#IranRevolution – Declaration of Solidarity. Be aware and participate!

We, the representatives of international students at the University of Hamburg, are moved by the revolutionary struggles of the people of Iran. We send out greetings of solidarity to all those who wish to cast out the regime of the „Islamic Republic“. You are ambassadors of hope and role models in the struggle for the emancipation of all.

The state sanctioned murder of Jhina Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman, was the spark that ignited this fire. She, like so many other women in Iran over the past decades, was abducted and mistreated by the „morality police“ under the pretext of violating the repressive dress codes. It was through a courageous journalist, with the help of medical personnel at the hospital she was treated at, other arrested persons, and her family that it became public knowledge to the world that her death was a direct result of her abuse, and was indeed a state-sanctioned murder.

Zan – Zendegi – Azadi

We mourn with her friends and family, and express our condolences to them on behalf of the bereaved families of all victims of state-sanctioned terror. Jhina Mahsa will never be forgotten. She lives in the hopes and struggles of the people.

The life-affirming slogan, originally taken from the Kurdish women’s movement: „Zan, Zendegi, Azadi!“ (In Kurdish: „Jin, Jan, Azadi!“, and in English: „For women, for life, for freedom!“), has spread around the whole world. In the protests, it is often expanded to include the sentiment: the people and the country as a whole should flourish („Mard, Mihan, Abadi!“). Equality joins freedom.

The new quality about this uprising is that it is about everyone and everything: about liberating the society from an exploitative, clerical oligarchy and its violent henchmen; about liberation from gender apartheid and racism; about equitable economic development; and though all of this, it is about basic democratic rights, about human rights.

The people want to take their history into their own hands and solve the problems of society with their own wisdom and commitment.

Solidarity is the greatest historical force!

We stand by the students of Sharif University in Tehran and all other universities. We support all students and all teachers who stand up against this regime. Arrests, disappearances, torture and murder must be stopped!

The people of Tehran tried to free students and university professors who were surrounded, murderously attacked and abducted. These types of actions are being repeated throughout the country.

We are encouraged by the great solidarity empowering the people of Iran, from Kurdistan to the Baluch provinces of this multi-ethnic land.

Teachers are calling for a general strike and thanking their students for the „lesson in courage, life, emancipation“.

Insurrection is organized in other provinces of Iran as a measure to keep military forces opposing the demonstrations busy and to relieve the oppressed in Tehran or Kurdistan.

In some mosques, crimes committed by revolutionary guards are being denounced.

Petrochemical and oil/gas industry workers are now calling for a strike, demanding an immediate end to repression.

The iranian people are overcoming the fear, isolation, division and passivity the ruling class wishes to impose on them with greater levels of quality and quantity. They counter and attack the system by demonstrating- without headscarves, with mockery, laughter, performance and music. They do so in demonstrations, occupations, hacking systems and through strikes. In doing so, they are constantly growing solidarity and increasing discussion about their goals and strategies. They are defending themselves against the brutality of the regime.

Rule in the „Islamic Republic“ is a theocratic-neoliberal kleptocracy

The „Islamic Republic“ is an arch-reactionary, neoliberal, theocratic-patriarchal and brutal kleptocracy. This regime is neither representative of the Iranian population nor of the ideological attitudes and practices of Muslims.

This regime developed historically and has attempted to halt and destroy all attempts by the Iranian people to establish a democratic constitution, to command the country’s natural resources sovereignly and for the benefit of the population, and to maintain peaceful relations with its neighbors, since the beginning of the 20th century using various imperialist powers. For example, in 1953, British and American intelligence organized the coup against the democratic President Mossadegh and fortified Shah Reza Pahlawi as dictator, in the interest of predominantly British oil corporations. The „Islamic Revolution“ of 1979 was also an externally sponsored counter-revolution, despite all the anti-imperialist rhetoric from the mullahs. It was a „theft“ of a real revolution that had already been fed by humanist, democratic and socialist sources.

