The Young Communist League – Ligue de la jeunesse communiste stands in solidarity with young people in Iran and their uprising in defence of peace, sovereignty, human and democratic rights, and social justice. We wholeheartedly endorse the statements of the World Federation of Democratic Youth and our sister organization the Tudeh Youth of Iran.

The heinous murder of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman by the ‘morality police’ in Tehran has sparked protests across Iran. Young people and students have been at the frontlines of the struggle, with protests at elementary and high schools as well at almost every university campus. The ​​Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations has played an important militant role and we salute the courageous struggle of teachers standing with their students and connecting the democratic and economic struggles. Despite deadly violent repression from the state that has taken the lives of young people and students, the protests have shown no sign of slowing down. 

The demands of the people have quickly transcended from justice for Mahsa Amini the abolition of the reactionary and hated ‘morality police,’ and even the end of the theocratic regime, as is evident in the slogans of the struggle: “Death to the oppressor, whether he is a king or a Supreme Leader!”; “From Kurdistan to Tabriz, our patience has run out!”; “If we don’t stand together, we will die one by one!”; and of course the rallying cry heard around the world that centres the systemic exploitation and oppression of women in Iran, “Women, Life, Freedom!”

As the protest movement in Iran widens, we can also detect certain attempts by reactionary forces in the Middle East, and their North American and EU imperialist backers, to take advantage of the situation to advance their own interests. The YCL-LJC concurs with the denunciations by Iranian progressive forces of these hypocritical attempts.

We also condemn the murderous bombing campaign by Iran and NATO member Turkey in Kurdish regions of Iraq. Civilian infrastructure, including schools, was unjustifiably hit in a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the people of Iraq.

We know that Canadian imperialism has pushed for further sanctions on Iran that have devastated the working class and the oppressed in Iran first and foremost. The federal Liberal government and its NDP backers have maintained the 2012 Conservative decision to break all diplomatic relations with Iran, which harms working-class people in Canada and Iran. If the Canadian government is going to sanction government officials for systemic violence by state security forces against women, it should start with itself. Canadian police have a history of persistent neglect of the cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. A report to the Canadian Senate released earlier this year outlines a long ongoing history of forced sterilizations of women in Canada, “including as a strategy to subjugate and eliminate First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples,” which also disproportionately affected other vulnerable groups, including Black and racialized women and persons with disabilities.

We stand in full solidarity with our comrades of the Tudeh Youth of Iran, the working class, and the progressive student movement as they struggle to widen and unite the forces for a democratic, secular, progressive movement in Iran. We wish to express our utmost solidarity with the family and friends of Mahsa Amini, as well as all victims of the ‘morality police’ and theocratic regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran. We denounce any attempt by Canadian imperialist forces and their NATO allies to use this situation as a pretext for further imperialist aggression and interference. We reiterate that the future of Iran and its political system is a matter that should be determined by the Iranian people and them alone. We salute the mobilizations and the dignified demands for peace, sovereignty, human and democratic rights, and social justice taking place right now in Iran.