demands. Also, hundreds of textile workers in [the
northern province of] Mazandaran, gathered in protest against
not-receipt of due compensation and against work conditions, carrying
placards in front of Qha'em-shahr provincial offices.
Based on all the above, Islamic Republic's current situation is
politically and economically very fragile, and far more vulnerable
compared to the past. If we add all the above to the international
sanctions against the regime, it becomes clear that with the onset of
the workers' actions and struggles taking on a nationwide character and
joining up with the [general] anti-dictatorial movement of the Iranian
people, the Islamic Republic does not have much of a chance for survival.
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