Our Program

The organization of Fedaian (aghaliat) which specifically defends the interests of the working class and, from the standpoint of the working class, defends the interests of the broad masses of Iran’s toilers, openly sets forth its goals and objectives in this program.

This program, which is in fact the indictment of the workers of Iran against a system founded on oppression and capitalist exploitation and serves as the definitive condemnation of this system, is at the same time a declaration of the final war against all capitalists and all reactionary forces who defend the present miserable situation and the system based on wage slavery.

In order to realize these goals- which are nothing other than the goals and interests of the working class itself- the Organization of Fedaian (aghaliat) calls upon all workers and the exploited and oppressed toilers of Iran to organize and unite around this program.

1. The development of international exchange and production for the world market has created such close relations among all the nations of the world that the great liberation movement of the proletariat must inevitably become international-and in fact, it has long since become international.

The Organization of Fedaian (aghaliat) as the continuer of the path of the Communist Party of Iran, which was founded in 1920 and was the sole revolutionary class organization of the Iranian working class, regards itself as a detachment of the world proletarian army and as part of the global communist movement, and struggles for the same ultimate goal as communists throughout the world. This ultimate goal is determined by the character of the capitalist system and the course of its development.

2. The capitalist mode of production- whose main characteristic is commodity production based on capitalist relations of production, in which the most important and fundamental part of the means of production and exchange belongs to a small minority, while the majority of the population, consisting of the proletariat and the semi-proletariat, are compelled by their economic position to sell their labor power to capitalists continuously or intermittently and to be exploited, thereby generating through their labor the income of the wealthy classes- came to dominate as a result of the developments that occurred in Iran at the beginning of the 1960s.

3. These developments which took place within a gradual and prolonged process of the growth of commodity production relations, in a bureaucratic, top-down manner, and in response to the needs of the global capitalist market- extended commodity production relations to the farthest reaches of the country.

Iran, which prior to the reforms of the early 1960s had been positioned in the international division of labor of the global capitalist market primarily as a producer of a single product- oil- was thereafter integrated into the world economy in a more comprehensive manner and became dependent upon it.

4.The dominance of the capitalist mode of production in Iran- accompanied by the increasing export of capital by international monopolies, the expansion of modern industry, and the use of new technologies- has continuously led to the displacement of small enterprises by large ones. Small producers, unable to withstand competition from large enterprises, are steadily driven into ruin: some are transformed into the proletariat, the economic and social role of others becomes increasingly restricted, and in certain cases they become dependent on capital in a particularly arduous manner.

5. Despite the obstacles and limitations that Iranian capitalism has imposed on the employment of women, technological advances- which enable capitalists to make increasing use of the labor of women and children in the processes of production and exchange- have resulted in a persistent lag of demand for labor behind its supply. This has heightened the wage laborer’s dependence on capital and has given capitalists greater opportunities to raise the level of exploitation of workers. The very limited capacity of Iranian capitalism to absorb labor has further intensified this process.

Consequently, the existence of a large reserve army of the unemployed has forced workers, through the cheap sale of their labor power, into exposure to harsher oppression and exploitation, leading to an extraordinary increase in their level of exploitation.

6. Economic crises, which inevitably erupt periodically as a result of the inherent contradictions of capitalism, and which in Iran- because of the country’s severely unbalanced structure and economic dependence- are continuously intensified and prolonged to an unprecedented degree, further accelerate the growth of unemployment. Crises and periods of recession, on the one hand, deepen the ruin of small producers and, on the other, increase the wage laborer’s dependence on capital, more rapidly leading to the relative and at times absolute deterioration of the condition of the working class. Poverty and misery, insecurity about the future, and the absence of social security increasingly intensify, while inequality and the gap between the wealthy and the destitute constantly deepen and widen.

7. Accordingly, as the inherent contradictions of capitalism grow and intensify, workers’ discontent and protest increase in equal measure; their strength and solidarity expand, their struggle against the exploiters intensifies, and their efforts to free themselves from the unbearable yoke of capital grow stronger. At the same time, the development of capitalism by concentrating the means of production and exchange and by socializing the labor process within capitalist enterprises- continually creates the material possibility for replacing capitalist relations of production with socialist ones; in other words, it increasingly lays the material conditions for social revolution, which is the ultimate goal of all communist activity.

