The Necessity of a New Beginning
The first issue of Political Courier is being published at a moment when the Internationalist Workers Organization is beginning a new phase of political and theoretical activity. This beginning does not emerge from a vacuum, but is rooted in a long experience, a persistent critique, and a sustained effort to defend the internationalist perspective within the workers’ and communist movements.
In a world where capitalist crisis, war, poverty, and authoritarianism have deepened, the continuation of old solutions is no longer possible. The failure of bureaucratic and sectarian traditions has placed the necessity of rebuilding a new politics rooted in the working class on the agenda. A new beginning means returning to Marx through a critical re-examination of the past, organizing from below, and reviving the internationalist horizon of struggle.
The first period of our activity coincided with one of the most crisis-ridden stages in the history of the Iranian left and represented an attempt to open a path different from the traditions that had repeatedly imposed their historical failures upon the workers’ movement. Against the legacy of Stalinism, Maoism, and Trotskyism, we sought to represent a perspective rooted in the internationalist tradition of the workers’ movement and the achievements of the communist left. At the same time, we attempted to explore the possibility of convergence with forces and circles capable of contributing to the reconstruction of an internationalist workers’ pole. Although these efforts did not result in the form of common regroupment we had envisioned, they were far from fruitless.
If we look today at the theoretical and political developments of recent decades, it becomes clear that the critique of the exhausted traditions of the Iranian left and the systematic articulation of internationalist positions have not been without impact. Left communism, once an unfamiliar name to many, has become a subject of discussion among a new generation of activists. Likewise, new circles and tendencies have emerged that no longer define themselves within the framework of the official Iranian left, but rather through an internationalist horizon and a critique of the failed experiences of the past. In our view, this development has represented a genuine advance for the Iranian workers’ movement.
At the same time, however, this process now confronts new limits. There is a danger that these tendencies may stop at the same point where much of the European communist left stopped: at the level of correct yet frozen positions, within rigid group identities and classifications that reproduce separation and sectarianism rather than opening new paths forward. The repetition of yesterday’s truths, if it fails to respond to the problems of today, can itself become an obstacle to further advance.
It is from this point that the necessity of a new beginning emerges. Global capitalism is passing through a period of deep economic crises, recurring wars, social collapse, forced migration, political authoritarianism, and transformations in the structure of labor and production. Under such conditions, the workers’ movement faces new questions that cannot be answered simply by repeating old formulas. Rebuilding the connection between theory and practice, carrying out an uncompromising critique of failed traditions, and searching for new forms of internationalist organization have become urgent necessities.
We begin this new phase without illusions and with a clear understanding of the difficulties ahead. We know that the road toward rebuilding a revolutionary perspective is neither easy nor short-term. But it is equally clear that without conscious effort, without independent class organization, and without a living theory arising from real struggle, no emancipatory horizon can emerge.
It is within this framework that we now begin publishing a new series of periodicals. Political Courier will appear as a weekly publication dedicated to providing concise and clear analyses of current developments in Iran and the world. Internationalist Courier, as the political-theoretical journal of IWO, will examine global developments and defend the theoretical and political lines of our current, and will be published in three languages. Workers’ Knowledge Courier will serve as a space for Marxist-scientific and critical research in areas such as philosophy of science, Marxist epistemology, critique of bourgeois knowledge, and the reconstruction of revolutionary theory. Finally, Internationalist Pamphlets will document the practical and theoretical experiences of this movement from the 1980s to the present day.
We publish these journals not as instruments of propaganda, but as tools of intervention in the class struggle, critical dialogue, and assistance in rebuilding a revolutionary horizon. We call upon all workers, activists, and comrades who recognize the necessity of moving beyond the dead ends of the past and building a future free from the domination of capital to join us on this path. This beginning is not a return to the past; it is a step beyond it.
Inside This Issue
The first issue of Political Courier contains three articles centered on war, media, capitalist crisis, and the necessity of rebuilding an independent internationalist working-class perspective. The opening editorial, “The Necessity of a New Beginning,” explains the political and theoretical foundations of the new phase of activity initiated by the Internationalist Workers Organization and argues for the reconstruction of revolutionary and internationalist politics beyond the failures of both bureaucratic and sectarian traditions of the past.
The second article, “Islamabad: A Negotiation Table for Peace or a Chamber for the Distribution of Crisis?”, focuses on the growing deadlock of war and the geopolitical management of capitalist crisis. The article argues that contemporary wars are not simply regional conflicts, but mechanisms for redistributing the global crisis of capitalism onto workers and oppressed populations through inflation, militarization, austerity, and social destruction. Against all rival state camps, the article emphasizes the necessity of rebuilding an independent internationalist workers’ movement capable of opposing both war and the capitalist system that reproduces it.
The third article, “Iran International: The Media War Room,” examines the political role of a media apparatus created and supported by global powers that increasingly functions as a center of ideological mobilization for war, regime-change politics, and sections of the emerging Iranian neo-fascist right within the diaspora. The article analyzes how media, nationalism, and geopolitical agendas are intertwined in the present crisis and serves as an introduction to a forthcoming longer study on the historical, political, and theoretical foundations of Iranian neo-fascism, to be published in the new series of Internationalist Courier.
