Mahmoud Salehi’s Statement on the current crisis

To my dear friends and comrades, to all those who campaigned for my freedom and supported my colleagues in Iran;

Now that the capitalist system is imposing its deep crisis on all of us, we, workers in Iran, not only are with you wherever in the world, we in the same way are seeking for a solution.

To my fellow working women and men in countries around the world; to millions of families whose homes have been repossessed by capitalists; to hundreds of thousands of workers who have been laid off and millions others who are constantly worried about losing their jobs and homes: We alongside with you are thinking of solutions.

The current economic crisis has already destroyed the living conditions of millions of workers and their families. Various capitalists, politicians and their media have given many explanations for this crisis. Some are saying it’s a god’s wrath and therefore save the capitalist system from the condemnation. The majority claim that the greedy and corrupt bankers are the cause of this crisis.

They do their best to protect the capitalist system. They are distorting the truth while at the same time using our money paid in taxes to subsidize the same bankers for billion of dollars. They’re using our monies and taxes to pay for their debts through state intervention and ownership. However, the first opportunity they get, they would give everything back to the same thieves and corrupts.

They are using radios, televisions, websites, papers and books to convince people that they have no other choice but to accept this misery, unemployment and hunger while allowing billions of dollars to be given to capitalists to create another crisis after this one.

They nevertheless know that despite their destructive efforts they can’t deceive class-conscious activist workers. They know that labour activists can mobilize massively and stop all these schemes. Thus they are resorting to Marx to persuade labour activists. They are writing many articles in large newspapers and use news agencies like Reuters to propagate their views. 

They do this because they know well that increasingly more people are reading Marx now and therefore they’re trying to distort Marx’s views. They claim Marx wanted the state to own all manufacturing, financial and service sector institutions and companies. That’s a shame. 

Marx believed in nationalization of economy under a working class state and not a state-controlled economy under a system run by capitalists.

If you are, as we do in Iran, seeking for a viable solution, the first step should be to understand the root causes of this situation and accordingly find the best way for us to overcome these difficult situations. Reading Marx from a working class and anti-capital perspective is an essential step. Of course in each country, workers are facing immediate tasks, such as supporting unemployed workers and those working people who have lost their jobs, homes and savings.  This is something that workers and labour activists in each area can tackle collectively. What I would like to emphasize here is that the current crisis and all its devastating consequences are rooted in the capitalist system. This system is the cause of the crisis as well as unemployment, wars, hunger and other human miseries. To liberate ourselves and put forward an alternative, our class has to organize itself into workers’ councils. This is a viable solution that the working class undertook during the Paris Commune and other class conflicts. This is a path which was theorized and advocated by Marx. This is a solution that our global class in Russia, Spain, Iran and many other countries have strived and sacrificed for. While we are addressing our immediate needs and issues, we need to think of and strategize for this long-term solution.

Mahmoud Salehi,

Saqez, Iran

October 28, 2008

Translated by:

International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran (IASWI)

Background Information: www.workers-iran.org

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