8. The proletarian social revolution- through the abolition of private property, the replacement of private ownership of the means of production and exchange with social ownership, socially organized and planned production under workers’ management, the abolition of wage labor, and the transformation of all existing social relations- will put an end to social inequality, the exploitation of human beings by human beings, and the division of society into classes, and will thereby liberate all oppressed humanity.

– The social revolution is necessary not only to bring an end to antagonistic contradictions among human beings, but also to terminate the antagonistic contradiction between humanity and nature- that is, the ecological crisis which capitalist society has driven to its extreme and which has now become one of the major problems confronting humanity.

9. A necessary condition for the social revolution is the dictatorship of the proletariat, that is, the seizure of political power which enables the working class to crush the resistance of the exploiters, secure the broadest democracy for workers and toilers, remove all obstacles standing in the way of its great objective, and undertake the socialist reorganization of society.
10. The emancipation of the working class can only be achieved by the working class itself, since all other classes in society- despite the conflicts of interest among them- ultimately seek to preserve the foundations of the capitalist system.
11. The Organization of Fedaian (aghaliat)considers it its duty to expose the irreconcilable contradiction between workers and capitalists, to explain to the proletariat the historical significance and the necessary conditions of the social revolution, and to make clear the inevitability situation of the other toiling and exploited masses in capitalist society, as well as the necessity of a social revolution for their liberation from the yoke of capital.

– The Organization of Fedaian (aghaliat)calls upon all toiling and exploited masses to join its ranks insofar as they adopt the standpoint of the proletariat.

      – The Organization of Fedaian (aghaliat) regards it as its obligation to strive for the formation of the Communist Party of Iran, capable of leading the proletariat’s class struggle in all its forms until the attainment of its ultimate goal.

12. Global capitalism entered the stage of imperialism- its highest stage of development- approximately from the beginning of the twentieth century.

– Imperialism is that stage of the economic development of the capitalist system in which monopolies have acquired a decisive role, bank capital has merged with industrial capital, the export of capital to foreign countries has assumed massive proportions, and the entire world has been politically and economically divided among the imperialist countries.

– At this stage of capitalist development, imperialist wars- most prominently the First and Second World Wars, as well as regional and proxy wars- have become inevitable for the redivision of world markets, the acquisition of new markets, the domination of the world, and the subjugation of backward nations.

– The extraordinarily high level of capitalist development; the extreme concentration of production, which has brought the process of the socialization of production to its highest point; the domination of monopolies and finance capital; the major environmental catastrophes and dangers produced by capitalism that pose a serious threat to nature and humanity; the growth of militarism; the dangers and catastrophes of imperialist wars; the immense obstacles that imperialism has placed in the path of the working class’s economic and political struggle; the rising cost of living and the pressures resulting from it; poverty, misery, and insecurity about the future- all these factors have transformed the current stage of capitalism into an era of proletarian social revolutions. The Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia was its most striking manifestation.

– Only the proletarian socialist revolution can save humanity from wars and from all the calamities brought about by imperialism.

 

13. The advent of the era of proletarian revolutions has made the comprehensive preparation of the proletariat for the seizure of political power, the overthrow of the capitalist system, and the establishment of socialism an urgent task of the day.

The fulfillment of this task requires an all-round struggle against all forms of opportunism and a decisive break with them, as they constitute- each in its own way- obstacles to the growth of the class struggle, to the proletariat’s historical mission and ultimate goal, and to its international unity and solidarity.

The most conspicuous example of the bourgeois distortion of socialism is social democracy and other opportunist, reformist, and revisionist currents which- by theoretically or practically denying the dictatorship of the proletariat, the necessity of abolishing private property, and by rejecting the present epoch as the era of proletarian revolutions- negate and distort Marxism-Leninism and pursue a policy of class collaboration with the bourgeoisie. All these bourgeois currents belong to the camp of counterrevolution.

– The social revolution in Iran constitutes an integral part of the global proletarian socialist revolution.

* Communists in different countries, in striving to attain their common ultimate goal- determined by the domination of the capitalist mode of production throughout the world- are compelled to adopt different immediate tasks, since capitalism has not developed to the same degree everywhere and evolves in diverse political and social environments.

