 Greetings to all of the followers of this YouTube channel, a space organized by Truuna Popula, the organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Venezuela. If this is your first time joining us on this channel, you can subscribe to the channel, clicking just below here, okay? We can also invite you to subscribe to the information and the publication from Truuna Popula through our Twitter account, PCV underscore Venezuela, and on Instagram, PCV underscore BE. If this is your first time joining us, this is a space where you'll be able to hear about and understand some of the class struggles in Venezuela and across the world, and the role of the respective Communist parties in these struggles. Hear your hear reports, news, and interviews from across the globe. One of these such interviews is the interview we're going to be carrying out today. By hot piece of news, many of you probably have heard about already coming out of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the protests, the repression, and the wave of calls for reforms in Iran over the last four months. We are honored to be joined today by a representative of the Tudor Party of Iran, the Tudor Party, which translates to the People's Party of Iran. So it is my great honor and pleasure to welcome here, Comrade Mohammed Omed Vah. Comrade Mohammed Omed Vah is an official spokesperson of the Central Committee of the Tudor Party of Iran. He's also a member of the Politburo, and he's the editor of the party's central organ, which is called Namek Mardom. So Comrade Mohammed Omed Vah will be joining us today with a phone call. We won't have any video from Comrade Mohammed due to security reasons, unfortunately. But greetings, Comrade Mohammed. Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you, Comrade Dobson. And good to be here. Thank you for inviting me. Great. Well, let's get down to business, Comrade Mohammed. Hot news, Israel. There's been a wave of protests since September 2022. A young girl were killed by the repressive apparatus called the Morality Police in Iran, and hundreds of people took to the streets. This was a detonation of massive protests to demand structural changes in Iran. The Tudor Party published a communique recently on SolidNet, in which it affirms that more than 500 people have been killed, and over 18,000 people have been arrested due to these protests. What are the structural causes of the political and social crisis in Iran? Thank you, Comrade. So let me start by thanking you and all our comrades in the Venezuelan Communist Party for giving me this opportunity to talk to you about their current situation in Iran. And in response to your first question, let me start by giving you a brief analysis of our party's view about the system of government we have in Iran and its class nature and the policies that have led to the largest scale suffering by tens of millions of Iranians. And hence the current uprising, which today actually has entered this 120 days. So we believe that the current regime in Iran is a capitalist-based dictatorship, and from class point of view is a representative of big mercantile and bureaucratic bourgeoisies in Iran. The political structure of this capitalist system in Iran is based on political Islam, where the regime's Waliye Faghi, which translate into supreme religious leader, Ali Khamenei, is the representative of God on earth and therefore his orders are above all laws and legal or governing structures in the country. So the leading cause of all these growing protests was the worsening economic situation due to the regime's one could say new liberal policies backed and praised by the World Bank and the IMF and also the criminal US sanctions, economic sanctions on our country. According to the government's statistics, we now have over 40% of the population living below governments defined poverty lines and take into account that Iran's population at the moment is about 88 million. And the poverty, as well as unemployment, especially amongst the youth and in some of the provinces is as high as 70%. So these combined with unprecedented corruption and growing and widespread suppression of people's rights and freedoms, especially after the sham presidential elections of 2021 and the installment of Ibrahim Raisi as the president. Ibrahim Raisi was one of the, what we call the hanging judges, which in 1988 was responsible or massacre of thousands of political people in Iran, including hundreds of our comrades. So it's also worth mentioning a comrade that while the current people's protest against the regime is the longest that we have seen over the past decades, but over the past two years, we have been witnessing increasing social unrest and protests from growing number of workers' strikes across various industries. The most prominent one being the long strike of the cane sugar agri-industrial company in the south. And also growing strikes by teachers, by in almost every cities in Iran and by tens of thousands of pensioners who their income has effectively halved or in some cases even draw due to the worsening economic situation has even been effectively nominal to what they can support their day-to-day lives. So that's the basis of the current situation. Mohamed, in the moment of heightened conflict and mobilization of the Iranian people, what