Although the Iranian regime and the governments of the West have seemed to have been irreconcilably opposed to each other ever since, in truth there have always been economic ties that have kept these rulers aligned – from arms sales („Iran-Contra affair“) by the U.S., to „critical dialogue“ by the German government, to the recent supply of stun guns. Economic sanctions imposed on Iran violate international law and have only inflicted suffering and shortages on the people. There is a lack of everything-unless one is connected to the ruling class which has private means-even basic medical products. At the same time, the Revolutionary Guards have built up a (shadow) economy based on the sanctions induced shortages over the decades. This enables them to exercise political and economic domination in the country all the while using economic and physical force to maintain the shadow structure, and to do their business without regulation. They rob a rich country with the potential to prosper, and deliver it at will to their changing economic and military partners.

Liberation, peace and global solidarity

The people of Iran wish to, and can, overcome the deep crisis within their society themselves. In order to accomplish this, they require the free and equal political participation of all Iranians and the globally civilizing, enlightened and socially liberating solidarity of the people of the entire world.

Iran is integrated into the global capitalist system of exploitation. It is part of, and often the object of, the power struggle over fossil fuel resources, from whose destructive use all humanity must break away. Iran itself participates in wars for areas of influence throughout its region.

For more than 100 years, people have experienced imperialist actors claiming primary access to resources, especially oil and natural gas. The governments of the world’s most powerful countries have never tolerated Iran’s wish to develop sovereignty according to the will of its people and through freely and democratically conducted contests.

There is no reason to assume that these governments, which at the same time supply arms to Saudi Arabia or Turkey, which are indifferent to the deaths in Yemen, which court the dictator Aliev in Azerbaijan and allow people to drown in the Mediterranean, which took sides in the „Arab Spring“ in such a way that societies are almost destroyed, would now truly bring their influence to bear in the interests of human rights, democracy and peace.

We therefore call upon all governments to: Keep your hands off Iran! Bring your international policy in line with the principles of the United Nations, human rights and your own declarations! International solidarity means solidarity of the people, not merely of the ruling class.

We demand serious efforts within the international community to end the destabilization of the Near and Middle East, to enable a peaceful coexistence. This will also deprive the Iranian regime of an essential economic and military power base.
In particular, we call for a halt to all trade in weapons, as well as weapons- and surveillance technologies.
We call on people around the world to work towards the signing and implementation of the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). It is a matter of the elimination of all nuclear weapons – worldwide.
We call for the establishment of a UN mechanism to investigate and punish serious and grave human rights violations in Iran.
We demand an immediate and permanent halt to deportations to Iran.
We demand a simplified asylum procedure. Gender-specific and sexual persecution as well as religious conversion must be recognized as grounds for asylum.
The right to asylum must finally apply to all people, completely and without bureaucracy.
We call on the media, science, culture and politics to deal with the history of Iran and the region as well as the negative influences of imperialist interest politics to date in a differentiated and analytical way, so that everyone can learn from it for a sovereign and peaceful development.
We call on German trade unions to force cooperation with Iranian trade unions!
We call on politicians and public figures to stand up for the liberation of all political prisoners and to create lasting public attention for these people!
We call on universities, foundations and scientific institutions to establish and expand scientific cooperation with Iranian universities, to invite students and scientists and to remove existing bans on cooperation (e.g. with Sharif University).
We call on the Bundestag not to cut the funds for foreign cultural policy (e.g. for the German Academic Exchange Service) – as planned – but to increase them. Scholarship programs for students from crisis regions must also be significantly expanded. In order to safeguard academic freedom and human rights, it must be democratically ensured that funding is not co-financed by think tanks and lobbyists of dictatorial regimes.

Our solidarity is not to be limited to the Iranian uprising. It is to be understood as a part of international solidarity for peace, human rights and just global cooperation. Get involved in protests and discussions – so that we all contribute worldwide to fight for such a world.