In Iran, where capitalism has long since become the dominant mode of production and where the realization of a social revolution has become an urgent necessity of society, the immediate political task of the proletariat- owing to economic backwardness, dependence on the global capitalist market, the numerous remnants of pre-capitalist systems in the political superstructure that constitute major obstacles to economic progress and to the full and comprehensive development of the proletariat’s class struggle, the economic and political oppression imposed on millions of the masses, and the naked and unrestrained dictatorship that, as an inseparable component of Iran’s capitalist political superstructure, has kept the broad masses in ignorance and subjugation- is the establishment and consolidation of council (soviet) power, the immediate implementation of a series of general and universal tasks at the political, social, and welfare levels, as well as the undertaking of measures that facilitate and accelerate the process of transition to socialism.

– For these reasons, the Organization of Fedaian (aghaliat) considers the immediate task of Iran’s social revolution- which begins with the overthrow of the Islamic Republic, the smashing of the bourgeois state apparatus, and the establishment of a council government of workers and toilers- to be the immediate implementation of the following measures.

1– Consolidation and strengthening of council (soviet) government

– Council (soviet) government, which emerges from the armed uprising of the masses and represents the embodiment of their will, is a workers’ state through which the working class and the toiling masses exercise sovereignty directly and without mediation. Therefore, under council power:

– The entire bureaucratic apparatus will be dismantled, and the direct exercise of power by the working and toiling masses through councils- acting simultaneously as legislative and executive bodies- will be established.

– The system of appointing officials will be abolished and replaced by the election of all posts and offices. Elected representatives shall be subject to recall at any time at the will of their electors. The remuneration of state officials shall not exceed the average wage of a skilled worker.

– The army, the IRGC (sepah), police the Basij, and all professional armed forces separate from the people will be dissolved; compulsory military service will be abolished; and the general arming of the masses under the authority of the councils will replace them.

– The existing judicial system will be dismantled. People’s courts will be established. Judges shall be elected and subject to recall.

–The nationwide congress of councils of workers’ and citizens’ representatives from cities and villages shall be the highest organ of council power.

* The Organization of Fedaian(aghaliat)demands that the council government immediately implement the following measures, which constitute the demands of the broad masses of workers and toilers and the oppressed people of Iran.

2 – Ensuring and guaranteeing the political freedoms and democratic and civil rights of the people of Iran

– Equality of rights for all citizens of the country, regardless of belief, race, gender, ethnicity, or nationality.

– Universal, equal, direct, and secret suffrage for all women and men who have reached the age of 18.

– Unlimited freedom of belief, expression, and publication; freedom of the press, the internet, and social networks; freedom to form and operate political parties and organizations, trade unions, councils, and all professional and democratic associations; freedom of assembly, demonstration, and strike.

– Inviolability of the individual and of one’s home. Freedom of travel, residence, and occupation.

– Recognition of the fundamental human rights of sexual minorities (LGBTQ+), prohibition of all forms of discrimination against them, and prohibition of violations of their security through hate speech and acts of violence.

– Dissolution of all apparatuses of surveillance, censorship, espionage, and torture, and the unconditional prohibition of such practices.

–Abolition of the death penalty.

Complete separation of religion from the state and schools:

The state must free itself from all ties to any religion or creed. No religion or belief shall be recognized or favored by the state. Any privilege granted to a particular religion and any monopoly of an official religion must be abolished. Any form of state budgetary support for religious institutions must be absolutely prohibited. The mention of individuals’ religion or creed in official documents and records must be eliminated. Religion and belief shall be declared a private matter of individuals. Everyone shall be free and entitled to have a religion or not, to adopt a religion, or to renounce it.

– Schools and educational institutions must be strictly secular. The teaching of any religious subjects and the performance of religious rites in schools shall be discontinued. Religion and the clergy must have absolutely no involvement whatsoever in school affairs or in curricula and educational programs.

Abolition of discrimination on the basis of gender

– Abolition of all forms of oppression and discrimination based on gender, and the enjoyment by women of full social and political rights equal to those of men.

– Equal rights and benefits for women and men for equal work.

– Free and equal access for women to participation in all spheres of economic, social, political, and cultural life, and access to all occupations and positions at all levels.

– Abolition of all reactionary laws and regulations concerning polygamy, temporary marriage, the man’s unilateral right to divorce, guardianship and custody of children, discriminatory inheritance laws and regulations, compulsory veiling, segregation of women and men in institutions and public spaces, and all repressive and brutal measures and practices such as flogging and stoning.

– Abolition of compulsory veiling and prohibition of any form of pressure or coercion regarding women’s dress; women’s right to freely choose their clothing.