are the tactics of the Tudor party of Iran? Right, yeah. So we had a meeting of our Central Committee in October to look and discuss the people's uprising in Iran. And in our analysis, we identified the cause of the people's mass scale struggle, as I mentioned above. And we particularly noted the heroic role the Iranian women and youth are playing in these protests. And also, of course, the brutal and bloody nature of the regime response, killing hundreds of innocent people, including children and arrest and torture of thousands of protesters. So in our analysis, we recognize that a lack of extensive engagement of the working class in the current protest is one of the key weaknesses that our party and all the other progressive left forces should do their utmost to address. We also noted that we believe that the lack of united action by opposition forces and a lack of united anti-dictatorial front, and effectively a lack of progressive and a unified alternative that we can put in front of the people is amongst the key challenges that our party believe we should be directing all our efforts to resolve. Our party's key slogans and efforts and work at the moment are around preparing the groundwork or increasing worker strikes and a nationalist strike to bring effective daily regimes to his knees. Based on our analysis, while clearly the objective conditions in the country for developing a revolutionary situation exist, nevertheless significant work is required to develop the subjective conditions and the readiness and the resilience of the movement. And I want to add that while the current protest movement might go through its ups and downs, what is clear that the regime will not be able to resolve is deepening socio-economic crisis and it's effectively lack of legitimacy and sooner or later the time will come for them to fall and open the path for Iranian people to establish a national democratic government. Very interesting, Mohamed. Now the Iranian government has accused the US of promoting the protests. Is there really US and Zionist intervention in the protests? How does imperialism act in Iran? Yeah, interesting question, Comrade. So firstly, the regime's claims that the mass protests across over 150 cities and towns by thousands of people is the work of US imperialism and its allies are totally false. Even according to the regime's own internal analysis, over 80% of the population is against the current way Iran is governed and wants change. Now, we are also very much minded that imperialist backed media, such as the voice of America, BBC Persian Service, Iran International, which is backed and financed by Saudi Arabia and other media outlets backed by US and Israeli governments want to use the current upheaval to promote their own alternative. These media outlets obviously are trying to portray that there is a movement in Iran for the return of the monarchy. You know, 44 years after the revolution and the way that millions of people took to the street to bring down the monarchy. They are now trying to say, oh, there's a movement for return the monarchy. And this isn't the light of, you know, some of the key slogans we hear in these protests in these different towns and cities which translate as down with oppressors, be it a king or the leader. And the leader reference to Ali Khamenei was the supreme religious leader. Of course, in the absence of free and easy access to the internet, which the regime has blocked and also social media and especially, you know, heavy filtering of all the progressive, you know, media website or social media. The imperialist backed media as mentioned, the stations I've mentioned, reach a large proportion of the population and they are playing a significant role in trying to influence the protest movement and influence their line that, you know, the alternative to this regime is a monarchist regime and of course, you know, the progressive forces have a big task in hand in combating that. And I think all the indications from the protest movement in Iran is that the women and the youth are very much aware of this. And therefore, you know, the struggle in this arena is also as critical, making sure that, you know, the interference does not derail the progressive protest movement in Iran. Very good. Now, following on from that, Mohammed, how does the Tudor party overran characterize the current government in the country? Is it really an anti-imperialist government as some organizations and even governments claim? Yeah. Okay. Again, another very good question, Comrade. So as I mentioned before, we believe that the current regime in Iran is a capitalist, you know, representing the big bourgeoisie interest in the country. It's worth mentioning that the regime over the past 40 years, you know, and as you mentioned, has been using this so-called anti-imperialist rhetoric to advance its regional and international goals. And prior to the widespread sanctions, most of Iran's trade was with the rest. You know, even during the imperialist war against Iraq, Iran backed, you know, when the imperialists attacked Iraq, Iran backed the invasion and allowed both U.S. and NATO fighters to use our airspace to attack Iraq and the Iraqi government. And even at the height of the revolution, Comrade, Iranian rulers secretly met with Colonel Oliver North. You know, the