– Prohibition of all forms of pressure, humiliation, coercion, harassment, abuse, and violence against women within the family, and the imposition of severe penalties for violations.

– Prohibition of child marriage under the age of 18 and of child abuse, with severe penalties for violations.

– Full freedom for women to choose their life partners. Women’s private relationships shall be inviolable and protected from any interference.

– Recognition of the unconditional right to abortion.

– Equal rights of women and men in matters of divorce, inheritance, and custody of children.

Abolition of national and ethnic oppression

– Equality of all nationalities residing in Iran, and the immediate and unconditional abolition of all forms of national, ethnic, cultural, and racial oppression, discrimination, and inequality.

– Abolition of any privilege for a particular nationality. No privileges shall be granted to any nationality or language. All nationalities residing in Iran shall have the right to freely speak their own language, receive education in it, and use it in the workplace, assemblies and public institutions, state bodies, and elsewhere.

– Abolition of the existing geographical and administrative divisions artificially created by the oppressive regimes ruling Iran. Regions with a distinct national and demographic composition shall determine their own geographical and administrative boundaries through regional councils and shall enjoy broad regional autonomy.

– The administration of autonomous regions shall be entrusted to regional councils elected by the people of those regions, organized on the basis of the principle of democratic centralism.

– The people of autonomous regions, through their elected councils, shall participate in the nationwide congress of councils of workers’ and toilers’ representatives in determining general policies and matters related to the administration of the country as a whole.

– Any forced annexation or incorporation is rejected. The unity of all nationalities residing in Iran must be voluntary and free.

3 – Immediate general social and welfare measures

– Establishment of a comprehensive and universal social security system from cradle to grave.

– Free healthcare and medical treatment; expansion of clinics and hospitals; expansion of infant care centers, kindergartens, and educational, health, and medical institutions.

– Free and compulsory education up to the end of secondary school; provision for all students, at state expense, of food, clothing, educational materials, and transportation. Abolition of the university entrance examination barrier so that everyone may pursue free higher education according to their interests and abilities.

– A fundamental and revolutionary transformation of the existing educational system and immediate action toward a revolutionary campaign to eradicate illiteracy; establishment of the closest link between school and socially productive labor; integration of theoretical and practical education.

– Creation and expansion of sports and educational centers; establishment of various artistic and cultural clubs and other institutions for healthy recreation, aimed at the physical, intellectual, and cultural development and flourishing of youth.

– Provision of housing and regulation of rents. All people of Iran must have access to adequate housing. The realization of this demand requires the implementation of a comprehensive program for mass housing construction. Until the housing problem is fundamentally resolved, rents shall be set in proportion to workers’ wage levels and implemented accordingly, with part of housing costs covered through state subsidies.

– Provision of the means for a dignified life for the elderly and for orphaned children, and the establishment of special centers for their care at state expense.

– Creation of special facilities and provisions for people with disabilities.

4 – Implementation of the specific and immediate demands of the working class

– A 40-hour workweek with two consecutive days off per week, and one month of annual leave with full pay.

– Reduction of daily working hours in mines, industry, and other enterprises with difficult and hazardous conditions to six hours per day and 30 hours per week.

– Establishment of a minimum wage in line with the cost of living and sufficient to support a working-class family of four.

– Annual adjustment of base wages in accordance with the cost of living.

– Counting commuting time, meal breaks, literacy education, and bathing time as part of working hours.

– Complete prohibition of overtime work.

– Prohibition of payment of wages in kind, and prohibition of piecework and contract labor systems.

– Prohibition of night work in all branches of the economy except where absolutely necessary for technical or welfare reasons and approved by workers’ organizations, and then for a maximum of four hours.

– Prohibition of child labor.

– Equal rights and benefits for women and men for equal work.

– Maternity leave for women of one month before and six months after childbirth with full pay, including free medical care, treatment, and medication.

– Provision of facilities such as infant care centers, kindergartens, and the right to care for and visit infants at the workplace; both parents shall equally enjoy these facilities, and time spent caring for or visiting infants shall be counted as working hours.

– Entitlement of workers to child benefits.

– Prohibition of wage deductions under the pretext of fines, damages, absence, or similar reasons.

– Prohibition of the dismissal of workers by employers; elected workers’ representatives in workplaces shall have decision-making authority over dismissals and oversight over hiring.