Iran-Contra scandal. Well, he came to Tehran secretly and met with the Iranian government and reached agreement that Iran will, you know, help U.S. against, is fight against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. You know, it's also mentioned that the regime's leader do not deny their reside, you know, establishing an Islamic empire in the region. And, you know, some of the policies in the region, regime's policies in the region, include supporting the most reactionary forces, you know, in the form of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Daesh and others, you know, and also interference in some of the old Soviet republics. Now, so in short, Comrade, the Iranian regime is a reactionary capitalist regime with only one interest at heart and that's staying in power. Besides the fact that the Iranian leaders do not believe or accept the concept of imperialism, you know, and have shown in the past four decades to be a strong anti-communist ally of the rest when required, you know, the attack on our party in 1983 was carried out with the help of the CIA, MI6, and the Turkish MIT. You know, in the mid-1982, two senior officials of the regime were invited to Pakistan, where they met the British MI6 officials who handed them so-called suitcases containing falsified information about the organization and activities of our party. And this information was used by the regime's security forces as a pretext of, of course, to attack the party in February 1983, 6th of February 1983. And it's, you know, the London Times editorial next day praised the Iranian regime and expressed a satisfaction with the regime's attack on our party. So this is, you know, the so-called anti-imperialist nature of this regime. That's very revealing, Mohammed. Just to finalize here, let's talk a little bit about the Tudor party. You've already touched on some important elements there. We understand here that the majority of the Tudor party leadership is in exile and the party is in fact illegal in Iran. What is the current legal status of the party? And what risks are there for you as communists in a country like Iran? Yeah, so as I mentioned, following the 1983 attack on our party where the regime's media stated that around 10,000 members and supporters of the party were arrested, this was followed by these sham trials of our, firstly, our party army officers, which included, you know, senior leaders of the army who had played a significant role in the war against Iraq and the subsequent executions. You know, and following that in 1998, they carried out mass execution of political prisoners, which included almost the entire party leadership as well as hundreds of our party cadres and members. The party has been, you know, called illegal and any association with party carries heavy sentences. But I have to say, and this is important for us to note that despite this savage attack and constant, constant attack by the regime's propaganda machine against the party, we have been able to rebuild the party. And as you know, we held our 7th Congress successfully in June, and our party continues to work and influence the Iranian working class and people's movement in our country. Very good, Comrade Mohamed. Omid Rah, anything else you'd like to add before we finish up, Comrade Mohamed? Yes, please, Comrade Damson. I mean, I wanted to, at the end, firstly congratulate our Venezuelan comrades on their successful holding of their 16th Congress. I believe it was in November. I wish you all the best in taking your struggle forward. And also let me use this opportunity to express our heartfelt international solidarity and support with the Communist Party of Venezuelanists and the Venezuelan people in these challenging times and against the continuing US imperialist intervention in your country. Our struggle is the same, and we are with you in this struggle, Comrade. And thank you again for your time. Thank you very much, Comrade Mohamed. It has been an absolute pleasure to have you with us today. And of course, on behalf of the Communist Party of Venezuela, please receive all of our internationalist proletarians' solidarity as well to the people of Iran and of course, to our sister party, the Tudor party of Iran in these very difficult moments for your country, for your people, and of course, for your party. It's very important to keep informing the people of the world, especially our membership here in Venezuela, but the real dynamics of Iran, breaking down some of these myth truths and fake news, which is being spread about the nature of the Iranian government and about the limited nature of their oppression. So it's very important that we get the news hot from the streets of Iran through yourselves. So thank you very much for being with us here again today. Now, to our audience, if you've enjoyed this interview, we would invite you to subscribe to our YouTube channel here at Tribuna Popular by clicking the button on this link. You can also follow us through the Twitter account of the Congress Party of Venezuela, which is PCV underscore Venezuela, or on Instagram, PCV underscore VE. Very important to try and break down all of the media blockade about the class struggles going on across the world. So from now until the next time, take care and thank you very much once again, Mohammed. Bye-bye.