– Comprehensive social insurance for workers: unemployment insurance, accident insurance, disability, injury, old age, occupational diseases, wear and tear, and incapacity for work.

– Establishment of complete and organized health and safety supervision over all enterprises; workplace safety; free medical and health services; and full payment of wages during periods of illness.

– Retirement conditions: for men, a maximum age of 55 or 25 years of service; for women, a maximum age of 50 or 20 years of service; and in occupations with difficult, hazardous, or harmful conditions, a maximum age of 45 or 20 years of service.

– Counting periods of unemployment as part of workers’ employment records.

– Regulation of internal rules and bylaws of all production centers under the supervision and approval of workers’ representatives.

– Drafting of labor law with the participation, supervision, and approval of workers’ organizations and assemblies.

– Creation of jobs for the unemployed and payment of unemployment benefits equivalent to the living costs of a working-class family of four.

– Freedom of workers’ organizations and the right to strike, with full payment of workers’ wages during strikes.

– Equal rights for agricultural, craft, and service workers with industrial workers.

5 – Urgent measures to democratize the national economy in the interests of workers and toilers and to facilitate the transition to socialism

– Nationalization of all industries and enterprises belonging to the big bourgeoisie, imperialist monopolies, and religious institutions and foundations.

– Nationalization of banks and their concentration into a single bank.

– Nationalization of insurance companies and their concentration into a single institution.

– Nationalization of major communications and transportation enterprises.

– Nationalization of foreign trade and the planned distribution of goods through cooperatives.

– Nationalization of land, pastures, forests, and all natural and underground resources.

– Workers’ councils’ control over production in all industries, factories, and enterprises, as well as mass control over distribution.

– Abolition of commercial secrecy in order to exercise real control over production and distribution.

– Abolition of all indirect taxes and the establishment of progressive taxation on wealth, income, and inheritance.

– Immediate measures to confront the environmental crisis.

6 – Immediate measures in favor of toiling peasants and to raise the living standards of the rural population

– Immediate  confiscation of all lands, properties, tools, and means of production of landlords and large landowners, religious endowments, and various religious foundations.

– Where such lands are not cultivated in a mechanized manner, their transfer to peasants organized in peasant cooperatives.

– Control by councils of agricultural workers over mechanized lands and, in general, over lands cultivated with advanced methods.

– Organization of small peasants into cooperatives and encouragement of collective cultivation and the creation of large agricultural units in order to save labor and reduce production costs.

– Cancellation of all peasants’ debts to the state, banks, and all financial institutions of capitalists, landlords, and usurers.

– Provision of loans to peasants and all forms of technological assistance, such as machinery, fertilizer, seeds, and the like.

– Construction and expansion of roads, irrigation networks, water supply systems, and nationwide electricity in rural areas.

– Creation and expansion of medical, health, and cultural centers to improve the welfare of rural inhabitants.

– Granting rural workers the same working conditions and benefits as urban workers.

* The Organization of Fedaian (aghaliat) considers it its duty to strive for the independent class organization of the rural proletariat, to explain the irreconcilable contradiction between it and the peasant bourgeoisie, and to clarify the necessity of a socialist revolution.

7 – Foreign policy

In the field of foreign policy, the Organization of Fedaian(aghaliat)  calls for the implementation of the following:

– Material and spiritual support for the revolutionary movement of the working class throughout the world.

– Abolition of secret diplomacy and public disclosure of all discussions, negotiations, treaties, and agreements concluded with other states.

– Annulment of all enslavement treaties contrary to the interests of the masses of the people of Iran, and disclosure of their contents for public awareness.

* In the struggle for the above demands, the Organization of Fedaian (aghaliat) supports every revolutionary movement that opposes the existing social and political system in Iran; at the same time, it firmly condemns and rejects all reformist measures that entail the consolidation of the ruling class or the expansion of police-bureaucratic intervention in the lives of the masses.

* The Organization of Fedaian (aghaliat)emphasizes that the realization of the above demands is possible only through the overthrow of the reactionary regime of the Islamic Republic and the establishment of council (soviet) government under the leadership of the working class.

Adopted by the First Conference of the Organization of Fedaian (aghaliat) – 1988 (1366)
Printed in 2021 (1400) with amendments adopted by the 18. Conference of the Organization

Full text of Kār (Labor) Journal (Farsi), No. 944, available in PDF format